Walking for those still waiting for a Cure

Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary Trust in the past has provided ground for charity walks aimed at raising funds for the treatment of people with life limiting illness.

DSC03080.JPG

Students participating in a previous charity walk by Nairobi Hospice in the Sanctuary

Cure International will be hosting a charity walk at Ngong Forest Sanctuary to raise awareness of the plight of children suffering with severe disabling conditions in Kenya. This will also help raise funds to provide life changing operations to children from needy families by subsidizing the cost of surgery and treatment.

The walk will be 10 and 15 Km walk in the forest

Venue : Ngong Forest Sanctuary Trust

Date: 27th February 2010

Walk Start: 9.00 Am

Why participate? Fund raised will help pay for surgery and treatment of children with disabilities

For more details, kindly contact Larissa Lester at 0717 664103 , larissa.lester@gmail.com

Join Cure International for a walk of Love to bring cure to children with disabilities.

Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary is proud to be associated with social events that brings hope to our people.

Small mammals in the forest at risk

The Ngong Forest Sanctuary is home for several animal and bird species. Quite often especially during walks, one is likely to see baboons, sykes monkeys ,bush bucks, duikers,sunis, squirrels,tree and Rock hyrax, warthogs together with many butterflies and birds species.

DSC02004.JPG

Sykes monkeys

DSC02516.JPG

Rock hyrax

In 2003, the Trust erected a perimeter electric fence along the forest to reduce forest destruction by keeping off intruders, this worked perfectly but for the recent vandalism especially in areas along the bypass which opened access to the forest, part of the fence was rendered inactive resulting to fence posts and wires being cut and stolen. We embarked on removing the wires and posts along this area , the Trust is doing everything possible to solicit for funds to revive the fence.

DSC01284.JPG

Part of the fence where wires had been cut

During our patrols, we have recently been encountering astray dogs in the forest and it looks like they are increasing day by day.Maybe they are finding their way to the forest at points where the wires and post have been removed. There is a time i even witnessed a dog chasing after a suni. The small mammals has to be more alert now, with the increasing new predators.

DSC04643.JPG

A dog in the forest

Anyone with an idea how we can eliminate such astray dogs?

Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary is protected through kind donation from friends and well wishers, join us by donating to-wards protection of this adorable forest reserve.

By Nicholas Akatch

Forest Walk

Last Saturday we had a fascinating walk in the forest in the company of five visitors . We discussed on the route to follow ,passed by the education center, the orientation banda and into the thick forest .

At the African Crowned Eagle ’s nest, there was a new owner, i had earlier noted that the eagles had vacated their nest after being there for over six years,the nest is now home for the African white backed vultures .

DSC04623.JPG

The african white backed vultures at the nest site

We then took a narrow path that leads to the picnic site where we stood for some time as the visitors discussed with the Project Coordinator ,one would not fail to notice the Eurasian bee eaters hovering up and down.

DSC04636.JPG

Visitors at the proposed picnic site

The route towards the seasonal river was very sloppy and crossing the river we found two astray dogs lying at the road side. They seemed too full and satisfied, probably they are part of the predator on the small wild mammals living in the forest.

DSC04619.JPG

The astray dogs

The glade opposite Racecourse dam was very different from the others as a result of the fire outbreak during the dry spell.

” It was a wonderful experience,walking under the dense forest canopy, the breeze and quiet enviroment,learning more on the forest and the many birds, it will keep us coming back, said one of the visitors as we took a shorter route to the parking area.

Ngong Road Forest is protected through donations from friends and well wishers, join us by donating towards protection of this adorable forest.

From: Nicholas Akach

Forest and Students Ecology Study

The Banda school students alighted from their bus some minutes after 9:00 o’clock yesterday morning. Led by their science teachers, the 34 student were on mission to study various ecological habitat and human impact in Ngong Forest Sanctuary . They moved in a single queue along a tiled pavement and went straight to the education center’s auditorium,here the Project Coordinator introduced them to the sactuary’s staffs, the guides and Kenya Forest Service guards,who would assist them with their study.

Banda school.JPG

Banda school student at education center

They then proceeded to the orientation banda where they split in 9 groups and assembled their equipment in readiness to start their task. They were also given a brief description of the forest ecosystem and advised on how to conduct themselves whilst in the forest.

