September days start with gorgeous mornings and warm middays. We sometimes receive scattered rain showers in the late afternoon and evenings and temperatures can rise as high as 30° Celsius.
With scattered rain comes wildflowers such as tissue paper flowers (Cycnium tubulosum) which are dotted across the landscape. Fireball lilies (Scadoxus multilocus) with their brilliant reds and pyjama lilies (Crinum macowanii) with their white and purple stripes, bring flashes of colour to the plains.
The Great Migration remains on the plains of the Mara with dense concentrations of both wildebeests and zebras as far as the eye can see. They spread out during the day to graze and come together in tight herds for safety at night. We often look out over the plains from Governors’ Camp and see thousands and thousands of wildebeest! River crossings are plentiful, from a handful of zebras to a few thousand wildebeests. Crocodiles still take a few, although most have now had their fill and watch contentedly from the riverbank.
Dung beetles of all colours and sizes are busy clearing up what the wildebeests left behind, as are termites. This, in turn, provides a feast for birds, aardvarks, aardwolves, bat-eared foxes, and mongooses.
Elephants are frequent visitors to our camps, often arriving at Little Governors’ at lunchtime, leaving staff to usher guests a safe distance away as the elephant families move through. Giraffes move up to the acacia woodlands, and the large buffalo herd spend their time between the Marsh and the ridge with their young.
Many antelope species begin mating, with males seen rutting and asserting their territories. This mating is designed to time with the antelope’s birth at the start of the long rains at the end of March, which gives the young new lush grass to feed on and taller grass to hide in. Resident baboons spend their time feeding on the roadside verges. Warthogs and their piglets are seen all over the grasslands. Ostriches sit on their eggs (generally around 20), with the females guarding them during the day and the males at night.
The Marsh Pride of Lions remain at the very core of their territory – close to Governors’ Camp, hunting at night and relaxing during the day. The Paradise Pride stays close to the river, often hiding in the croton bushes near the crossing sites, ready to ambush unsuspecting wildebeests and zebras. On one occasion, this pride killed five wildebeest from their ambush site!
September brings good sightings of leopards in the forests between the Governors’ family of camps and lone cheetahs up on the plains.
Birds
Eurasian bee-eaters fly high in reasonably large flocks. Lilac-breasted rollers feed off large brown grasshoppers in the grass on the open plains. Black-shouldered kites, tawny eagles, and Bateleurs are commonly seen on the plains. Marsh owls are often seen in the late mornings and evenings, and Verreaux’s eagle-owls and spotted eagle-owls are seen in the woodland areas.