The Masai Mara in August (1 Viewer)

When two sets of plans for a holiday had fallen through, and I found myself without anything booked in May, I decided to finally visit Eastern, rather than Southern, Africa.

For professional reasons I can only get away at specific times of year, and the summer is the longest such period. A lot of wildlife tour companies seem to avoid that time of year for many destinations (presumably because it is high season). I don't have close friends who share my interest in wildlife so organizing my own trip becomes rather expensive.

Since I knew I would be travelling alone I decided to pick a destination that was interesting enough not to require a change of location, and fairly soon settled on the Masai Mara.

The time when I was going to travel was largely fixed, and knowing that the migration would be in the Masai Mara at this time of the year helped make up my mind. I ended up staying for a fortnight at Brian Freeman's camp on the Olare Orok river.

I'm not going to make this a day-by-day account since the structure of the days was the same - instead I'll use the different instalments to comment on various aspects of the trip.

I hope that this will give an idea of what one may be able to see in the Mara at this time of year, and I also hope to give some idea of the general experience. It's an expensive destination, but it offers sightings which are hard to beat.

The Masai Mara

The Masai Mara is a game reserve in South-west Kenya. It's 1500 square km in size (in comparison, Kruger National park is 19,500 square km), but in the surrounding area there are private reserves managed by local communities which are adding to eco-system.

It's not that large for a traditional African park, but it's been protected for a comparatively long period, and many of its animals, in particular cats, are habituated to cars. The big cats also occur at a high density. The terrain is open, with trees growing only in the vicinity of rivers and streams.

When I arrived the wildebeest migration had been present for an unusually long period already, and in most areas the grass was short. An unwelcome consequence of this was that we saw none of the smaller cats or Bat-eared Foxes that I had hoped for.

The Masai Mara forms one eco-system with the Serengeti in Tanzania, from which it is merely separated by the Mara river. The `big five' (Lion, Leopard, Cape Buffalo, Elephant and Rhino) can be found in the Mara, and I saw four of those (we could have chased a rhino that was seen one day but didn't).

There are a number of camps in the Masai Mara (too many, probably), and they typically offer fairly inclusive packages consisting of accommodation, food, and safari drives. But different camps place a different emphasis on what they are about, for example, some of these offer game drives in the early morning, returning to camp for breakfast, with another drive in the late afternoon, while others have more flexible schedules.

The vehicles vary widely too: Many are closed and one watches out of a roof hatch, while others have windows that can be fully opened. Most of these vehicles are on a long wheel base with three rows of seats plus the driver's in front of that. In a full vehicle getting a good look at anything can be problematic. The budget option for a visit to the Mara is to travel from outside the reserve in one of the many mini-buses, but this involves a lot of driving, the vehicles aren't really suited to the task, the drivers have nothing like the training of the proper guides, and it takes a long time to get deeply into the reserve, if that is possible at all. If there's any rain then the area the minibuses can go becomes even more restricted.

Staying in these camps is not cheap, and prices depend on exclusivity and the luxury element, plus what is already included in the daily rate. I'll comment some more on the camp I stayed at, plus its vehicles, in a later post.

I wanted to see, and photograph, cats on this trip and as you can see from the attached photos I wasn't disappointed. The birding side was successful as well, with 175 species recorded over the fortnight (with a couple of cisticolas identified from photos with the help of the ID forum on this site).

Andrea

The Migration

Possibly the best-known large-scale example of mammals migrating is
that of the wildebeest herds between the Serengeti in Tanzania and
the Masai Mara in Kenya, There is no fixed calendar to this, but
instead it is driven by the wildebeest moving to areas where they
smell rain, or so I was told by the locals.

It is estimated that the migration consists of 1.7 million
wildebeest, a quarter million zebras and almost half a million
gazelles. One can't really compare this with migrating birds, where
there is typically a target location. Instead, these large herds just
keep moving, sometimes very slowly, sometimes a bit faster, following
the rains that replenish the grass they feed on.

In order to move between the two parks the wildebeest have to cross
rivers, and this is what many people connect with the migration:
mammals negotiating steep banks with crocodiles lying in wait below.

Last year the migration arrived early in the Masai Mara. When I
arrived in early August what wildebeest were moving were moving
South, to Tanzania. It was dry and dusty and the grass in the Mara
was fairly short. When the wildebeest migrate South then it doesn't
make for the best photo opportunities in Kenya since one catches them
from behind. But a week or so into my stay we got a few
thunderstorms, with some pretty torrential rain falling one night,
and that changed everything. The wildebeest were coming back north,
the rivers increased in volume dramatically (many fords were out of
action for the remainder of my stay), and waders started to
(re)appear.

Watching the wildebeest moving is a somewhat odd experience. It seems
very aimless, lacking purpose, and suddenly one of them decides to
move in a straight line, and others begin to follow. When they reach
a river they don't seem to have any sense for what to human eyes are
obviously easy or hard crossing points. They go, pouring into the
water one moment, and then something spooks them, and they suddenly
stop, mill on the shore, and don't know how to continue. It can take
hours for them to get the momentum required to start crossing
(again).

