Time for the Birds

Yaya's Cub in the Undergrowth

Setting out on Wednesday, we weren’t aware that it was going to be a slow day, but that’s exactly how it panned out. In fact it was nearly two hours out from camp before we exposed a frame.

Our first encounter was with a female Lion named Yaya and her two cubs, only two months old. Understandably she was keeping them well hidden, although they could be seen moving fairly freely in the undergrowth. It presented us with a difficult decision, did we move on, or did we stay put in the hope of some decent shots. We came down on the side of waiting; after all, if we did get a shot, the ‘cute’ box was likely to be well and truly ticked.

There wasn’t much action being relayed to us about other sightings so we were happy to stay, but on this occasion our patience wasn’t rewarded. Yaya decided to move the cubs deeper into the vegetation to a point where it was difficult to even see her and so after more than an hour we decided to move elsewhere.

Soon after we left we encountered a Crowned Plover beside the track, first bird of the day and posing well in nice light. A wee bit distant, but we can’t have everything. Next up was a lone Elephant and a wonderful opportunity to take some more unusual shots as he moved through the long grass with just the open plains as a backdrop. It was a sighting to savour for sure.

Then it was back to the birds and around 20 minutes passed until we had a Spur-winged Lapwing (Plover if you prefer) beside the track. We had one clear shot before it moved into some longer grass and gave the autofocus a hard time. This brought us nicely around to breakfast time, always an enjoyable part of the day eating our cereals under the shade of a tree, that is if you can find a spare tree.

Over breakfast we discussed the plan for the next part of the drive having been told of a Rhino sighting quite near to our location. Naturally this was of interest as although we have seen both White and black Rhino before, a sighting in this part of the Mara is rare. Resuming our drive, we soon found ourselves in the area where it had been spotted, but instead of a mammal, the bird theme continued.

At first we only spotted one bird and it was a while before we realised there was actually a pair of Black-chested Snake Eagles. We got a huge number of flight shots, albeit most of which were high key due to the overcast conditions. We saw a number of failed food pass attempts and that seemed to spoil the party as they split up and moved away.

What followed was a frustrating couple of hours unsuccessfully searching for the Rhino, punctuated by a sighting of a Spotted Water Thick Knee that yielded no images, a Grey Crowned Crane and a solitary Buffalo amongst a pod of Hippos on a sand bank. Nothing for it, it was time for lunch.

It was fully two hours later that we next exposed any pixels and this time one of Yaya’s cubs obliged. I’m not sure that ‘obliged’ is the right word, it was a fleeting glimpse that allowed me to shoot four frames, one of which I’ve used above. It was soon obvious that we faced the same situation as we had in the morning and as the time was approaching when the lodges were coming out for their afternoon game drives, we decided to leave them alone and look elsewhere.

We headed back to the Marsh area near Governors Camps and as we drove down the main track, we found three juvenile Hyenas playing and enjoying the sunshine outside of their den. Their den is actually in a drainage pipe that crosses underneath the track, but it seems to suit them quite well. We spent the better part of thirty minutes with them and then moved on to our actual target, a coalition of 5 male Lions. To say they were uncooperative would be an understatement, they did what Lions do by day - sleep - and in the long grass we had no chance.

So that wrapped up our day, save for one encounter on the way back to camp. I don’t like to speak out of turn, but this, to me, was somewhat bizarre. We met up with a vehicle loaded with Japanese tourists, nearly all of whom were wearing face masks. Now I’m willing to believe back home they have pollution issues in their cities, but the air in the Maasai Mara couldn’t be much fresher. An amusing end to what was a slow day.