Brief Itinerary:
Day 1 : Arrive in Nairobi
Day 2 : Mt. Kenya foothills
Day 3, 4 & 5 : Samburu NR
Day 6 : Naro Moru
Day 7 & 8 : Lake Baringo
Day 9 & 10 : Lake Nakuru NP
Day 11, 12, 13 & 14 : Maasai Mara
Day 15 : Return to Nairobi
Itinerary:
Day 1
Arrive in Nairobi on an evening flight.
Day 2 : Mt. Kenya foothills
This morning we depart for Mt. Kenya birding on the way to arrive in time for lunch at Serena Mountain Lodge. The rest of the afternoon and evening will be spent birding and game watching at the lodge.
Set deep in the forest of Mt. Kenya, Mountain Lodge is a tree Lodge built near a waterhole where wild animals can be seen as they come to slake their thirst. The waterhole is floodlit at night and the lodge staffs are ready to signal and alert guests when unusual guest to the waterhole comes in. We normally walk around the fenced-off grounds of the lodge, where we look for Moustached Green Tinkerbird, Waller’s Starling, and Ruppell’s Robin Chat, White-starred Robin, Doherty’s Bush-shrike and Black-headed Apalis among other bird species. Among the wealth of mammals, Forest Elephant, Giant Forest Hog, Marsh Mongoose, Bushbucks, are regular visitors to the waterhole while Skye’s Monkeys and the Black-and-white Colobus are abundant in the forest.
Day 3, 4 & 5 : Samburu National Reserve
The morning of this day, we will have a pre-breakfast birding through the roof top and even take a short walk round the compound. After breakfast, we will drive to Samburu/Buffalo Springs Game Reserve, with an en route afternoon game drive. We will have two full days to explore the expanse of the reserves.
Samburu itself is an excellent reserve for birding. The area is mainly dry acacia savannah, but has riverine forest along the river banks, along with doum palms. This area has several unusual species, more commonly encountered in the arid north. Spectacular species include Somali Ostrich, Secretary Bird, Vulturine Guineafowl and Kori and Buff-crested Bustards. Specialities of the area include Somali Courser, Somali Bee-eater, White-headed Mousebird, Violet Woodhoopoe, Bare-eyed Thrush, Straw-coloured Whydah, Golden Pipit, Golden-breasted Starling, Shining and Black-bellied Sunbirds and Donaldson-Smith’s Sparrow-Weaver.
Raptors are commonly seen and include Egyptian, Hooded, African White-backed, Rüppell’s Griffon, Lappet-faced and Palm-nut Vultures, Bateleur, Harrier-Hawk, Pale Chanting and Gabar Goshawks, Brown Snake Eagle, Verreaux’s, Tawny and Martial Eagles, African Hawk Eagle and Pygmy Falcon. Common birds include Emerald Spotted Wood Dove, Mourning Dove, White-bellied Go-away-bird, Red-billed Hornbill, Northern Brownbul, Rufous Chatterer, Spotted Morning Thrush, Red-billed and White-headed Buffalo Weavers, Golden Palm and Black-headed Weavers, and Parrot-billed Sparrow.
In terms of mammals, there are several unusual species present, which specialize in this dryer area. These include both Grevy’s and Grant's Zebras, Gerenuk, Beisa Oryx, Reticulated Giraffe, African Elephant, Kirk’s Dikdik, Grant’s and Thomson's Gazelles and Impala. Lion are reasonably common, and Cheetah are possible. The trees along the river offer good habitat for finding Leopard.
Day 6 : Naro Moru
After breakfast, we will depart Samburu and drive back to the slopes of Mt. Kenya via Imenti Forest to Naro Moru River Lodge. Spend the rest of the day birding around the lodge’s beautiful grounds and the area along the river line and the nearby forest.
The grounds are good for birding here, we can bird the grounds and the route up to Mt. Kenya. The key species in the area include: Olive and Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeons, Red-fronted Parrot, Hartlaub’s Turaco, Scarce Swift, Crowned and Silvery-cheeked Hornbills, Moustached Green and Yellow-rumped Tinkerbirds, Cape Wagtail, Black Saw-wing, Yellow-whiskered, Slender-billed and Mountain Greenbuls, White-starred Robin, Cape Robin Chat, Cinnamon Bracken Warbler, Hunter’s Cisticola, Chestnut-throated, Grey and Black-throated Apalises, Montane White-eye, Grey Cuckoo-shrike, Montane Oriole, Eastern Double-collared Sunbird and Tacazze Sunbird. Montane Nightjar can be heard in the evening.
