Dear All,
There was a plan to go to the Ngurumans this week-end, to explore the
area, and relocate Brown-headed Apalis which has not been seen since
it was first reported nearly fifteen years ago, although this is lack
of coverage of the area, not anything to do with the disappearance of
the population. Because of the severe flooding of Narok district we
have postponed the trip now to the 22nd to 24th January. Hopefully the
conditions could be more favourable then. Karen Plumbe and myself had
a very interesting meeting with Jan Grootenhuis, who with the local
Maasai is trying to open the area for eco-tourism and have constructed
an enclosure by a large swamp in highland forest, with some
accommodation. There are also guides available and eager to lead.
So with the postponement and having cleared our calendars for this
weekend, Patrick and Karen Plumbe, Nigel Hunter and myself wanted to
make use of the time and visit somewhere interesting, and without the
probability of succumbing to the weather which is so widespread as to
make the choice not so easy. We decided on the Kerio Valley, and set
off on Saturday morning.
There had been heavy rain during the night, and water was rushing off
the farmland above Naivasha, and had flooded a few accommodations. The
Kikopey swamp was now Lake Kikopey, and parts of Kikopey town were now
part of the lake, standing in a foot of water. Because it was so wet,
there were no nice edges and the birds were disappointing with five
Open-billed Storks and a Garganey being it. Lake Elementeita looked
full, and although there was much shoreline, the water appeared to
reach the forest, but we did not stay to confirm this. The dams north
of Mogotio had been right over the road, and the sides were strewn
with stranded Nile Cabbage, it must have been very dramatic but has
now subsided leaving all dams full and extensive swamplands in the
woodland. Again disappointing, there were many White-faced
Whistling-Duck taking advantage of the new habitat but little else. We
turned off onto the Kabarnet road, so cannot comment on the state of
Baringo, however the rivers running off the escarpment were flowing
placidly and no sign of any of them having flooded. We had a short
stop by some woodland at the top of the mountain on the lush plateau,
here we had an adult Ayre's Hawk-Eagle, a couple of Ross's Turacos,
many Black-and-White Casqued Hornbills and numerous Violet-backed
Starlings frequenting a fruiting fig. We booked ourselves into the
Kabarnet Hotel for the one night. The rooms were comfortable, the food
perfectly adequate, the staff very eager to please, the cooked
breakfast the following morning filling and all for Ksh1000 each Bed
and Breakfast sharing in the VIP rooms. The non VIP rooms being Ksh200
cheaper!!!  Of course this is only minutes from the descent into the
Kerio and at the unlikely hour of 1-30pm we started birding. The
temperature climbed to 39oC and was quite humid. Nevertheless at our
first stop we found desired Green-backed Eremomela and
Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weavers, but the real surprise was a male
Brown-backed Woodpecker first heard calling then located. The first I
have ever encountered in this valley and quite out of habitat compared
to Central Kenyan birds (but not Elgon birds). Our second foray from
the vehicle provided us with a wonderful Gambaga Flycatcher which fed
for ten minutes in a sparsely leaved broad-leafed tree whilst we stood
very close to it. This was an incredible opportunity to study the bird
at close quarters, and both video and photograph the bird. It
characteristically hover-gleaned inside the tree, agilely plucking off
insects from the foliage in short flutters of only a couple of feet.
This is a very good feature of the birds feeding habits in Kenya and
is vastly different from Spotted Flycatcher. In pattern and colour the
bird is more like a diminutive Pale than a Spotted, with a Dusky-like
head shape, but lacking the dumpiness of all its congenerics. The bird
is hyperactive like a Monarch, and movements are extremely graceful
compared to all other related flycatchers. The stance in horizontal
not upright like Spotted. We closely studied the bird which was
solitary, and afterwards descended further into the valley. The next
sortie provided us with a number of Western Black-headed Batis, so
that was the four slope specialities already. We then had a look at
the woodland in the bottom of the valley alongside the Kerio River,
where there were a couple of White-crested Turacos and a few
Black-headed Gonoleks, then returned to the hotel.
On Sunday morning we left after breakfast, and took the road from the
bottom of the valley south to Tenges. It was a very interesting route,
and the road in amazingly good condition. We found a few more
interesting species whilst exploring the area, but the best place was
about fifteen kilometers after leaving the tarmac, where there was a
wooded river valley. Here there were two pairs of Lead-coloured
Flycatchers, numerous Black-headed Gonoleks and other species. We
emerged onto the tarmacked Kabarnet-Tenges road, then turned left to
Emining at Saos and on to  the Nakuru road.  Returning to Nairobi we
had a look at the settling ponds at Mogotio where there were so few
waders and nothing of note, and only one Yellow Wagtail and Eurasian
Rock-Thrush.  Interestingly there was a colony of (Jackson's)
Golden-backed Weavers securing their nests to the ends of banana
fronds. I wish I had taken more trouble now, to see how they had
accomplished this.  Angola Swallows were nesting on the buildings.
