KENYA: Dawn Chorus at Ndololoo

Tented camp facilities provide a unique and precious experience on safari. There’s nothing quite like hearing the sounds of the bush in the middle of the night – lions roaring, zebras barking or owls hooting – with only canvas walls between yourself and the darkness.

A small watering hole next to our camp still attracted many creatures, even though recent rains meant the animals could now find water from other sources. At 1:10 am, I was awoken by the sound of an elephant’s trunk swishing back and forth in the water as it drank from the watering hole. Straining to hear any other sounds, I fell asleep. A few hours later, a little after 4:00 am, I was awoken again, this time by lions. They were not that close, more likely near the Kanderi Swamp that stretched out to the east of the camp. I heard the classic deep ‘huuh- huuh-huuh” that males give to make contact with the rest of his pride, sending shivers down my spine. A Ring-necked Dove was also calling “work harder, work harder” the ubiquitous sound of the African savannah. I heard a few calls from an African Scops Owl, a Pearl-spotted Owlet, then Slender-tailed Nightjar before they went silent.

I crept outside hoping to glimpse something coming in for a drink, even a silhouette in the moonlight. Nothing showed, but the dawn chorus began to build. I sat on a chair outside the tent to listen.

I heard “cuc-koo, cuc-koo”, the call of a Common Cuckoo, a familiar sound from my childhood. I was surprised, since I never expected them to call on the wintering grounds. A White-browed Coucal and a White-browed Scrub Robin announced that they were awake. Parrot-billed Sparrow and the bubbly mumbo-jumbo of a Superb Starling added to the mix. By 5:15 am, a Red-billed Hornbill began to call continuously, and the Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove soon followed.

A sliver of color appeared over the eastern horizon, pushing back the dark, starry sky. Soon an orange glow spread, then turned a deeper shade before broadening into purple and pink. The quickly-changing light cast a lovely hue over the watering hole. There was still almost an hour to go before sunrise and the dawn chorus was now officially well underway. The hornbill’s “whoop-whoop” and Ring-necked Doves dominated civil daylight, punctuated by the loud rattle of the Grey-headed Kingfisher and the rich, tropical, two-noted call of the Eastern Black-headed Oriole.

The next morning began a little differently. At 4:45 am, alarm calls from Yellow Baboons, a deep bark and grunt sound, alerted us that a Leopard was strolling through the camp. The baboon calls became more distant as its arch enemy, the Leopard, moved further away.