It's Plan A Again (Part 2)

Lunchtime in the Marsh

We’d taken a leisurely lunch at our familiar spot by the Mara River, where we had spent time with the Elephants a few days before. This time there were no sightings, but having had a good morning, we weren’t too worried. Setting off again we hoped the day would continue to be fruitful and it turned out to be the case, although maybe not in the way we expected.

We were in the Marsh area, nears Governors and this had proven to be a good spot earlier in the week. Indeed on our previous trip we had some good captures there and this time was the same.

Over the years, I’ve never really got any good Hammerkop pictures and that may partly be because I find them rather an uninspiring bird. But our first sighting of the afternoon put that right and also gave us images of a pair.

Not more than a hundred metres away we had our next encounter with an Elephant in a very marshy area enjoying some succulent green vegetation in really good light. Being Rose’s favourite animal, it’s no surprise we spent some time photographing this encounter. Eventually we got to a position where the light was less than favourable so time to move away.

Again, we didn’t have to go far before we got our next subject and this was another first for us, a Ruppell’s Long-tailed Starling. The beautiful iridescent blue feathers in this bird combined with the superb light gave us some pleasing shots, but things got even better as the bird relaxed and actually moved closer to the vehicle. Yet another memorable encounter, punctuated by a brief visit from a Fiscal Shrike.

Time was moving along and we felt it was perhaps time we did the same, but our guide suggested before we left the area we should revisit the spot where we had taken lunch to see if there was any likelihood of an Elephant crossing. In less than five minutes we were there, but no sign of any Elephants again. However, there was a Hippo pod in the river and quite a bit of noise being made, more than we had heard from Hippos before. It became apparent that the noise was emanating from just one pair and what we were witnessing was a courting and mating ritual. Of course all this was happening beneath the surface and all we could see were the heads. In fact it could almost have been mistaken for fighting, which had been our first thought, but once the female became submissive, there was little doubt.

From that point on, the drive turned into more of a bird watching afternoon. First up we had a wonderful opportunity with a Desert Cisticola singing its heart out atop a branch. That was swiftly followed by a Coki Francolin, albeit fleetingly and no chance for a picture.

Shortly after we came upon a flock of Crowned Plover and mixed amongst them were a number of Senegal Lapwings. It was getting into late afternoon by now and the light was less harsh, so we managed some nice pictures, aided by the birds being quite confiding.

A little further on along the track and we encountered a breeding pair of Yellow-throated Sandgrouse. These birds were more of a challenge as they fall into the category of bird that is always walking away from anyone who ventures close with a camera. Much the same as the Secretarybird.

There was then a lull of about twenty minutes before we came upon our next encounter, this time a Red-capped Lark. This was another new species for us and some nice, if distant, pictures of it feeding came our way.

Our bird watching sequence was nearing its end by now and brief sightings of a juvenile Yellow Wagtail and a Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark wrapped it up for the day.

It wasn’t the end of the day though and as we made our way back to camp we had a glorious opportunity with a large Banded Mongoose family playing on the Termite mound they called home. The light was perfect as we were in the golden hour and it was coming from a position virtually directly behind us. We spent a magical twenty minutes observing their behaviour and capturing some wonderful images before the light went.

This still wasn’t the end of the day though, as ten minutes later we encountered Olbarnoti and his girlfriend again. No excuse for not shooting a few frames, but the auto ISO setting on the cameras hit its peak setting of 12,800 as we fired away. Fortunately we were quite close and even at that setting, usable images resulted.

Looking back, this had to be a day to counter the slow day we had earlier in the trip. There weren’t many more days to come.