Dear All,

On 27th February, Mike Davidson kindly drove Fleur Ng'Weno, Karen
Plumbe, Gordon Boy and myself to Sangare Ranch near Mweiga. We drove
up on the Friday morning, and returned back to Nairobi Saturday
afternoon. The object was to see the accommodation and hopefully find
these mythical Spotted Creepers. The first was met, but in spite of
effort on both days, the creepers were not playing fair.
We spent Friday night at the camp, there are a number of extremely
comfortable quite luxurious tents along the foreshore of the dam. This
has to be one of the most interesting accommodations for birders in
this country, it is so full of ducks and waders, and they are
literally on the doorstep. Fleur even had a drake Maccoa that
regularly rested amongst some semi-submerged branches only thirty
metres from her tent, and Mike got some superb photographs of both
Spotted Redshank and Red-throated Wryneck when resting on his balcony
(him not the birds).
We stopped off for a brief stop at the first river crossing on the
Aberdare Country Club road (from the Kiganjo end), there was much
activity in the riverside forest, migrants such as Blackcaps, Willow
Warblers and Tree Pipits mixed with some less common residents
numbering Brown-backed Scrub-Robin and Brown Parisoma. In an onion
field there were a number of Yellow Wagtails (sykes & lutea) and a
stunning male Whinchat. Green and Common Sandpipers, and Cape Wagtails
were on the river rocks, and the meeting of habitats led to Moustached
Green Tinkerbirds and Ruppell's Robin-Chats mixing with Rufous
Chatterer and White-browed Sparrow-Weaver.

At Sangare there was some evidence that birds were starting to move
northwards, a single Northern Hobby, a dozen Sand Martins and a Common
Whitethroat were almost certainly birds that did not winter in this
area. Other woodland migrants included several Nightingales, two
Red-tailed Shrikes, a few Blackcaps, good numbers of Willow Warblers,
and a couple of Olivaceous Warblers.
Around the dam were a few Yellow Wagtails, whilst amongst the nine
species of swallows were a single House Martin, the Sand Martins
already mentioned and numerous Barn Swallows. Waterbirds were well
represented but strangely all the ducks were African. Over one-hundred
Egyptian Geese might have been concentrated because of other local
dams drying up, a dozen White-faced Whistling-Duck, sixty Red-billed
Teal, twenty Hottentot Teal, twenty-five Cape Teal and a similar
number of Yellow-billed Duck, eight Southern Pochard and a pair of
Maccoa Ducks. Resident waders consisted of numerous Black-winged
Stilts, good numbers of Blacksmith and a few Three-banded Plovers,
whilst the palearctics were represented by a singles Common Greenshank
and Spotted Redshank, ten each Marsh and Wood Sandpipers, six Common
Sandpipers, sixty Ruff and ten Common Snipe. Other waterbirds were
plenty of Little Grebes and Red-knobbed Coots, Black Crakes and Common
Moorhens where there was cover, six Pink-backed and one White Pelican,
eight Yellow-billed Stork. four African Spoonbills, plenty of Sacred
and Hadada Ibis and an immature Greater Flamingo. This is an important
waterbird refuge on Laikipia. Migrant raptors numbered all three
harriers, Marsh being the commonest, the aforementioned Hobby, other
birds of prey were Crowned, Martial, Brown Snake and Tawny Eagles, a
few Harrier-Hawks, and the only night birds were Verreaux's Eagle-Owl
and Montane Nightjars. Trees over the tents harbour a very good
assortment of species, Olive Pigeon, Red-fronted and Brown Parrots,
Green Woodhoopoes, African Scimitarbills and Red-breasted Wrynecks
being a very few of these. We tracked down two different calling
Scaly-throated and one Greater Honeyguides, in the open areas were
Grassland, Long-billed and Plain-backed Pipits, Cape Wagtails fought
their reflections in the dining-room window. Which reminds me that the
food was very nice with generous buffet breakfast and plated service
main meals…. They even left a complementary welcome cake in the tent.
Meals can be alfresco right next to the lake and the Speke's Weaver
colony where there are plenty of distractions or in the dining room at
night complete with fire.
Back to the wildlife, we recorded 154 species of birds in our casual
and all too brief visit to Sangare, mammals were also in evidence,
Maasai Giraffe, Common Zebra, Cape Buffalo, Eland, Waterbuck,
Bush-buck, Thomson's Gazelles, Impala, Wart-Hogs, Side-striped
Ground-Squirrel and a single Coypu. Certainly a wonderful getaway not
too far from Nairobi.

