22nd May 2008 : Fish Eagles by day; Lions by night
Friday, May 23, 2008 at 09:05PM Yesterday, while we were having lunch, one of the African Fish Eagles that frequents this stretch of river landed in a tall acacia tree just near the house, and studiously started eying up the fish trapped in a dwindling pool on the river's edge. Over the space of about thirty minutes, he made several swooping attempts but was only successful once...and even then, he only came away with a tiny fish...not a great day's fishing for him, but some great bird watching for us!
The action shots (second row, below) were taken by my husband Ian, who had commandeered my new camera - can you believe it?! You can click on any of the images to view a larger version.
Overnight, we had a visit from a lion, whose pugmarks we saw on our driveway in the morning. Down on the beach, we've also seen leopard tracks and elephant footprints, alongside spoor of all the usual suspects: hippo, impala, waterbuck, dik dik...
That's all folks... (for today anyway!)
Reader Comments (12)
A lion in the driveway? Lucky you didn't go outside in the night for a smoke.
In New Zealand,the only creatures you have to look out for are other humans.
Hi Suzanne - I guess you could say that's one advantage of us not being smokers! :-)
You're not going to believe this, Suzanne, but just as I posted that last comment to you, a lion started roaring - quite far off in the distance, but resonant and booming nonetheless - quite unusual for 9 o'clock in the morning...
Gorgeous shots of the Fish Eagle, Tanya. Yikes on the lion in your driveway! I guess you can't leave your front door open. ;-)
Lin
I wonder what set him off. He should be sleeping.
We have a very dangerous looking squirrel in our backgarden......
Hi Lin - fortunately for us, lions don't seem interested in coming in for supper (unlike the gutsy Genet Cats!)...
Suzanne - maybe the lions were on a kill? I can't think of any other reason either why they would be roaring in the morning like that...unless something had disturbed them.
Audrey - beware - I hear squirrels can be VERY dangerous! ;)
Great photos! How big was that lion paw print? Hand size or bigger? Squirrel size? ;-) Nice that you found such a clear print, not so nice to have the beast lurking around. ;-)
Hi Michelle...actually, I love having lions prowling around at night. Inside the house, we're really quite safe...the lions are happy to let us get on with our lives, if we let them get on with theirs...
The lion paw print was about as big as a hand (perhaps as big as Audrey's scary squirrels!)...for a photo showing another lion paw print with my husband Ian's hand next to it to show the scale, take a look here...
What amazing pictures of the eagle. He might not be a good fisher-bird but he's still an amazing bird! We have some very scary woodmice in our garden... not quite the same. Jane
I love fisheagles - saw lots of them in Naivasha.
I think scarier than a lion roar is hyenas. *shudder* there's just something about that woooop that scares the whatsits out of me!
I love fish eagles too...for the first time the other day, we saw the eagle successfully catch a fish...he doesn't seem to have a great record though...but is beautiful nonetheless, as you say, Jane.
Imogen, I agree, a hyena woooooop is definitely more "creepy" than a lion roar! I still like hyenas, though...I think they're unfairly maligned! Sounds like you had a great trip to Kenya...