I recently spent six days chasing down species desired by Hugh Buck.
Hugh well travelled throughout Africa (and he world) and an ex-Kenya
resident wanted to see Friedmann's, William's, Beesley's and Athi
Short-toed Larks, Nairobi Pipit, Sharpe's Longclaw, Grey-olive
Greenbul, Hinde's Babbler, Grey-crested Helmetshrike and Abbott's
Starling.
This required a lot of driving, and our overnights were Thika, Shaba,
Nakuru, Naivasha, and Namanga!  It was just Abbott's Starling that let
us down at both Kieni and Gatamayu, where we heard it down in the
valley, but it would not show itself.

There has been some rain over most of the places we visited, but
clearly far from enough. Thika was green and lush, and Kieni and
Kinangop had seen recent showers, whilst Nanyuki looked damp, Timau
was dry. We heard that Buffalo Springs had had a good downpour, yet
Shaba was relatively dry, though we did have one shower. Incidentally
the road is now paved and open all the way from Isiolo to the turn-off
to Buffalo Springs, and is a joy to travel on. We saw over 5000 head
of cattle in Shaba, they were 100 times more numerous than the game.
The condition is serious as large numbers are grazing on the William's
Lark plain, and have consumed much of the grass cover. The Solio
Plains were very dry, numbers of IDP'S have increased, and there are
countless cattle, whilst a herd of "Laikipia" Wildebeest have still
not been translocated. Nakuru had received rain, the lake has risen
slightly, but the flamingos are nothing short of spectacular, and many
are building nests. Strangely there has been a huge drop in White
Pelicans. Naivasha has had a few showers (the southern end), but the
lake level has not moved much if at all. Gatamayu was quite lush,
although no sign of recent heavy rain, just puddles on the track which
was not as slippery as it should have been! From Nairobi to Namanga
there was a lot of greening, but immediately on crossing the border as
far as the Olsugut Plains for the Beesley's Lark it was very much
drier. We tried the abbatoir for the Lammergeier's, it being a
Saturday and the slaughtering very active, but although we waited
until near 11-00am the birds did not show. Nairobi NP of course looked
very verdant. There was a Serval on the edge of the forest, incredibly
this is my third Serval in the last three consecutive visits.

Interesting observations were;

A marked arrival of Horus Swift with birds over Kieni, Naivasha and
numbers present at their colony in Nakuru NP near Makalia Falls (which
did not have a single drop of water).

11th May – Shaba GR
We found seven William's Lark, but with the cattle removing the
herbage, five were on one small rocky hill with scrubby cover, and
they would not move away from it, and kept returning.
The pair of Friedmann's Larks were in the same place as they were
three weeks ago, and might have a nest, although we did not persue
this. Still two Red-backed Shrikes left.

12th  May
An adult Sooty Falcon feeding over Solio Plain.

13th May – Nakuru NP
A Bat-Hawk flying around the acacias right at the Park main entrance and
a lone White-fronted Bee-eater at their old colony near Makalia Falls.

13th May – Lake Naivasha Club
An African Snipe feeding in the open at the jetty, usually a far more
secretive species,  and some four Grey-rumped Swallows persistent in
the area as if breeding or intending to breed in the immediate
vicinity. There were only three Barn Swallows present.

14th May – Gatamayu Forest
We arrived at Gatamayu Forest at 8:30am. It was overcast, but not
particularly cold and no rain at all. However the birds were not
singing or moving, and we were presented with a remarkably birdless
forest. Suddenly at 10:30am when the sun came out it became very busy
and we saw a great variety of highland forest species, including
wonderfully confiding Brown-chested Alethe.

15th May – Olsugut Plains (N. Tz).
We easily found a bright orange Beesley's Lark, and a paler orange
bird in the usual locality, and on taking a 30o angle to intercept the
car on the road located another two, a pale orange bird and a grey
individual with no colour. Whether this means that after a failed nest
last year, the birds still managed to raise a brood that was
undetected, or birds have arrived from another unknown site I do not
know, but it was so nice to see the species as more than the one
resident pair.

15th May – Nairobi NP
The Dwarf Bittern was still at Langata Gate dam, and a single and two
pairs of Nairobi Pipits on the edge of Kisembe Forest.

Best to all

Brian

PS we have had a Black Cuckoo in the garden this morning, and it was
also very noisy on 9th May.