birds in Thika

I'm generally a consumer of kenyabirdsnet, but not much of a contributor. But now that my son is 10 months, I'm more able to spend time outside with him looking at birds. He likes birds too and his current favorite are the hadada ibises that spend most of their days foraging on our lawn.

We live in Thika at one of the del Monte Estates near ol Donyo Sabuk. We've recently had two visits by a group of 3 Hinde's babblers (all adults, dark morph) to our birdbath. The first on March 4 and the most recent today (Apr 8). Luckily they make loud calls upon alighting at the birdbath so I jump up to get my binoculars in time to watch them take their baths. Though unlike other birds, they jump in and out of the bath many times instead of getting it all over with on the first dip.

Of late one of the fig trees is in fruit and things get quite raucous in the mornings and evenings. Lots of green pigeons, also violet-backed starlings, red-headed weavers, bronze sunbirds, willow warblers, cardinal woodpecker, bulbuls, mousebirds, white-headed & spot-flanked barbets, olive thrush, abyssinian white-eye, spectacled weaver, trumpeter hornbill and eurasian golden orioles. Though admittedly I don't know eurasian golden orioles well, I saw two today that had white breasts, not yellow, but was otherwise very yellow and I don't think it could have been anything else. I don't know if this is common with this species?

We have a resident red-throated wryneck, though I don't hear it calling every morning, but most mornings I do. Southern black flycatchers, spot-flanked barbets, common fiscal, mousebirds, bronze sunbirds, red-headed weaver, red-rumped swallow and white-browed sparrow-weavers are all regular nesters. We had a pair of Wahlberg's eagles raise one chick in Oct 2007 not far from our house. Spotted eagle owls were around a lot early last year, but have done a disappearing act until last week when I heard one calling in the wee hours, but haven't heard it since. I see eastern honeybirds every once in a while. Great sparrowhawks nest somewhere nearby as they regularly appear with young in Aug-Sep. Knob-billed ducks fly over fairly often to the nearby dam. I see white-winged and red-collared widowbirds around edges of pineapple fields after the rains.

We spent a day over the Easter holidays at Mwea. Though I did very little birding, did see a few migrants-Eurasian hobby, roller and bee-eater. Also saw a tawny eagle. At the hippo pt. there were african spoonbill, great egret, striated heron, three-banded plover, white-faced whistling duck and long-tailed cormorant. And probably much more but it was unbelievably hot and humid and with the threatening rains and black cotton roads to the park, we had to beat a fast exit.