> Dear All,
> I went into Nairobi Park today (15th January). It
> was very hot and dry,
> a few more dams are on their last legs now, Olmanyi
> won’t last a week,
> Ruai will be gone next, shortly followed by Eland
> Hollow. 
> On the road towards Eland Hollow Dam I found a Taita
> Fiscal which was
> photographed. It is listed as occurring in Nairobi
> NP in William’s
> National Parks Guide, the record is uncited, and
> there has not been a
> record since. Perhaps this is a drought refugee,
> whilst clearly a Taita
> Fiscal the back is the whitest I have ever seen, and
> very little black
> shows apart from primaries, and a very narrow
> collar. I wonder if this
> has come from farther afield than Magadi Road. I
> have enclosed a photo
> with this report.
> There were some thirty Athi Short-toed Larks on the
> East Gate road, and
> a female Golden-winged Sunbird in the dry scrub
> alongside the cement
> factory,
> Normally at this time of year one or two Isabelline
> Wheatears might be
> expected in the Park, but today I encountered close
> to fifty, so there
> must be many hundreds spread over the entire Park.
> These may also have
> been pushed in by the unfavourable conditions we are
> experiencing. There
> were eight Pied but no Northern, which is rather
> strange. Red-tailed
> Shrikes were also more plentiful than normal for the
> time of year with
> some twenty birds fairly spread over the entire
> Park. 
> The main focus is still Athi Dam, shrinking but will
> be gone before the
> long rains if there is nothing in the meantime. The
> Common Teal is still
> there, if not around the edge on the open mud, it
> may be resting in the
> shadow of the trees on the causeway. There are also
> nine Shoveler.
> Avocets have now increased to four and have been
> joined by three
> Black-winged Stilts. Migrant waders were 15 Ruff, 20
> Little Stint, 3
> Marsh Sandpipers, 7 Greenshank, and 2 Common
> Sandpipers. Also there were
> one imm White Pelican and one White Stork amongst
> the numerous Marabous,
> Sacred Ibis and African Spoonbills.
>  
> I have received a phone-call from Steven Easley who
> is currently leading
> a tour in the country. At Siana Springs in the Mara
> he had a
> Semi-collared Flycatcher, Icterine Warbler and
> Irania, and at the Hippo
> Pools (Mara River) today, six Little Ringed Plovers
> together, and two
> Temminck’s Stints.
>  
> Today (16th) another call this morning for a
> breeding plumage
> Brown-chested Lapwing amongst Black-wings on the
> plains before Musiara
> thornscrub and the descent to Musiara Swamp…. This
> was his 1000th Kenya
> bird!!!!
> A second phone call in the evening was to say that
> on the “Ahero” rice
> fields on the road in from Kisii, they had 20
> Pratincoles flying high,
> and he could not see any chestnut under the wings
> and is 90% that they
> were Black-winged Pratincoles, there were two
> Black-rumped Waxbills
> there as well (they are often at this spot in spite
> of how far east it
> is), on the way into Kisumu a Rufous-bellied Heron
> on one of the
> roadside ponds.
> Brian

I rather go birding...
***************************************
Itai Shanni                    
itaisha1@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/itaisha1
           
Tel 00-254-722889099 (KE)
    00-972-522-497541 (ISR)

P.O. Box 47419           
Nairobi                  
Kenya

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]