KENYA: Lake Baringo

The grounds of Baringo Club were alive with birds. Two owls to start the day is a good omen – a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl was by the pool, and behind our rooms, an African Scops Owl had settled in for the day.

It is only a short drive from the club to the basalt cliff escarpment (above), where we had a successful mornings walk through the dry acacia scrub before the heat of the day. Green-winged Pytilia, Northern Grey Tit, Mouse-coloured Penduline Tit, Abyssinian White-eye, Black-throated Barbet, Grey Hornbill, Lesser Honeyguide, Red-fronted Warbler soon showed, and there was a brief look at a Lead-coloured Flycatcher. High on the escarpment ridge a calling Lanner led us to a Rock Kestrel, this being the resident race of Common Kestrel, and we also had Brown-tailed Rock Chats chattering and wing flapping.

Further down the cliff, Rock Hyraxes (above), with that comical grin, were making their screeching calls, as Jackson’s Hornbills and Bristle-crowned Starlings moved about the single trees growing out of the cliff face.

Francis, the young and enthusiastic local guide who we have taken under our wing, came through with flying colors, showing us a pair of Greyish Eagle Owl and Northern White-faced Scops Owls, Spotted Thick-knee (above), a pair of Hueglin’s Coursers and chick, and a Slender-tailed Nightjar – all brilliant views.

For a couple of hours before lunch we ventured out on the lake by boat. Pied Kingfishers were numerous and Long-tailed Cormorants along with African Darters posed for photographs. All the expected terns and egrets were seen as well as a Goliath Heron catching a fish. Flashes of blue meant only thing, that Malachite Kingfishers were eagerly moving from perch to perch to find the best fishing spot. They were successful. Along whatever section of muddy lake edge we could get near, due to the low water level, we would see African Jacanas and Long-toed Plover, and had a Hemprich Hornbill fly by.

We purchased a few fish from an enterprising Njemps fisherman (above), who had paddled out to met us. With these we headed towards the large island of Olkolkwa, and proceeded to whistle in an African Fish Eagle (below). It was another excellent photo-op! Circumventing the island we found several Senegal Thick-knees and Yellow-billed Storks.

Having missed Mocking Cliff-Chat (above) this morning, we returned to the cliff for an afternoon walk, this time working another section to the south. It only took a few minutes and we had our bird. Each time it landed on large boulders it would have its tail raised and then slowly bring it down.

Ben spotted a snake slithering along branches at about head height. We had intruded upon a Speckled Sand Snake (above) in the process of devouring a Little Weaver!

An unexpected storm came over the cliffs and caught us totally unprepared. Being in a gully with little protection, we covered up as much as we could and opted to make it out as quickly as possible to the waiting van about a kilometer away. In a way that was the good news.

The bad news was that the steady rain turned the red soil into mud, caking an additional thick layer to the bottom of our footwear, making the trek, in what had now become platform shoes, slippery and slow.