Dear All,
After a reasonable rain last night, I decided to visit Nairobi
National Park to see what may have arrived with the promise of a
wet-season at last. I arrived at the Main Gate at 6-45am and whilst
waiting for my card to be processed, there were a pair of Brown-backed
Woodpeckers cavorting in the trees.
Although it was very dark and overcast when I arrived, it was not
raining but this was soon to change on entering the Park. A soaking
rain fell persistently as I headed off to the small dam near Langata
Gate. Rupert Watson had phoned me to say that he thought he had had a
Dwarf Bittern there over the past ten days, although it was larger
than he expected.  On the way I checked Nagalomon Dam, the colony of
Long-tailed Cormorants and Black-crowned Night-Herons that I found
last year, might be happening again as both species were around the
site but no sign of nests as yet. There were also Sacred Ibis, but
most interestingly three Pink-backed Pelicans were perched in the top
of the tree. When I got to the Langata Gate dam it was pouring, but
there was a very nice and rather early Madagascar Pond Heron there. I
scanned for any other herons or bitterns that might have been hiding,
but there was nothing. I took some video of the bird to show to Rupert
to see if this was his bird, but I doubt if it was. Near Impala
Lookout was a Jacobin Cuckoo, a Whitethroat and a small flock of
breeding plumaged Chestnut Weavers.
I returned to the Ivory Burning Site, and waited for the rain to abate
with an adult Sooty Falcon that was perched in a tree in the pouring
rain. Sadly a Pied Crow found it and harassed it, and it flew off
noisily. The rain ceased and I had a walk, not finding anything but
the Sooty Falcon returned, this time accompanied by four Pied Crows!
Along the back road I found the first of fifteen Red-backed Shrikes,
there was a Eurasian Hobby at Hyena Dam. The reeds have either been
cut back a bit, or there has been a natural die-off, at last water is
visible again!
Grassland birds were very bouncy in the adjacent plains, there were
four Lesser Kestrels and the first of five Lesser Grey Shrikes.
Although I have seen White-tailed Larks away from the Athi Basin in
the past, this is the first time I have had birds singing on territory
away from Athi Basin, and this year they appear to have found the
Hyena Dam grasslands to their liking. There were at least six
Rosy-breasted Longclaws flying around and singing, and Zitting
Cisticolas were active and noisy.
There was a Great Egret and two Little Egrets on the run-off.
Olmanyi Dam has had an infusion of water, although the water is still
well out from the reeds. There was nothing on it, but finally what to
me was the most surprising species, that I had never personally
recorded in the Park before, was laid to rest, when two beautiful
Horus Swifts came in to slake their thirst. After all the rain I have
no idea why they were thirsty, but they made numerous circuits until I
got the camera out, and I never saw them again! I waited but only
Little and White-rumped Swifts came back to drink. On the ridge
overlooking the dam were impressive numbers of swifts and swallows
feeding over the same area for at least an hour, so the insect life
must have been good there. Apart from the swifts mentioned were
African Black, Nyanza and Palm, swallows were half Barn and half
Lesser Striped and Red-rumped. A Eurasian Hobby came along the same
ridge, and with a fairly strong headwind it was nearly hovering,
something I had not seen before.
Kingfisher Picnic Site was very busy and I did not stop there, a
sub-adult Fish Eagle was in the area, and the pair of Saddle-billed
Storks were on the nearby swamp.
Back on the road towards Langata Gate, another Jacobin Cuckoo flew by,
there was a solitary noisy Madagascar Bee-eater sitting on a dead
branch, but then something really strange flew out of the forest. It
was entirely slaty-blackish above with a black side to the face, and
entirely white below. I could see that it was not a Great Sparrowhawk,
and all dark wings and clearly uncrested, readily eliminated,  Jacobin
(which I had seen only a couple minutes earlier) and Levaillant's
Cuckoos. The bird instead of flying back into the forest continued to
fly parallel with it but out over the open plain. I could see that the
bill was not raptorial but that of a cuckoo.  One amazing thing that I
have never seen any cuckoo do is actually glide on open wings just
like an accipiter, then it would flap again and glide instead of the
continuous wingbeats that the large cuckoos usually show. By now I
realised what the bird was, but could not believe it, I was looking at
a Thick-billed Cuckoo. The bird flew a kilometre then fell out of the
sky disappearing into a thicket as if it had been shot. I drove all
the way round to where it had disappeared but no luck.
Thick-billed Cuckoo is an edge of range species in Kenya, with its
distribution along the east coast and penetrating the Tana River
forests inland. I was most surprised to find that there has never been
any vagrancy in Kenya away from the coast, even though they are fairly
regular in Uganda, and the distribution not only extends across to
West Africa, and down the east to Southern Africa, but also reaches
Madagascar. This bird was an adult in good plumage, and it is unlikely
just a winter vagrant up from the south. The accipiter-like gliding
between bouts of flapping also threw me, but all of my previous
experience of the species is from the coast, where it is in dense
forest, and flying with graceful deep rowing beats… I had never seen
the species in the open before.
I looked at the Langata swamp again, but even the Madagascar Pond
Heron had gone, so I checked the little visited dam and swamp on the
other side of the Langata exit road, but there was nothing apart from
a third Jacobin Cuckoo. Having just remained in the north of the Park,
I left at 1-30pm.
I went into Nairobi Park thinking that with the palearctic migrants
all but gone, that there would be a hiatus before southern birds
arrived, I was so very wrong.

Best to all

Brian