Dear All,

I visited Nairobi National Park just for the morning, and staying in
the northern parts. It would seem that no-one has been in the Park for
nearly three weeks. Since then there has been a reasonable rain, even
Olmanyi Dam is looking healthy with water into the sedges. The whole
place has a fresh feel, great swathes of both fresh green and freshly
seeding grasses and an abundance of wildflowers, but there has been a
mass exodus of mammals.
I arrived at 6-45am, it was quite dark, cold and the occasional
sprinkle of rain. It remained cool and overcast for much of the
morning, though brightened up around mid-day. There was nothing worthy
of note on the way in, Ivory Burning Site was birdless, the drive
along the back road to the back of Hyena Dam equally so apart from a
flock of thirty Greater Blue-eared Starlings in one bush. There were
two African Black Ducks flying off Hyena Dam, but nothing else there
at all. I then took the run-off track from the dam, and along the
creek near the first open water there was a Red-chested Flufftail
calling loudly from the same patch of reeds where I had heard one a
few weeks before, also African Water Rails calling here as well. The
adjacent grassland had attracted an abundance of Jackson's Widowbirds,
they are in remarkable numbers, additionally five Yellow-crowned
Bishops and four Cardinal Queleas. There were also a few Zebra
Waxbills and Quailfinches. Circling around back through the grasslands
to Hyena Dam, there were White-tailed Larks in an abundance I had not
seen them in the Park before, with at least twelve in songflight, with
a few Rosy-breasted Longclaws. Still zero at Hyena Dam, and Nagalomon
Dam could provide nothing but a Giant Kingfisher, which was still
ahead of Olmanyi Dam which revealed nothing at all. However there were
no less than five Kori Bustards together along the approach road.
Continuing around to Kingfisher proved fruitless, apart from a record
concentration of 150 extremely noisy Chestnut Weavers at the small
bridge at the bottom of Hyena Valley. I took the inside road which
passed right through Kisembe Forest, there was a reasonable assortment
of butterflies on the wing though all normal early emergers. Sitting
on a dead tree was the largest female Peregrine I had ever seen, it
appeared as large as a Common  Buzzard, and had a very full crop. A
little further ahead was an immature African Cuckoo-Hawk, and only (I
think) my second ever Black Cuckoo in the Park. As they have been
quite noisy around Langata this year, its presence in Kisembe Forest
is hardly surprising. The only other bird of interest was a single
Jacobin (Black-and-White Cuckoo) trailing a small mixed flock.
It appeared initially that when the palearctics left, they had taken
all of the other interesting afro-tropicals with them! The more
widespread rain means that Nairobi NP has lost its refuge status for
many species, however with persistence there are still some nice
surprises around with a bit of diligent searching.


VISIT TO SHOMPOLE 1st June 2009

On the 1st June, Nigel and Julia Hunter and myself took a day
excursion to Shompole. The road to Magadi is really getting pot-holey
which slows down progress however even with twenty minutes birding
along the causeway, we were still at Kirimatian by 9-30am having left
at 6-30am.
The Ol Kejo River was flowing as we left, and there was considerable
water where the road passes alongside it just beyond Olorgessaillie.
There were Horus Swifts prospecting here and also at another bank
further towards Magadi. There were only a couple of Singing Bush Larks
singing over the grasslands, but the cover is still scant. On the last
causeway there was a good concetration of birds, many Lesser and a few
Greater Flamingos, a single dark Dimorphic Egret amongst the Little
Egrets, some twenty Avocets, a dense concentration of well over 100
Chestnut-banded Plovers but the best was six nests of Black-winged
Stilts on the small islands. There are so few records of this species
breeding in Kenya, even though the species is widespread and in places
decidedly abundant.
We continued directly to Shompole, on the way finding two Southern
Black Bishops sitting in trees at long distance, that promptly
disappeared. There were patches of tall grasses peppered over the
plain, and these provided home to some fifteen very active male
Southern Red Bishops and a single Fire-fronted Bishop. These same
patches also had numerous territorial Cardinal Queleas. Strangely in
the vicinity of Shompole Airstrip there were no Black Bishops where
they had been so common in January 2008. The failure of the rains in
January 2009 had obviously adversely affected them, but why when the
place looked very green and was obviously ideal for the other Bishop
species were they not also in full breeding dress here. I wonder if
further south conditions were better earlier.
The abundant White-throated Bee-eaters were in pairs, and looked
soiled, lacking their usual dazzling spring lustre. This might have
meant that they had bred or were breeding but we saw no evidence of
this.

Best to all

Brian