DSC04540.JPG

The student gets instruction at the orientation banda

Ranger Nicholas who led the team to the forest. Our first stop was at Eucalyptus plantation,this was their first study site. They sat down ,totally silent for 20 minutes to observe, listen and get acquinted to the surrounding before embarking on their first task. That was the trend they followed every time they went to a different habitat. Each group identified a site within the habitat,lay down a 5×5M quadrant,where they determined the following abiotic factors: light intensity, speed of the wind, the soil pH and temperatures. Other tasks were accessing the human impact on that area ,plants identification,identification of animals through direct observation or checking out for their signs i.e droppings.

DSCN8473.JPG

Students filling in their worksheet

We moved from one group to another helping them in identification and answering any queries. Everything was running smoothly until i reached to group 3 which comprised of two boys and two girls. “How ‘re you doing” i inquired. “Patia mimi ndazi na chai,” shouted one of the boys whose name i learned later was Karuga . Before i could answer Angela, one of the girl in the group shouted in an exaggerated indian accent, “Hawa wazungu wanataka nini”.They were laughing loudly as they repeated this phrase and i could not help but joining in the laugher. Suddenly one of the girls was shouting, crunching her fist on others. “is there anything wrong?” i asked . “leave her alone she has a mental problem” Angela said. Is it true? i asked the group of which they answered that she hit her head against a wall and lost her memory and that her understanding was very poor. All this time they were laughing which made me doubt those allegations, i sensed it was all a joke!!!

“We then need to help her do her task; i told the group as i reached down for her worksheet. To my surprise she was almost through answering all question in the worksheet, i read through the answers and could not help joining in the laugher as i realized that they were just making fun and she was indeed a brilliant student. By this time all the other groups had finished their study in the plantation, we proceeded to the indigenous forest after which we then took them on a nature walk through a thick forest canopy before breaking off for lunch.

DSC04566.JPG

Karuga and his group 3 team displaying some of the living things they found in forest

DSC04561.JPG

Student in the indigenous forest

In the afternoon, they studied meadow area . The last exercise was sampling , to estimate the number of tissue paper plants in the meadow area by throwing a 1×1M quadrant 10 times and counting the number of the plant in each .

At the end of the day everybody had enjoyed the exercise and we went back to the orientation banda where we bade them farewell.

the forest is a wonderful learning site,Come and let your students enjoy doing their ecology practicals in the forest,contact us through office@ngongforestsanctuary.com

Ngong forest Sanctuary is protected through kind donations from well wisher and friend, Join us by donating towards the protection of this adorable forest reserve

By ranger Joseph karanja

Email: jranjus@yahoo.com

Its the most serene and save enviroment to be

As i was manning the gate to the main gate camp yesterday, the midday was too hot and i looked for a place to sit under tree shade where i could have a clear view of the gate. Donned in green uniform it was difficult for anybody to notice me and so i relaxed safe in the knowledge that i could have a clear view of the camp without being sighted.All my senses were alert to any eventuality until what seemed like a moving tiny stick caught my attention. Just about 1cm long, it moved forward on a dry leave in an upright position, but fell off and retreated to what i realized was its shell.Lying on the ground amidst dry leaves, twigs and other dead matters one could not notice that, indeed it was a living creature. I observed for a long time wondering whether it was real or it was my eyes playing tricks on me.

The sound of a falling dry twig interrupted my thoughts only to see a pair of suni chasing each other.I then turned toward the gate and saw four suspicious looking men standing at the gate and staring at the camp. I watched as they moved about talking and pointing at different parts of the camp compound.Keeping still not to attract their attention, i kept watching them to know their intention. After some few minutes, one of them looked at the edge of the forest where i was sitting and noticed me. He alerted the others that they were being watched as i stood up and walked toward them. They quickly turned and walked into the adjacent eucalyptus plantation ,which is not part of the electric fenced forest , ignoring my request on how i could assist them.

Having once fallen a victim of such guys before, i learnt never to take such incidences lightly so i followed them at distance. They moved from the eucalyptus to an open field belonging to Telkom Kenya where local people mostly comes for recreation. I took a few snap so that in case they reappear i can identify them.

DSC04481.JPG

The four suspicious guys walking to the field

They sat in the middle of the field and i went back to observe the mysterious creature. Unfortunately i could not trace it so i just sat down wondering the intention of the guys.

