November 2008 : Grumeti Reserves

The Short Rains Arrive

The traditional short rainy season here in East Africa usually begins around November. This year we had wetter than average months during September and October but November has been really wet. The rains have brought not only green grass and abundant water but also many birds. Returning on their south bound migrations as the weather at their Northern hemisphere holiday homes begins to deteriorate. It is an exciting time as among others cuckoos, rollers, eagles, storks and harriers, all make their way back.

The resident widows, whydahs and bishops all grow their beautiful breeding plumage. One of my favorite birds, and certainly abundant this season, has been the Violet-backed starlings. These unmistakable iridescent plum colored males with their streaky females are just beautiful.

The plains are full of harriers, both Montague’s and Pallid. They scour the long grasses in a characteristic low flight with slow wing beats, looking for food, mainly insects.

Also out in abundance on the plains are the beautiful Lesser kestrels, which prefer to fly slightly higher than the harriers, and hover above their insect prey before swooping down.

The Nesting Birds

The rains have also got most birds hugely excited about breeding and nesting. These two Secretary birds down at Sabora were seen building & refurbishing last year’s nest, atop a Balanites tree.

Also seen displaying typical breeding behavior was a flock of Ground hornbills, this adult seen here with a beak full of frogs and other food items.

Guide Training Begins

November saw the four new trainee guides begin their 6 month training course. During the first week of the course we were fortunate to have Alan Yeowart up from South Africa.

Alan is Singita’s most experienced guide and has been running the SA Guide Training Academy for 4 years now. His knowledge and expertise was inspirational and we uncovered a few seldom seen gems during his days with us. The favorite was two little Common Genet kittens, curled up in their nest –an old buffalo weaver nest.

Insects have also been abundant as many of grubs or larvas, having been dormant underground, emerge as adults. In the insect world adults are basically a short stage in the life cycle were your main aims are to find a mate, copulate and then lay eggs. The green bug belongs to the shield bug family and the brown one is a cicada, one of the world’s longest living (and noisiest!) insects, with life spans of over a decade! The majority of those years are spent underground as a larva.

Also spotted was a litter of 4 black-backed jackal pups, this little one sitting bravely next to his den entrance, on a termite mound.

The Leopard Morning

The highlight of November was a very memorable leopard sighting, by far the best we’ve ever had here at Singita Grumeti Reserves.

The game drive vehicles had spotted a pride of lions that had treed a troop of baboons. Upon closer inspection it was discovered that a leopard had taken refuge in the same tree as the baboons!  Thanks to Stuart for this very unique first picture. Having only arrived on the scene at this stage no-one is too sure as to the exact chain of events leading up to this.

Scenario One could have been the leopard being treed by the baboons. The baboons, attracting attention to themselves, suddenly had lions chasing them – with their only refuge being the same tree.
Scenario Two could have been that the baboons were treed by the lions and the leopard simply got in the way – truly a case of being in the completely wrong place at the wrong time!

After a while, the lions lost interest and the baboons wasted no time in making their hasty escape. The leopard chose to hang out, so to speak, in the top braches. The midday sun eventually drove him down the tree, three hours after he was first spotted. The lions by this stage were all fast asleep under the shady trees nearby.

We watched a fully grown male leopard, lounging in tree, for three hours, in broad daylight, cycling no fewer than 6 cars through the sighting - awesome and never quite what we expected. Every guest on the property that day got to see this leopard.

A New Pride

It is always superb being a part of an open ecosystem and the world renowned Serengeti–Mara Ecosystem has to rank as the most exciting.

This month, we were frequently visited by a new pride of eight lion. This pride has moved onto our concession from the Serengeti National Park. The big male, three lionesses and four youngsters (in the region of 15 – 18 months old) have been spotted regularly and along with our very reliable Butamtam Pride have ensured that we were never found wanting for lion sightings in November.

The plains around Nayasarori are packed to the brim with huge herds and food is never too far away for this pride. Thousands of Thomson’s gazelle, zebra, topi, eland and giraffe abound. A herd of over 500 buffalo have been seen along the park boundary – truly an impressive sight!

The Rare Roan Antelope

To conclude this month we end with November’s other highlight - sightings of the rare Roan Antelope near Sasakwa.

These beautiful big antelope, a member of the horse antelope family (the same family as Sable) are usually very sensitive to competition from other antelope. They are also susceptible to lion predation, despite being recorded using their thick horns to defend against lion attack.  Even in areas where they are common they are never found in large densities. The sub-adult bull believed to be 2–3 years old and his adult cow companion were seen no fewer than seven times over a period of two weeks.

This entry was sumbitted by Lee Fuller
All the photographs were taken on location by Lee Fuller & Ryan Schmitt
Singita Grumeti Reserves
30 November 2008