There have been a few interesting records at Sabaki and around here over the past 
couple of months. Starting back in mid January in fact, we did a wader ringing session - 
one of the first ever that I know about there (can anyone tell me of any previous ringing 
done there??). I was expecting to catch several hundred waders but instead we were 
inundated with terns... mostly Saunders (over 100) but 3 Greater Crested Terns and 3 
Sooty Gulls which were wonderful birds to handle!! The most impressive discovery 
however, was the MASSIVE size of the night-time roost of terns on the estuary, 
something which I am unaware that has been previously reported. In the moonlight we 
were able to make out a shimmering white carpet of birds right across the black mud 
flats which rippled and cascaded as the birds took off with various small disturbances. 
It was by far the most terns I've ever seen in one place. On later counts e.g. this past 
Sunday 20th March 05 when we counted up to 25,000 Saunder's, 7,000 Lesser Crested 
Terns, c.2,600 Sooty Gulls, over 100 Caspian Tern etc... and judging how much of the 
estuary mud a flock like this covers, I reckon an estimate of 100,000 terns roosting mid-
Jan at night on the Sabaki River Mouth mud flats - which surely raises the significance 
the site?

Nothing out of the ordinary to report of late in terms of species - the first Lesser Grey 
Shrikes, Nightingales moving through (though one caught this morning that was a 
retrap from late January - clearly a bird that has stopped over here. Also dozens, 
literally, of Euro Golden Orioles. Otherwise the non-wader migration here has been as 
thin as usual. Today we caught the first Yellow-bellied Greenbul on Mwamba grounds - 
in 3 years of birding and ringing though is a species which is common in the scrub next 
to the forest only 5kms away. A pair of Peregrine over the obs yesterday morning was 
also a good record. White-throated Bee-eaters moving through also and good numbers 
of Barn Swallows. Some German birders had what was probably a Greater Frigatebird 
in Watamu a week ago. 

We welcome birders to come and visit / stay at the centre and join in on the surveys 
we're doing - more regularly at Sabaki these days. There is an amazing diversity of 
habitats in a short distance around here making it a great birding area. Karibuni sana!!

All the best,

Colin