Four policemen two in civilian passed by on their usual patrol and i informed them about the guys who were still sitting in the same position . The police have a unique way of identifying thugs,i watched at a distance as the police in civilian advanced toward them with the other two in uniform strategically concealed ready for action should they run or attack. Unaware that the guys approaching them were cops they sat still and only realized it when they were frisked and whisked away leaving other people in the field to continue with their activities and wondering what was going on . This field and the path leading to the common war cemetery and both neighboring the Sanctuary are some of the open places where people come for recreation. Unknown to them though beside the serene forest atmosphere there is danger lurking to strike. Thugs take advantage of the unfenced part of the forest to torment and rob people . Even scrutinizing people coming to these places most of the times don’t yield any fruits as they usually hide weapons in the forest only to retrieve them once they identify their target. By just looking at those who visit these areas, one can not tell who is genuine and who is waiting for an opportunity to strike. Only until when a person is robbed does one realizes that not all are genuine. However the sanctuary offers an alternative place for a safer recreational place for an entry fees of only Ksh 100 for adults and Ksh 50 for children.

The Sanctuary is protected through king donations from friends and well wishers,join us by donating to-wards the protection of this adorable forest reserve.

To donate,Kindly click on the donation option on the right.

Thanks to our supporters,donors ,readers of our blogs and not to mention our visitors.

By Ranger Karanja

Email:   Comments (0)

Its rare to see them around

It has been along time since i saw warthogs roaming around. Sometimes back, anybody who visited the forest using Ngong Racecourse entrance had a chance to see warthogs and olive baboons feeding on left overs at the dump site. Their number were reduced by poachers who had set snares in most parts of the forest. A desnaring activity earlier carried out by Born free Foundation in conjunction with Wildlife Clubs of Kenya and Ngong Forest Sanctuary, had managed to remove a total of 600 snares with the highest number of snares recorded in the Racecourse area which is approximately 400M from the Sanctuary’s main office. Yesterday a male Warthog was just a few meters from the office,staring at me as though posing for a photo, after which it took off to the bush. DSC04308.JPG DSC04300.JPG

The Warthog

The Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary is protected through kind donations from friends and well wishers, join us by donating to-wards the protection of this adorable forest reserve.

By Nicholas Akach

Its here with us again

Christmas is here with us again,. for us, we will have our Christmas right here in the forest .Our love for Forest will keep us going.

To all our blog readers

To our donors,

Our friends

and to our partners in conservation

Have a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year and thank you for all your support.

From the rangers corner.

Equiping the Education Centre at the Sanctuary

Among the services provided by Ngong Forest Sanctuary is promotion of Environmental Education. Through kind donations from European Union, Safaricom Foundation and Karen Country Club, the Trust has successfully constructed an Education Centre in the Sanctuary which will act as a resource centre for the dissemination of Environmental Education to Schools, Colleges, Corporates, Community groups and the General Public . The Centre has an Auditorium that can accommodate upto 100 visitors and an office.

DSC04287.JPG

Part of the Auditorium

We are now equipping the centre with the necessary environmental education resource materials in readiness for the official opening early next year.

Over the past one year, ICIPE has been conducting insects inventory in the forest and has managed to mount several hundreds of insect species for display at the centre.

DSC04262.JPG DSC04264.JPG DSC04275.JPG DSC04277.JPG

Some of the insect displays prepared by ICIPE

Other resources in the Centre are a public address system , overhead projector , a laptop, furniture intended for use during meetings, seminars and training sessions

DSC04282.JPG

Some of the resources at the centre

We are looking forward to having materials with conservation based information like books,wall hangings, DVDs and equipment for screening of conservation based movies.

Join us by donating/assisting us with such materials or any other resources that may facilitate in the delivery of environmental information to our visitors.

Thanks to our supporters,donors ,readers of our blogs and not to mention our visitors. We wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year

By Nicholas Akach .

Clear nights, elephant, rhino & Friedmann’s Larks

10th Dec
I’m actually a day behind on the blog – the post for the 8th was done at midnight last night (9th) in the face of a bitterly cold westerly wind (ok, ok – I know that might be a relative term for Europeans & north Americans, but for the likes of us coastal Kenyans, it really was bitter…!). Anyone who knows Ngulia will know that a westerly wind
spells a full nights sleep as the mist which brings the birds comes from the east, up the escarpment. This is exactly what we’re not there for – sleep-filled nights. What we pray for is a gentle, warm moisture-filled wind from the east that as it cools with the on-set of evening, forms a thick swirling mist (fog, actually) around the lodges spotlights and within five minutes you have piles of birds humming around the bushes and lights leading to large numbers caught and ringed and hopefully one with a dull ring from Slovenia or Kazakstan or somewhere like that!

