Africa: Day 13: The Forest

Yesterday was mostly spent traveling, first to the northeast corner of Lake Victoria, which is the second largest fresh water lake in the world and the source of the Nile. It is also the western border of Kenya and Uganda. The lake shore is mostly lined with towns and villages, but we reached the lake shore at a small conservation area. However, our stay was short as a strong thunderstorm boiled in off the lake.
Late in the day we reached Kakamega Forest Reserve. A relatively small remnant of the forest that once filled the Western Highlands. All the rest has been cut down for small farms or vast tea estates.

Tea is still Kenya's largest export, and individual estates (or farms) can extend for 10's of miles and employ over 10,000 workers on a single estate. Each section of tea is picked every 14 days, only the last 2 leaves of each stem are picked, all by hand. We stopped at an estate for a picnic lunch, the tea bushes were about 3.5 feet high, to minimize bending over when the leaves are picked.

There are no large predators in the forest preserve so unlike our visits to the national parks, we don't have to stay in our van. So today we walked along the forest dirt roads and trails looking for birds, It was the best day for new birds in a week and I saw 38 new birds, even though we cut the afternoon short because of rain. Most days, even in the dry Serengeti we've had short afternoon rains (15 min to an 1 hour), but today the rain came at 4 and continued until dark (about 6:30). So we returned to our lodge.

The lodge is an interesting place, its actually a retreat for Baptist ministers who get stressed out working in Africa. But the take tourists to pay for the cost of the retreat. It has a beautiful gardens and grounds, a lovely trail along a small
creek, and is the only lodging in the forest.

Although there are no predators or grazing wildlife around, we did see 3 species of monkeys, including a really pretty black and white monkey called the Black and White Colobus.

There were several pretty amazing birding highlights today. I will describe just three. First I saw an African Emerald Cuckoo. This bird is a brilliant emerald green back, head, and neck, then a stunning yellow breast, truly beautiful. Second while walking on the road, two African Grey Parrot flew over, since only 9 are known to be left in Kenya, this was a very lucky rare sighting. The third sighting was of an African Crowned Hawk-Eagle. This is the second largest eagle in East Africa, and the most powerful. It has been observed killing a 300 lb Eland, and seen carrying a 40 lb dog. In Kakamega Forest, the Hawk-Eagle hunts monkeys, so when we heard loud screeching from nearby monkeys we looked up and were fortunate to see an African Crowned Hawk-Eagle flying just below the canopy and then land in a tree close to us. Allowing us close views through the spotting scope at this large (3-foot long), uncommon and rarely seen beyond a glimpse, raptor.