At 7-00am, on Saturday 18th October, Mike Davidson, Fleur Ng'Weno and 
myself met up at the Main Entrance of Nairobi National Park.
The morning had started off drizzly and overcast, there was much bird-
activity in the car-park, which included a single singing Willow 
Warbler and a pair of Eastern Honeybirds were involved in aerial 
antics. The girl at the entrance was a pain, insisting that we all 
had our old paying in receipts for the Smart Cards or we could not 
use them, and was over officious in demanding how many empty seats we 
had in the vehicle. Hopefully she will get moved on quickly, as 
whilst a smiling person it makes the system un-user friendly.
After this inordinate delay in justifying ourselves we entered the 
Park. Just a little way down the road was a perched Common Buzzard, 
the first of three seen that day and all very different in plumage. 
On the other side of the road was an adult Great Sparrowhawk, and we 
had not proceeded much further when a Eurasian Honey Buzzard flew 
overhead. We all felt that this was an excellent sign.
We took the back way into Ivory Burning Site, here we had a Spotted 
Flycatcher (we only saw one other individual) and a tiny Red-tailed 
Shrike that was creeping through the vegetation like a warbler. We 
had a further two individuals elsewhere in the park, that were of 
normal size. There was also a Wahlberg's Honeybird here. Following 
the back road towards Splash, the first of two non adult male Pallid 
Harriers passed by us, and there was a changeling male Beautiful 
Sunbird in some scrub, this was the first I had ever personally seen 
in the Park, although Fleur regularly has them in her garden and 
there have been a few records from Splash over the years. Continuing 
along the back fence we had singles of Northern Wheatear and Yellow 
Wagtail, the three Widowbirds were coming back into breeding plumage 
following the recent rain. Entering into Hyena Dam we stopped for a 
break and morning coffee. There was a raptor perched in a tree near 
the outflow, it was entirely blackish, and unfortunately branches hid 
the wings and tail. Fortunately a group of passing Crowned Plovers 
decided to mob it and it flew off low, showing entirely blackish 
uniform upperparts, wings and tail apart from a white spot on the 
middle of the back. However the underwings were flashy white with 
black axillaries. This was indeed a strange looking bird and really 
the plumage conformed to nothing normal. Eventually the bird dropped 
down to the ground to feed, where it looked and behaved like a normal 
Augur Buzzard, which it was (though not normal!), so beware of this 
strange black individual. Whilst at the dam there was a Common 
Squacco Heron in the reeds, a few Zebra Waxbills concealed themselves 
in the grass, a Saddle-billed Stork fed on an open moist area with 
ibis, seven Eurasian Bee-eaters posed distantly on a small tree, but 
the main attraction were the swallows and swifts skimming the tops of 
the grass. The most abundant swallow was Plain Martin, but there were 
about forty Barn Swallows, and with these about half-a-dozen House 
Martins and one Sand Martin. Other swallows included a few Banded 
Martins, Rock Martins, Red-rumped and Wire-tailed Swallows. This was 
eight species of swallows and we were to find Black Saw-wings nearby, 
most importantly though there were no Lesser Striped Swallows 
anywhere in the Park. Accompanying the swallows were swifts, the 
three resident species Little, White-rumped and Palm being joined by 
reasonable numbers of Eurasian Swifts. There were Eurasian Swifts in 
several places during the day, and in the evening over 200 Barn 
Swallows arrived to roost at Nagalomon Dam. There were nice pairs of 
Oribi and Black-backed Jackals near Hyena Dam as well.
Continuing towards "The Beacon" we had our first of two non-adult 
male Montagu's Harriers, and there was much activity over the 
grassland with Rosy-breasted Longclaws singing, and near what is now 
Mbuni Picnic Site, our second morning coffee, a pair of nice Long-
billed Pipits. We drove around to Ruai Dam where three Common Snipe 
hid in the reeds, and there were two Greenshank, but some fifteen 
Yellow-billed Storks were in full roseate breeding dress. Athi Dam 
from the distance did not look so interesting, but the recent rains 
have meant that water has now edged up the channel and the water 
level has risen.  There was a good assortment of waterbirds with 14 
White and 8 Pink-backed Pelican. Some of the adult Whites were deep 
brownish orange rather than merely a flush. Yellow-billed and Marabou 
were the only storks so far, plus a few African Spoonbills. Amongst 
the White-faced Whistling Ducks and Red-billed Teal were four 
Garganey and ten Southern Pochard. Afro-tropical waders consisted of 
the resident pair of Spur-winged Plovers, a few Blacksmith and Three-
banded Plovers but plenty of Kittlitz's, and five Black-winged Stilt. 
Migrant waders were five each of Greenshank and Marsh Sandpiper, 
three Ruff, four Little Stints, one Wood Sandpiper and two Common 
Sandpipers. A juvenile Fish-Eagle flew over, and three Black-crowned 
Night-Herons roosted in the trees on the dam wall. On the way through 
the grassland to continue on to the Hippo Pools, a pale orange pipit 
with hardly any markings on the back necessitated a stop for photos. 
In spite of the plumage and a startlingly yellow base to the bill, 
because of its upright stance rather than horizontal and wagtail-like 
it was put down to strangely plumaged Grassland. As we walked along 
the Hippo Pools there was quite a bit of activity, a Hippo was 
actually present, and a Red-faced Cisticola was singing amongst the 
numerous Singing! An African Hoopoe was also calling very noisily and 
intent on securing its territory. On the walk back and adult Lesser 
Spotted Eagle came and circled overhead, three Violet Wood-hoopoes 
also appeared, and extravert Red-throated Tits were full of the joys 
of spring. As we neared the car-park Hamerkops and Egyptian Geese 
were making a lot of noise, and out of sight it was thought that the 
Hamerkops were protesting at the Geese that might have been trying to 
use their nest as their own. Getting closer we could see that they 
were agitated by a raptor in a tree. On raising our binoculars we 
could not believe what we were seeing, a sub-adult Palm-nut Vulture 
sat calmly on a branch of a fig. Naturally many photos and video were 
taken of this bird, the first ever for Nairobi district, and one of 
the least expected species to turn up in Nairobi National Park.
The day ended well as not much else was encountered on the drive 
back, apart from four Green Sandpipers roosting at Nagalomon Dam.

With the wonderful early rains following successive years of late 
rains during the arrival of the palearctics….. this might be our year.

Now it would be remiss not to mention the mammals, Oribi, Black-
backed Jackal and Hippo have already been mentioned but… Zebra 
numbers are really large, possibly thousands present, and all through 
the park, plenty of Kongoni, but over fifty Wildebeest is an 
improvement over recent years, lots of Eland, Impala, small numbers 
of Grant's and Thomson's Gazelles, but six Chandler's Reedbucks at 
their usual spot on the way to "The Beacon." Plenty of Giraffe and 
Buffalo spread around, Wart Hogs only seen in Athi Basin, plus of 
course he usual Olive Baboons and Vervet Monkeys, Crocodiles at Athi 
Dam being included as an honorary mammal!