Prologue

How does this blog begin?  A question I have mulled over for several weeks now as I have built the webpage.  If I were to start by describing recent evens it would be solemn and slow.    A recount of the tiresome process of gathering the mountains of documents required for a South African study visa, of enrolling at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), and of attempting funding applications from New Zealand.

Rewind to a more fitting time to begin the story. April 2006.

I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya.  And at the airport are reunited with Mia (a born falconer and raptor enthusiast from Denmark, courtesy of the ‘Mongolian Dating Agency’ as Andrew Dixon describes the Saker Falcon project – but that’s another story entirely).  Collected from Jomo Kenyatta airport by Simon Thomsett and hastened out to his house, perched in the back corner of a conservancy and dispersal area for Nairobi National Park.  An ex-game ranch teeming with the wildlife that looked as I had always dreamed the African savannah would.

At that time Simon was supported by the Peregrine Fund, and ran a raptor conservation operation from his house.   A little dream of a self-built house of rocks and mortar, a papyrus thatched roof, and surrounded by aviaries built from local resources. 

Over the preceding months Mia had briefed me on some of Simons extensive contributions to the raptor world.  Of their first meeting on the Cape Verde Islands to capture the then unknown Cape Verde Kite, and a number of exploits prior and since including: attempts to re-introduce the Bearded Vulture to the Kenya, periodic road trips to the Masai Mara Reserve counting raptors, advocating vulture conservation, and much more besides.  In the aviaries and mews’ surrounding the house were a variety of advocacy and rehabilitating raptors; Fish Eagles, Augur Buzzards, Giant Eagle-owl, a Verraux Eagle, and a Bearded Vulture.  In the largest and most extravagant pen sat Rosy and Girl, a pair of Crowned Eagles that Simon has had successfully breeding for some 20 years.

Rosy and Girl with young Dutchess. (C) Simon Thomsett

Dutchess in April 2007.

The drive towards Simons house on the first day was overwhelming, through giraffe and crowned cranes, and herds of impala and eland.  I was almost immediately introduced to a juvenile Crowned Eagle sat on a bow perch.  Named Dutchess at the time, this was the twelfth offspring produced by Rosy and Girl, with all previous young having been released into the wild. 

Over the next ten weeks I slowly learned the nature of this Duchess, and we worked towards increasing her hunting prowess.  The fast-track to a successful release required her to prove her hunting success, and while this road to independence might take two years in natural circumstances, I had just ten weeks and needed to provide ample opportunities for her to gain confidence.

Nocturnal life on the farm was far more abundant and naive to the hunting eagle, and so she started out tackling hares and springhares by spotlight.  It was enlightening to read her reactions, initially she was all coy and hesitant.  Before long she was confident and proactive, proving herself by dispatching of a weaner Thomson’s Gazelle.  Ready to expand her options she was then out hunting in the afternoons where she was able to capture some young vervet monkeys – one of the Crowned Eagles more usual prey.

A successful hunt.

And with a Vervet Monkey.

I was immensely sad to leave Kenya at that time.  Simon was preparing to move on, security issues and economic viability forcing the move.  Those birds that could be released were, and over the next months that sadness was mediated by the progress reports of Dutchess successful release at Ol Donyo Laro.  A history of this release, of Rosy and Girls progress in subsequent years, and the fantastic cross-continent Raptor Expedition can be read on Simons blog.  Start here with Dutchess' release…