Kenya in January 2025

 Kenya January, 2025

Conservation, ecotourism and birding (avitourism) have a close relationship in Kenya. The whole story sounds like a joyous one, its long and complicated, and growing! 

Of course, being an avid conservation scientist, I find the culture and on-hand experiance of visiting Kenya with Kenyan experts invaluable. This time we spent a wonderful six days familiarization trip with close friends and explored some of the important conservation aspects.

Some points on ecotourism development in this country:

-      Birding is amazing in Kenya as in other East African countries. Species diversity is high and fantastic-looking birds, many amazing non-passerines, are easy to see (espeically in open areas and wetlands).

-      In my prespective, birding is not well promoted despite the presence of an excellent revised field guide book to East Africa, many eBird hotspots, many easy birds to see in combination with game spotting.

-      Many great birds are outside the NPs or other protected areas; no need to stay at the very pricey game lodges if you are on a budget. 

-   The open-cover (open habitat) Parks and the typical game-spotting experiance produce amazing bird lists. The vehicle is a hide and you traverse extensive areas with constant stops; its a great birding introduction (most people are looking mostly at large mammals; but they inevitablly see birds, some are shocked by the birds!). 

JANUARY 2025 TRIP   

Kenya Fam Trip details.

This was my second trip to Kenya, with an invitation and collaboration with locals and good support on the ground. Again we discovered that a self-guided trip of only 6 days can be extremely interesting for the naturalist. We found that a short-trip a familiraization trip, is great for conservation education issues we are developing and planning for.

These are the areas we visited this year:

·         Kuranguru Coffee Estate near Thika (farm ponds and coffee plantations)

·         Chania Falls at Blue Post Hotel and associated river habitats

·         Great Sagana Resort

·         Naro Moru Area (specifically near the Tree Hyrax Guesthouse and surroundings)

·         Ol Pejeta Conservancy

·         Mount Kenya National Park (Naro Moru Route Park Gate Area)

·         Nyahururu Area

·         Lake Nakuru National Park

·         Southern Part of Lake Elementeita

·         Lake Naivasha (northeastern shore only)

·         Mungo Swamp (near Limuru)

·         Nairobi National Park

Some snapshots follow: