Mombasa Bird Walk

I hear that most of you are sinking in the El Nino which so far seems to have missed Mombasa. The walk on Sat 17th went up to a very dry Huseini Dairy farm where all the dams are dry except for one that seems to have a mysterious supply of water! The grass around the dried up dams is at least very green and there were hundreds of Red Billed Quelea and lots of Zanzibar Bishops. The first bird we saw was 3 Laughing Doves. Although they are found country wide in dry areas this is a first for me, in that area, so suppose it says a lot for the state of the normally verdant pasture. The dried areas seemed to be providing quite a lot of seeds etc and 3 starling species, Black Bellied, Greater Blue Earred and Superb were there in quite large flocks. Lots of Namaqua Doves, some really splendid males. Migrants are now around in larger numbers, hundreds of Barn Swallows (my first of the year), several Common Sandpipers (but no other waders) and a superb male Eurasian Golden Oriole really displaying in front of us as he moved around the small shrubs (most of the big trees having been chopped). A big flock of Carmine Bee-eaters came to feed on insects from the dam, taking their treats back to one of the bigger trees. My birders are always so pleased to see these bee-eaters and in the setting sun their colours were truly magnificent. One down point was the large number of Indian House Crows, feeding around the dam and on the rubbish which has been dumped. We did see one brave Black Kite and another unidentifed bird of prey passing far away. It takes a lot of courage to brave these murauding black pirates of the sky. Total of 29 species seen in 11/2 hrs! Not bad! Keep on birding, it is so great! (Marlene Reid - Mombasa)