Dear All,

Mike Davidson kindly chauffeured Fleur Ng’Weno, Caharine Ngarachu, Joseph Kariuku and myself to Samburu for a three-day getaway. We saw no evidence of any civil unrest that currently plagues the Rift Valley, and everywhere en route indicated calm.

Our first stop was at the Karatina Pond which has a good amount of water and amongst the waterbirds present were three White-backed Duck. From here we continued through Nyeri and crossed the Solio Ranch road to Naro Moru. There were some forty Lesser Kestrels, one Common Kestrel and two Greater Kestrels one of which was a dependent young. Some seven Montagu’s, two Marsh and one
Pallid Harriers were hunting over the plains. Along the fence were three Isabellinus Red-tailed Shrikes, five Whinchats, fifteen Isabelline and seven
Northern Wheatears. There were also a few Yellow Wagtails and small numbers of Barn Swallows. On the road through Timau there were three more Montagu’s Harriers, a Booted Eagle and numbers of House Martins.
We arrived late afternoon entering through Buffalo Springs and proceeded slowly to Samburu Serena. On the way we could see that the area had received recent rain with a green environment and some deep puddles on the road.  
Many birds were breeding. Amongst the more interesting species seen on the drive in were a dapper pair of Heuglin’s Coursers.
We were delighted to see that Serena had some fifteen clients apart from us, and made us very welcome and comfortable with excellent buffets. In the morning we had breakfast at 6-00 am then departed for the entire morning on the road up to Sopa Lodge. There were many birds in the scrub on the climb up, we saw some eight Iranias and good numbers of Barred Warblers.
Whitethroats were in small numbers and it is likely that these were wintering birds rather than passage migrants. In the same place where I
found a family of four Gambaga Flycatchers last October, there was an adult and an immature so there is definitely a territory of the species at the
spot. In the same place were an immature male Shining Sunbird, Brown-tailed Rock Chat and a pair of Pringle’s Puffbacks. At another spot we had several species being attracted to a commotion on the ground that might have been a snake, and an adult male Northern Grosbeak Canary was an attractee sitting on a bush at close quarters. There were other Pringle’s Puffbacks calling in the scrub, we found quite a number of Yellow-vented Eremomela and another singing Northern Grosbeak Canary. There were many Golden-breasted Starlings, a couple of Three-streaked Tchagras, in fact most of the species associated with the habitat but try as we may we could not locate a Somali Long-billed Crombec. At Sopa Lodge there were Fan-tailed Ravens on the roof, and breeding plumage Straw-tailed and two Steel-blue Whydahs. The best bird here though was a female Common Redstart that fed in bushes around the lodge buildings, and was the first reported in the country for many years now.
We returned to Serena for lunch, then left for a look on the Buffalo Springs side. There were a few Sprossers, Spotted Flycatchers and Olivaceous
Warblers in the grounds.
In the afternoon we found an interesting assemblage of birds, although there was nothing out of the ordinary.
The next morning we had another early breakfast then drove through Buffalo Springs looking for and finding a group of Somali Coursers. On wires near Isiolo there was a single Madagascar Bee-eater, and at the Timau Junction we looked for and found Boran Cisticola. The wheat-fields had over a hundred White Storks and a few Montagu’s Harriers, Marsh Harriers and a Common Buzzard. The only other stop on the return to Nairobi was at Thika for some nesting African Golden Weavers.
It was a wonderful weekend, and thankfully there is still a direction to head from Nairobi that is still safe and ornithologically exciting.

In he interests of completeness these are the species we recorded in Samburu/Buffalo Springs reserves.

