Dear All,
I spent the entire day in Nairobi National Park 23rd February 2009. I
travelled throughout much of it, and I am so pleased to report, that
all of the livestock has been removed over the week-end. I saw a
ranger on the road near Leopard Cliffs and asked him what he was
doing, he replied "We are chasing all of the cows out of the Park." So
I must say in all fairness, the Chief Warden has exacted an immediate
result to the first of my issues. I had sent him the relevant parts of
the last report from last Friday, asking him what action he planned to
take (I did actually threaten to bring in the media as well.) Nairobi
National Park is no longer a farm, but wall-to-wall plains game and
looks superb…..
I arrived right on 6:30am, to avoid the Commuter traffic, and I was
through the gate having had my card processed by 6:31am!
First port of call was of course Ivory Burning Site, Blackcaps were
very vocal, but there might not have been quite as impressive a chorus
as a few days previously. The male Irania was present, but not singing
a word, five or so Nightingales did so intermittently. I only found
one Upcher's Warbler, the only other migrant here being a Willow
Warbler. There was a Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul calling from somewhere
beyond the toilet block, and the arrival of a Great Sparrowhawk made
it all very quiet for a while.
In spite of being a bright and sunny, warm morning, there was a swathe
of grey from the Kitengela southwards, and in spite of continuing to
be a sunny day in the dehydrated park right up until 3:00pm it
remained grey and overcast to the south, when the first cloud-cover
reached the south end of the Park. Maybe they had rain, and maybe
there is hope for us. My thoughts are that the birds knew this. Along
the back road there was a Nairobi Pipit singing from the roof of the
"Pump House", it would launch itself into the air and do a song
flight. It was dry and warm, I have always associated singing Nairobi
Pipits with good rainfall, but this bird was behaving as it had
poured. Interestingly there has not been a Nairobi Pipit using this
roof as a territory for over six years. Let's hope that it continues
to use it. Migrant-wise the back-road was migrant-less apart from one
Nightingale, whilst "spishing" to see what was hiding in the scrub, I
brought in a Spotted Morning Thrush. This was a surprise and the first
I have seen in the north of the Park, all records being along the
Mbagathi River where it is common.
Nothing of interest was seen until reaching the back of Hyena Dam,
where there was a Sedge Warbler that had forsaken cover to feed in an
acacia growing next to the reeds. There was another in the reeds at
the little opening, that continues to become a smaller and smaller
aperture. The Eurasian Marsh Harrier that has its winter territory
confined to the dam, was there, an African Jacana was flying around
looking for stable footing on the surface vegetation, there was an
African Water Rail calling, a single Yellow Wagtail, but the most
interesting sighting here was a flock of about a hundred Athi
Short-toed Larks (and two Fischer's Sparrowlarks) flying low over the
dam and landing in the plains. Presumably some raptor had flushed them
from nearby. Extraordinarily the Lesser Swamp Warblers were in
incredible voice, and cavorting all through the reed-beds. Why have
they suddenly broken into song?
Continuing on the circuit, there was a Black Kite, (in fact Eurasian
Black Kites were scattered over the Park), and a pale Booted Eagle. I
stopped to look at a gathering of vultures on a fresh kill, but they
were hopelessly against the light, but whilst I was there a dark
Booted Eagle dropped like a stone to the side of me, scattering Athi
Short-toed Larks that I hadn't noticed. Another raptor passing over
the area was a near adult Lesser Spotted Eagle in rather heavy moult
still. Seems rather late for a migrant to be in such a condition.
Towards Karen Primary School Dam, there was an adult Black Stork, a
male Pallid Harrier, a few Lesser Kestrels, the first of the
Red-tailed Shrikes of the day which numbered three phoenicuroides and
five isabellinus (but none of them unusual plumage), a Whinchat, and a
pair of Northern Wheatears. I was sitting at the Dam for two-hours
waiting for the vultures to come in to bathe, to see if there was
anything unusual amongst them. Whilst there, some ten other vehicles
came and visited, which is not bad for a Monday. It was spectacular
with Zebras constantly arriving to slake their thirsts, with Kongoni,
Wildebeest, Wart Hogs with babies, twenty Ostrich, two hundred
Marabous, a host of vultures and waterbirds. It was a very pleasant
two hours with all of this going on. The surprise vulture to come in
was a near third-year Egyptian, a strange and attractive surprise. It
is a good few years since the last of its kind was recorded in the
Park. Whilst videoing the vultures bathing, the Marabous were (it
seemed) playfully tugging at their tails, or lightly pecking at their
necks. The vultures made aggressive sudden movements towards the
Marabous. This antagonism went for almost all the time the vultures
bathed although there was no violent aggression. On playing this
amusing scene back on the computer I picked up something I did not see
in the field, and I only realised what I was seeing by playing frame
by frame. A dragonfly flew past a Marabou, it made a snap at it and
missed, whilst the dragonfly carried on flying it snapped again and
missed, the dragonfly continued on, and a third snap caught it in
flight. All this happened in a fraction of a second, and I appreciate
that their methodic slow-motion movements are very deceptive as to
what lightening reactions the birds are capable of. A pair of Lanners
paid a visit, whilst amongst the waterbirds were singles Greenshank
and Green Sandpiper. Two Yellow Wagtails flew over, and there were
good numbers of Red-capped Larks in the short grass. Just past the
"Beacon" was a pair of Temminck's Coursers, and the Lilac-breasted
Roller is still at the Ruai Dam junction. It really seems to like it's
solitary tree. Ruai Dam has all but gone, perhaps one more week if no
rain. Birds apart from two Yellow-billed Storks and an African
Spoonbill have vacated it. There was the only Montagu's Harrier
(female) seen all day, a female Eurasian Marsh Harrier and eight
Lesser Kestrels. There was nothing much of note until the descent road
to Athi Dam, where two White-tailed Larks were flushed. With the dull
tones of the grass, the tail-feathers shine like a beacon. The dam has
new islands as the water level falls, however there are many birds
still enjoying its muddy margins. Three Pink-backed Pelicans and a
Red-knobbed Coot were on the open water, whilst there was a
concentration of 37 Yellow-billed and 17 White Storks on the edge. A
sub-adult Fish Eagle, and the white-wing Eurasian Marsh Harrier were
in residence and causing the birds to move around the dam. A young
Steppe Eagle was also flying in the valley. There were 65 Ruff, twenty
Little Stints, six Marsh Sandpipers with one remarkable individual
having a slightly upturned bill, certainly nothing I had seen before,
two Common Sandpipers, whilst afro-tropical waders numbered ten
Black-winged Stilts, five each of Spur-winged and Kittlitz's Plovers.
There was a Namaqua Dove flying over and another near Cheetah Gate.
Here there were a compact flock of twenty-five Lesser Masked Weaver,
which is a big number for here, four Speckle-fronted Weavers and an
Olivaceous Warbler. Whilst scattered widely, I thought that
Cinnamon-chested Rock Buntings were in smaller numbers than a few days
ago, until near Kingfisher Picnic Site I came across a party of ten
birds. Quailfinch were widespread, but much easier to see at any of
the smaller dams, Barn Swallows were in good numbers and there were
small parties throughout, and finally the Crowned Crane is still
incubating near Langata Gate.
The best mammals were not species, but Athi Dam is a bit of a nursery,
one group of Wildebeest had four barely day-old young, there was a day
old Thompson's Gazelle, a crèche of Kongoni, and the Wart Hogs there
also had chicks. Of course seeing the wild animals vistas not
punctuated with the multi-hued herds of domestic animals was the
greatest highlight.

Best to all

Brian