Filming Wild

Category: changing seasons, our life in the wild, trees & plants, wild animals | Date: Mar 29 2008 | By: admin

I’ll start with the bad news. Over the full moon, which fell on the Easter weekend, our beehives were raided. Eleven hives were destroyed and the honey stolen to sell to local brewers who use it to make alcohol – changaa as it is known here. Even worse than our indignation at being robbed, is the fact that honey thieves never leave any honey for the bees that worked so hard to make it. Without that vital honey-filled comb, they won’t be able to reproduce. After the raid, we saw a swarm of bees huddled together in a big mob, clinging to an acacia tree branch, robbed of their home. I felt so sorry for them…in fact, I am furious!

Two of our beehives, burnt out and destroyed (above and below)

Wasted honeycomb which could have sustained a new generation of bees

The better news is that, with the river full again, the hippos are happy. One turned up opposite the house, scouting out the reed beds where we often see hippos spending the heat of the day. The following day, a mother hippo appeared in the same place with a small baby…I can’t believe this is the same mother and baby hippo that were living here before – the baby looks smaller, so I think this is a new one. Hippos are one of the only mammals (apart from whales) that give birth underwater. Imagine being a baby hippo and having to swim to the surface before being able to take your very first breath! It’s so lovely having the hippos right here by the house.

Hippo scouting out the reed beds opposite our house

Mother and baby hippo

Yesterday, the river was rising and falling every few hours, changing the landscape completely as huge grey storm clouds gathered overhead, preparing for our nightly downpour. (Today is another story again, but that will have to wait for my next post…)

There must have been rain to the west of us because the Mtito River started flowing, having been dry for over a month. From the house, we watched as it broke its way into the much larger Athi, crocodiles, herons, egrets and hammerkops congregating at its mouth.

The smaller, seasonal Mtito River starts flowing into the Athi (on the right hand side of the above picture)

A Crocodile and a Grey Heron wait for prey at the mouth of the Mtito River

Oh so elegant: a Grey Heron stands next to a Great White Egret near the Mtito River mouth

Unbelievably, the Bauhinia (bauhinia taitensis) are flowering again already, only six weeks or so since they were last out in bloom…In fact, the dry season has been relatively short as the last rainy season ended so late. Unlike last time, when the Bauhinia started flowering in dribs and drabs, with the sudden heavy and sustained rain, the flowers have come out en masse this time, like snow across the landscape. Do you know the feeling when something is so beautiful, it hurts to look at it? This is how I feel when I look at these blossoming Bauhinia bushes, with their pungent yet delicate scent like roses. Each flower-laden bough looks like a ready-made wedding bouquet. Even as they start drying out – ever so soon, for the blossom is short-lived, turning pinkish and shedding its petals like confetti after just 24 hours – they retain an aching beauty.

Our driveway, adorned with Bauhinia taitensis bushes in full bloom

Sweet-scented Bauhinia

Turning pink, as they start to dry out…

Other flowers are blossoming too, including the pink grewia lilacina and clumps of small yellow flowers which I think are triumfetta flavescens. The yellow-flowered creeper on our lawn (which shall remain nameless for the simple reason that I don’t know what it’s called) has produced a wonderful looking fruit that resembles a melon. In our balcony flowerbeds, the most incredible white lilies have self-seeded (pictures below) – they’re similar but not the same as the white lilies I photographed during the last rainy season. They took us completely by surprise – all of a sudden they were there on our balcony in all their glory, and the next day, they were withered and gone…but what a flush of beauty while they lasted!

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Category: associations | Date: Mar 28 2008 | By: admin

AEFF has become a member of the Kenya Film and Television Professionals Association, which represents all aspects of the film industry here in Kenya. The Association allows film professionals in this country to speak with one voice and thereby leverage more influence when proposing measures and legislation which could boost the local film industry while also helping to attract international film companies to Kenya.

The power of film cannot be overstated, not only to educate but to put places “on the map”, thereby attracting tourism revenue and highlighting issues of importance like conservation.  The recent reinvigoration of this Association is a good sign of the film industry in this country banding together to drive positive change.

The Association also provides an excellent networking facility for the film industry, and as AEFF expands, we may well recruit our future film makers from amongst the membership. We also hope to be able to help the Association through contributing to discussions and ideas, and sharing our experience with others.