Many tourists are in the Mara at this time of year to see crossings,
the more dramatic, the better. By August the crocodiles are mainly
full, and I saw a few bloated corpses in the river that were only
touched by scavengers of the feathered kind. When the news goes out
that a crossing might occur somewhere along the river, as witnessed
by wildebeest starting to amass on one side, a race ensues. Every
driver wants to be in the prime spot, with the wildebeest coming
directly at them. Of course, wildebeest spook easily, and cars
manoeuvring for position is a good way to stop a crossing, or to
prevent it from getting started in the first place. Indeed, a
crossing can stop in mid-stream without the spectator being able to
see any cause.

One of my fellow guests was there specifically to photograph the
migration - he and his driver left around 6.00 each morning and
didn't come back until after 5.00 in the afternoon. They were looking
for crossings, and often waited for half a day, or a whole day - and
in some cases, when the crossing finally started, somebody drove
their car in front of where they were waiting and it was all for
nothing.

I did witness one crossing, and the tail end of another, and while I
found it fascinating to watch what was happening the scrum that
ensued was not to my liking, and that's why I didn't try to see more
crossings. See the photos attached for a bit of what it's like. I was
amazed by the noise - when the herds move at some pace mothers and
calves call to each other constantly, and that provides the
soundtrack to a crossing. The calves are born in February and by
August they've got quite a decent size, and they look as if they have
no problems at all when it comes to keeping up with the adults.

Apart from the river crossings the fact that the migration is there
means that there are wildebeest (and other herds) almost anywhere one
looks, typically somewhat spread out. It's a good season then for the
predators and the scavengers. There was plenty of evidence that
hyaenas and jackals were finding lots of food, and anything they left
over the vultures and marabous were quick to take care of. I even
saw a cheetah running after wildebeests, and lions being so full that
they left most of a carcass for their cubs to play with. Once we saw
a hyena chase a wildebeest calf that had got separated from its
herd. It escaped that time, but probably didn't have much of a chance.

The photos show:

1. These wildebeest have decided to go somewhere!

2. A crossing in process. The wildebeest on the bank are vacillating
between folowing the rest of the herd, and wanting to stay on terra
firma.

3. A crossing that's about to stop. Some of the animals have turned
away from the river and are making their way back up the bank, while
others are still thinking about following the rest of the herd.

4. When wildebeest have decided to cross then even a hippo on route
won't stop them. Apparently Goliath Herons don't mind the traffic.

5. This was actually quite a shallow crossing, but apparently
wildebeest have to jump when they hit the water.

Andrea

The camp

I was really fortunate here. I had picked the place, Brian Freeman's
camp on the Olare Orok River, based on reading a couple of positive
reports, the fact that it's on the small side, that it doesn't charge
super luxury prices, it's all-inclusive, and there's no single
supplement. I also exchanged emails with the owner before booking,
and I was very reassured by the answers I got to my questions.

I was looking for a place where everything was secondary to wildlife
watching, and where outings weren't limited by fixed mealtimes, or
where I'd be sharing a large vehicle with a lot of people who just
want to see the big five. I mentioned that I was interested in birds,
and I was assured that this could be accommodated.

It turns out that August is actually not that busy at Freeman's camp
- most of his visitors are serious about photography and/or wildlife
and they tend to avoid August because it's a known busy period. At
times there were only three guests in camp.

I like the camp's cars; They all have a short wheelbase, with four
seats in the back, and they are completely open. This means it's
possible to get a 360 degree view, including overhead. When it rains
a canvas cover has to be pulled over the car, and these aren't
completely waterproof, but that wasn't a bit deal. There are also two
cars available for special bookings which allow photographing from a
very low point of view, but I never used one of those.

I was further fortunate that I effectively had a private vehicle for
my entire stay: Nobody else over my stay shared my interest in birds,
and the camp was not that busy (although I appreciate that in other
places they would probably have put all of us into one vehicle and be
done with it). I ended up with their newest guide/driver, who was the
one with the most interest in birds. He was entirely self-taught, and
he couldn't separate out the cisticolas or the pipits, but he was an
outstanding spotter, and he was very interested. At times it was more
like bird-watching with a friend as we were discussing finer points
of identification of the less cryptic species.

We explored a lot of the Masai Mara reasonably local to camp. We did
occasionally take advantage of other cars alerting us to their
sightings, and we spotted a few desirable mammals ourselves, but a
lot of the time we were off the beaten track, following rivers,
looking for variations in habitat, and keeping out eyes and ears open
not just for mammals.

We sometimes had some funny encounters, mostly with mini-bus drivers,
who thought that if we were driving very slowly along a line of
bushes then this could only be because we had spotted a leopard. When
they finally stopped to talk to Simon, the driver, they looked at us
as if we had to be crazy and took themselves off.

It's not possible to bird on foot in the Masai Mara. One may walk
around in the camps, and since these are typically hidden in riverine
vegetation, these can make for good birding spots. But one can't
really enter somebody else's camp, and this also means that many
promising looking bits of river frontage have no tracks along them.

Unlike in for example Kruger one is allowed to leave the car for
picnics or calls of nature, but one isn't allowed to stray from the
vehicle and, of course, there are good reasons for that. Birding by
car has its advantages of course, but the smaller birds quite often
wouldn't allow us to come too close.

Back to the camp: Accommodation is in large-ish tents, with an extra
bit bolted on for the bathroom, so effectively they are en suite.
There is electricity, including charging points, in all tents. They
are spaced out a bit, and I never heard my neighbours. Maximally six
tents were occupied during my stay. Showers are planned after the
afternoon game drive around seven, and they do require water being
heated. Apparently it's also possible to request hot water at other
times.

There's a `mess tent' where meals are taken on a bluff looking out
over the river. This was the coolest spot in camp at lunch time. The
guests would meet up outside that tent, where cold drinks would be
served and canvas chairs were available, and one could share events
from the day. Everybody I met there was very much a lover of wildlife
and I had a lot of stimulating conversations with fellow guests. I'm
sure I'll return to the Mara in the future, and I'll definitely again
stay at Brian's camp.

My booking included everything: Drinks, meals, game drives, the
flight out to the Mara, even laundry service. It was very reassuring
to know that there wouldn't be any surprises. The staff in camp are
very friendly, and clearly there's been a routine that's been
established over the years, so everybody knows what's expected when.
The camp is really well run, and apart from the occasional hiccup (a
shower needing repairs, a meal being a bit later than planned)
everything worked extremely smoothly. Indeed, in many ways this was
the most stress-free holiday I've ever had: All I had to do was join
my vehicle, and off we went. No planning, no moving around, no
worrying about anything.

I"ll write more about what a typical day was like in another post.

Meanwhile some birds:

1 and 2. Little Bee-eaters.

3. Baglafecht Weaver.

4. Lilac-breasted Roller.

5. Purple Roller.

Andrea

Lions

There were plenty of lions in the Mara, and I saw members of at least
five different prides. A lot of them had cubs, but that was the luck
of the draw - this can happen at any time of year.

One pride had three sets of cubs of varying ages, and at some point
they were all together, but it was much more typical to see only one
set at a time.

Until the cubs get older they are kept away from the pride, with the
mother, and maybe another female, looking after them. Typically they
spend the day somewhere in the brush where they're not easily seen.

Cubs draw an audience, of course: Typically it would be known where a
particular group had been the evening before, and if heading to the
same place first thing in the morning there was a good chance that
one might find the group again. But once the sun rose higher, and the
number of cars at the location grew, they would typically vanish into
bushes where (fortunately) they couldn't be followed. This also meant
that typically the photographic chances were when the light wasn't at
its best, but it was still magical on a few mornings where we were
the first car present, to be able to watch the young play, suckle, or
even just sleep. Certainly cubs tend to be more active than their
adult counterparts, and so finding a group of those always promises
something worth watching.

Cubs do actually lead a dangerous life: Some of the cubs I saw have
since died, one trampled by buffaloes (apparently they will do that
if they get a chance), and one falling behind when following his
mother and being abandoned. And, of course, if a new male coalition
takes over then they will kill all existing cubs.

Apart from cubs there were also lions involved in producing more of
the same - one day we found not one, but two mating pairs. Lions
couple every twenty minutes or so for a whole day, so once one has
found a pair together it's just a question of waiting.

The lioness's oestrus is brought on by the coupling, and I've been
told that it's not unknown for another male to sneak in (maybe
another member of the same coalition) when the initiator is spent.

At least two of the prides had two males associated with them, and
finding a male lion is always a bit special. Lions tend to hunt at
night, which means they spend most of the day sleeping, so finding
lions which weren't lying flat on the ground was always appreciated.
I did witness one scene which looked as if one of the lionesses was
considering a hunt but in the end nothing came of it. I did see some
fresh kills, wildebeest and ostrich.

Pictures:

1. The youngest cubs I saw, just a few weeks old. On their way to
lying up in the brush.

2. Playing with sticks isn't something that only dogs do...

3. The trio climbed on a termite mount, unfortunately in rapidly
fading light...

4. ...to be joined by mum.

5. Young lions tire easily.

Andrea

And a few more pictures:

1-3. With a fresh wildebeest kill (just playing at eating).

4. He'd just spotted one of his siblings doing something interesting.

5. They can look very earnest.


The first three photos are from my last morning in the Mara, and we had the youngsters with two adults all to ourselves. It was great fun to watch the cubs exploring the carcass. One of them ventured into the belly, but backed out very quickly when the skin flap fell down behind him and he found himself in the dark!

Andrea

A Day in the Mara

So what does a typical day look like? This is the plan in the Brian Freeman camp where I stayed. There's a wake-up call at 5.30, delivered by a Masai who says `jambo' with increasing volume until he gets a response (and the lights go on inside the tent).

It's still dark out, so by the camp rules, the walk to the mess tent requires an escort, but one never has to wait long for one. A light breakfast is served in the mess tent, cereals, fresh fruit, toast. Everybody is excited to start a new day, wondering what it will bring. Nobody lingers, because getting out there is what we've all come for, so wishing each other good luck everybody heads back to their tents to pick up their gear.

We leave camp around 6.15. The drivers are already waiting with the cars, and after good mornings are exchanged we leave one at a time, mostly going our separate ways. It's still dark, but one can hear the odd lark singing. This time before sunrise can be productive when it comes to night-active hunters heading back to their dens, and we fairly frequently encounter hyenas, jackals, and lions. In my first week, when it was consistently dry, we had unidentifiable nightjars flying off from the track, and one
equally unidentifiable large owl is seen one morning.

Once we're out on the savanna one can identify East as the direction where the sun will rise, announcing itself by the sky being just that bit brighter. We had pretty amazing sunrises and sunsets, with clouds, without clouds, with dramatic thunderclouds, even with a bit of mist. This is the time when the hot air balloons are prepared for lift-off, their burners visible in the distance.

All the time, around us more signs of life are noticeable. Birds are muttering in a subdued fashion, or making more persistent noises. We can now distinguish the wildebeest from the other antelopes as it is becoming inexorably lighter. Some mornings we go looking for one of the litters of lion cubs, on other mornings we are specifically birding what brushy areas we can find, and on a couple of mornings we are hoping for a glimpse of a leopard at a known kill.

It's still quite cool, but nothing more than a light fleece is required. Every morning was different. Sometimes we were moving to a specific location, sometimes pootling around, and sometimes jolted into action by reports from another car. The sun appears on the horizon, and soon after stands higher than one thinks it should. The light is beautiful, and a photographic subject would be nice, but it doesn't always work that way.

The birds are becoming a lot livelier, and we are trying to spot what we can. Birding a brushy area from a car can be frustrating when the birds don't want to pop up into view, but it can also be exciting on busy mornings where there seem to be birds moving everywhere. The earlier part of the morning can also be good for perched raptors, reluctant to take wing before some decent thermals develop. One morning a martial eagle, trying to dry itself off after a wet night, is clearly in no mood to fly just yet, and attracts an admiring crowd of photographers.

Some time around 10.00, often later when there's something going on, we stop for breakfast. There are a couple of known picnic spots, mostly on the Mara river, or we might drive to a shady tree. Sometimes we meet up with one of the other cars from our camp. Breakfast is tea or instant coffee prepared from a flask of hot water and a sandwich, plus maybe a muffin or similar. If not before now is definitely the time to shed the fleece and enjoy the sun, still pleasantly warm rather than hot.

After a short while we are off again. The late morning isn't ideal - the light is harsh, it's getting warmer, and neither the birds nor the mammals are particularly active. But at this time, when other vehicles return to camp for a cooked breakfast, we had a hunting cheetah, or one of the litters of lion cubs all to ourselves.

Eventually we turn back to camp, where we usually arrive around 13.00. Time to sluice off some dust before going over to the mess tent. People are assembling outside on the overlook, with something cold to drink, exchanging stories from the morning. By now it's usually reasonably hot, and sitting where there's a light breeze, in the shade, is lovely. Looking out over the river means that wildlife watching is still an option, and I always bring my binoculars. African Paradise Flycatchers are busy building a nest nearby, occasionally there's an altercation amongst the hippos, I see my only
Squacco Heron of the trip, the only Black-and-White Casked Hornbill. One of the local specialities seen nowhere else is a Schalow's Turaco, and one day I see a Slender Mongoose on the opposite bank.

Once we're all back Brian tells us lunch is ready. It's a buffet, the number of dishes depending on the number of guests. There's always a salad with local produce - tomatoes, avocados, and also fresh fruit really lovely. Brian assured me that I wouldn't have to worry about hygiene in his camp, and indeed, my digestive system encounters no problems. There may be some home-made pizza slices, or a ham, or a pasta bake, to go with the salad, and the dessert is always fresh fruit.

After lunch people tend to return to their tents, for a nap, to deal with photos, or to enjoy the downtime. With the exception of the hottest days I'm usually looking for birds around camp. There always are notes to write up, and a checklist to monitor.

One late morning we were with a cheetah that was actively hunting, and we'd seen her make one abortive attempts already. I didn't want to go in for lunch - clearly she was hungry and she was going to keep trying. We radioed back to camp that we wouldn't be coming and that the others should go ahead with their lunch. This was no problem. Once the other guests at the camp heard what we were up to they left early for the afternoon drive, and they brought us a picnic. The cheetah was resting at that point, so we drove to a good vantage point, bolted down the food, and rejoined her. Later in the afternoon we and the other attending cars lost her as she entered a brush area, but we found her again just before sunset over a kill, so it was good to see that her efforts had not been in vane.

