Was at Sabaki River Mouth yesterday and had some very nice birds... started off 
with a flock of weavers etc in the scrub near the car behind the dunes that I 
thought were going to be Af. Golden or something - only for 6 of them to turn 
out to be dumpy weavers with very round heads and short stout bills, small 
black eyes, not particularly bright yellow plumage and diffuse streaking on the 
back - unmistakeably PARASITIC WEAVERS!! This is the first confirmed record 
away from the highland and western range that they're known to occur in other 
than a few records from Pemba Island.

Next was 25 or so SENEGAL PLOVERS on the seaward side of the dunes together 
with a pair of PANGANI LONGCLAW - my first record for Sabaki. Good numbers of 
Curlew Sandpipers were around despite being June, and about 3-4,000 terns and 
gulls way out on the estuary 1/2 of them being Sooty Gulls; Another surprise 
was a single juv GREATER FLAMINGO - possibly another first for me at Sabaki 
tho' I'll need to double check that. It's certainly not common there. Going 
further we saw a flock of LESSER FLAMINGO fly up from the estuary and on 
crossing the dunes to look found lots - 708 I counted! This is the first time 
since 1999 that they've been here in anything other than an odd wanderer. To 
finish on in scanning the gulls from the bank there was a lone first year BLACK-
HEADED GULL meandering around on the mud... (anyone know how many June records 
of this species there are?).

Sadly, however the whole visit was darkened by finding someone near the dunes 
and river has cut all the bush on the slopes and on asking the boys who were 
following us, were told it was for building a "hotel for wazungu" which is 
going to ruin the place and has destroyed some superb habitat for coastal 
thicket species - and they've cut all the indigenous and left the exotics!! How 
ignorant can people be?!! If anyone reading this can help make a fuss or do 
something about this, please do.

Colin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
Colin Jackson
Director
Mwamba Bird Observatory & Field Study Centre
A Rocha Kenya
PO Box 383, 
Watamu
Kenya

Tel (O): +254-(0)42-32023
    (H): +254-(0)42-32037
Mobile: 0722-842366
e: <colin.jackson@arocha.org> or <colin.jackson@bigfoot.com>
website: http://www.arocha.org
...see also our Community Conservation programme at:
<www.assets-kenya.org>