On 20th Nov 2009 at Ol Donyo Laro, Nguruman Hills lying west of Lake Magadi and north of Lake Natron, some 500 Steppe Eagles were recorded perched mostly on the ground at the airfield by Mark Jenkins. Recent heavy rain had fallen.

On 4th and 5 Oct 2009 I saw a poor passgae of Steppe Eagles (6 a day) as well as Steppe Buzzards (4 on 4th, 1 on 5th Oct). During that week a total of some 20 Steppe Eagles were observed flying directly south. Most movements occured in threatening weather conditions and with visable rainfronts.

The Nguruman's are a north to south range of mountains stretching some 80km rising from a dry low altitude and hot plain. I specifically made the effort to sit on the ridge and wait for the migrants as it fits the migraory pathway perfectly. But rain was delayed and I had to leave.

The large numbers of eagles could well have had other species within the group.

Note the length of time of this passage. It is not over as I saw 3 Steppe Eagles, 2 Steppe Buzzards 2 Montagu Harriers, 2 Lesser Kestrels on the 24th Nov, during light rain.

If, as it appears, Ol Donyo Laro is a Shangri-la for migrant raptors in our region, the good news is that there is active conservation work on this, one of Kenya's largest and intact highland forests. It could do with recognition.

What does it take to get this recognised by the CMS migratory folks? Can we make it into an IBA?

Pallid and Montagu Harriers and Lesser Kestrels were observed 3 to 10th Oct, in small numbers, but in my opinion the occurence of these migrants bares little significance  in demonstrating the importance of an IBA, or migration route as they are typically spread thin over a vast front, faithful only to rain fronts and the tall grasses after good rains.

More importantly are those ridges and pathways that bottleneck the large and more heavily wing loaded raptors. It is an error for us in Kenya to be so focussed in vainly attempting to identify the areas important to the above-named small raptors, vulnerable or not.

This forum is a good place to record these large movements and to try and solve some of the migration puzzles.

 

Simon