Long-crested Eagle

Von der Decken's Hornbill

White-browed Coucal...with a catch.

I was wrong...

J-Lo had 9!

When we thought she went broody, we gave her 8 of the eggs she and the other girls had been laying. She laid another one the next day herself. All 9 of them were successfully hatched.

Of special note, one of our layers that was stolen along with Magic, the largest rooster in Narok, was Cleo. Cleo was an all black bird. As you can see, five of these chicks are all black.

Fork-tailed Drongo

Name this bird...

More Birds for Shannon

Bird on a Rock

Introductions...these are the Ladies

Ok....I think it is now time to introduce everybody to our little chickens.  We acquired these ladies a few weeks ago.  These ladies represent our second attempt at raising chickens.  Our first attempt ended over a month ago when all five of our birds were wiped out by New Castle Disease.  Turns out we acquired our chickens shortly after they had contracted the disease...so they spent their last days with us.  

These ladies are all fit as a fiddle.  Our chicken doctor raises chickens so he provided us with a few healthy birds from his flock in order to get started properly.  

Here they are:

This is J-Lo.  She is the bossy one.  She'll run and around and peck at the other ladies whenever she wants.  You can see that she is roosting right now.  All four of our ladies went broody at the same time...which the chicken doctor says is normal since they are all age-mates (sisters).  We made the decision that we wanted to have little chickens eventually and since they all went broody, we decided to get some fertilized eggs for them to sit on.  We only wanted one broody one though and we had to make the tough decision to which one would get to be a mama this time.  We consulted with our chicken doctor and he said J-Lo should be the one since she is the bossiest and she would be more likely to pick on the little chicks if somebody else was the mama.  So...here she is sitting on 10 fertilized eggs we got from the market (our ladies don't have a rooster so we aren't getting fertilized eggs....although we are still looking for that special rooster for them...just haven't found him yet).  

The side story is that since we only wanted one broody hen, we were told to dunk the other three in water...and that will snap them out of it where they will go back to laying eggs.  We tried that a few days ago...only to return home yesterday from Nairobi and discover that J-Lo is no longer sitting on the eggs....our other hen Goldie is!  So we may just let them all stay broody and figure things out as we go.  

This is Cleopatra.  She goes by "Cleo".  She seems the youngest and J-Lo picks on her the most.  

This is Ruby.  She looks a lot like J-Lo but J-Lo's tail feathers are much bigger.  

This is Goldie.  Goldie is the sweetest one...in my opinion.  She is the one sitting on the eggs now.

This is their home.  We made this chicken coop almost completely out of recycled materials that we scavenged.  So far...it has kept the hyenas out so we are quite happy with it although we have plans for an expansions when the new chicks come.  Our neighbors weren't sure how well the chicken coop would fare because it doesn't look great...but funcitonally it is tough.  The birds were laying 4 eggs a day for several weeks until they went broody....all within this coop.  The rumor is that if the bird is not happy in their home, they won't lay eggs....so we have over 40 eggs to testify to their comfort.  

If all goes well, the chicks will come 21 days from October 29th....around November 19th!

Lappet-faced Vultures

Vultures have quite a dark reputation, so it's easy to forget what lovely birds they are until you see them up close. And even though their taste for rotting carcasses may seem a bit uncivilized, they play a really important role in the foodchain. You can really see this in the Mara, where the carcasses of lion and crocodile kills are so huge. Without vultures to help in the process, these big masses of nutrients would take quite a long time to decompose, but vultures speed up the process, turning otherwise unsightly carcasses into the raw materials for new life.

Bathing Spur-winged Lapwing

Shannon....No twitchers here but I will tell you that everytime I see a bird, I think of you and I feel compelled to take a picture of it to show you.  :)  

Here is a pretty little Spur-winged Lapwing...bathing in a mud hole.  

We heard the bird saying, "Shannon....can you see me!?"

We have now been in Kenya for just over three months-- hard to believe! After spending so much time exploring the Mara River Basin and developing our research program here, we decided we needed to get out and explore some other parts of the country before our time here is up. So we looked through our guide book and decided to head to Naivasha for the weekend, a little town about 2 hours from here. We chose this town because it is situated near Lake Naivasha and is surrounded by several national parks. However, we didn't have any idea of what all Naivasha had in store for us!

We arrived on Saturday morning and checked into our quaint room at the lovely La Belle Inn. This is an old colonial inn that has been there since the 1920's, and it's history was palpable. Everyone who worked there was very nice, there was always a crowd on the veranda, and the food was excellent! Looking for an afternoon activity, we were guided towards Hells Gate National Park, one of the only national parks in Kenya that you are allowed to walk or bike through! Here is Chris at the beginning of the trail.