I liked the fact that there was no problem with us deciding to stay out rather than to go back for lunch, and my guide/driver was fine with that. One of my fellow guests was on a quest to get the best photos of crossings he could manage, and he planned to stay out all day most days, taking a picnic lunch with him. Quite often he and his guide drove considerable distances, and it would have been disruptive to have to come back for a meal. He did find it very tiring though, and on a couple of days he decided to opt for a lunch break since he was becoming rather exhausted. I appreciated that this flexibility was part of what this camp is all about - certainly not something one can take for granted.

At 15.30 it's time to get going again, and once more the cars leave camp one at a time. The afternoon drive is shorter since the sun goes down around 18.40. Cars are meant to be back in camp by then, but that particular law doesn't seem to be that rigorously enforced.

We spent a lovely few afternoons driving through what woodland we can find, and we find new birds every single day. Sometimes mammals provide the highlight, such as a cheetah that's hunted successfully (and one that's hunting without luck), or two leopards on a rock in the river. We did have rain setting in late afternoon on a few days. If it starts to rain seriously then our open cars have to be covered, and that means canvas with plastic windows all round. This makes looking out a bit of a problem, and a couple of days when it was raining quite heavily and everything seemed to be hunkering down we returned to camp for 18.00.

More typically we enjoy every last moment of it, and by the time we get back to camp it's fully dark. Everybody heads for their tent, and the water's been prepared for a hot shower. In particular during the first week, when there was no rain, it was pretty dusty and showers were very much appreciated. After that people start to congregate near the mess tent again, inside on the few rainy nights, or outside with a camp fire when it's dry. People have a beer, and again we share the events of the day. The local frogs give a daily concert, and that will be one of the sounds of the African night I won't forget.

Eventually dinner is ready, buffet style again. It starts with a soup served at table, though, and by now it's cool enough that everybody appreciates that, and the freshly baked rolls. I think the maximum number of guests was ten or eleven during my stay, so it was still fairly intimate. There are a variety of dishes, followed by dessert. I think everybody enjoyed the food - nothing fancy, but good quality well prepared.

It'll be 5.30 again before too long, and so most of us don't linger, even if there's the fire beckoning. During the night one might hear hippos grazing next to the tent, or elephants removing twigs from the trees that provide shade. Hearing a hyena, or a roaring lion, is not unusual either. And in the morning we get to go out again to see what we can find.

Pictures:

1. Hot air balloons over a misty Mara.

2. Early morning landscape.

3-5. Sunsets.

A wonderful description of the Mara - rising on the wish list . . .

Cheers
Mike

A wonderful write-up indeed, very inspirational!
When we went to Kenya a few years ago we opted out of the Mara simply because of the extra travel involved getting there and back, plus the cost and number of visitors. Instead, we concentrated on the Northern circuit from Nairobi to Nakuru, Baringo, Samburu and Mount Kenya.
I'm very interested to hear of your experiences as it would be ideal for us to return to Kenya and take in the Masai Mara and other areas in the south of the country. Thanks for taking the time to put together your report.

Nick

Cheetahs

Thanks for the positive feedback - it's nice to know somebody's reading.

Having described the typical course of a day, the camp, and something about the Mara I'll now turn to saying something about individual and groups of species over a few posts, covering mammals and birds.

Everybody who comes to the Mara wants to see cats. I've written quitea bit about lions and I may write a bit more, but let's turn to cheetahs now. I missed seeing this species in South Africa (I refused to count ones that were almost hand-raised, even if they were
returning to wilder ways at the time) and in Namibia so I had high hopes for the Mara, and I was not disappointed.

Like all the cats cheetahs spend a good part of the day not doing very much, but since they're day-active hunters they're the most likely cat to go hunting while being watched. They also tend to stay in fairly open country - cheetahs aren't exactly big hitters, and they can't afford to get injured, so they tend to be on the look-out and move off if anything threatening turns up.

This makes them comparatively easy to find - even when they're seeking shelter from the sun under a tree they're usually visible, in marked contrast with leopard, for example. I must admit though that I was in awe at the distance my guide could spot them - I know my eyes aren't the best, but even with binoculars I was struggling to see them when they were already obvious to Simon.

Most cars would visit a cheetah when one was found somewhere near a track. Some because they have people on board who haven't seen one, and others to try and gauge how likely the animal is to go hunting.

All the cheetahs we encountered were very relaxed about cars. Too relaxed in some cases: There's a female (and some of her offspring now) who's taken to jumping onto cars for the lookout they provide. Since the Mara is largely flat, with termite hills being the higher points, a car does give a good vantage point. Obviously this behaviour should not be encouraged - it's only a question of time until somebody does something stupid, and one has to worry what the consequences might be in the longer run.

Cheetahs who were lying down would not stir when cars came up to look at them, and those that were moving typically moved freely through the cars. I'm also happy to report that on the occasions I saw hunting cheetah all drivers behaved sensibly and made sure the cat had room to move where it wanted to. I've heard tales of cars blocking cats in, and I saw really stupid behaviour around leopards, so that was good to see.