Anyway to back track… There was no mist yesterday morning (9th) & so we started in putting up nets at a relaxed 6.30am, starting on the main ‘L’ while David & Ian did a complete re-sort of the nets as some have started to show some wear & tear. We left them open as we put up the next nets & caught a smattering of birds through the morning including several River Warblers but in fact more Afrotropical birds than migrants of which several
were Chestnut Weavers – one of the only two Afrotropical birds ever ringed at Ngulia in almost 40 years to be recovered anywhere away from the lodge. It was found in Kitui some 300kms north & west of Ngulia. The other was a Harlequin Quail that was found in Uganda of all places!

So it wasn’t a very noteworthy day as regards birds caught – a Black-&-white Cuckoo was the first bird ringed & there was also a Diederick Cuckoo. The most noteworthy thing of the day was an awesome fly-by at almost eye-level along the escarpment of no less that 42 Ruppell’s Griffon Vultures that then spiralled & ‘kettled’ above
the hill in front of the lodge to gain height before moving off northwards! There was another 21 today (10th) all of which is excelllent news given the current plight of vultures worldwide with hundreds being poisoned and populations significantly decreasing.

42 Ruppell’s Griffons over hill in front of Ngulia

Close-up shot of some of them…

Not many raptors around during the day – no Steppe Eagles though a beaut display by one of the local Verreaux’s Eagles at one point & a male Eurasian Marsh Harrier quartering the grass in the valley.

Ian slept the afternoon off (as he’d not only driven for c.11 hours but had then stayed up all night to keep an eye open for mist!) & one or two others of us also had a kip before putting up more nets at c.5pm (waiting, of course, for just when it started to rain!). So it was after dinner that I sat to do the blog with Ian & trying to get a good enough mobile signal to connect to the internet.

I left Ian at about 00.30hrs to hit the sack & apparently he had some action of a rhino & an elephant appear out of where the nets were & have a stand off over the water hole followed by a second leopard looking for scraps of meat left over from the first during dinner! However the main point was the lack of mist and it was a rather déjà vu experience as per November opening nets with a clear sky & stunning sunrise & clumps of eager ringers standing around idly chatting & discussing the 2-3 birds we’d caught in the past half hour! But there were a few & by the time I hitched a lift with Alain & Hendrick to Mtito Andei to catch the bus we’d ringed c.30 migrants and had some unusual Afro species – particularly Pygmy Batis & a male Red-billed Buffalo Weaver.

Idle chatting around the end of the net with clear skies..

David & I had a good chat with Stephen, the lodge Assistant Manager who is doing an excelllent job in trying to make Ngulia more competitive & improve especially in a climate of generally reduced tourists.

We left for Mtito at c.11am to do a Eurasian Roller survey combined with a raptor count along the 40kms to the gate. Incredibly few rollers (2, to be precise) and not as many raptors as in Nov, but a pale phase Booted Eagle was v nice; also more vultures, a pair of Long-crested Eagles & two Grasshopper Buzzards.

Grasshopper Buzzard near Mtito Andei

The best bird, however was a small bird displaying wit wings being raised high above it in a deep ‘V’ while making a loud “tyee-oo-wee!” – the rare & little-known Friedmann’s Lark! Hendrick got some excelllent video clips through his scope (will try & post it sometime perhaps) & I got the following not-so-hot shot, but a record at least!

Friedmann’s Lark…

So that’s the end of my involvement with Ngulia for this year. I hope to get some updates from Ian / David and put it up on the blog or at least a final result. Apparently the total for the first session didn’t even quite make 5,000 birds – the lowest catch for a long time. It should be better this time as there’s plenty of rain around and that should bring mist. We’ll see…!

