Dear All,
Today (3rd May 2008) I went into Nairobi National Park with Mike Davidson and Joseph Kariuki. There had been negligible rain during the week and the place was drying up with only a few damp patches on the tracks. The whole day remained dry, quite cool in morning and evening, but warm in the plentiful sunny periods.
We entered through Main Gate, where there were a pair of noisy Brown Parisomas and two Willow Warblers in the car park. On entering there were two Tambourine Doves feeding on the road together, and a handsome Great Sparrowhawk sitting by the roadside. We stopped first at the Ivory Burning Site, unbelievably still an Upcher’s Warbler in residence but still no song. A pair of Black-and-White Mannikins were nest building in an acacia, rarely seen in the Park and I have certainly never seen them nesting before. The three species of Widowbirds were in impressive numbers all through the northern parts of the park, but now in the Hyena Dam area, numerous Cardinal Queleas have moved in and were battling each other for territories. There was nothing at the dam, but African Water Rails were calling from the reeds. A couple of Parasitic Weavers were in the area. Nagalomon Dam held nesting Long-tailed Cormorants which were still incubating, and a few Black-crowned Night-Herons. There were ten (five males) Yellow-crowned Bishops in a roadside dam but little else of note on the old now very grassy burn. All three Longclaws were present and singing, with Rosy-breasted feeding young in a nest. Quail-Finch have really moved in, and are in pairs, we probably encountered thirty or more pairs during the day. Along the road were a pair, and a party of ten Zebra Waxbills, and whilst on estrildids a pair of Crimson-rumped Waxbills near Rhino Circuit, and a single Black-faced Waxbill at Leopard Cliffs. At Wakesa picnic site there was one Willow Warbler, and we were well entertained by the hand tame Long-tailed Fiscals. We found nothing of interest on the circuit from the Beacon round to Ruai Dam. Athi Dam held a reasonably variety with a lone Little Grebe, Pink-backed Pelican and Yellow-billed Egret, pair of Spur-winged Plover, Three-banded Plovers had a day old, but precocial chick, three Black-winged Stilts, seven Ruff, half-a-dozen Little Stint and a Greenshank. The nicest bird was a stunning male lutea Yelow Wagtail, which is on the late side. Sacred Ibis colony was in full swing, birds incubating but no sign of young, underneath them there were three Lesser Masked Weavers displaying inside the same tree. The only migrant shrike, a male Red-backed Shrike was in the basin, and Willow Warblers were heard on the Rhino Circuit, and three Violet Wood-Hooopoes back on the main road. There was little near Cheetah Gate apart from a few Speckle-fronted Weavers. Hippo Pools did not produce anything exciting apart from what may be the best find of the day, with a solitary Red-faced Cisticola along the riverine scrub. There are resident Red-faced Cisticolas along the Mbagathi at Maasai Gate, but it has not been seen away from here. At five-thirty in the afternoon there were sixty to seventy Eurasian Swifts feeding along the Kisembe ridge below Impala Lookou, just skimming the bushes and giving good views. Three Barn Swallows at Nagalomon Dam in the evening were the only birds seen all day, they seem to have left early this year (and Shrikes) and more would have been expected. Whilst migrants were poorly represented, there were sill some exciting finds, and the place still is exceptional

Best to all

Brian