We do professional Kenya bird watching and Ornithological safari tours. Kenya Birding Safaris Kenya bird watching safaris Kenya, Kenya bird watching safaris, birding safaris, birding trips
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Game drives at lake Nakuru
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We do professional Kenya bird watching and Ornithological safari tours. Kenya Birding Safaris Kenya bird watching safaris Kenya, Kenya bird watching safaris, birding safaris, birding trips
African Sermon Safaris 2005 -
2008. All rights reserved
© Copyright. Kenya House,
Koinange Street,
We do professional Kenya bird watching and Ornithological safari tours.
Kenya Birding Safaris Kenya bird watching safaris Kenya, Kenya bird watching
safaris, birding safaris, birding trips
Masai Mara:
P.O. Box 51322 - 00200, Nairobi,
Kenya. Website:
www.continentalsafaris.com
tours@continentalsafaris.com
Tel: +254 20 2244 068; Fax: +254 20 317 656; Mobile: +254 722 884 748
Masai Mara has a variety of bustards including the large jacksons bustard.
The latter during nuptial display soars high in the air then with rigid
wings descends slowly to earth like a prickled balloon ground hornbills are
ones of the most spectacled birds of the open plains & more easily seen in
the Masai Mara than elsewhere in Kenya birds of prey are abundant and no
less than 53 different species have so far been discovered, secretary birds
are a common sight as they stalk sedately over the grasslands, and in the
sky there are always vultures and that effortless flier the batelour
Lake Naivasha:
Lake Naivasha which is a bird watcher’s paradise, water birds exist in great
variety and abundance fish eagles & ospreys are residents herons & egrets,
lily – trorlters purple gallinishes, red knobbed coots & black cracks are
common African marsh harrlers and the three migrant harriers are often seen
sailing just above the reed bed’s hunting the little hyperolis tree frogs
which form the bulk of the diet. Some 13 km south of lake Naivasha are the
towering cliffs of the hell’s gate gorge ,with their resident pair of
Larmmergeys, several verreaux’s eagles,colonies of ruppel’s vultures and
other notable birds
Lake Nakuru:
It is the world’s famous haunt of flamingos. The landscape is picturesque
areas of the sedge, marsh and grasslands alternating with rocky cliffs, and
outcrops, stretches of yellow backed acacia woodland and on the eastern
perimeter rocky hillsides covered with forest of grotesque looking euphobia
trees all set against a background of hilly broken country. Both lesser and
greater flamingos occur abundantly as non-breeding visitors on Lake Nakuru,
the former vastly the more the numerous. There is a great variety of other
water birds including two interesting ducks, the cape pigeon a lover of
blackish waters, and the stiff tailed maccoa duck, blacksmith plover,
spurwing plover, crowned plover, kittliz’s plover, birds of prey includes,
lanner, long crested eagle, augur buzzard, red-chested cuckoo, lillac
breasted roller, grey headed kisher and bronzy and variable sunbirds.
When to to birding in Kenya:
For sheer numbers the best time is between October and April when more than
120 migrant species have arrived from the Northern hemisphere, mostly from
the Palearctic but with some African migrants such as Forbes-Watson's Swift;
there is also the chance of finding one of the passage migrants such as the
Sooty Falcon in March-April and October-December. If you're interested in
bird-ringing, the latter period is when there's a large bird ringing
exercise at Ngulia in Tsavo National Park. The coast is particularly good
during this period with large flocks of water birds congregating at Mida
Creek and Sabaki Estuary, while The Rift Valley lakes and Amboseli attract a
lot of northern waterfowl.
From April to October the Northern Migrants are replaced by birds from the
southern hemisphere and Madagascar, but these are much fewer, no more than
10 or 12 species. It is however the time when many of the birds are in
breeding plumage following the long rains, which makes species such as the
various weavers much easier as well as much more colourful. This is also the
best time of year for big game. In July and August the huge herds of
wildebeest and zebra enter the Maasai Mara and provide spectacular game
watching. This also makes vultures much easier to find because of the
numbers of animals that don't survive the migration. The Mara River
regularly collects mixed flocks of vultures and Marabou feeding on the
animals that failed to cross the river. There's usually a fair number of
crocs as well!
The other variable is the weather, Kenya's seasons come in two basic
flavours - wet and dry. Aside from the obvious disadvantages of trying to
peer through binoculars in a tropical storm the rainy seasons can leave many
roads and tracks unusable, especially if you don't have the advantage of
4WD. This can leave some parks, or parts of some parks, totally unreachable.
The long rains are usually between March and June with the highest levels of
rainfall in April and May. The short rains start in late October and go
through to December. It does however vary throughout the country and
Northern Kenya is generally happy for any rain it can get.
