KENYA: Looking for a Free Meal

Taking the only passable track through the Yellow-bark Acacia woodland we arrive at the northern end of Lake Nakuru in time to see an African Fish Eagle (above) eating a Hamerkop that it had recently killed.

Suddenly a Tawny Eagle (above) swooped in and displaced the Fish Eagle as it was ripping flesh from its prey. Gripping the carcass firmly in its talons, the Tawny was having difficulty getting airborne. Instead, it dragged its meal further away from us and into a grassy area with low vegetation.

We watched as a group of Marabou Storks (above) that had been standing around in the freshwater channel began a slow methodical walk out of the water and towards the Tawny Eagle. Intent on getting a bit of free meal, they surrounded the eagle but never made an outright attempt to take over. Instead, the Marabous squabbled amongst themselves and rotated around, occasionally venturing to within a foot or two of the eagle. This was a waiting game that I’ve seen many times before. The storks moped around, waiting for one of their group to make the first brave move, or take the opportunity for all of them to lunge in and take a piece before the eagle turned on them. They had more patience than we did…..we moved on without knowing the final outcome.