It was desert habitat as far as the eye could see. The dry, red soil and sparse acacias soon turned to sandy plains and then the sand turned into rocky lava fields. For the next 24 hours straight the only habitat we saw was one of the aforementioned three. Desert habitat is an extreme environment, one of the harshest on earth, and the creatures that call this seemingly unsurvivable area home have to be resilient to live in areas with little water and barren landscapes. We ventured up into remote, northern Kenya’s Chalbi Desert, one of the hottest and most arid places in all of Kenya, to track down a few desert specialists and several birds we may have otherwise seen in Ethiopia if the land borders were open. Sadly due to COVID and an ongoing civil war started in November 2020, the borders remain closed and we will not be able to visit Ethiopia on this trip. (If you are at home keeping score, no African Big Year Record can be broken without a visit to Ethiopia.) So instead we did a little tour of Northern Kenya starting in South Horr, then up to North Horr, Kalacha, the Huri Hills close to the border, and ending in Marsabit to see what goodies we could turn up.
Desert habitat can appear superficially desolate, and relatively speaking, it is. But look closely and life can still be found. It was 40°C/140°F as we drove through the lava area surrounding the beautiful Lake Turkana, the world’s largest permanent desert lake. Outside of access to water, the area seemed inhospitable and yet dozens of small, round huts, constructed out of straw, sticks, and fabric were erected around the lake. People actually live here?! Truly it was an absolute scorcher every time we stopped the car to scan water birds and swifts. It was stifling to step out into what more closely felt like a sauna than fresh air. Let me repeat, it was 40°C/140°F with only a handful of trees around for shade and we saw people out and about! By late evening we had arrived in South Horr, the start of our north Kenya adventure.
But before we spent time in the desert, we first had an isolated mountain to visit that rises up out of the barren landscape. The forests on top of the mountain are a stark contrast to the deserts below and the birdlife is quite different. Our main target on Mount Kulal was the Kulal White-eye, a species only found on this mountain! Just two days ago we were in Southern Kenya on the border of Tanzania and yet now we were in the far north not far from the border with Ethiopia. The surprisingly gray with only a touch of yellow Kulal White-eye came easy and we hadn’t even made it into good forest yet. The degraded scrub was clearly enough and by the time we made it into the forest we had seen several dozen. We saw a number of other interesting birds including Star-spotted Robin, Hartlaub’s Turaco, Red-fronted Tinkerbird, and Boran Cisticola during our morning walk.
After descending Mount Kulal we ventured back down into the desert and started our drive thorugh the stark landscape. We scanned the shores of Lake Turkana seeing lots of waterbirds and picked up Theka’s Lark in the stony fields. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any bustards during our drive to North Horr, but did manage Abyssinian Roller, Somali Bee-eater, and Somali Sparrow. Eventually we ended up outside of the town of Kalacha. That night we had stellar views of several Star-spotted Nightjars, a rarely reported species that is likely more common in Kenya than many believe.
The next morning we woke up early to get a head start on the day with intentions to possibly find a few more nightjars. Unfortunately we ended up on a bad road and opted to turn around and go a different way but then we ended up on really bad sandy tracks in a habitat we did not want to be in. We opted to go back. Had it been light enough to see when we actually started on that “bad road” we would have realized that it was the best way. Anyway, we didn’t have many GPS points to go off of, but by the time we turned back around we realized we would never make it to the point during the best parts of the morning so we stopped, at random, in a nice patch of rocky habitat.
We thought, why couldn’t the birds be here? The habitat looks right. Let’s just give it a try. We hopped out and noticed the green amongst the lava rocks. There must have been some kind of rain in the recent days because typically there is no green to be found! Sure enough an early morning scan of the terrain produced a family group of Golden Jackals, Heuglin’s Bustard, and five Masked Larks! I guess even though we drove one bad road, turned around because it didn’t seem worth it, drove another worse road only to realize we needed to go the other way, and then ended up back on the same road all worked out in the end; We had our two biggest targets before 7AM! I still can’t believe we had both, I was sure that the bustard would be a dip until we found one in Ethiopia! We checked the nearby Huri Hills in the off chance we might locate Archer’s Francolin, but then spent the rest of the day driving back to Marsabit (and seeing many more Masked Larks along the way!).
From here we started to work our way back south with the goal of trying one more time for Abbott’s Starling at Castle Lodge. Along the way we spent the day in the Samburu/Shaba area. Although this is quite a birdy area and we had well over 100 species for the day, neither one of us were too impressed with these expensive reserves. The main reason we visited was for Willaim’s Lark, a range restricted endemic that enjoys lava fields. We should have seen it further north, but it was mysteriously absent. Luckily, the birds cooperated here and we managed great looks at a few displaying males. We also saw a number of different animals in the park. Then it was time to get back on the road and head further south to Mt Kenya.
This is what we had done when I said we went away for a few days in my last post. We ended up back outside of Castle Lodge to give Abbott’s Starling another go. To put that kind of driving into perspective I drew this little map:
