Mara North and Ol Pejeta - October 2015

I am going to just have one thread for our week away at both Offbeat Mara and Ol Pejeta and will start with a few photos from Offbeat Mara where we met up with Safariman and had a great time chatting away each evening after a great day's safari.  We were in different vehicles but from time to time passed each other whilst watching various wildlife.  

Martial Eagle - I think this is my favourite African raptor


Frank and Jessie - a very handsome pair


I don't know who this cheetah is but having not seen cheetah for ages it was great to finally see one




More later I have an appointment just now .............

I'm back so I will continue     oh no now it won't let me load anything so I will try again later!


Lai

3rd attempt at uploading photos ..... You can see just how dry the Mara area is

This is especially for Littlewid - wildies  


Little Bee Eater


A lovely hippo amongst his pod


Common Fiscal Shrike


Baby Hartebeest


Adult Hartebeest - such beautiful animals


An immature Eastern Chanting Goshawk (pale) - very obliging and sat still for ages!


That's all for today

Lai

Well done for persisting with up loading your pics Lai thanks. Love the shot of Frank, and Jessie as you say really handsome pair of Lions. The Hartybeest calf is cute, and the adults are great looking animals. Fantastic to see a Cheetah again for you, not surprised they are rare to see now. It said on the new series The Hunt that most 90% of Cheetah Cubs don't reach 2 yrs of age. Thanks for the photos, and looking forward to more

WS

 WS.  The Hunt is a fantastic series isn't it?  Really wonderful camerawork and as you say interesting but sad/realistic facts, cheetah cubs are very appealing but sadly we didn't see any.

So on to a few more from Mara North conservancy although one day we did venture into the Masai Mara conservancy, where it was dry and definitely lacking in grass.  We saw some of the Marsh Pride sub adults but I can't tell you who as I am so behind on the family tree now.



We watched a group of zebra who were thinking of crossing the river - they never did despite us watching for a long time.


Well fed hyena


Frank (or is it Jessie Safariman)?


Female ostrich sitting on her eggs, from a distance you wouldn't know she was there.  We checked the next day and she was still sitting on the eggs.  The male takes over and does night duty.


We drove into a hole - great opportunity for Ali and I to have a wonder round close to the vehicle!  Joseph and Kimani did a great job getting us out.


Immature Brown Parrot peeping out of the tree  


Marsh Pride sub adults


Chilling ...............


This lioness was with her sister, we think, but she was not allowed anywhere near the kill, she had to wait in the sun with no shade to rest in.


Handsome male (Marsh Pride maybe)?


That's it for now. I want to put a slide show together and also attempt putting some of my video clips together More photos later

Lai

Thanks Lai some more wonderful shots from your visit. Yes we do seem to have lost track of the Marsh Pride sinve the demise of Romeo, and Clawed, this is my last week driving for the season, I'm working Thur, Frd, Sat, and Sun this week to cover bonfire night. So I will have a bit more time after, and might have a dig around to see whats been happening. Shame for the Lioness who had to stay out in the sun waiting for a chance at some food. Which Pride do Frank, and Jessie belong to ? . I jus had a little chuckle at the thought of Doogs being with you, and telling her friends at home about a Jessie Male Lion with the meaning Jessie has up in Scotland . It is extremely dry over Africa DJ has still not had a real rains just a couple of showers, hope they all get the rains soon.

WS

Great selection of photos Lai.

The male lion is Frank, Jessie his partner is much lighter in colour and is also the dominate of the two and gets first sitting at any food!!

The cheetah was a lone male who I think was just passing through the Conservancy. We only saw him the once, the same day you did and then he moved on. The males particularly have huge ranges and the best time to see females is when they have cubs and stay in a particular area.

The Mara male is one of the 4 Musketeers but I am not sure which one. I have a similar pic and will post it on Facebook and hopefully someone will be able to id him. The Marsh Pride is now so big and spread out that you only seem to see a few of them together. We did manage to see Sienna with her cubs and her wounds appeared to be healing well.

Pleased to see Joseph and Kimani managed to get you out of a hole!!!

Some of the zebras did eventually cross but as the Mara River was so low they were able to walk across without any problems and the crocs were overfull from previous crossings and weren't interested.


It is fascinating to see someone else's photos of the same animals I saw and how we interpret them so differently. The great thing I love about still photos as against videos is that still captures a unique moment in time which nobody else can duplicate. Even if the other person is standing right next to you their version is ever so slightly different. All still photos are totally unique!!

