Monday was not a day to look forward to at Mwamba... non-stop meetings
from morning to dusk, YET, I managed to add THREE new species to the
Mwamba list!! OK, so the first one was only a Feral Lovebird and some
wouldn't count it as a proper species, but it IS on the Kenya list! The
others were Namaqua Dove at around 11am and the third a Madagascar Squacco
Heron!! It was perched high up in the large Casuarina tree over the boat
shed that you can see from the flat roof at the observatory - not a
particularly common location for a squacco heron, and took off flying up
the beach northwards. I guess this is about the right time for them to be
arriving and this one may well have been an arrival, if not straight in
from over the sea, then certainly working it's way up the coastline to us.
I'd also seen a Marsh Warbler in the nature trail area behind the obs that
we have and last week had a flock of c.100 Collared Pratincoles over the
Gede plantations on the edge of Arabuko-Sokoke while we were ringing. VERY
nice! Also that day was an Ayre's Hawk Eagle at the same spot. We'd caught
and ringed 2 African Pygmy Kingfishers of the migratory race natalensis
during the week - the first migrants to return as well as a Nightingale
and a Garden Warbler (which is more of a western than an eastern species
in Kenya). 

There has also been quite some Barn Swallow movements going on, tho' they
seem a little confused at times heading south or east rather than north,
but that must be local moving around after a good food source. 

Lastly, just this morning, from the same flat roof as the Mad Squac I had
13 Blue-naped Mousebirds.. nothing majorly rare, but only the second
record for Mwamba which was nice... 

Colin
Mwamba Bird Observatory & Field Study Centre
Watamu