Hard Work on Lake Naivasha

Most mornings I wake to the sound of the fish eagles, such a great sound! I walk to the lake among all the animals across the riparian. Each day is different. Some days I walk among the giraffe and zebras, other days waterbuck and impalas are awfully close, but always… the animated wildbeest, running every which way. At the lakeshore, you birders would be in heaven, kingfishers (three different kinds), gulls, stilts, plovers, ibis (2 different kinds), herons, egrets, coots and the fish eagles, all within touching distance (almost). You can usually find me on the lake before 7 doing behavioral observation on a pair of fish eagles until 12 or 1...the things I’ve seen! Fishing, territorial fighting, nest building, mating and helping fisherman make a living. Within binocular vision I have counted nearly 20 eagles at one time, scattered around the lake in trees, on the edge of the water and flying overhead.

For 3,000 schillings (that’s about $40), you can take a one hour boat ride to see the hippos, the birds, walk the riparian area and watch the eagles catch fish. The fisherman whistle and throw fish in front of the boats (these are small fishing boats). If all goes according to plan and the eagles are willing, they fly from their trees where they’ve been perching watching all this, and grab the fish. Sometimes they ignore the whistling and the fish, other times they are flying before the fish has hit the water. I have mixed feelings about it, as I am sure many people do. Lake Boringo estimates that because of the fish eagle fish tossing, they have made $150,000.

I’ve also been helping Tecla with her research, we spent all day Saturday and Sunday on the fishing boat collecting data. We collected water, soil and fish samples from 7 different spots around the lake to be analyzed for heavy metals. We took temperatures and looked at water visibility. Since the eagle is an indicator species, she is trying to determine the effect the lake is having on the eagles. I am very interested to see the data. At the same time, I was locating fish eagles at the sites, using the GPS to note their location and observing behavior over about an hour. In the two days we saw 26 eagles, I had expected to see many, many more. However, they are very territorial, so perhaps we were in specific territories. After the long days, we went to the lab to dissect fish and remove the liver and muscle tissue, this after weighing and measuring the length of each carp (700-900grams). We also took the pH of the water and the conductivity. Last night we left the lab about 11:30pm…after waking up at 6 and working all day. I’m sure I’m forgetting something…oh yeah, we ate the fish afterwards! Yum, good thing I love fish. It was great spending time with Tecla and her cousin, brother and friends. Now if I only knew Swahili… although, it was mentioned a few times that a few times I responded to someone who was speaking Swahili, so maybe I’ve picked up more than I thought.

In the evenings, when I am at the caravan, I walk out to the lake and spend some time with the animals and watching the sun set, it’s a magical time of day…sunrise and sunset are spectacular. In the morning the mist rises over the lake and at night, the sunset is gorgeous, sometimes the colors are incredible, other times, the clouds make it magical.