A
belated review of a trip made by Sarah Alsbury, Julia Bracewell, Paul Buckley
and David Hutton between 9 and 23 November. We made the trip through the
excellent and efficient services of Joseph Mwangi of NaturesWonderland Safaris
and we’ll place a trip report on their website
(www.natureswonderlandsafaris.com) in due course.
We
left Nairobi on Monday 9th and sailed past the endless traffic jams
on Thika Road to the Thika sewage ponds.
An excellent introduction to wetland birds with good numbers of common
ducks seen along with a few migrants such as Garganey, Ruff and Wood and Marsh
sandpiper. We then sped off
to Wajee and managed good views of a small group of Hinde’s Babblers and the
only Cinnamon Bracken Warbler and Yellow-bellied waxbill of the trip. Too little time at the marvellous
Mountain Lodge but we saw a few upland species. A cuckoo hawk in a tree outside
the breakfast room took top billing and some of us got brief views of Jackson’s
Francolin the following morning.
Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon, Red-fronted Parrot and Crowned Eagle were other spectacular
species.
Two
days at Buffalo Springs and Samburu followed. The rain must have made a huge
difference there although Samburu was still pretty dry. Excellent mammals and birds all round
including Heuglins and Somali courser, Swallow-tailed Kite and good numbers of
Somali Bee-eater. We saw Pygmy
Falcon, Red-fronted Warbler and Black-bellied sunbird and Cuckoos included
Klaas, Jacobin and Black. Migrants included a single Upcher’s Warbler and
Nightingale. PB was surprised not to see a single Yellow-billed hornbill, a
species he recorded as common on a previous visit in the mid 1990s, nor did we
manage a single cheetah. An
Aardwolf was the most interesting mammal.
North
of Mt Kenya we saw a nice group of Straw-tailed Wydah, Steel-blue Wydah and
Village Indigobird. At Naro Moro, a
brief look included Green-headed, Tacazze and Northern double collared
sunbird. Then a long trek to
Baringo the following day stopping for the Mackinders Eagle site and seeing a
few additional highland species including Black-winged Plover and Golden-winged
sunbird.
Two
nights at Baringo were productive completing our set of Eagle owls with Greyish
and Verrauxs as well as African Scops and white faced Scops. Other species included
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Northern Grey Tit, Brown Babbler, Golden-backed Weaver
as well as Hemprichs and Jacksons Hornbills, and close views of Slender-tailed
Nightjar. The boat trip offered
obliging and hungry fish eagles and several Senegal Thick-knee. The bird table at Baringo Club was
spectacular with exceptionally close views of around 15 species – including
three species of Masked Weavers.
We
stayed at the excellent Flamingo Camp just outside Nakuru. Flamingo numbers substantially down on
the same time last year but eagles included Great Spotted and Steppe. A small flock of Grey-crested helmet
shrikes was observed below Baboon rocks where little rock thrush, mocking cliff
chat and hildebrandt’s francolin were all seen
Several
Kori Bustard on the way in to Mara and numbers of White-bellied and
black-bellied were high throughout. A large passage of many hundreds of White
Stork, a few Black and Openbill and Abdims also. Several groups of European hobby were
also recorded plus a few rollers and montagu’s and pallid harriers. A good third
day not only recorded all three big cats but they were all actually active –
even the lions! Failure to see a
single Ground hornbill was
disappointing. Numbers of
White-backed and Lappet-faced Vulture seemed not bad considering news of
declines though we saw just a few Ruppell’s and a single White-headed here. On the way out of the park we saw Double
Banded Courses and an astonishingly obliging Lanner Falcon eating insects on the
ground.