The Association website is currently being revamped, but in the meantime, they have an active Yahoo eGroup called KFTPA2006.

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Category: filming news, inspiration series | Date: Mar 26 2008 | By: admin

Simon Trevor went back to the coast in the middle of March to film the ongoing story of Kuruwitu – the marine protected area originally set up by a group of local land owners and the local fishermen. Following on from his earlier report (which you can read in my previous post on this blog), he now has the following news for us:

“One set back was immediately explained to us. The Kuruwitu boat, which we had intended to use to film a patrol, had been turned over and as a result the engine was no longer functioning. Oh well.

Every time we look below the surface of the sea new events are happening as the underwater environment ‘comes back to life’.

This time Lesley Hannah [freelance Kenyan camerawoman working wih AEFF on marine cinematography] filmed baby Trigger Fish. The Trigger Fish is one of a number of creatures that kill and eat sea urchins. The sea urchins kill the coral so when the fish are over exploited the sea urchins proliferate and down comes the whole balanced ecosystem.

She filmed the dreaded Crown of Thorns starfish, a sinister looking creature covered in poisonous spines which is one of the main predators on coral.

Also filmed were the sellers of sea shells in Malindi [town 100km north of Mombasa], where there are usually hordes of tourists eager for a bargain. These traders buy many different marine animals from fishermen who have no idea the effect this has on their livelihoods. (There were masses of cowries, clams, helmet shells, conch shells, shark heads and the remains of many other creatures.)

If you take the Helmet Shells for example. These beautiful brilliant red creatures, sometimes larger than a tennis ball, eat sea urchins. So when they are removed the urchins multiply, the coral dies, there is nowhere for certain species of fish to lay their eggs, the young fish who use the coral to hide from predators have nowhere to hide and before long there are no new fish to take the place of those caught by fishermen. So the man who sells the shell to the trader for short term gain is destroying his own life. The tourist, who should perhaps know better, but probably doesn’t either, needs to be educated as well.

There’s so much we can teach people through our programs if we capture the information on film.

There was much excitement when I arrived as Lesley had just finished filming a spear fisherman diving outside the reef. It took some courage to go into the rough surging water and follow him down as he free dived with his homemade spear gun to a depth of fifteen metres. Spear gun fishing is illegal in Kenya but many local people practice it. The man Lesley filmed has been doing it for 25 years and is an ardent supporter of Kuruwitu.

Some people will not appreciate that we filmed this but we believe that it should be shown so that everyone can form their own opinion as to what is right and what is wrong. He fires his gun many times before he makes a strike. Then when he has three fish, with a total weight of around a kilo, he calls it a day. That is what he eats for that day, with a little left to sell. He has to live off this kind of fishing until such time as alternative ways of supporting himself are found. That is precisely what Kuruwitu will provide once their plans for tourism ventures mature and when the fish stocks inside the protected area spread out into the fishing areas.

Up to now this kind of spear gun fishing has not made much of a dent on the fish stocks but more and more people are becoming fishermen – of sorts – and so now the environmental balance is under threat from this kind of fishing too. Another good reason for the formation of marine reserves such as Kuruwitu.

We rounded up with hiring a plane and filming the coast from the air. This revealed graphically how much development has taken place along the coast and how much forest has been cut down to build hotels and residences.

Yesterday we went to Mida creek [near Watamu, north of Mombasa] with the idea of filming fishermen at work. However, as we set out on foot towards the creek, carrying cameras and all our equipment, the heavens opened and we had to beat a hasty retreat back to the camera car, where we consoled ourselves with a hot cup tea from our thermos.

With the skies clearing, we headed back and boarded a rickety dugout canoe. Dugout canoes are notorious for their lack of stability and it didn’t take me long to wonder how I was going to handle a movie camera from such an unstable platform. At the same moment - to my horror - I saw water rising rather fast in the bottom of the canoe. Our canoe-man cheerfully said he would start bailing soon but I insisted we return immediately because by then the water level was only an inch or two from the camera bags.

So that was the end of that episode. We plan to start again with a larger and more stable boat with no leaks.”
I have asked Simon to send us some photos so we can see images of all this action! He has promised to do so… watch this space…

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