5 Feb 2006


Dear Friends

Following on from Colin's comment on Paradise Whydahs on the coast I thought it might be worth mentioning that Tsavo East National Park seems to be rather birdless at present.  
I have just returned from leading a three-week Sunbird tour to Kenya during which we spent a day driving through Tsavo East from Voi to the Sala Gate. This is a route we follow every year on the tour at exactly the same time in January.  
In contrast to most years some species that I regard as common species were almost entirely absent. For example, we didn't see a single Eurasian Roller, Golden Oriole, Red-winged Lark, Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark, Barred Warbler or Common Whitethroat.  
Much of the park was very dry, though there were some bushes in fresh green leaf scattered about which created an impression of greenness that I suspect was superficial.  
I assume that many of the birds have simply left the park over the last few months due to lack of food.

Tied in with this were unusual sightings of 'Tsavo' birds in adjacent areas.  Colin has already mentioned that we saw flocks of Paradise Whydahs at Mida, which is a species I have never seen on the coast before.  But perhaps even more surprising were flocks of hundreds of Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Larks at the Malindi Pipit site (some 12 km north of the Sabaki river bridge).  
I suspect that the presence of this inland nomad at coastal sites strongly indicates severe drought inland.  We also saw a Barred Warbler here which I have never seen on the coast before.  Golden Orioles were fairly common along the coast (for example, in the mangroves at Mida Creek).

The situation wasn't quite so bad in Tsavo West and we did see some Eurasian Rollers and a single Red-winged Lark on our drive northeast from Lake Jipe to Taita Hills.  
The only Common Whitethroat that we saw on the entire three-week trip was in the foothills of the Taita Hills - in a green, well-vegetated valley very unlike my impression of it's typical winter habitat.

Generally bird numbers were well down on average in most areas this year.

Best wishes,

David


David Fisher
56 Western Way, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 1DU, United Kingdom
Tel:  01767-220468  Fax:  01767-262916

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