Dear All,

On Saturday afternoon 9th February Mike Davidson, Fleur Ng’Weno and myself 
visited the Thika Settling Ponds. On arrival we were made most welcome by 
the staff,  and some forty were very busy cleaning the tanks. They are in 
the most trimmed condition that I have ever seen them.
We did a thorough count of the waterbirds there, and my estimations here 
might not agree with the final figures that Fleur will be presenting, as it 
is a rough estimate to give some idea of what is there.
In the wader line the dominant species was Little Stint with well over 200 
present, although there could have been even more Black-winged Stilts spread 
over the area, then Ruff with some 150, Wood Sandpipers about 75, and Marsh 
Sandpipers 50, the next commonest species was probably Three-banded Plover 
with some forty present although Spur-winged Plover presents a similar 
figure. Blacksmith about thirty, Common Sandpiper twenty, whilst Green 
Sandpiper four, Greenshank two, individual Common Ringed Plover and Common 
Snipe were the lowest counts of the common species present. Then amongst the 
rarities singles of Little Ringed Plover, Spotted Redshank, Temminck’s Stint 
and Avocet.
Strangely palearctic duck were restricted to about 120 Garganey with one 
female Common Teal, but no other species present. There were good numbers of 
Red-billed Teal, Yellow-billed Duck, eight Hottentot, and ten White-faced 
Whistling-Duck, but only one Southern Pochard.  Over twenty Egyptian Geese 
completed the waterfowl. Little Grebes and Red-knobbed Coots were in 
substantial numbers, over two-hundred Sacred Ibis congregated. There were 
two Black-crowned Night-Herons in trees on the causeway. A single Booted 
Eagle was the only palearctic raptor recorded there.
Around the perimeters were anything up to 200 Yellow Wagtails, all examined 
(although the plumages are pretty ragged at present) were flava, we did not 
record the lutea we were more familiar with from Nairobi. It occurred to me 
that flava were almost always near water on their wintering ground, whilst 
lutea were always with mammals and showed little interest in water. If this 
is the case it is an interesting separating mechanism on their winter 
territories. It would be a good idea to record races and habitat where 
possible to see if there is a substantive case for this. With them were two 
White Wagtails, the only birds I have heard about the entire season. A lone 
Red-throated Pipit fed on the sludge surface.
Nearby there were a few Parasitic Weavers in cultivation.