Buffalo Springs National Reserve, Kenya - May 2014
Buffalo Springs NR is 187 miles north of Nairobi and 109 miles northeast of Mount Kenya NP. It encompasses 51 square miles at an altitude of 2,790 to 4,040 feet. It is on the south side of the Ewaso Ngiro River. Samburu NR is on the north side of the river. We spent a day there, an afternoon game drive the day we arrived and a morning game drive the next day. It is more of a desert than other places I've been in Kenya and Tanzania, but less deserty than Etosha NP in Namibia.
We saw 11 species of mammal, including some I've seen nowhere else in Africa (and I've traveled relatively extensively in Africa). Those mammals include, the reticulated giraffe, Somali (desert) warthog, Grevy zebra, gerenuk (standing on their hind legs while eating tree leaves), Beisa oryx and Bright's gazelle, a subspecies of Grant's gazelle. We saw an African bush elephant male chase down a female and consummate a loud and large mating ritual (it otherwise has a large elephant population) and spotted a genet in a tree being feasted upon by a large Verreaux's eagle-owl. Other mammals were the common impala, eastern black-backed jackal and Kirk's dik-dik.
We saw 13 species of bird, including 5 weavers: Speke's weaver, golden palm weaver, white-headed buffalo-weaver, Donaldson-Smith's sparrow-weaver, and white-browed sparrow-weaver. Bird's of prey included the martial eagle, bateleur, eastern chanting-goshawk, secreterybird (swallowing a rabbit whole) and the afore-mentioned Verreaux's eagle-owl. Other birds included the northern red-billed hornbill, eastern yellow-billed hornbill and yellow-necked Francolin.
We also saw several Nile crocodiles in or near the Ewaso Ngiro River.
Buffalo Springs is one of my favorite African destinations.
Comentarios
Agregar un comentario