Dear all,
I just came back from an 18 days safari across the
country and here are the most interesting highlights:
As a whole, everywhere we went was green with long
grass and lots of mud, a fact that some time did not
help us too much�
On the 17/5 not far from Buffalo springs the plains
where filled with Somali Short-toed Larks, these were
all from the �megaensis� subspecies. Also around was a
big number of Somali Coursers (I stopped my count on
the 14th bird�)

Later on around Mountain Lodge (19/5) a male Abbott�s
Starling was giving good show and the trees around the
lodge were filled with Oriole Finches (about 30
individuals were seen)!!
When coming in to Nakuru NP pair of Grey-rumped
Swallows was flying by and another pair was seen again
in Massai Mara on the 26th.
In Kakamega Forest (23/5), in spite of the heavy
rains, most of the specialties were seen. But the most
interesting one, was the finding 5 different
territories of Yellow-bellied Wattle-eyes and a
breeding male Yellow-backed Weaver out of the forest.

In Mungatsi (24th) a Great Snipe was a nice surprise
and many Greater Swamp Warblers were singing and
showing them-self's along the reeds. We did not here
any White-winged Warbler around, but since the whole
area is flooded we could not really explore it
properly.
Another interesting record is a flock of roughly 4000
Open-billed Storks flying over Nambale.

When coming to Massai Mara from the Sabaringo Valley
(25th) one Long-tailed Cisticola was spotted

Along the Magadi Rd. (28/5) one Pringle�s Puffback
gave very good views and indeed this population looks
very distinct and different from the regular birds
that are much darker on the mantle and wing coverts.

Near Tsavo gate (29th) a pair of Jamson�s Firefinches
were feeding in the bushes and not far after, a group
of Purple Indigobirds came in.

At the coast we managed to track most of the
Arubuko-Sokoke specialties (with many thanks also to
David Ngala). But the most interesting birds were on
the 1st of June in Mida Creek; 1 Eurasian
Oystercatcher and a pair of Broad-billed Sandpipers.
The later species is a very strange record; I don�t
know of any records for it, that late in the year!?

All together a good trip in spite of the rains/mud and
long grass,

Happy birding to all,
Itai


=====
***************************************
Itai Shanni                    
itaisha1@yahoo.com             
Tel 00-254-722-889099  
p.o. Box 47419           
Nairobi                  
Kenya

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