We saw cheetah fairly often over the two week period, not quite every day but then we didn't try to find one every single day. I saw cheetahs hunting on three occasions: Once we found a female we stayed with for a while because we thought she was going to go hunting. She ended up (uncharacteristically) going through brushy country and my driver and I drew the conclusion she was trying to get rid of the couple of cars that were trying to follow her, and so we decided to let her be.

On another occasion I saw very relaxed female that almost seemed to enjoy the attention from all the cars, and she ran after some wildebeest. I'm not entirely sure how serious she was - the animal she came closest to was an adult and surely too large to be a realistic prey item. After that she vanished from sight.

And there was a third female who was clearly hungry (she looked as if she hadn't eaten in a while), and we stayed with her well over four hours one day, watching her (or at times when we couldn't see her waiting with the group of impala she was stalking) make three separate unsuccessful attempts before we lost her in the brush. Fortunately we found her around sunset with a freshly killed gazelle, so she did get to eat that day. It was fascinating to observe her switch between looking out, resting for a while, finding something that interested her, making an approach, breaking from cover, over this time. Again people behaved sensibly on this location, despite the fact that she had a fairly large following at some point. It was a real privilege to watch her over such a long period.

We later found another cheetah on a fresh kill, just a few days later, so the chances of having decent sightings of cheetah are pretty good.

Everybody's cheetah highlight this summer was, however, a female with six young. She proved so popular that the authorities had to declare the area off-limits eventually for fear of attracting predators to her. (She's since lost one of the five.) We were lucky enough to be able to spend a little time with her - just ten minutes. The area where she resided with her family was an hour's drive from our camp, and after our encounter with her rain fall meant that one of the fords en route became impassable, and so we weren't able to return. It has to be a good thing that her location was in a less visited part of the park.

When we were with her the young were suckling, and then moving about a bit. She was completely relaxed, and clearly had no worries regarding our car. We sat there quietly for a few moments, drinking it in. The light was horrible for photography, but sometimes just experiencing something is more important. There was nobody else there. I got the impression that the drivers in that part of the world were keeping her quiet and effectively rationed the visits, but word does get out, of course.

I don't think the pictures require commentary today. I'll tack on a couple extra posts with more photos.

Andrea

Just pictures.

And the cubs, of course!

Now I have toiled through writing my report I can sit back and enjoy yours! I have Kenya or similar still very much on my radar but the one thing that has put me off places like the Masai Mara are the shots I have seen of animals surrounded by a ring of jeeps. My experience of similar was in Yala, Sri Lanka and the whole thing became so unseemly with vehicles jostling for position that the whole viewing event was ruined for me and I told our driver to leave.
Anyway keep it coming ! thanks Dave

Storks, herons, ducks

I'll intersperse reports on various mammals with some on birds in a roughly taxonomic order. I did try to keep a daily list, but doing so by myself almost certainly means that some of the more common birds will be slightly under-reported.

There's a place usually referred to as `the marsh' which is the best place for finding birds that tend to be found near water. White-faced Whistling Ducks and Spur-winged Geese were seen there on all our visits (we went four times altogether). Egyptian Geese are ubiquitous and still seem somewhat out of place, at least to me.

The marsh still had distinctly marshy bits with heavily vegetated ponds when we visited the first time, but just five days later it had distinctly dried up all round, and the number of birds was significantly reduced. Five days after that again we had had some significant over rainfall over a couple of nights, and it was much marshier than when I first arrived. Some species were only seen on our last visit. If you're staying in the Mara long enough, and you have some rain, it may be well worth to revisit the marsh. There's also a lovely woodland nearby (unfortunately close to one of the camps, so much of it is off-limits) where we saw some interesting passerines.

We saw all four storks one might expect to see at this time of year. Yellow-billed was almost daily, as was Marabou (as one might expect), although typically indifferent habitat. Yellow-billed near water of some kind, Marabou anywhere where there was carrion, and since the migration was in the Mara at the time there was plenty to go round. Woolly-necked Stork was seen on two occasions, and Saddle-billed on all four visits to the marsh.

The two expected ibis species, Hadada and African Sacred, were seen almost every day. We had 10 species of Heron, but nothing too exciting. One sighting of Black-crowned Night heron on one visit to the Marsh, Striated Heron on three occasions near water, Squacco Heron only once from the camp (and I missed a trick there since I didn't take enough notice of the bird to check whether it might have been the Madagascar species which is possible at that time of year). Rufous-bellied we had almost daily, but somewhat to my surprise we had (Western) Cattle Egret only once. Among the other egrets, Great and Intermediate were reasonably common. Grey and Black-headed were almost daily, and we found a Goliath Heron on three occasions. Another common bird was Hamerkop.

All in all, nothing there that you'd go to the Mara for. More interesting birds to come in future posts.