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , ,

A greener, wetter Tsavo brings hope for more migrants

It’s time for the second session of migrant ringing at the legendary ringing ‘hut’ of Ngulia Safari Lodge in Tsavo West National Park for 2009. I was up early in Nairobi after having got back from Naivasha and the work there over the weekend to get out to Nairobi airport to meet David (Pearson) and Ian (regular, solid pillar of Ngulia night-time ringing) and several others (Phil and Dave from Icklesham in Sussex, UK – over for a ‘holiday’ in that they’ve just ringed 52,000 birds at the farm there this year!!, Maria from Greece and Sergey from Kazakstan) and to head straight down to Ngulia to arrive for late lunch and start to put nets up.

Well… the best laid plans often don’t work out and sure enough, I was stopped by the police at the gates of the airport in my wee blue car (that was once Graeme Backhursts and used almost solely for this annual Ngulia trip…) and told that the insurance had expired. “No, it hasn’t”, says I very confidently as I know we’d renewed it in October when we were also stopped by the police and told the same thing. “Oh yes it has”, says Madam Rose (as it turned out her name was – “That’s a very pretty name” says Jackson trying his best to sweeten her up later on in the ensuing half-hour conversation! – it certainly helped, I reckon!).

“Oh no it hasn’t” says still ever confident Jackson, but now beginning to wonder ‘What on earth…?!?”

“Come and have a look” says Madam Rose – so Jackson switches off and gets out and sure enough, the insurance expired on 15th November… and it is now the 8th Dec. Hmmm.. (three months mandatory jail sentence I’m later told by a friend!). Then followed a long conversation of how grateful I was to her for showing me it, how it meant it was going to upset my plans for going to Tsavo to catch birds… “To do WHAT?” – which then opened the chance to talk about ringing and migration and how these tiny birds fly so far with no compass or GPS etc etc… which always impresses anyone and can distract from the issue at hand! and so eventually I persuaded her that really the best thing was for her to allow me to go and meet the wazee I was meant to meet and then I would zip back into Nairobi, get the correct sticker for the insurance since I had paid for more than just a month, and then I would proceed and all would be well. The only thing was she told me to stop on the way out of the airport and talk to her again.

So it was into the airport I went thanking God sana for letting me off and was able to meet up with David et al OK though now had to explain that there was a hitch in that I had to head back into town first… Ian had organised to hire a Suzuki from Concorde and so he and Phil, Dave and Maria decided to head off and get down to Ngulia while David, Sergey and I went to do battle with insurance. All was well until I stopped to talk to Madam Rose again only for her to say (for the 3rd time) “Let us go to the station – I will book you there now”! Ah. Not what was expected! “on the other hand, you could give me some ‘lunch’ to say thank you so I can let you go”… Here it was, then, the sadly totally expected outcome of being stopped by the police – asking for a bribe. However, I politely and quietly explained that as a Christian I really couldn’t do that (she then argued that Jesus gave lunch to people!!) and that really I could just thank her very very much for understanding and helping me… Thankfully it didn’t take too long before she was once again persuaded and we were on our way to fight traffic and eventually get the insurance. It’s too long to go into now why, but it took five hours to get it when it should have taken one, but got it we did and we were away.

The other excitement of the morning was that half way through the morning we get a call from Ian saying “errr… are we on the right road – we’re in a place called Namanga?”. Namanga for those who don’t know is the border town with Tanzania south of Nairobi. To get to it you turn right just outside Nairobi and head a very different direction to Tsavo – and for a good 2 hours of driving! I seriously thought he was joking with me – but he wasn’t! So as it turned out we ‘left’ Nairobi only about 1/2 hour behind them…

No other incidents happened. KWS at the Mtito Andei gate welcomed us with open arms and very friendly smiles and the same was true at Ngulia when we eventually rolled in at about 7pm. A green green Tsavo it has become since November and as you can see from the pics, a very different situation. I’ve immediately noticed the huge increase in Afrotropical birds – along the road from the gate we had literally dozens of trees laden with Chestnut Weaver nests – c.100-200 nests per tree. There must be 5,000-8,000 nests along that stretch!! An outrageous number – and in November we didn’t hardly even see a Chestnut Weaver!

November…
December…

November…
December…

Needless to say we didn’t put any nets up last night and I hit the sack as soon as possible. There was no mist so it was a solid night’s sleep (except for Ian who stayed up all night to wait for mist!) – but that takes me to “tomorrow’s” blog which will have to wait since it’s already half midnight and I need to get some shut-eye…

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,