Volunteers report - Tana river
The weekend of the 1st and 2nd of February, a team of five, Colin Jackson, Lennox Kirao, Albert Baya, Dan Kazungu and Jack Hodgson, set off from Watamu to the Tana River delta to take part in the 2025 National waterbird count. After collecting some special dawa (a cup of coffee) for Albert in Malindi we were on our way, stopping for two hours to do some bird atlassing in a place that Albert had been nine years previously.
Arriving at the mangroves, we carried all our kit and supplies across a very muddy lake to the local community’s boat jetty, where we were told a boat would be to take us to the lodge. However, upon arrival we found no boat, so to kill some time Colin brought out his fishing rod. The rest of the team set about to trying to catch some small mud fish to use as bait. Four mud fish were successfully caught, unfortunately the main goal of catching a fish for dinner was not as successful. The boat finally arrived and so after grabbing all our stuff we were soon on our way. We started the trip enjoying a nice cruise up the river to the abandoned lodge we would be camping at. Making it to the lodge and setting up camp we were blessed with a lovely sunset over the sand dunes. On the first night our main chef Kirao prepared us some lovely Ugali and Sukuma for dinner as well as surprising us with some fish he had stashed away. After the delicious meal, the Ugali made us very sleepy and so we all went off and got some sleep before our early start the next morning.
It was an early start on Sunday with a long day of counting ahead of us, we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise as we set off into the delta. On our way to the start of the river section we spotted a lone Topi and found our path blocked by a bridge. Fortunately, another boat was waiting on the other side that would take us straight to the river as the original dam separating the fresh and saltwater sections had been eroded through. This meant to Colin and Kirao’s surprise this year we didn’t have to set about heaving and shoving the boat through the mudflats to get to the river. The day consisted of traveling from section to section around the Tana delta stopping at points to get out to count the birds in the area. During the other times we cruised about the delta with Colin and Albert counting the right-hand side and Kirao and Dan the left-hand side. At one point our path had been blocked yet again but this time by a herd of hippos stopping us from heading down our intended channel. We were forced to climb out of the boat and wait for them to move, but to our surprise we watched as our two boat captains went speeding towards the hippos with their arms flailing and managed to clear them from our path.
We continued counting the vast plains filled with birds from the small Common Sandpipers and Little Stints to the large Goliath Herons and Fish Eagles that patrolled the skies above. We stopped for lunch sheltering from the sun under a tree that was filled with Carmine Beaters and a Malindi Pipit, were also surrounded by cattle who were ever curious about what food we had for our picnic. Once our energy supplies had been replenished with some sweet potatoes and peanut butter sandwiches, we set off again. Coming towards the end of the floodplains filled with thousands of Cattle Egrets and Spur–Winged Plovers, the scenery changed, and the riverbanks became bush and trees where we spotted the occasional Straited Heron and Pied Kingfisher in low bushes and four Fish Eagles perched up at the top of trees. We passed mango trees filled with the juiciest looking mangos and were finally able to sit down and enjoy the cruise as we meandered through the wide channels.
Upon finally making it back to our initial boat, the tide had now retreated and so we had high muddy riverbank to climb. It was at this point we cut into a juicy watermelon and felt very refreshed by its watery deliciousness. Soon we were off again, heading back to camp and now being dwarfed by the high banks of the mudflats. We saw the Topi again as well as seeing huge footprints sunk into the mud from a supposed Elephant. Now being towards the end of the long day of counting, Albert was in desperate need of some more special dawa, which was the first order of business when we eventually arrived back to camp 12 hours later, with another gorgeous sun set behind us. It was soon dinner time which was an incredible meal of rice and prawns. We all went to bed rather tired after a long day, but this time we didn’t have an early start. gorgeous sun set behind us. It was soon dinner time which was an incredible meal of rice and prawns. We all went to bed rather tired after a long day, but this time we didn’t have an early start.
After a relaxed morning Colin, Albert, Dan and I (Jack) left Kirao at the camp to go and complete a small count of birds at the river mouth. It was here that we spotted the highlight of the trip which was a solitary Pomarine Skua which is known as a fierce pirate of the sea due to it often bullying smaller birds and stealing other birds’ fish. Upon our return to camp, we found yet another amazing meal Kirao had prepared us. But obviously a bit annoyed that he had missed highlight of trip, after finishing our lunch and packing up camp, Kirao set off to go and see the bird for himself. Luckily the bird had not flown away and so Kirao was able to return with a successful sighting. Colin later told us that it was around the 15th time an Artic Skua had ever been spotted and recorded in Kenya so quite a significant moment to finish our amazing weekend off. In total over the one and a half days of counts we had recorded 18,880 water birds.
