Dear All

First let me say how much I am enjoying everybody else's birding as 
my own, for the last 5 weeks, has been restricted to the verandah of 
Mombasa Hospital and my own verandah in Tudor, while I nurse my 
husband's broken leg. 

So it was with a sigh of relief that I managed to get out for the 
June bird walk. We had been persuaded that we should visit a Nyali 
garden, something that we rarely do. We had been assured that there 
were lots of birds besides Crows and House Sparrows and I have to 
say that we were not disappointed. The garden was surrounded by 
small shambas, some scrub, Casuarinas and wide unmade road. A two 
hour walk gave us a list of 24 birds. This included three of the 
Swallows, Ethiopian (in large numbers), Lesser Striped and Mosque 
and a fantastic view of a male Black Winged Bishop. A wild burst of 
song just when the light was failing led us to a patch of bush with 
Casuarinas and 4 White Browed Scrub Robins displaying madly and in 
open view. While not a rarity this bird is not easily seen and in 
fact was a first for the Mombasa Bird Walk.

The point being that even though the Indian House Crow and the 
Eurasian Sparrow may seem to have taken over the gardens, our 
indigenous birds are still surviving. Marlene Reid, Mombasa.