Best of luck with the video editing, I am about to try and do the same.

SM

Good idea WS.  I try to follow the lions on FB but never have enough time to get to know them all!  Hope all goes well with work and you then get some time off to relax and

Frank and Jessie are from Mara North and I think belong to the Offbeat Pride - Safariman will correct me if I am wrong as he's an expert on the Offbeat Pride and the Acacia Pride.  Oh yes, I hadn't thought of that WS

I hope Djuma gets some rains soon, it's much needed everywhere.

I have replaced my first attempt at this video with this amended one so hopefully this is better!  We spent a wonderful morning watching these eles and it was so worth waiting for them to visit the river.




Enjoy

Lai

 Thanks Safariman, our posts just crossed!  I certainly agree about photos.  Ali and I being in the same vehicle often have identical photos and more often than not capture completely different moments.  It's always such fun to watch the wildlife as well as snapping away!

I've re done the clip with the music fading and changing the credits but it takes too long to load it on youtube!!!

Lai

Lovely clip of the elephants Lai, pleased to see you have now managed some video editing. It's fun but also frustrating especially trying to find the right length of music that also fits the action. What software programme do you use? I am entirely Apple and anything else totally throws me!!
You are right about Youtube, it takes ages to upload anything and if your video is quite long chances are it will crash halfway through. Even a short video comes up with 45 mins left to complete but it is the easiest way of sharing.

Quite correct Lai, Frank and Jessie (Jesse) are the two males who look after the Offbeat Pride, they gained their unfortunate names from some Americans staying at the camp who called them after the old wild west outlaws, the James Brothers and sadly it stuck!!

SM

Thanks Safariman.  I am a windows 10 person and use a programme called Movie Maker, it's very simple and you can add music and I have now realised you can fade it in and out.   I have re-done the ele clip and replaced the above.  You are right, sometimes YouTube crashes in the middle of uploading and it's

Aha yes Jesse not Jessie  he is a male of course.  How very American but I like the fact they have names.

More photos later.

Lai

Good morning all - moving on from Offbeat Mara in the Mara North conservancy we went on to Ol Pejeta Bush camp.  We flew back to Wilson to fly back to Nanyuki and on the 12 seater to Nanyuki we had 2 pilots and just Ali and I - not good for Safarilink but thankfully they still ran the flight.

Driving from Mara North to the airstrip we saw

Silver-backed Jackal - a lovely pair who for once stood still so we could take photos




Then a another family of 4 Silver-backed Jackals barking at this cheetah


The cheetah was sent on his way with a nip to his heels - brave jackal!


A baby warthog suckling - very cute  


Lai

Great that you saw the cheetah again on your way to the airstrip; I only saw him the once. It always amazes me how jackals have no fear of driving off cheetahs from their territory, they are feisty little things.
The Safarilink and Air Kenya flights are always a little chaotic and unpredictable, at least on your flight to Nanyuki you had a choice of seats!! As I was leaving camp for my flight back to Nairobi I was told Safarilink on which I was booked had changed my flight to Air Kenya!! We waited at the airstrip for some time as several Safarilink planes came and went until the Air Kenya flight arrived to transport me on my OWN back to Nairobi. I was outnumbered by the pilots!! But that is the fun of Kenya, you just have to accept what happens.

Look forward to the Ol Pejeta photos.

SM

Lovely to see the Silver Backed Jackals I only see the Black Backed Jackals at Petes Pond, and Djuma Waterhole, a nd true SM they are feisty little characters when they are trying to get some food off kills. Great you managed to see the Cheetah twice . Great to see the new video of the Elephants coming in for a drink. You Tube is a pain to upload to it takes me ages, I try to limit mine to a couple of mins, but even then it can tale up to 20 mins to upload .
Errr Lai I saw on SMs post that bushes are good for you just wondered why as I'm sure the driver would let you use the mirror in the vehicle to do your makeup ?

WS

Thanks Safariman and WS.  I know what you mean about Safarilink, our return flight from Nanyuki after being at Ol Pejeta was supposed to be 12.30pm and then on the morning they said 11am - we then flew up to Samburu to collect a few people (we already had 6 on board)  so we added a further 45 mins to the flight.  The sensible way would have been to collect the Samburu people first and then the rest of us on the way back down!

Sorry WS I should have said you can call them either Black-backed or Silver-Backed jackals - they are one and the same.

