Dear all

the 'Canaries' team, comprising  Joseph Kariuki, Shailesh and Babesha
Patel , Neema Mbeyu and myself  availed of our award  for second place
in last year's world bird watch competition , being 2 nights at Naro
Moru river lodge for all 5 of us . This we took over the end of April
weekend .

On the journey upto the lodge we stopped for a few minutes at the Tana
river bridge , where, as ever, there were lots of Little Swifts flying
over the river, and we got good views of a White-winged Widowbird ,
Yellow Bishop and Grey Hornbill .  Further along the road near Sagana in
a very flooded field , there were over 40 Abdim's Storks ,  presumably
ready for their trek South . Sacred Ibis and Cattle Egrets were mixed
in.

We also stopped off at Wajee but there was no sign of the Hinde's
Babblers

We spent quite sometime over the  2 days at the River Lodge and despite
the development of the golf course there , its still a good place for
sunbirds . We recorded the Variable,Bronze,Scarlet-chested,Northern
Double-collared,Amethyst,Taccazi, Golden-winged and Green-headed .  Not
a bad place for those people wanting to see a range of sunbirds. The
resident Crowned Hornbills came close to us from time to time and a
Hadad Ibis was nesting right in front of the lodge.

On the Sunday of our stay there , we took a trip North into Laikipia
farm lands where our major find was an African Cuckoo , which allowed us
to examine  it through the scope . My young experts explained the
difference between this and the Eurasian . Widowbirds, both  Jackson's
and Longtailed were in breeding plummage and there were many  starlings
, Great Blue-eared, Hildebrandt's and Superb along the very good tar
road which leads to Doldol in the East and curves West to Rumaruti.   We
sighted several raptors along the way , with a fair number of Eastern
Chanting Goshawks , and we got a good view of a pale morphed Tawny Eagle
.
In the afternoon we popped into Mt Kenya KWS reserve for a couple of
hours . The usual mountain species were evident, but I was delighted to
add a Kenrick's Starling and Fine-banded Woodpecker to my lifers list
.On the way back to the Lodge , close to the road we had a fantastic
sight of nearly 200 Jackson's Widowbirds , the males in full breeding
plummage 'dancing' in one grassy field . A great scene.

Finally on Monday morning on our journey back we detoured onto the Nyeri
-Nyahururu to find the Mackinder's Eagle-Owl  in the cliffs at Gatarakwa
near Solio . It took a long search and it was Joseph's eagle eyes thst
eventually found it , well asleep and very well camouflaged !

A good weekend's birding with good company

Mike D