How to Shoot a Fish Eagle

Of course I mean with a camera and not with a weapon. This story is for photographers, anyone who has tried to photograph a bird knows how tricky they are to capture. When they are still, they are generally in a tree, and without a powerful zoom lens, which is very expensive, then all you get is a bird in a tree. You can't make out what type of bird it is, what subtle colours its feathers have and why you took the photo in the first place. Photographing a bird in flight is even more difficult, again you need the expensive zoom lens, then you have to find the bird through the viewfinder in the expanse of sky and finally you have to keep track of its flight path, not to mention keeping the shutter speed high enough to freeze the action while ensuring you get enough light into the camera so that you don't end up with a bird shaped silhouette against the bright sky. Not an easy task!

There are particular times that give better or should I say easier shots. When they are just taking flight or just landing, at these times they are not moving too fast but still have their wings partly out or in the case of the fish eagle above at the point when the eagle snatches a fish out of the lake, for a fraction of a second the bird is almost motionless. This is when you shoot, simple! So the trick is to know when the eagle is going to swoop, to know where the eagle is going to swoop and to be prepared.

This is how I did it; While staying at lake baringo I took an early morning boat ride with a young local man as a guide. The boat was just like a small rowing boat but with an engine at the back. The guides around lake baringo know all about the wildlife as they make their living from tourists. We first went to see some local fishermen, they fish the lake in small, no, very small hand made boats that look more like small moses baskets. They catch fish to feed their families, sell any extra at market and also sell to tourists looking to photograph fish eagles. They were very proud of their boats and their catch and offered to pose for photographs, I didn't realise until afterwards that the photos had to be paid for as well. The guide took three fish, each fish was stuffed with a light balsa wood so that it would float. Each one was prepared very carefully to give just the right amount of buoyancy. The guide obviously thought that I might need three goes to get it right, as it happened he wasn't wrong.

I admired the lake and the huge variety of birds concentrated along the shoreline as we drove over to where the fish eagle had its nest. The engine was cut so we were just bobbing around in the water while the guide explained what would happen and gave me time to get my camera ready and decide what settings I would need. All prepared, I gave the nod and he let out a shrill whistle, this alerts the fish eagle that its time for breakfast, the eagle perches in a tree on the shoreline and waits. The guide then throws a fish in the water at a spot not too far from the boat, this is where I focus, I count to six then pressed the shutter button, I had made sure I was shooting on continuous first. It takes a fraction of a second for the eagle to lift the fish out of the water, it was such a surprise that I stopped shooting and didn't get a very good shot. Fortunately we had the three fish and I was better prepared the second time.

It was great to get a shot like this, It is a truly amazing thing to see, even better to capture it forever. 

Jackals Dinner

While out in the Mara one afternoon my guide pointed out some vultures circling in the distance. They start this circling behaviour when they see a kill and hope to pick the bones when the predators have finished with it. I don't know how high these birds fly but when I first saw them, they looked like small specks highlighted against the blue sky. How they manage to spot a kill from this height is impressive, they must have some special kind of eyesight. It was not long before more and more vultures joined them, they come in real high then gradually get lower and lower until settling in a tree, near the kill, to wait.

We headed off towards them and sure enough found a pride of lions enjoying the remains of a buffalo. I knew it was a buffalo because of the distinctive curled horns. The vultures were not the only scavengers in the vicinity, there were a couple of hyenas and five jackals also eyeing up the food, obviously none were brave enough to get too close until the lions had had their fill and moved off.

The guide got a good position and parked up so we could see what would happen. When we arrived 15 lions were eating, as we waited one by one the lions, when full, moved off to lay in the shade and sleep off their large meal. It was down to the last two lions and the scavengers were still waiting patiently, but you could sense their increasing anticipation, as they slowly edged closer, with the vultures squabbling over bits of entrails and gristle that had been scattered on the ground away from the main carcass. Finally the last two lions finished. Before they had gone three feet the vultures were in, swarming all over the carcass so not even an inch of it could be seen, at least 50 of them all jostling for position.

The hyenas started to walk away; they had clearly decided that the rewards possibly wouldn't be worth the effort required in fighting off that many vultures. The jackals however had no such qualms and dived right into the melee. I was surprised to see that the vultures made space for them, in fact if any of them got too close the jackals would turn and snap at them, even jumping right up into the air as they flew just out of reach. More than once a jackal got a mouthful of feathers when a vulture didn't move quickly enough.

It was hard work for them, they must have been really hungry to stand their ground and fight off the huge numbers of vultures for such a small share of the food. After 10 minutes between them they had picked the carcass clean.

Hippo's are dangerous

I love this sign, kenyans have a knack of stating the obvious, especially when it comes to sign writing. I came across this sign while at a campsite on the shore of Lake Baringo. There was another sign as you drive into the camp suggesting to visitors that camping in this particular place might also be dangerous and you do it at your own risk. It seemed a bit over the top but you could imagine that if a tourist did actually get attacked by a hippo one of the locals would rush up and say 'you were warned!' Since I wasn't camping as such, it didn't worry me unduly. Myself and my husband were staying in a banda, not a tent, although our chef had pitched his tent next to our banda and he didn't seem too concerned either.

While we were waiting for dinner me and Ken strolled down to the lake which was in fact only about 20 metres away. The scene was just perfect, water gently lapping against the sandy earth, birds singing in the background and hopping around picking up insects. The sky was turning a golden orange and pale pink as the sun was setting. Then right in front of the lake was this sign urging us to be cautious and stating the obvious, that both hippo's and crocodiles are dangerous, It didn't say that hippo's were likely to pop up right in front of you without warning, which is exactly what happened, suddenly two hippo heads appeared out of the water so gently they barely caused a ripple, they were less than 5 metres from where we stood!

My first reaction after the initial surprise was to take a photo, I always have my camera with me. They were so relaxed and didn't look in the least bit threatening. Hippo's are generally only dangerous if they feel their babies are threatened, we found this out the following day when we were out in a boat and accidentally got a little too close to a mother and baby, she didn't like it one bit. She actually chased us away, making really load noises at us and leaving us in no doubt that she meant business. You tend not to hang around when faced with two tonnes of angry hippo, they can overturn a small boat no problem. Or they might attack you if you surprise them while they are grazing. They come out of the lake each night to graze on the land retuning to the lake at dawn. We could hear them communicating to each other outside our banda, I wasn't about to pop outside in the dead of the night and surprise them anyway!

We never got to see any crocodiles, dangerous or otherwise. My lasting impression of Lake Baringo was one of tranquility, so relaxing and calm, a perfect place to write a book. The reason for this is that there is not much to do, no activity or distractions.