From: Fleur Ng'weno <fleur@africaonline.co.ke>
Date: 2009-08-26 15:54
Subject: Water birds
Water birds Greetings

Bernard Amakobe informs us that a team from the Ornithology Section (National Museums of Kenya) and the Department of Veterinary Services went to the Thika sewage pools today. We await their report.

The DVS hotline to report bird die-offs is 0722-726-682.

I am also happy to report that water birds are plentiful and apparently in good health at Brookside Dairies in Ruiru. The old Sukari Dam had been engulfed by water hyacinth, and introduction of the beetle failed to eradicate the plant. The management then dredged the dam, which is now slowly filling up.

Nature Kenya’s Wednesday Morning Birdwalk noted dozens of Spur-wing and Egyptian Geese, hundreds of White-faced Whistling Ducks, and a variety of herons, egrets, ibises, storks, ducks, jacanas, moorhens, plovers and newly arrived sandpipers. Over twenty Grey Crowned Cranes were seen in the distance, and a pair of Spotted Thickknees in the grassland next to the oxygenation ponds.

Wishing you good birding and good health, Fleur