At first, it seemed a bit foolish to walk on trails named things like "The Buffalo Circuit," but it was full of spectactular scenery. Plus, there's just something awe inspiring about hiking through a park in Africa, walking past a carcass, wondering where the lions are. It really gave you a sense of what it might have felt like to be an early explorer on this vast continent. Fortunately, our travels went smoother than those of Gustav Fischer, for whom the rock spire below is named. He was a German explorer who reached here in 1882 only to have his party slaughtered by local Maasai!

As we reached the western side of the park, we finally caught a glimpse of what gave the park its name-- plumes of steam rising from the earth. Unfortunately, these hot springs were too hot for bathing, but they were being harnessed for geothermal power. The Ol Karia Geothermal Station takes up much of this section of the park, crisscrossing it with pipes and power lines and dotting it with wells and power stations, which makes it a bit less scenic. But we did get an interesting tour from one of the guards.
After 14 km of hiking, we were pretty beat by the time we reached our destination at the far side of the park. While we were sitting and waiting for the bus to take us back to town, a British fellow who worked at the plant drove by and asked if we wanted a ride. And that was how we met Steve, an enthusiastic fellow who had come to Naivasha 25 years ago for a two year engineering project and never left. He was excited to meet some new Americans, so he invited us for the evening to a dance competition at the local country club.

We didn't know what to expect as we pulled up that night to this little bar out in the woods, but it turns out we were very lucky to get a personal invitation to this place. The Naivasha Sports Club has been around since the 1920's or so, when it hosted many wild parties by the Happy Valley crew (the wealthy British who lived in the area). Now there was a new set of folks enjoying the setting, but it was still a members only establishment. Along with the dance competition (which our feet were too sore to participate in), they also served a fabulous meal with duck and ham and deviled eggs and cole slaw, not to mention a fair amount of wine. Much singing and dancing ensued...

That night we also had the good fortune of meeting a lovely couple who had lived all over the world, including some time in Nashville and Atlanta, two of our old stomping grounds. After spending all evening talking with one another, they invited us to stay at their house the following night. We had already planned to hike Mt. Longonot, one of the striking volcanic peaks in the Rift Valley, the next morning, so they offered to pick us up in town the following afternoon.

It was not easy to get out of bed after such a late night at the NSC, but we were lured by promises of a beautiful view from the top. If I had known how hard the hike up would be, I might have just stayed in bed!
But it was spectacular to get to the top of the mountain and look over the rim into a lush, green crater.
Behind us, out spread the Rift Valley, its vast flat plains splashed with sunlight through the impending stormclouds.

And off to the side, sparkled Lake Naivasha, its waters turned murky and shallow by increasing use and pollution of the resource, but still a beautiful oasis for a remarkable diversity of birds amidst the otherwise barren landscape.

That afternoon, we could barely walk when our friends came to pick us up, but we were excited about this next adventure. We felt so fortunate to have met such gracious and interesting folks. John was a third generation Kenyan who still ran a small farm in the area, and his family had a remarkable history in the region. He showed us old photos of the early settlers collected by his mother, autographed books by family friend Peter Beard, and collections of newspaper articles from 1906. He and his wife Henri also have a beautiful home right on Lake Naivasha.

The scenery from their front porch was amazing, and they told us they sometimes see giraffe or hippos coming up in the lawn at dusk. Although we didn't see either of those, we did enjoy watching a Goliath Heron, which stand 5 feet tall, as he watched the sunset over the lake.

Our new friends fed us an amazing dinner, put us up in a cute little guest cottage and hosted us at breakfast before returning us to Naivasha Town, with promises they would visit us soon in Narok. I don't know if they will be as impressed by our 2 room cottage as we were by their lovely estate, but hopefully the hospitality will make up for it!

Other Subalusky Adventures

I figure it's about time for a change of scenery, so I wanted to share another Subalusky adventure with you all. Let's jump for a moment from the grassy savannas of eastern Africa to the rolling desert mountains of Colorado and New Mexico, dotted by beautiful lakes and trout streams to inspire the most tried and true fisherfolk. My parents went out for a 3 week fishing and camping road trip around the 4 corners.

They trout fished...

...the cooked their catch over campfires...

...they visited ancient cave dwellings...
...and just generally had a fabulous time!

My father is a master at writing trip reports, so I thought I would share his report from this adventure with you all here. It's interesing, educational and a lot of fun to read! I'll try to do a better job of emulating him in future postings!

