Dear all,
It has been long (a year in fact) since I had a chance of birding down the
Over all it is very dry all over the place and even at Ol-tepesi there is no water as the pipe have been broken and the place is deserted.
Very few birds all the way down and the habitat seems to be vanishing in a hazardous speed to charcoal burnings. At the first bridge where we were used to see so many birds it seems that there is no more trees left to support birds. What is left, is already being hammered.
After the disappointment at Ol-tepesi we decided to continue down the
All the way to Eremit is was still very dry and other than the few Singing Bush Larks, there was not much to stop for. At one point where we stopped, Brian found a nice male Yellow-throated Plated Lizard in full breeding colours that brought some interest to this dull morning.
When arriving to the
It was not long till we saw the first interesting bird; a White-headed Barbet of the subspecies leucocephalus which is usually found only in Ruma NP,
Further down the stream a Bearded Woodpecker (which is a nice bird wherever you find one) and a group of Arrow-marked Babblers that the nearest record should be
On the migrants’ front, not much was seen during the all day, but few Willow Warblers, at least 2-3 Upcher’s Warblers and few more Spotted Flycatchers. Not a single migrant raptor and only 2 raptors all together. On the way back a breeding male Steel-blue Whydah was also passing by.
Surprises are still awaiting to be found down the southern parts of the Rift Valley and so close to
Itai Shanni