Dear Supporters,

Much has happened since our last newsletter and we would like to update you on some of our activities. There have been some challenging rehab cases, we’ve been busy training and raising awareness on Kenya’s Birds of Prey and we are making great strides monitoring vultures at Kwenia vulture sanctuary. Our long term Mara Raptor Project is delivering insights into survival of leg banded fledgling Martial Eagles which is very exciting. We hope you enjoy reading and as always we're grateful for your support on our journey to secure healthy raptor populations in Kenya.

Nick Trent, Executive Director

Our new X-ray machine

It has been exactly 80 days since we received the X-ray machine and it is already proving to be one of the most valuable pieces of equipment at our rehabilitation centres. A large proportion of injured birds that we receive come in with fractures, a pattern that has been made more apparent with the x-ray. We x-ray most of our birds mid-morning, as it's warmer and the birds have empty crops reducing the risk of regurgitation from the stress of being handled. The x-ray plates are transported to Nakuru War Memorial Diagnostic Centre for reading and the results are then sent to us both in soft and hard copy. Having our own x-ray has drastically decreased the amount of time it now takes for us to diagnose a bird's injuries and prescribe its treatment, as previously we would have had to drive the injured bird to Nakuru. It has also greatly improved the success of our orthopaedic surgeries.

Two birds that have recently benefited from the x-ray are a young female Black Sparrowhawk that fell out of her nest and broke her leg and an adult Dark-chanting Goshawk that had somehow broken its wing. Both birds have complex fractures and the x-ray has allowed us to manage the healing process and time our orthopaedic surgeries to perfection. Fortunately, the juvenile female Black Sparrowhawk looks like she might make a full recovery, but unfortunately the Dark-chanting Goshawk will most likely become a permanent resident of our centres.

The female Black Sparrowhawk and an X-ray of her with a “Schroeder's splint” on her leg

Receiving the Dark Chanting Goshawk at Naivasha Raptor Centre, X-ray image of shattered wing and a recent picture of the bird being fed by Dr. Juliet and doing much better.

The X-ray was quite an investment and we thank everyone who contributed to the fundraiser to buy this equipment. As you can see, it's money well spent and we can’t thank you enough!

Rehab of White Backed Vulture fledgling from Olerai

On the 25th of May a young White Backed Vulture (Gyps africanus, Critically Endangered) was brought to Naivasha Raptor Centre by the team of Vulture Scouts at Olerai Conservancy in Kajiado County. The bird had prematurely fledged its nest, and its feathers had not fully grown. Birds often jump their nest for various reasons - attempted predation by leopards, baboons and safari ants. This one luckily landed without injury, though it clearly has a parasitic infection that caused severe facial lesions. A two week course of Ivermectin and antibiotics solved the problem, and it’s face has healed well, and has been housed with our permanent captive adult White Backed so it can be correctly socialised. Due to this infection, its vision may have been compromised, though the signs are encouraging. It’s now fully grown and will soon be transferred to the larger vulture enclosure to learn how to fight for its food, with the other captive residents.

The young White Backed Vulture brought in by vulture scouts, the parasitic infection on the eyes and adult resident joined by the young vulture (left).

Resighting of Martial Eagles

In 2017, 2018 and 2019, the Mara Raptor Project leg banded 11 juvenile Martial Eagles that had fledged from known nests within the greater Mara region. It is now 2023, and over the last ~5 years we have sporadically received reports and photos of these individuals as they have dispersed across the Mara- Serengeti ecosystem. Most of these birds are now moulting into adult plumage and we are extremely happy to report that 7 of the 11 birds leg banded have made it to adulthood. They don’t all have territories yet, so their journey is not over, but this is fantastic news and a much higher minimum survival percentage than we anticipated. See below two pictures of the male Martial Eagle 2K. 2K was banded near his nest in Lemek Conservancy in 2019 and was recently sighted and photographed in June 2023 by Mara Raptor Project coordinator Duncan Njapit in Naboisho Conservancy. 2K fledged in late 2018 and we estimate his age at approximately 5 years old.

Training Governors’ Camp Collection Guides

At the end of April, Shiv conducted a training session about Birds of Prey for guides from the Governors’ Camp Collection (GCC) lodges in the northern part of the Mara. The guides got the opportunity to learn about raptor identification, behaviour, and managed to score some incredible sightings, such as 80 or so vultures devouring a giraffe carcass, and watching a young Martial Eagle learning how to hunt banded mongooses (without any success!).

Governors’ Camp Collection is a major supporter of our raptor centres, covering the costs of the food for our resident raptors. We are greatly indebted to them for their continued support and were happy to be able to do something in return.