Andrea

1. Yellow-billed Stork
2. Saddle-billed Stork
3. Woolly-necked Stork
4. Rufous-bellied Heron
5. Black-necked Heron

And a couple more. I should probably state for those who don't want to delve into the Exif data that my longest lens is a 300mm, so not really a `pro' setup, but a decent dslr.

1. Hadada Ibis
2. Marabou Stork

Raptors

In general I was surprised we didn't see more raptors flying - most of our sightings were of perched birds. We were in an open vehicle, so angle of view wouldn't have been a problem.

We saw Secretarybirds almost every day, but photographic opportunities were limited - they were always on the move where we couldn't follow them.

We saw all five vultures. White-headed was the rarest with two sightings, whereas the others (Ruppell's, White-backed, Hooded and Lappet-faced) were more or less daily. We stopped making an effort for them once we had the full set.

We had Black-chested Snake Eagle three times (once on the ground with a freshly caught snake, but flying off before I could take a picture - the grass was high and we hadn't seen the bird properly before it took off), and Brown Snake Eagle once. I thought we'd missed Western-Banded, but a photo that I had taken of a Snake Eagle shortly before dusk revealed the necessary detail once I got back home and could look at it on a decent screen.

African Fish Eagle, Tawny Eagle and Bateleur were very common, and the last seemed tamer here than I'd seen it elsewhere, giving nice photo opportunities. We grilled a lot of Tawny Eagles because of their sheer variety, but of course August isn't the time when one might see eagles from Europe. Martial Eagle was also fairly common, and we saw both adults and immatures.

We had Wahlberg's Eagle on three occasions (once a mating pair), including one pale morph. This was my first Wahlberg's and it took us forever to work out what it was. Because of internal flights I had packed very light and so instead of taking Birds of East Africa in paper form I only had the app. This doesn't show the pale morph until one scrolls all the way down...

We had one Ovambo Sparrowhawk, identified from a photo at long distance in failing light similar to the Western Banded Snake Eagle. We were very lucky with one sighting of African Cuckoo-Hawk, just as we were on the way back to camp for lunch it landed in the grass, but at some distance. We had one encounter with a Long-crested Eagle, again at a distance.

We only saw one species of falcon in the form of Grey Kestrel, which we had on four occasions in the fortnight. A few times I caught a glimpse of a falcon species, but the birds always vanished before one had a chance to do more than glimpse.

Admittedly I didn't spend a lot of time looking up at the sky, but I did scan reasonably frequently, and almost all we saw that way were vultures. I was a bit surprised by this, since I'm more used to seeing raptors on the wing from other locations.

This was a very good time for vultures and other birds that don't mind scavenging, since prey was plentiful and I saw lions, cheetahs and leopards all with freshly killed prey. I assume though that leopard kills usually don't do too much for vultures - all the leopard kills I saw were carried into trees.

Photos:

1. Secretarybird
2-4. Bateleurs
5. Very dark Tawny.

And a few others.

1. Lappet-faced Vulture
2. Ruppell's and White-faced Vultures
3. Hooded Vultures
4. Mixed lot
5. African Fish Eagle pursued by Long-toed Lapwings

Pictures I have of other species are no more than record shots.

Andrea

A very interesting read, I really like the fact that it is so informal and that you can go out with a guide like that.

Would you be able or prepared to give any idea of cost for the holiday? Perhaps a bit of a breakdown? If that is not too intrusive to ask.

Also can you explicitly ask for a driver on a one to one basis? Obviously may have to pay more.

Nick, there isn't much to breaking down the costs in my case. I flew into Nairobi, transferred to Wilson (where all the small planes to `safari destinations' depart), flew to the Mara, spent two weeks, and then did it in the opposite direction on my return to the UK.

The way Freeman's camp works, his prices are inclusive of the transfer between the two Nairobi airports and the flight into the Mara he'll also organize for you. Once you get there his prices are all inclusive. You can see his booking page with prices for 2015 here. The page is misleading since it suggests you have to book one or two weeks at a time, arriving on specific dates - but in fact, they have a per day pro rata price and so actually they are much more flexible regarding departures and arrivals than suggested there. On top of the corresponding fees given there my internal flights were 237UKP (paid directly to him and he organized that as well as the transfer between the aiports), and then there was a 18UKP compulsory insurance fee for the flying doctor service (which he insists on).

However, the Kenyan government has recently decided to raise VAT on all aspects of tourist-related income and the webpage linked to above indicates that this means both, a price increase as well as a different billing system. The government's action is incredibly short-sighted, since the Ebola crisis has left all African countries with fewer tourists coming in (it's not really logical, but in people's minds avoiding all of Africa makes sense). You'll have to go to the page linked above to see the consequences this has from June onwards.

On Brian's Facebook page he's offering various discounts, in particular:

"As long as you book via the Internet and pay the deposit by the 1 June 2015 I will

For Anyone who has ever been on safari with me I will give an 8% discount on the daily safari fee plus I will pay your park fees of £67 per day. I will further discount the safari fee by 5% if you have already been on 3 safaris with me or you make a booking for a party of 4 or more.

To new clients I will pay your park fees which are £67 per day plus an additional 5% discount of the safari fee for a party of 4 or more."

He's doing this because he's worried about being able to employ his staff for the season. The way the tourist industry works in many African countries, the drivers/guides and camp staff are seasonally employed, and if there aren't enough guests around they're effectively laid off for that period.

You can indeed pay for the exclusive use of a vehicle - see the webpage linked above for detail. Brian's landrovers only have four seats for clients (almost all other vehicles I saw had a longer wheel-base and were equipped to carry more people), and there is certainly room to move around. Because the vehicles are open you can look in all directions, so there's no fighting over a window/roof hatch space. If you're a small party you'll thus effectively get a private vehicle in any case. He did say in his original email to me that were people not travelling together share a vehicle he makes sure that they have shared interests.

I was very lucky in that when I arrived there were very few guests. I ended up with a private vehicle for the first few days by default (the other two guests may have paid for a private vehicle, I don't know - they were certainly were single-minded, one only wanting crossings and one only wanting leopards and you couldn't have put anybody else in there with them), and the next guests who arrived were a family of four who also had their own vehicle. I think Brian originally planned to put me together with guests who arrived into my second week, but once he realized I was a bird watcher, and I was very happy with his most inexperienced guide because he was also into birds, he just left us be. (His inexperienced guy thus got some time travelling all over the Mara, and we both really enjoyed our time with each other.) His most highly rated drivers are those who know how to create the best photo opportunities. I had one and a half days with one of them, and I must say some of the mammal shots I got with him were very good. Everybody who was there praised their driver/guides during meals. (The local term is `driver', but it seriously undervalues what they do.) I was very lucky that I visited in what was high season in the Mara, but low season in the camp, but also because the way the camp is run is more about everybody's enjoyment (and keeping local people in their jobs) than running a cut-throat business.

I wouldn't want to comment on other camps because I have no personal experience. There's a largely forum-based website, Safaritalk.net, where there is a lot of expertise regarding the different camps on offer, including when one might get special deals and how. There seems to be a greater distinction between high and low season in other camps. Also, most camps will quote their rates in dollars (Brian's are in UKP), so fluctuations in the exchange rate can contribute to the overall price for those of us who live in the UK.

I was originally attracted to Brian's camp because he does not charge a single supplement, because I liked the description on his webpage, and because I liked the idea of open vehicles (I'd been to Southern Africa before where vehicles were open as well and I didn't like the idea of roof hatches or windows - what's a bit of dust when you're in the bush?). I also liked the fact that his rates are all-inclusive, so you know exactly what the costs are (and you don't have to carry any serious cash). He responded in great detail when I emailed him with a few questions and I was running out of time to book something, so I took the plunge. I was extremely happy with this holiday, and I wouldn't consider another camp on a return visit (and I'm sure there will be one eventually).

On top of that you have the flight to Nairobi. Flying in August and booking comparatively late meant there were no good deals on offer (but I'm getting the impression really good deals are harder to find when one has fixed dates to work with).

I'd be quite happy to answer more questions about this. Given that I do sound like an advert in this mail I should probably stress that I have no connection with Brian Freeman and his camp other than being a one-time very satisfied customer.

Andrea

Bustards, francolins, cranes

A very straight-forward story here. We had White-bellied and Black-bellied Bustards on two-thirds of our days, but it took us a long time to find a Kori Bustard(I had seen that species before so I wasn't too fussed about that). Then we found two very cooperative individuals right towards the end of my stay.

By and large bustards aren't easy to photograph since they tend to keep moving, and of course they won't just stick to the tracks. I think when one finds Kori bustards there's a higher chance that one gets closer to those, or at least that was my experience.

We saw Coqui Francolin almost every day, and the same was true for Red-necked Spurfowl. You can get lucky and find them close to tracks allowing for good photo opportunities, but quite a few encounters with the francolins were at dusk when the light was fading. We saw Crested Francolin only on three occasions.

One of the birds I'd really hoped to see was Grey-crested Crane, and I was told that there had been quite a few around a couple of weeks before I arrived. It turns out that these birds are only around if there is sufficient wet grassland around, so they are ample in the wet season, and then their numbers dwindle as the birds move elsewhere. Interestingly, when we visited the marsh one more time towards the end of my stay when there had been significant rainfall for a couple of nights, we found that the marsh had got much wetter in what seemed like a surprisingly short period. Presumably water cannot run off easily. In any case, during that last visit we did find two Grey-crowned cranes. This was a windy day (unlike most of my other days), and photographic opportunities weren't as good as maybe they could have been. Still, I was very happy to have seen these.

Andrea

1. Displaying White-bellied Bustard
2. Black-bellied Bustard (all our encounters with males were in appalling light and the photos are correspondingly nothing much)
3-5 Kori Bustard

1. Crested Francolin in the dusk
2. Coqui Francolin
3. Red-necked Spurfowl
4. Grey-crowned Crane