From: Fleur Ng'weno <fleur@africaonline.co.ke>
Date: 2008-10-20 13:05
Subject: Dry and wet
Dry and wet
Greetings birders
On 19 October Nature Kenya’s Sunday Birdwatch traveled through Kitengela on a road that paralleled the southern edge of Nairobi National Park, about half a kilometre away.
At Athi River conditions were desperately dry, the land parched and the grass grey. As we drove west, green shoots and rock violets leaves appeared in the overgrazed grasslands. Black mud and slippery conditions finally brought us to a stop in a thick acacia grove, one ridge south of Hippo Pools in the Park.
We were welcomed by a flock of delightful White-crested Helmet-shrikes and a singing Greater Honeyguide.
On the way back, about halfway along the road and close to the park boundary, we recorded an Eastern Pale Chanting Goshawk and a couple of Short-tailed Larks; a beautiful male Pallid Harrier swooped from the Park over the grasslands.
Wishing you good birding, Fleur