NEW MEXICO / COLORADO ADVENTURE --- JULY 2008
The twelve day, 1200 mile trip started in New Mexico, moved into and tracked predominantly in Southwestern Colorado, transited the San Juan National Forest, Carson National forest, and Rio Grande National Forest, and concluded back in New Mexico. Our mission was two fold: to test our flyfishing abilities in various trout waters not yet visited by us, and to tour the Mesa Verde National Park. Challenges beset us at the outset when, two days before the trip, the guide ripped a muscle in his back while loading mulch at the Buck n’ Bird farm, under the direct supervision of his overseer. The injury limited his ability to bend over far enough to enter a tent, thus leading to two additional days in a motel on the front end of the trip. Noteworthy is the point that no fishing time was lost and the injury in no way detracted from his fish-catching or guiding ability.

We camped out on seven of the twelve days of the trip, being somewhat tested by the weather. Upon arrival in the West we were informed that this was the time of the “monsoons”, heavy thunderstorms that develop every afternoon and last a few hours. We had rain on every day except two, but the tent and sleeping pads kept us dry as bugs in a rug. Venturing about during the rain had no effect because of our high tech clothes and the close-to-zero humidity air that quickly dried them. Day time temperatures reached into the nineties, with evenings often dropping into the low fifties. We found this remarkable for late July, with evenings sometimes requiring fleece tops and a fire when allowed.

Major towns visited in New Mexico included: Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos, and Chama, and in Colorado: Durango, and Pagosa Springs.

Our tour of Mesa Verde National Park was nothing less than “hard to believe.” We were able to walk through the remains of stone dwellings built by the Pueblo Indians during the period 500 to 1200 AD. Much of these structures, made only of stones and mud packing, was still intact and contained wall paintings and blackening of the overheads from the original inhabiting natives’ camp fires. We toured two sets of these ruins with park rangers as guides, and drove on our own to a number of others. There are over 500 of these ruins in the park as well as an estimated 20,000 other archeological sites. Camping in the park, and listening to nightly talks by park rangers as we sipped wine and brandy in the cool evenings lit by a full moon were special treats of the visit. We somewhat surprised the rangers when we asked if we could use our small propane stove at a roadside picnic table. Saying this had never been requested before, they discussed among themselves and then approved. We then commenced to whip up the most aromatic full-blown meal combination of onions, eggs, sausage, and potatoes – just outside the Visitors Center. We pitied those poor devils eating cold sandwiches.

The fishing portion of the mission was well addressed on the following streams:
1. West Fork of the upper San Juan River – this is a small stream carrying only native trout. The stream eventually flows into the Upper San Juan River. Fishing this required camping at the remote “West Fork” campground, about twenty miles back from anywhere, on a very rough dirt road.
2. Upper San Juan River – this is a medium sized stream in Colorado which flows through the Colorado town of Pagosa Springs and has been dammed to form Navaho Lake in New Mexico.
3. William’s Creek and the Piedra River – both of these are remote streams, deep in the mountains, containing only native trout, with no trout stocking. Again we camped in a quite remote state campground.
4. Animus River – a large river that flows through Durango, CO. This river was still extremely high due to an unusually large snow pack in the mountains that was still melting and feeding the
river.
5. The “famous” lower San Juan River – a tailwater fishery in New Mexico that flows out of the dam of Navaho Lake. This stream reportedly carries 20,000 trout per mile of stream and the upper portion is a trophy area requiring essentially all caught trout to be released. The fish are large and well educated from being caught so many times. They are also highly selective in what they eat and will take only extra tiny (size 22 & 24) nymphs. Locals implied we would catch no fish without a guide. They were wrong. We met a really nice guy who was camping alone in the Cottonwood campground where we camped. We had him over one evening for wine. We didn’t purposely try to liquor him up but he ended up giving us some of the secrets of catching these fish. The lower portion of this same river seems and fishes like a different river. It is a stocked fishery that allows the normal limit of five fish. Typically, only the local Indians fish it. We fished both the upper and lower portions of the river. Mother did well enough in both the upper and lower portions of the river to gain the trip name of “San Juanita.”
We caught fish in all waters fished except for the Animus River. Slow fishing here was due primarily to the high water.

The winner of the Trip Trophy is currently in contention. The guide landed, and measured, a 20 inch rainbow, taken from the upper San Juan River at Pagosa Springs, Colorado. San Juanita caught a rainbow estimated to be 20 inches in the challenging trophy section of the lower San Juan River in New Mexico. Because the fish had to be quickly released, the only remaining evidence is a picture taken while the fish was in her landing net. This photo, along with the known dimensions of the net, is currently undergoing a CSI-type analysis to determine the real size of the fish. More to come later.