 WS I see your humour is still

Lai

Good morning all.  I have just remembered that I haven't posted any ele photos yet.  So here are a few from the Mara before I move on to Ol Pejeta.

As you can see there is hardly any green grass left, but lots of mud and dust for the eles sunscreen.  Wonderful to sit and watch them as they throw it over themselves.












Aha my leopard in motion shot from a nightdrive in the Ol Pejeta conservancy - he was on a mission and me and my camera weren't ready    A slow shutter speed and therefore my artistic shot!


ps update on the male lion from the Musiara Marsh area - someone on FB identified him as Sikio from the Musketeers

Lai

Shots Lai it does make a good photo when they are squirting dust over themselves. It's the same at Djuma not much in the way of grasses, you can see them rooting round the dam area for the odd green shoots that came up after a couple of light showers. That a great shot of the Leopard especially in that light, and on the move thanks.. I was getting confused with the Golden Jackal as well . I've shared both yours, and SM's videos with the wildEarth TV chatters, and they loved them, and asked to say thanks to you both. Looking at the views of both your posts you've both had quite a good number of views in a short time

WS

Thanks WS, that's kind of you and glad the Wildearth chatters enjoyed them. Mostly the views are me trying to load photos and then amending and tweaking it all!!!!!!

It's all change in the Mara with the rain. Someone posted a pic on FB and it's all green and lovely looking again. I hope Djuma gets the much needed rains soon.

Lai

I've had some information on Frank and Jesse the 2 males from the Offbeat Pride, this is from 2 people via Facebook and probably Safariman knows this but I didn't so it was great to hear more about them.

They were born mid 2010 into the Cheli Pride, they left the pride late and in spring 2014 took over the Offbeat Pride, it was an easy takeover as there were no males to challenge. They are the fathers to the 14 Offbeat cubs.

Don't you just love being able to find out all these great bits of information?

Lai

Thanks for the info Lai, your right it does make things more interesting, and personal somehow, by knowing their history, and family tree as it did with the Marsh Pride , and Leopards in the Mara. Hopefully we get to know more about them in the future through visits by SM, and FB updates

WS

You are right Lai about Frank and Jesse, they came from the Acacia/Cheli Pride. When the 3 males who looked after both the Offbeat and Acacia/Cheli Prides disappeared Frank and Jesse moved on to the Offbeat Pride as you say without any opposition. Jesse was always the dominant one having first pick of mating rights while Frank had to wait his turn!! At the same time 2 males from the River Pride took over the Acacia Pride so it was change all round. I am not sure if Frank and Jesse are brothers but they were both born around the same time.

I have added a couple of photos of Jesse I think when he was younger and with the Acacia Pride. The first taken in Dec. 2012 and the second in early Feb. 2014. They took over the Offbeat Pride around Aug/Sept 2014.

It's great to be able to follow the ups and downs of a pride and know the history, that is what keeps drawing me back!!



Jesse? Dec.2012



Jesse? Feb.2014

SM

Thanks Safariman. Love the older photos of Jesse, it's great to follow big cat family trees.

Lai

Some eles from Ol Pejeta.  We spent a lovely morning with these eles and waited for them to spend time at the river.



We were spotted


Friends for sure  


The joy the baby ele had when running down to the river


The babies were always on the wrong side for taking photos


This sign at the bridge is just brilliant  


More later ................

Lai

Great shots of Jesse SM, unfortunately you cant compare the whisker spots to be certain as they don't show the same side of his face. Nice one of the Elephant blowing water from the trunk, it is lovely to see the baby Elephants rushing to the warter, and play in the mud, love watching them do that on the cams. That sign made me

WS

Lovely ellie photos Lai. They are always fun to watch when they get near water. It's interesting to see how when they drink they prefer nice clean water as against other animals who will drink anything. The bridge notice is great, I presume they have installed a weighbridge nearby so that the ellies can check they are ok to cross!!

SM

Thanks WS and Safariman, I have hundreds of ele photos so just shared a few otherwise I could go on for days  Yes they are certainly cleverer than the other animals for sure Safariman.

Safariman - next time we're there we'll be sure to ask them

A few random shots before I continue

African Pygmy Kingfisher at Ol Pejeta conservancy


Monitor Lizard - the same one Safariman saw I feel sure  


Violet-Backed Starling on our tent rope at Ol Pejeta Bush camp


Weaver bird - just need to check my list to ID which one Sitting outside the mess tent at Ol Pejeta Bush camp


Lai