Day 7 & 8 : Lake Baringo
After an early breakfast this morning we depart for Lake Baringo arriving in time for afternoon birding which will include looking for owls before returning for dinner. We will have a full day at Lake Baringo area - morning bird walk on the cliffs and a a boat ride round the lake. After lunch depart for an excursion to Lake Bogoria Game Reserve.
Lake Baringo is in a dry, rocky area with acacia bushes and is one of the Kenya's top birding hotspot. The following are just a few of the species we hope to see; Northern Red Bishops, Jackson's & Hemprich's Hornbill, Jackson's Golden-backed, Black-headed, Little, Lesser Masked, White-billed and Northern Masked Weavers. Other interesting species includes; Dark Chanting Goshawk, African Fish Eagle, Brown-tailed Rock Chat, Grey-Backed Fiscal, Bristle-crowned Starling, Beautiful Sunbird, Heuglin's Courser and White-faced Scops & Verreaux's Eagle-owl.
Lake Bogoria is one of the many salt-water lakes of Rift Valley. Notable species at Bogoria includes huge flocks of Cape Teals, Fulvous Whistling Ducks, Black-necked Grebes and other wader birds not mentioning the Lesser and Greater Flamingoes. Bogoria is also the best place for a chance to see Greater Kudu.
Day 9 & 10 : Lake Nakuru NP
After our final morning at Baringo we depart for Lake Nakuru arriving in time for lunch. We will have an evening game drive as well as a full day in this exciting park.
Lake Nakuru is the most famous of the Rift Valley’s lakes. With very attractive Yellow-barked Acacias (fever trees) and magnificent escarpments. Lake Nakuru is well known for holding spectacular concentrations of Lesser Flamingoes and small numbers of Greater Flamingoes. Bird life is abundant and we will hope to see White and Pink-backed Pelicans, African Spoonbill, Cape and Hottentot Teals, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Kittlitz’s Plovers, Grey-headed Gull, Gull-billed, Whiskered and White-winged Terns, In the lakeside trees and grassland are Temminck's Courser, Coqui and Hildebrandt's Francolins, Klaas’ and Black Cuckoos, Nyanza and Horus Swifts, Pied Kingfisher, White-fronted Bee-eater, Broad-billed Roller, Green Woodhoopoe, Scaly-throated Honeyguide, Red-throated Wryneck, Red-capped Lark, Red-rumped and Mosque Swallows, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Arrow-marked Babbler, Schalow's Wheatear, Cliff Chat, Black-crowned and Brown-crowned Tchagras, Rüppell's Long-tailed Starling and Red-headed Weavers.
Among the wealth of the African mammals, we will enjoy seeing the Black and White Rhinos, Bohor Reedbuck, Common & Defassa Waterbucks, Impalas, African Cape Buffalo, Rothschild’s Giraffes, Silver-backed Jackals, Spotted Hyena, and if lucky, the tree-climbing Lions of Lake Nakuru. Nakuru is also one of the best places in Kenya for Leopards!
Day 11, 12, 13 & 14 : Maasai Mara NR
Depart for Maasai Mara with lunch boxes to enable en route game drive and birding towards The Oloololo Escarpment where our camp is situated overlooking the endless plains of the Maasai Mara. We stay 2 nights at the Mara West Camp and spend the second day tracking the wildebeest migration in the Mara. For the last two days we shift our experience to the nearby Mara Serena Lodge enjoying more birding and mammal tracking in the Mara.
The Mara is probably one of the best places in Africa to see the 'Big and Small Cats' with nearly all the members well represented here, sometimes in unusually big prides. Along the rivers schools of Hippopotamus can be found basking in the shallow pools and the river banks. Other mammals of interest include Silver-backed Jackal, the delightful Bat-eared Fox, Banded Mongoose and the Spotted Hyena. At this time of visit, the core of attraction will be the spectacular feature of the annual migration of a million or more wildebeests and attendant zebras, plains game and their respective predators following them.
Bird-life is abundant, with many birds of prey, including all the vultures,Kori and White-bellied Bustards, the amazing Secretary Bird, Southern Ground Hornbill, Usambiro andSpot-flanked Barbets, Grey Kestrel, Nubian & Cardinal Woodpeckers, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Sooty Chats, African Wattled Plover, Hildebrandt's Starling, among a great variety of other species.
Day 15 : Transfer to Nairobi
Depart for Nairobi with lunch boxes to allow enroute birding and as we near Nairobi pass by the Limuru ponds for a waders and waterfowl.
Kenya is world-renowned as a wildlife destination par excellence with a breathtaking range of often easily approachable mammals and birds in landscapes of immense beauty. Our tour takes in two of Kenya’s finest game reserves, Samburu and the Maasai Mara, visits the alkaline and freshwater lakes of the Rift Valley and the central highlands.
