Kenya
Following the short rains in November, the grasslands look green and begin to grow again. This dense new carpet of green growth contains many nutrients for the plains game. White tissue paper flowers (Cycnium tubulosum) grow across the plains, and baboons love to feed on them.
Early mornings are around 18° Celsius, midday is around 30° Celsius, and evenings are a balmy 26° Celsius. We can expect scattered bursts of rain in the afternoons, settling the dust and cooling off the day.
With the wildebeests gone, families of elephants return, crossing the Mara River daily and fanning out in the Marsh areas to feed. Watermarks on their bodies indicate the depth of the river the youngsters have had to swim across. They are frequent visitors to camp and feed in the forests.
Most of the plains game, from impalas, gazelles, and topis to the warthog, have had their young and now the rutting process has started. Males are busy re-establishing their territories, especially after a rain shower, as their scent markings will fade.
The impalas are particularly raucous; males chase each other around with their tails fluffed out and their heads held high, letting out a loud series of grunts. This serves to assert their dominance as well as impress the does. The females, already in season, will not relent or be impressed so easily; they will want to ensure their male suitor has stamina.
Thomson’s gazelles run miles in pursuit of a female. It will be another six to eight months before we see the offspring, which will tie in well with the lush grass brought about by the long rains in April and May. Warthogs are busy defending their young; families graze close to their burrows, ready to dart back down at the first sign of danger. Giraffes are plentiful, passing through the woodlands and campgrounds.
As thousands of caterpillars hatch and mature, they leave the forest full of silk threads dangling from the trees, eventually flying off with the wind. We see these after the first showers – a sign that we should see lots of beautiful butterflies and moths in the coming months.
Sightings of serval cats increase in December. In the early mornings, we see bat-eared foxes and their pups foraging for termites near their mounds, and on occasion, we might catch an aardvark on his way back to his burrow after a night spent digging for termites. Some of the termite funnels have small mushrooms growing on them.
The Marsh Pride of Lions is present throughout the Musiara Marsh, the woodlands, and the plains close to Governors’ Camp. At this time of year, they hunt warthogs, waterbucks, buffaloes, and Grant’s gazelles. Leopard sightings are frequent in the forest between our Mara camps, and with the explosion of young antelopes on the plains, cheetahs hunt well.
Birds
December is an interesting month for birding. A few flocks of migratory species pass through the Mara, including black storks, white storks, spoon-billed storks, and rufous-bellied herons, which are back in the marshes after a long absence.
Double-toothed barbets nest in the trees around camp. As the Teclea nobilis trees fruit, common bulbuls and black-and-white-casqued hornbills are seen more readily.
