Mid-July 2013 – Masai Mara, Kenya

After the fantastic trip in Serengeti and a short stay in Samburu filled with nice sightings of Leopards, I was finally back in the Mara, just in time to catch the first stages of the great wildebeests’ migration, which came quite early this year.

Unfortunately, connecting to the internet regularly has become a huge problem. I can barely download e-mails while I am on the game drives, but can’t find network in camp on most days. This is why my daily updates have been impossible to publish regularly as it used to be in the past. I am trying to work out different ways to do it, and hope this problem is solved. I apologize with the people who have been following my “Today on Safari” regularly for many years.

With the migration already in the Mara, on my first day I went to the Lookout area to see my first crossings of the season. Crossings occurred with Wildebeests heading west into the Mara Triangle. As we waited for the herds to make up their minds and cross, a Leopard made its appearance on a tree just on the Mara river banks, on the Mara Triangle side. It was a new Leopard for me, a nice adult female which I had never seen before. She fed on a Wildebeest kill on a branch before descending to rest at the base of the tree in the bushes. Wildebeests crossed extensively the whole afternoon.

At the Musiara Marsh, the pride of Lions is thriving on the early Wildebeests migration. Cubs born in 2012 are all playful and healthy. The four resident males provide security, while the experienced females provide food. What more can a Lion cub need? Also a resident pair of Saddle-billed Storks is busy raising their young, four chicks on a nest on top of a lone tree near the marsh. It was nice to see the mother returning to the nest to feed the hungry chicks.

In mid-July the migration in the Mara split up, with a consistent number of Wildebeests grazing the Topi plains and Musiara marsh after crossing the Talek river, and another lot heading southwest to the Mara Triangle. The first group of Wildebeests started crossing the Mara river at the place known as Cul de Sac, also heading so uthwest and providing food for the resident Crocodiles.