Other highlights of the trip follow:
· Access to the Cottonwood campground on the San Juan River requires driving over several miles of unmaintained dirt road on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. At the start of the road is a large sign saying that the road may not be passable following a heavy rain. I had already read a warning about this road on the internet. The night before we were to leave Cottonwood and drive back to Albuquerque to fly home, we had the heaviest downpour of the trip. Other than a sleepless night as we planned our strategy for getting through the mud road and back to civilization, there was no problem. The road wasn’t that bad after all. This was also an interesting campground. We seemed to be two of the very few “whitemen” in the camp. Everyone else was an Indian. But they were remarkably friendly, offering us wood to make a fire, advice, and generally friendly conversation.
· We had several meals of fresh cooked trout. One that consisted of a thirteen inch rainbow over the fire almost fizzled when the nightly rain started. Being hackers, we just stoked the fire and got it hot enough to burn in the rain, cooked the fish, and ate him in the rain. That was at the West Fork Campground.
· The twenty inch rainbow I caught also provided a hard-to-describe meal. We don’t eat that many twenty-inchers. It is an understatement to say there was a lot of meat on that fish. Butter, salt, and pepper were more than enough seasoning.
· Large, fresh steaks charcoal grilled at a campsite made for a pleasant lunch in the Rio Grande National Park. We had purchased a bag of charcoal and some complementary red wine previously with just this intention.
· Mother devastated the fish on the lower part of the San Juan River, using a tiny (size 18) Flashback Pheasant Tail Nymph – that I had tied just for this trip. Most fish here were in the 10 to 12 inch range but she caught one beauty about 14 inches that slipped out of her hands before we could get a picture.
· We saw a lot of snow still in the mountains, at our level, as we crossed the Continental Divide. It is unusual to still have so much snow this late.
· A mountain lion was killed in downtown Durango the day before we arrived there. We had no mountain lion or bear problems, but saw numerous mule deer in the camp at Mesa Verde. The lone gent who gave us the San Juan secrets at Cottonwood campground came under wildlife attack several times. A squirrel chewed a hole in the front of his tent to get to some dry food he had stored in his tent. To exit, the ungrateful little critter chewed a hole in the backside of the tent. The following night, after wine with us, he returned to his tent to find a large raccoon going through some plastic boxes in his tent. He literally kicked the animal out, only to have him return later that night and try to get back in.
· In an attempt to restore the Guide to full capacity, we spent t one night at a motel in Pagosa Springs that had natural mineral water hot springs. As we soaked in them we struck up a conversation with a friendly guy – who turned out to be the mayor – he has been the mayor for thirty years!

Overall it was a highly successful and enjoyable trip. The only things missing were our girls who we thought of frequently.

A color-blind Starling

Poor bird...he thought he was well hidden in the thick green foliage...if only he could realize that he is actually bright blue with bright yellow eyes.

In flight over the Mara

Still trying to figure out what this large bird is...

Three birds

An Egyptian Goose with two African Jacanas.

The Eland

This is a picture of an Eland, a Thompson's Gazelle and a bird. The Eland is one of the bigger ungulates out on the plains of the Masai Mara. Did you find the bird in the picture? He is on the Eland, nibbling just above the tuft of hair at the base of the Eland's neck.

Don't upset the Hippos

Hippos are so cute...aren't they?

Here are two sleeping on the bank of the Mara river. Even the birds like them...their backs are covered with birds hanging out and enjoying the day.

This hippo is very upset. There were several Maasai women washing clothes on the bank of his river. You can see the wash pales and water jugs on the bank of the river. The Maasai women were there until the Hippo rose out of the water, huffed at them and faked a charge towards their direction. Of course, everybody scattered away from the bank. The Hippo them moved down the river to a deeper portion. The Maasai women then went back to the bank and began washing clothes again.

Hippos are quite skittish.

The Bird Boy

More Pictures From the Maasai Mara

You'll notice that most of our pictures are embedded with GPS data. We're embedding all of our pictures that so we can track the locations that we've spotted different types of wildlife. For instance, we've found several reptiles that may be out of their normal ranges so this enables us to document the exact location they've been discovered to document their range extension. We're doing this using a Trackstick (I purchased two several years ago for use overseas and they've recently updated their software to allow the embedding of photos) to record our locations and then correlating that with our pictures by the time embedded in the Trackstick records and the time embedded in the photos.

Here is a Vervet Green Monkey. We've seen two different groups of these monkeys spread throughout the Maasai Mara. They are quite curious and will watch us as we work or travel through an area. Occasionally, one or two will approach us but they will not any closer than about 6 feet.

We've also seen Savannah Baboons in several places throughout the reserve. They always run and hide if they see us. We understand they can be quite mean and exceptionally smart.

This is a Secretary Bird. He is quite the ferocious snake eater.

Herds of Zebra and other ungulates cover the reserve.