Examining the castings of Martial Eagle and Secretary Bird and learning about vulture behaviour at a carcass. Photo credit: Felix Rome, Governors' Camp Collection

Raptor education and awareness at Naivasha Raptor Centre

Over the course of the last few months, the Naivasha Raptor Centre has hosted three student groups from St. Lawrence University in the USA, and six groups from local schools in the Naivasha area. We are committed to educating young Kenyans on the importance of raptors (especially Owls), and the value of having healthy and intact wild raptor populations, and the ecosystem services that they provide.

Students from the TAFA Soccer Academy visiting Naivasha Raptor Centre. Photo credit: Governors’ Camp Collection

Captive breeding at Naivasha Raptor Centre

Our long term pair of Spotted Eagle Owls have bred and successfully raised a pair of chicks (one of their own, the second came from Elsamere after falling out of a nest). The two chicks are now full grown, socialised, and will be ringed before release in a few days. This pair produces young 2-3 times a year (double or triple what they would in the wild), and over the years we have released over 100 of their offspring into the Naivasha area.

The adopted chick on arrival at Naivasha Raptor Centre (left) and both juveniles in their enclosure just before release - the adopted chick is in the back next to one of the parents.

Our pair of Black Sparrowhawks: Cassie, who has been with us for 10 years after breaking her wing in Nairobi, and Ardbeg, the male who fell out of a nest and has neurological damage, have attempted to breed again, which is very encouraging. Cassie laid 2 eggs on the 5th of June, but unfortunately they seem to be infertile. It's their second breeding attempt, so we aren’t too worried that they’ve failed, but very chuffed that they like each other. It bodes well for the future.

Monitoring Rüppell’s Vultures at Kwenia

In early May, Stratton Hatfield, Lemein Par and Rebekah Karimi, who recently joined our team as database manager, visited the Kwenia Vulture Sanctuary to support sanctuary manager Robert Kaai and the 16 raptor guardians with monitoring the Rüppell’s Vultures. The monitoring exercise went well, and we were very impressed with the team and their efforts. Following this trip Rebekah, Stratton, and Robert have been working on creating the Kwenia Rüppell’s Vulture monitoring protocol which will ensure robust data collection. Vulture monitoring at Kwenia will consist of two components: total count and nest checks. Each section of the cliff has been named by the team and each nest has been provided with a nest code to facilitate monitoring. See below an example of a section of cliff that has been annotated with nest codes. A morning of monitoring will consist of counting every vulture present on each named cliff section and checking the status of each annotated nest.

Endeerr, a section of cliff with nest codes and on the right Lemein Par training the Kwenia Raptor Guardians

Later this month, Rebekah is going to visit Kwenia and work with Robert and the Raptor guardians to conduct a monitoring session using this new protocol. We hope this monitoring session will be the first of many and that these data will inform the status of this Critically Endangered species and will measure the effectiveness of our conservation work.

We’re very grateful to ICFC, CARU containers, SBeffect and BAND for their financial support of this project.

Hell’s Gate Vulture counts

For the past few months Shiv and Vasco Nyaga (from WRTI in Naivasha) have been conducting monitoring counts of the Rüppell’s colony at Hell’s Gate National Park with the aim to reinstate a robust vulture monitoring programme for Rüppell's Vultures in Hell's Gate National Park. It has been a while since the cliffs were structurally monitored and we are very happy to see a restart of this programme. Currently, there are about 25-30 nesting ledges in the colony, with up to 60 birds present at any one time. As the wildebeest migration enters Kenya, we’re seeing more nest building activity as the birds time their breeding to coincide with the large amounts of food that they’ll find in the Mara at this time of year - the adults go back and forth from Hell's Gate to the Mara every day to feed their chicks.

Kenya Bird of Prey Trust team and WRTI scientist Vasco Nyaga at the foot of the Vulture cliffs in Hell’s Gate National Park and a close up of one of the cliff sections.

The life and death of Tawny Eagle C1

Unfortunately, there have been several recent poisoning events in Mara and elsewhere in Kenya. Vultures are often the number one victim of these incidents and they by far get most of the media attention. Another raptor species that is arguably equally affected by poisoning is the Tawny Eagle. They are also disappearing from across Kenya and poisoning is just one of the many threats they face. Lemein Par, manager of the Mara Raptor Project, wrote a blog a few weeks ago that tells the story of his relationship with a Tawny Eagle that was recently killed in a poisoning event near Mara Ripoi conservancy. We highly recommend that you take the time to read this story.

Responding to poisoning events is always a collaborative effort and we extend our thanks to Birdlife International, The Peregrine Fund, Nature Kenya and Kenya Wildlife Service for their support.

Thank you for your support