Due to the relative 'proximity' of Lake Victoria in Tanzania and the high Siria Escarpement on the Western edge of the Mara there is always plenty of interesting weather and cloud formations to experience here in Kenya's Masai Mara. This trip being no exception!. So far nature has treated us to some quite spectacular night shows from our campsite and on our afternoon drives so far. Its true that rain and camping really do not mix and it can be particularly unpleasant!. However, the 'inconvenience of rain' is far outweighed by all the other reasons of why we love to camp (when its dry!) and there is nothing more impressive than an African storm. On both our first and second evening here we have seen some quite 'brutal' weather, the first night was incredible. I can only describe it as saying that you could literally see the build up of pressure in the clouds that were super changed up with energy. Lightning was coming from all directions, vertical, horizontal and hitting the ground on multiple occasions with a load crack not too far from our campsite. The thunder was almost deafening and together with hail meant it was impossible to hear or see anything. Watching the animals behaviour change and as the impending weather approached late in the afternoon was quite something. The wind spiralled in different directions as the gazelles pronked, and the Topi and Eland ran around in what can only be described as a state of confusion/excitement In the same area some cute Hyena cubs played around their den in a frisky manner.
The next morning after the first storm we found what looked like a perfectly healthy impala, dead, with no signs of predation lying on top of a mound. In the same area that bore the brunt of the fierce lightning. Could he have been a victim of a lightening strike? like many other animals fall victim to in Africa? As we write this again on Day 3, we can see more ominous storm clouds moving in again, another wet afternoon approaches! One thing is for sure is that if the rains and thunder continue this will certainly get the wildebeest moving from Tanzania (depending of course what the weather is doing there).
On to the game update......the grass is long here in the Mara, as you would expect at this time of year and it feels like the 'lull before the storm' before soon the pounding hooves of the Zebra and Wildebeest etc will arrive for the Mara leg of the 'Great Migration'. There is very little plains game around on the side of the Mara we are on at present, aside from a handful of resident Zebra herds, There are reasonable numbers of Topi, Grants and Thomson Gazelle, Impala that are occupying some areas of the plains, but in large there is a vast expanse of empty plains with Red Oat grass that is up to 6 feet tall!
The first 24 hours in the Mara were busy with some nice cat sightings, not ones where we were able to get any good images but still its not always 'about the shot'. Within minutes of entering the Mara we came across 3 males lions, around 4-5 years old and not too far as the crow flies from the Musiara Marsh area. Along with two other females they were mating. We think its quite possible that these handsome guys were the same males that have recently left the Marsh pride. Just fifteen minutes later and some 50-75 metres from the track we saw the remains of what looked like an impala dangling eerily from the branch of a tree. This meant only one thing.....Leopard!. We scanned wardering if he or she was nearby. It was in an area that was closed to any off road driving and in this instance there was not a track nearby so we looked hard through the binoculars. There was definitely no leopard in that tree, as we scanned we were alerted to another tree, even further away, another 100 metres or so behind the first. There it was, what we could just about make out to be a male Leopard, simply awesome to see!. Reaching for the cameras we stopped and decided it was a little pointless given the distance so we sat and gazed as he made himself comfy with a huge rotund and full stomach! I have attached an image below taken with a 'point and shoot' camera, can you spot him!? Normally we would have waited for him to come down, as inevitably he would as the afternoon cooled, but having just driven 6 hours from Nairobi, the distance away and the unlikely event that he would come onto the plains rather than back toward the Mara river we decided it was probably not the best course of action to wait.
Only another 20 minutes later and not too far from the Migration crossing points opposite Paradise Plains we then came across another male lion, this looked to be 'Male 1' (we really must give this guy an identity!) from our Feb trip.
Our Leopard luck continued into the evening with another Leopard sighting, just perched high up on a rock at the base of the tree line on a large hill south of the Mara river. This guy was HUGE and looked quite a mature Leopard, again it was way too far to get any decent images for the website but we took a couple of shots. Its always hard to see Leopards in the Mara Triangle but 2 in one day, amazing!!!
Having followed the Mgoro pride of 5 females for some time now we are always keen to relocate them when we return. When we left them in February they had two remaining cubs (from the nine that they had in Sept 2010) and the females were mating with the new males. We had heard that shortly after we left in February one more cub was killed by the new males so we knew by now we were probably back to looking for just the females now. So far in the three days we have been here we have neither seen or heard them in their normal area, hunting high and low no sign at all, including no evidence of any pug marks, old kills or other tell tale signs. We still have some areas to cover but so far no sign, there are around for sure somewhere we are sure. This is not unusual either as they would often go 'missing' for a few days at a time and their territory is a big area with many places to hide and the grass long right now. Their biggest issue is that within their usual territory there is literally no game so its quite likely they have become a little more transient and have had to expand their area in search of food. This would also explain why at night we are hearing very few lions, far less than 'normal'. A lion/group of lions that is forced to cross into the area of another lion pride does certainly not want to advertise its presence and when the prey is sparse we have seen that lions in the Triangle seem to affirm their territory far less than in times such as the Migration period when they are fiercely protecting their abundant food source by the Mara river against any lions that may 'follow' the migration..."My Land"! Also given some of the Mgoro lions were mating on our last trip (110 day day gestation period) its also very possible they some of them are either denning cubs or shortly due to give birth, another reason why we or no-one else has seem them for a little while now. Its still only day 3 so we may be lucky and find them.
No sign so far either of the Serena/Paradise pride, they often cross the river so it is likely they are either in an area that is not accessible by track or as they often do may have crossed the River to the North side of the Mara river. So aside from the males and females that we encountered on entering the gate to the Mara Triangle it is quite sparse on the lion front at present in this particular area. One thing is for sure is that being back in Kenya is making for a happy Mr and Mrs Skinner indeed.
Can you spot the Leopard!
Storm Clouds forming
it sounds so scary to me with all the lightening and even rain. hate getting wet. is it cold there w/the rain? and i bet it's difficult to drive on mud. hope you will never get stuck.
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