Dear All,

On Sunday 17th February opportunity arose to visit Shompole Camp right down 
in our southern border area close to Lake Natron. It is a very beautiful 
accommodation, best described as luxurious-minimalist!  We returned on 
Tuesday 19th and whilst there, I had a good investigation in the immediate 
vicinity of the lodge. They have three guides that are into birds, but 
Andrew Otieno is exceptional.

There had been recent rain and the area was lush with fresh grass and 
luxuriant bush and scrub. Very different to the parched conditions still 
persisting along the Magadi Road, although the roadside dam beyond 
Olorgesaillie is full at present.

The most prominent species in the scrub of the area, and one of the 
commonest species was Black Bishop of the “race” friederichseni, they were 
in full breeding plumage and buzzing all over, even coming to the swimming 
pool to bathe!

This form whose main distribution lies from the foot of Kilimanjaro 
westwards (though scarce and patchy) covering central Serengeti and western 
Lake Natron, just penetrates Kenya along the north-western shore of Lake 
Natron, however I was unprepared for its abundance on our side of the 
border. With such a golden opportunity many photos and video were taken of 
the birds.

On first seeing the bird you could be excused for thinking that you have 
found Black-winged Bishop, because instead of having the red confined to the 
nape and crown of our Black Bishop ansorgei of the western border, these 
birds show red on all of the back reaching the upper part of the rump. Black 
Bishop  is the only species amongst the red bishops in showing a black not 
red rump. The colour is crimson red, not the orange to yellow of ansorgei. 
The wings and tail are equally as black as Black-winged Bishop, but unlike 
that species the undertail coverts are buffy-white streaked black not plain 
buff to orange and the fore-half of the crown is black not red. The birds 
are in a habitat that would normally be associated with Black-winged Bishop 
elsewhere, the race ansorgei of Black Bishop is confined to grass, be it 
swamp grasses, or crops such as sorghum, maize and sugar-cane, but not pure 
scrub. This form is sympatric with Black-winged Bishop throughout most of 
its range. In short I don’t think that friederichseni has such a close 
relationship with Black Bishop ansorgei and should be given a unique 
identity rather than just be treated as a race.
There were no other ornithological surprises, other than House Sparrows 
having found such a remote site and were doing very well. Whilst the area 
was full of birds there were an amazing number of species not recorded. I 
have appended a list of what I did find, for the record.

On the Tanzanian side, alongside Lake Natron there were five Dusky Turtle 
Doves drinking at a freshwater soak.

The verdant conditions meant that so many species were breeding, and 
Red-chested, African, Black-and-White, Levaillant’s, Diederic and Klaa’s 
Cuckoos were present.

White-throated Bee-eaters were abundant, in stunning plumage with much 
displaying and pairing. On the drive out whilst crossing an open flat area 
we flushed a White-throated Bee-eater out of its freshly excavated nest 
vertically excavated into the ground. Perhaps this is just amongst the first 
for the season, but the species has only ever been found breeding in Kenya 
once before and that was given in Britton as Olorgesaillie/Magadi area but 
undated.
Crossing the causeway at Magadi there were many waders including a single 
Grey Plover. Avocets were in good numbers as were Cape Wigeon and 
Chestnut-banded Plovers.

On a night game-drive in front of the lodge we had four Wild Cats, four 
Bat-eared Foxes, and two each of Small-spotted Genet and Aardwolf. Also 
Fringe-eared Oryx, many Slender-tailed Nightjars, and single Barn Owl and 
Two-banded Courser amongst the more usual creatures.