The Magadi Road begins south west of Nairobi at the base of the Ngong Hills and runs 80 kms all the way to Lake Magadi through some beautiful rolling thorn scrub landscape and Masai pastoral land with a backdrop of ancient volcanic hills. Our first stop was at Olepolos where we walked along a stony…

The surrounding thorn scrub and stately Yellow-bark Acacia trees produced many Dark-capped Bulbuls; a family of White-bellied Tits (below) easily locating caterpillars amongst the leaves; Grey and Cardinal Woodpecker, White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher, Chiffchaff, Chin-spot Batis, Bronzy and Scarlet-chested Sunbird. Brown Parrots (top left), the smallest of the woodland parrots, fed high in the canopy with…

Situated south of the Solio Plains off the Nyeri to Nanyuki road is a neat tented camp in the middle of a 6500 hectare ranch. The lovely canvas tents overlook the Sangare Lake and adjacent marshes where waterbirds abound, with an abundance of boisterous Egyptian Geese leading the way. Patrolling the waters edge were Three-banded…

Our final morning in Samburu was very successful with several new as well as better sightings. These included Grey Wren Warbler, Pale Prinia’s and Pygmy Batis, which like to work the insides of shrubs, and a Taita Fiscal (above) which always needs to be checked to see if it is a Somali Fiscal, which has…

We began this afternoon with a Thrush-Nightingale and Bare-eyed Thrush in the gardens, and just beyond the gate a d’Arnaud’s Barbet (top), upset at an unidentified snake that we just caught sight of slithering into a bush. We made an effort to look for the uncommon Somali Bee-eater this afternoon. This is another species that…

Weavers find this savanna habitat very much to their liking. There are plenty of acacia trees, the grasses are perfect for nest building and their seeds are available year round. It is still too early and dry for most to nest at this time, though a few were doing repair work and thinking about it.…

There is no lack of gamebirds in Samburu. Helmeted and Vulturine Guineafowls (above) can be found in flocks of hundreds roaming the landscape with those lagging behind always in a hurry to catch up. Each morning we would encounter large congregations by the bridge across the river as they would come down for their morning…

Tisa (right) is the charismatic sling-shot toting young Samburu who is employed by the Serena to keep those pesky cheeky Vervet Monkeys away from the dining area during daylight meal times. He is very keen on birds taking great pride in having Red-billed Hornbills feeding out of his hand, though this morning at breakfast it…

What we did not know yesterday was that the reason, in all likelihood, that the lioness dragged her kill into that particular bush was because that is where she had hidden her cubs. She knew that at some stage many animals would head down to the watering hole and all she had to do was…

What followed next was anticipation that we were about to encounter something very exciting. We saw a very anxious young giraffe on the far river bank looking in our direction and then running away. We knew something was up but could not see anything in our immediate surroundings so Peter moved the vehicle around the…

The entrance to Samburu NR has a mural (left)depicting a lioness and a baby Oryx. The amazing story unfolded a few years ago, and that was made into a short documentary, of a lioness that cared for an orphaned Oryx. It only lasted for a week or so but it took everyone by surprise as…

It has been almost 6 hrs since we left the Castle Forest by the time we reached Samburu – Buffalo Springs National Reserve, though we did stop several times for a number of odds and ends as well as a bit of birding. Samburu is currently very dry and the Ewaso Nyiro river is lined…