Brian Finch has encouraged me to post part of the introduction to the tour report that I wrote for the participants on my Sunbird tour to Kenya in January this year.  It was certainly a very strange year.  To put this into context I have led the same tour following the same itinerary on roughly the same dates every January for the last 18 years.

"Birdwise this year’s tour to Kenya was very unusual.  Unseasonable and heavy rain throughout December had turned most of the country green, which was very good for the local people and for birds such as bishops, widowbirds, whydahs and weavers.  We saw males of many of the latter groups in full breeding plumage, often engaged in dramatic display flights some of which had never been seen on previous Sunbird tours.  We also benefited by finding some shy and skulking birds such as Broad-tailed Warbler which we watched singing and displaying – a species we have not seen on this tour for at least eight years.

The lakes and marshes had all filled up and the aquatic vegetation had quickly recovered with many water bodies covered in flowering lilies and fringed by lush reed and rush beds.  But where were the waterbirds?  Many species that we regard as resident were absent and pelican, herons, egrets, ducks and terns were all well down in number.  For example, we failed to find any Pink-backed Pelicans, Goliath Herons, Glossy Ibis, or Hottentot Teal at all.  Presumably these ‘resident’ species had moved elsewhere to breed – but where?  We found no trace of them in our extensive journey around southern Kenya, from Lake Victoria in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east.

Palearctic migrants were also very scarce.  Flocks of White Storks are normally a frequent sight in Kenya mid-winter – we found just one small group of ten in Tsavo National Park.  White-winged Black Terns usually feed over many lakes – we saw none.  Passerine migrants were also scarce – no Garden Warblers and very few Blackcaps or Olivaceous Warblers.  One possible explanation is that if the heavy rains also fell further north in Africa, perhaps the southbound migrants encountered an abundance of food on their journey and stopped off to take advantage of it.  Perhaps they simply hadn’t reach Kenya as yet?"

Does anyone have any thoughts on where all the waterbirds had gone and why there were so few Palearctic migrants around?

David

David Fisher - Director
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