Masai Ostrich / Helmeted Guneafowl / Vulturine Guineafowl /  Crested Francolin / Yellow-necked Francolin / Black Stork / Marabou Stork / Sacred Ibis / Hadada Ibis / Green-backed Heron  / Green-backed Heron  / Cattle Egret / Grey Heron / Black-headed Heron / Common Kestrel / Secretary Bird / African Fish Eagle / Hooded Vulture / African White-backed Vulture / Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture / Bateleur / Eurasian Marsh Harrier / Montagu’s Harrier / African Harrier-Hawk / Eastern Chanting Goshawk / Gabar Goshawk / Lesser Spotted Eagle / Tawny Eagle / Steppe Eagle / Verreaux’s Eagle / Wahlberg’s Eagle / Martial Eagle / Long-crested Eagle / Buff-crested Bustard / Water Thick-knee / Crowned Plover / Green Sandpiper / Cream-coloured Courser / Heuglin's Courser / Black-faced Sandgrouse / Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse / Speckled Pigeon / African Mourning Dove / Ring-necked Dove / Laughing Dove / Emerald-spotted Wood Dove / Namaqua Dove / Namaqua Dove / White-bellied Go-away-bird / Red-chested Cuckoo / Klaas’s Cuckoo / White-browed Coucal / Pearl-spotted Owlet / Slender-tailed Nightjar / African Palm Swift / Mottled Swift / Nyanza Swift / Little Swift / White-rumped Swift / White-headed Mousebird / Blue-naped Mousebird / Rufous-crowned Roller / Lilac-breasted Roller / Grey-headed Kingfisher / Little Bee-eater / Somali Bee-eater / White-throated Bee-eater / African Hoopoe / Green Wood-hoopoe / Violet Wood-hoopoe / Abyssinian Scimitarbill / Grey Hornbill /  Red-billed Hornbill  / Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill / Black-throated Barbet / Red-and-yellow Barbet / D’Arnaud’s Barbet / Lesser Honeyguide / Greater Honeyguide / Nubian Woodpecker / Cardinal Woodpecker / Bearded Woodpecker / Pygmy Batis / Sulphur-breasted Bush-Shrike / Grey-headed Bush Shrike / Rosy-patched Bush-Shrike / Three-streaked
Tchagra / Pringle’s Puffback / Northern Puffback / Slate-coloured Boubou / Brubru / Northern White-crowned Shrike / Red-backed Shrike / Isabelline Shrike / Taita Fiscal / Black-headed Oriole / Common Drongo / African Paradise Flycatcher / Fan-tailed Raven / Northern Grey Tit / Mouse-coloured Penduline Tit / Barn Swallow / Wire-tailed Swallow / Rock Martin / Lesser Striped Swallow    / Red-rumped Swallow / Fawn-coloured Lark / Pink-breasted Lark / Fischer’s Sparrow-Lark / Rattling Cisticola / Ashy Cisticola / Desert Cisticola / Pale Prinia / Brown-tailed Apalis / Red-fronted Warbler / Grey-backed Camaroptera / Grey Wren-Warbler / Dodson’s Bulbul  / Northern Brownbul / Olivaceous Warbler/ Yellow-bellied Eremomela / Yellow-vented Eremomela / Northern Crombec / Barred Warbler / Common Whitethroat / Banded Parisoma / Rufous Chatterer / Abyssinian White-eye   / Wattled Starling / Golden-breasted Starling / Superb Starling / Bristle-crowned Starling / Red-billed Oxpecker / Bare-eyed Thrush / Thrush Nightingale / Irania / Spotted Morning Thrush / White-browed Scrub Robin / Common Redstart / Isabelline Wheatear / Northern Wheatear / Pied Wheatear / Brown-tailed Rock Chat / Common Rock Thrush / Southern Black Flycatcher / African Grey Flycatcher / Spotted Flycatcher / Gambaga Flycatcher / Eastern Violet-backed Sunbird / Hunter’s Sunbird / Marico Sunbird / Black-bellied Sunbird / White-browed Sparrow-Weaver  / Donaldson-Smith’s Sparrow-Weaver / Black-capped Social Weaver / Parrot-billed Sparrow  / Chestnut Sparrow /
Yellow-spotted Petronia / Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver / White-headed Buffalo-Weaver / Speckle-fronted Weaver / Lesser Masked Weaver / Chestnut Weaver / Red-headed Weaver / Red-billed Quelea / Black-cheeked Waxbill / Blue-capped Cordon-bleu / Purple Grenadier / Red-billed Firefinch / Cut-throat Finch / African Silverbill / Steel-blue Whydah / Straw-tailed Whydah / Yellow Wagtail / African Pied Wagtail / Golden Pipit / Northern Grosbeak-Canary / White-bellied Canary / Cinnamon-breasted Rock Bunting / Somali Golden-breasted Bunting.

On Thursday 24th January, I went into Nairobi National Park with Nigel Hunter. Our first stop was at the Ivory Burning Site, and incredibly the
Upcher’s Warblers now number three, one in each of the flowering acacias!!!
Also here we heard but did not see a Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul, calling from the dense lantana scrub around the washrooms. I am sure it had nothing to do with a talented Ruppell’s Robin Chat finding something different to mimic. Also here were a couple of Nightingales, an isabellinus Red-tailed Shrike and a few Willow Warblers. There were still a few birds on the burnt area, but since Sunday when it was very active in the rain, it has been dry and the bird numbers have dropped rather dramatically…. By contrast the mammals have returned in some numbers. We found Isabelline Wheatears down from 25 to 12, but Northerns over 10 though only some four on Sunday, and Pied up to eight from three. There was
only one Whinchat left, and three Montagu’s Harriers and a single Marsh Harrier. Three Lesser Kestrels, a single Common Kestrel, Black-winged Plover was heard but not seen and no Temminck’s Coursers were encountered. The large numbers of Yellow Wagtails had vacated with barely a dozen seen. Two Parasitic Weavers were present. Athi Dam was very quiet, Little Stints down to twenty, a dozen Red-throated Pipits, but a new arrival being three Red-knobbed Coots.
There was one Eurasian Roller near to the Hippo Pools where we found very little indeed, and a Broad-tailed Warbler near the juncion to Olmanyi Dam where the best was three Common Snipe. There were another thirteen Common Snipe at Ruai Dam. Interestingly there were far more Cinnamon-chested Rock Buntings than usual on the road (over a dozen seen) suggesting a local movement.

Best to all

Brian