On the return we left via the Solio Road between Naro Moru and
Ndaragwa. It was very sad to see the displaced persons scattered over
much of what used to be rangelands. Migrants were poor with six Lesser
Kestrels, a couple each of the three migrant Harriers, five Northern,
three Isabelline Wheatears and two Whinchats. Along the road were a
scattering of Yellow Wagtails, and a few Barn Swallow on the
fence-line.

A list of species that we recorded in the confines of Sangare Ranch 
follows;

Little Grebe
Great White Pelican
Pink-backed Pelican
Grey Heron
Black-headed Heron
Cattle Egret
Marabou Stork
Yellow-billed Stork
Hadada Ibis
Sacred Ibis
African Spoonbill
Greater Flamingo
Egyptian Goose
Cape Teal
Red-billed Teal
Hottentot Teal
Yellow-billed Duck
White-faced Tree Duck
African Pochard
Maccoa Duck
Tawny Eagle
Brown Snake Eagle
Eurasian Marsh Harrier
Pallid Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Martial Eagle
African Crowned Eagle
African Harrier-Hawk
Eurasian Hobby
Shelley's Francolin
Helmeted Guineafowl
Black Crake
Red-knobbed Coot
Common Moorhen
Grey Crowned Crane
Black-winged Stilt
Three-banded Plover
Blacksmith Plover
Common Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Marsh Sandpiper
Common Greenshank
Spotted Redshank
Common Snipe
Ruff
Olive-Pigeon
Ring-necked Dove
Dusky Turtle-Dove
Red-eyed Dove
Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove
Red-fronted Parrot
Brown Parrot
White-browed Coucal
Diederik Cuckoo
Klaas' Cuckoo
Verreaux's Eagle-Owl
Montane Nightjar
Mottled Swift
Little Swift
Speckled Mousebird
Blue-naped Mousebird
Little Bee-eater
Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater
Lilac-breasted Roller
African Hoopoe
Green Wood-hoopoe
Common Scimitarbill
Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird
Red-fronted Tinkerbird
Red-fronted Barbet
Greater Honeyguide
Lesser Honeyguide
Scaly-throated Honeyguide
Nubian Woodpecker
Cardinal Woodpecker
Grey Woodpecker
Red-throated Wryneck
Grassland Pipit
Plain-backed Pipit
Long-billed Pipit
Tree Pipit
Yellow-throated Longclaw
African Pied Wagtail
Cape Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail
Common House-Martin
Angola Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow
Rock Martin
Barn Swallow
Wire-tailed Swallow
Black Saw-wing
Plain Martin
Sand Martin
Common Bulbul
Rufous Chatterer
Ruppell's Robin-Chat
Nightingale
Little Rock Thrush
White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher
African Dusky Flycatcher
Lesser Swamp Warbler
Yellow-breasted Apalis
Grey-backed Camaroptera
Rattling Cisticola
Grey-capped Warbler
Olivaceous Warbler
Brown Parisoma
Willow Warbler
Tawny-flanked Prinia
Blackcap
Common Whitethroat
Red-faced Crombec
Montane White-eye
White-bellied Tit
Chin-spot Batis
Common Fiscal
Red-tailed Shrike
Black-backed Puffback
Tropical Boubou
Sulphur-breasted Bush-shrike
Black-crowned Tchagra
Black Cuckoo-shrike
Black-headed Oriole
Pied Crow
Red-billed Oxpecker
Violet-backed Starling
Greater Blue-eared Starling
Collared Sunbird
Amethyst Sunbird
Bronze Sunbird
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Variable Sunbird
Rufous Sparrow
Grosbeak Weaver
Yellow Bishop
Baglafecht Weaver
Spectacled Weaver
Speke's Weaver
Holub's Golden-Weaver
Common Waxbill
Red-billed Firefinch
Black and White Mannikin
Bronze Mannikin
Quail-finch
Red-cheeked Cordonbleu
Purple Grenadier
Pin-tailed Whydah
African Citril
Yellow-rumped Seedeater
Streaky Seedeater
Brimstone Canary
Golden-breasted Bunting