Dear All,
Last night I returned from a two week birding tour in Central Kenya. 
The countryside appears unseasonally dry and it is clear that many 
areas received below average rainfall. 
Commencing with Tsavo West, the lower part from Ngulia Airstrip to 
Tsavo Gate was quiet, and birding was visual rather than audial. The 
bush has lost much of its cover, and the Commiphoras are pretty 
bare. No unusual species, but no less than four groups of Scaly 
Chatterers encountered, and because of the lack of cover, quite easy 
to see. Whydahs and Weavers all in non-breeding plumage. The scrub 
from Ngulia towards Mtito Andei gate very dry and quiet, but a 
surprising find was a Yellow-billed Hornbill only some two 
kilometres in from the entrance. The Visitors Centre was quite a 
hive of activity with an impressive array of species coming to the 
water put out for them.
Amboseli very dry, water levels well down, the causeway completely 
dry, waterbird levels very low. As with last November, White-headed 
Mousebirds found inside the Park near Namanga Gate, and returning to 
Namanga, Orange-bellied Parrot and Pygmy Batis again found in the 
same area of thick acacia scrub before the intersection of the main 
road with the road to the diatomite mine. 
Mountain Lodge very quiet and hard work, hardly anything singing. 
Along the road back to Kiganjo in the Lelechwe scrub, a very varied 
mixed party contained a Brown-backed Woodpecker, the first I have 
seen in this area. Naro Moru also quiet, but Long-tailed Widowbirds 
still in breeding plumage (I never seem to pass through the area 
nowadays without some in breeding plumage). Naro Moru River Lodge 
have cleared a large area of scrub to make way for a nine-hole golf 
course. The surprise find here was of Senegal Plovers flying over 
calling in the early evening, again the first that I have ever 
recorded from this area.
Baringo, very lush and the water level right to the end of the 
original concrete jetty. However the Prosopis has now covered the 
foreshore making it unsuitable for waterbirds, and hardly anything 
was seen in the heron/duck line. Baringo is definitely being 
strangled by this noxious deliberate introduction. A few Northern 
Red Bishops were in the sedge patches. Nothing of note in the 
grounds, but there is a strange very dark Mourning Dove coming onto 
the bird-table, which could have come from a distant population and 
is not a local bird. I don't think it is just an unusual variant.
Nakuru has lost a great proportion of it's Lesser Flamingos, I would 
imagine they are away on nesting grounds, likewise we only managed 
to find two Greater Flamingos. White Pelicans are by contrast in 
vast numbers. The only wintering waders were in the far south-east 
corner, and on the Causeway, with some 25 Marsh Sandpipers, two 
Greenshank, two Ruff, and ten each of Curlew Sandpiper and Little 
Stint. Otherwise there are no waders of any description along the 
shoreline, apart from twenty-five Black-winged Stilts in the reedy 
north-west corner. One oversummering Black-headed Gull in the Grey-
headed flock.
There were also fifteen Barn Swallows (adults) on one bush near 
Hippo Picnic Site, but no other northern migrants as yet. As with 
last November, there were Blue-spotted Wood-Doves on the road 
between Lanet and Main Gates. Apart from the usual African Thrushes, 
there were three Olive at Lion Hill. I cannot recall seeing them 
here before.
A Broad-billed Roller, in exceedingly dowdy plumage could have 
possibly originated from Madagascar.
The Mara was dry, huge grass fires all around, but strangely the 
oxbows of Serena were full, yet Musiara Swamp lower than it should 
be for the time of year. Again swamp birds were in short supply, 
though Serena did have seven Painted-Snipe. The Musiara Airfield Pit 
had the biggest surprise, with an incredible gathering of eighteen 
Madagascar Squacco Herons in one group, with a single Common 
Squacco. I have not seen such an assemblage anywhere before. A pair 
of Long-toed Plovers (rare in the area) have a single chick here, 
and it may be a new breeding record for the Mara. Other birds not 
that frequent in the area were a tame Lemon Dove on the road at 
Kichwa Tembo, a species that whilst there is so much ideal habitat, 
I had not personally recorded in the Mara before, and only my second 
Little Rock Thrush in that area, on the Oloololo Escarpment. A pair 
of Joyful Greenbuls, whilst the species is resident in the Sabaringo 
Valley, had left cover to feed on a fruiting bush by the roadside. 
Otherwise there were no other surprises.
I will remember this trip however not by the birds, but by the fact 
that we had no less than six species of Agamas! 

Brian w. Finch