Dear All.

Mike Davidson, Fleur Ng'Weno, Gordon Boy, Karen Plumbe and myself, had
a days outing to Kiambu and on towards Thika. It was unseasonably cool
whilst we were at "Paradise Lost" on the Kiambu road. Our first
interesting birds were a pair of White-backed Duck on one of a series
of dammed stretches of a river. Speke's Weavers were very busy and
noisy constructing their nests not in trees but in bulrushes, a far
cry from being in an acacia adjacent to a bus-stop! There were a
number of birds around these small dams to maintain our interest, even
a dam reduced to a puddle in the centre had one each of Green, Wood
and Common Sandpipers and a Yellow Wagtail. Entering "Paradise Lost"
amounts to Ksh250, but this is well worth the small outlay. We walked
down to a currently non-existent waterfall, and found three very vocal
and vivacious Grey-olive Greenbuls, and watched a number of birds
coming down to drink and bathe in the trickling remnants of the river.
A plethora "it seemed so" of Olive Thrushes were joined by Ruppell's
Robin Chat, Blackcaps and Green-headed Sunbirds. There were Montane
White-eyes performing their ablutions as well, which was interesting
to note, as the surrounding scrub contained Abyssinian White-eyes. In
the scrub there were a couple of secretive Nightingales, and parties
of Grosbeak Weavers, both Black-collared and Grey Apalis were calling.
There was not too much on the large dam, but the surrounds had a few
Tree Pipits under the trees, we saw a pair of Pygmy Kingfishers
courtship feeding, and amongst the good assortment of birds were a
Brown Parisoma and a single Willow Warbler. Whilst walking back to the
parked car, an attractive pale Booted Eagle passed over, but the
biggest surprise came whilst we had our picnic breakfast when an
Osprey flew over carrying a large fish! From here we took the back
roads to Ruiru and looked at a small dam near the Blue Posts. A falcon
came swooping in towards us, just skimming the roof, then seemingly
gathering speed exponentially, flew into a group of trees, and later
flew up and soared over them. An adult African Hobby, any record of
this species in Central Kenya is worthy of note, as they are largely
inexplicably absent in the region. Continuing on to Gacharage we
examined a private estate, but it was now mid-day and pleasantly
warmer. There were fifteen Eurasian Bee-eaters on the wires, a Brown
Snake-Eagle, a Common Buzzard, and in the scrub a Garden Warbler, a
Nightingale and a handsome party of eight Hinde's Babblers.


Fleur asked me to write out a complete list of the species that we
recorded at Paradise Lost, for the management, and I thought it might
be of interest for everybody. It is an interesting area, well worth
the visit.

Best to all

Brian

Little Grebe
Long-tailed Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Cattle Egret
Hamerkop
Hadada Ibis
Sacred Ibis
Egyptian Goose
Yellow-billed Duck
Augur Buzzard
Booted Eagle
Yellow-billed Kite
Osprey
Common Moorhen
Black Crake
Common Sandpiper
Green Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Red-eyed Dove
Dusky Turtle-Dove
Tambourine Dove
Little Swift
African Palm Swift
Speckled Mousebird
Malachite Kingfisher
Pygmy Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
Eurasian Bee-eater
Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater
Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird
Tree Pipit
African Pied Wagtail
Mountain Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail
Lesser Striped Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow
Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul
Grey-olive Greenbul
Common Bulbul
Northern Pied Babbler
Cape Robin Chat
Ruppell's Robin Chat
Nightingale
Olive Thrush
Southern Black Flycatcher
White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Yellow-breasted Apalis
Grey Apalis
Black-collared Apalis
Grey-backed Camaroptera
Grey-capped Warbler
Dark-capped Yellow Warbler
Brown Parisoma
Willow Warbler
Blackcap
Tawny-flanked Prinia
Red-faced Crombec
Abyssinian White-eye
Montane White-eye
White-bellied Tit
Paradise Flycatcher
Chin-spot Batis
Common Fiscal
Black-backed Puffback
Tropical Boubou
Pied Crow
Collared Sunbird
Amethyst Sunbird
Bronze Sunbird
Northern Double-collared Sunbird
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Variable Sunbird
Green-headed Sunbird
Rufous Sparrow
Grosbeak Weaver
White-browed Sparrow-Weaver
Baglafecht Weaver
Black-headed Weaver
Spectacled Weaver
Speke's Weaver
African Golden Weaver
Holub's Golden Weaver
Common Waxbill
Red-billed Firefinch
Bronze Mannikin
Pin-tailed Whydah
Streaky Seedeater
Yellow-rumped Seedeater
Brimstone Canary
African Citril

Additional species on the access road….

White-backed Duck
Grey Crowned Crane
Lesser Swamp Warbler
Little Rush Warbler
Red-faced Cisticola
Singing Cisticola
House Sparrow