African Fish Eagle with catfish (Haliaeetus vocifer)

We bought some freshly caught Tilapia from a local Njemps fisherman. He gutted the fish and placed a small piece of balsam in the body cavity -the eagles tear the fish apart and leave the "float". We then motored on to a nearby Fish Eagle nest. Weighing up the influence of the prevailing wind and the position of the sun our boatman carefully choreographed the placing of our bait-fish in full view of the Fish Eagle. He whistled to attract the bird but unfortunately this eagle hadnt read the script! In an effort to attract the bird a second fish was pitched over beside the first but our eagle pretended not to notice and continued its look of regal disdain. By this point we were drifting slightly and the sun was no longer in the perfect position for photography. My daughter also noticed that one of the bait-fish appeared to be moving and on closer inspection we realised that it was being nibbled by a catfish (we could clearly see the whiskers!). This was the prompt our eagle had needed and it took to the wing before descending rapidly at a shallow angle to snatch not our bait-fish but the thieving catfish which wriggled wildly as it was lifted upon high.
A short action series can be seen in the accompanying image.
Lake Baringo is a safe and surprisingly inexpensive place to stay -no big dangerous mammals apart from hippos but there are at least 420 bird species seen on and around the lake.
Go to Baringo and visit the nearby fabulous Lake Bogoria -you won't be disappointed!