Karen and Patrick Plumbe, Graham,  James Wainaina, Zackary and I visited Eburu Forest early yesterday morning. We drove up through dry cold agricultural land and observed the system of extracting drinking water from steam vents by condensation into jerry cans. It was cold, frost lay on the ground and apart from a few seedeaters, good numbers of Stone Chats and a brown parisoma there wasn't a lot of activity until we got into the trees. The forest ranger hut sits a long way from any forest and was locked up and didn't look much used so we couldn't sign in. For the first part, most of the forest was secondary growth, regenerating from the time when much of it was cleared for potato growing, but large numbers of sheep, goats and cattle were preventing regeneration from taking place too rapidly. We climbed up through bamboo and enjoyed good sightings of Brown Woodland warbler, Cinnamon Bracken warbler and White-tailed crested flycatchers. Both white and rufous morphs of Paradise Flycatchers were evident. Hill Babblers were singing and Mountain Greenbuls easy to see. However, there was huge evidence of a vibrant charcoal business from the maze of trails cut into the bamboo and the spoor of the donkeys used to carry the sacks. Then in a broad leafed clearing we had a great time watching 12 White headed hoopoes foraging amongst tree bark , Fine banded woodpecker and mountain yellow warblers, Northern double collared and Tacazze sunbirds fed on a leonotis and there were Black and Grey cuckoo shrikes. There were also good views of Chestnut throated and Grey apalis, Blackcap, Scaly throated and Lesser Honeyguides. At that point 6 donkeys laden with charcoal, 2 hunting dogs and their 3 human  owners wandered past us. Zackary contacted the  forest department to inform them of the load going down the hill but was asked instead if we had permission to be in the forest.
Above the bamboo the scene is sickening, huge areas of forest have been felled and are in all stages of the charcoal making process. There was little sign of animals apart from donkeys. Birds in that clearing included a Eurasian Hobby, Golden winged sunbirds (with males trying to chase off fledged young) Yellow Crowned  Canaries, Hunters Cisticolas and Olive Thrushes.
If the Bongo still exists it must be in deep trouble. We have a lot of photographic evidence of our trip if anyone would be interested.
The checklist for this trip taken from Kenyabirdfinder is below:

Visit information 
 
Location *	Eburu Forest, Naivasha.
Date *	08/03/2009
Start time to finish time	07:00 to 12:30
Actual time spent birding *	5 Hrs 3 Mins
Number of observers	6
Did you record all birds seen/heard?	Yes
Were no birds seen?	No
Did weather, visibility, disturbance etc affect your counts?	No
Purpose (if for a particular project)	Birdwatching
Other notes for the visit	Frost on way into forest. Extremely cold. Very dry but became very hot by midday. Forest extremely degraded and huge evidence of charcoal burning on an enormous scale. Forest ranger hut shut.
Observers (other users taking part in the visit)	
Total species observed during visit	70  

Species	Count	Activity	Activity	Notes	Private
African Harrier-Hawk					
Eurasian Hobby					
Red-eyed Dove					
Ring-necked Dove					
Dusky Turtle Dove					
Hartlaub's Turaco					
African Black Swift					
Nyanza Swift					
Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater					
White-headed Wood-hoopoe					
Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird					
Scaly-throated Honeyguide					
Lesser Honeyguide					
Fine-banded Woodpecker					
Grey Woodpecker					
Rufous-naped Lark					
Plain Martin					
Barn Swallow					
Red-rumped Swallow					
Rock Martin					
Black Saw-wing					
Long-billed Pipit					
Black Cuckoo-shrike					
Grey Cuckoo-shrike					
Mountain Greenbul					
Common Bulbul					
Common Fiscal					
Tropical Boubou					
White-starred Robin					
Cape Robin-Chat					
Common Stonechat					
Abyssinian Black Wheatear					
Olive Thrush					
African Hill Babbler		Calling	not seen		
Blackcap					
Willow Warbler					
Uganda Woodland Warbler			seen by Zackary		
Brown Woodland Warbler					
Cinnamon Bracken Warbler					
Mountain Yellow Warbler					
Hunter's Cisticola					
Tawny-flanked Prinia					
Chestnut-throated Apalis					
Grey Apalis					
Grey-capped Warbler					
White-browed Crombec					
Brown Parisoma					
African Dusky Flycatcher					
White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher					
Chin-spot Batis					
White-tailed Crested Flycatcher					
African Paradise Flycatcher					
White-bellied Tit					
Amethyst Sunbird					
Scarlet-chested Sunbird					
Northern Double-collared Sunbird					
Tacazze Sunbird					
Bronze Sunbird					
Golden-winged Sunbird					
Montane White-eye					
Yellow-crowned Canary					
Streaky Seedeater					
Thick-billed Seedeater					
Purple Grenadier					
Rufous Sparrow					
Baglafecht Weaver					
Holub's Golden Weaver					
Yellow Bishop					
Greater Blue-eared Starling					
Common Drongo