Lake Kikopey was even more extensive than the previous morning, but
the good news is that the water on Manguo Ponds now reaches the road
into Limuru and whilst there were no notable birds (one Shoveler) it
will become attractive again, although more water is needed.
So whilst we felt we had been birding for many days, having covered a
good distance yet having spent most of the time birding in the field
(thanks to the good conditions of the paved road all through the
journey), we had only been out of Nairobi one night! A highly
recommended circuit, to get into some fascinating and unexplored
country.
In the interest of completeness, there is a list of species that we
recorded just from the Kerio Valley below Kabarnet and along the
valley until emerging back onto the tarmac again. For botanists, there
were some interesting plants flowering, Nigel Hunter managed to
identify a couple of unusual trees we found, Zanthoxylum chalybeum,
known as Knobwood. A vicious looking tree whose main trunk and
branches had protuberances from which a nasty barb emerged, and
flowering Marula , Scleroclaryi birrea. Of the flowers there were a
few I had never seen before and have no idea what they are as yet,
including a terrestrial orchid. The arboreal Anselia Orchids were
putting on an amazing show however.
The people of the Kerio were as friendly and helpful as ever.
Best to all
Brian





HAMERKOP
HADADA IBIS
BLACK KITE
GABAR GOSHAWK
SHIKRA
TAWNY EAGLE
WAHLBERG'S EAGLE
CRESTED FRANCOLIN
HELMETED GUINEAFOWL
BLACK-HEADED PLOVER
SPECKLED PIGEON
RED-EYED DOVE
RING-NECKED DOVE
LAUGHING DOVE
EMERALD-SPOTTED WOOD-DOVE
AFRICAN GREEN PIGEON
MEYER'S PARROT
WHITE-BELLIED GO-AWAY BIRD
WHITE-CRESTED TURACO
RED-CHESTED CUCKOO
AFRICAN CUCKOO
WHITE-BROWED COUCAL
VERREAUX'S EAGLE-OWL
MOTTLED SWIFT
AFRICAN BLACK SWIFT
LITTLE SWIFT
SPECKLED MOUSEBIRD
BLUE-NAPED MOUSEBIRD
GREY-HEADED KINGFISHER
WHITE-FRONTED BEE-EATER
LITTLE BEE-EATER
LILAC-BREASTED ROLLER
GREEN WOOD-HOOPOE
CROWNED HORNBILL
AFRICAN GREY HORNBILL
RED-FRONTED TINKERBIRD
SPOT-FLANKED BARBET
WHITE-HEADED BARBET
RED-AND-YELLOW BARBET
D'ARNAUD'S BARBET
LESSER HONEYGUIDE
NUBIAN WOODPECKER
BROWN-BACKED WOODPECKER
CARDINAL WOODPECKER
BEARDED WOODPECKER
ROCK MARTIN
WIRE-TAILED SWALLOW
LESSER STRIPED SWALLOW
RED-RUMPED SWALLOW
BLACK SAW-WING
LONG-BILLED PIPIT
AFRICAN BLACK CUCKOO-SHRIKE
COMMON BULBUL
NORTHERN BROWNBUL
NORTHERN WHITE-CROWNED SHRIKE
WHITE HELMET-SHRIKE
NORTHERN PUFFBACK
BLACK-HEADED TCHAGRA
BLACK-HEADED GONOLEK
SLATE-COLOURED BOUBOU
SULPHUR-BREASTED BUSH-SHRIKE
GREY-HEADED BUSH-SHRIKE
GREY-BACKED FISCAL
COMMON FISCAL
WHITE-BROWED ROBIN-CHAT
SPOTTED PALM-THRUSH
AFRICAN THRUSH
RUFOUS CHATTERER
BROWN BABBLER
UPCHER'S WARBLER
WILLOW WARBLER
RATTLING CISTICOLA
TAWNY-FLANKED PRINIA
BUFF-BELLIED WARBLER
GREY-BACKED CAMAROPTERA
GREEN-BACKED EREMOMELA
RED-FACED CROMBEC
SILVERBIRD
PALE FLYCATCHER
GAMBAGA FLYCATCHER
LEAD-COLOURED FLYCATCHER
CHIN-SPOT BATIS
WESTERN BLACK-HEADED BATIS
AFRICAN PARADISE-FLYCATCHER
WHITE-BREASTED TIT
SCARLET-CHESTED SUNBIRD
VARIABLE SUNBIRD
MARIQUA SUNBIRD
BRONZE SUNBIRD
BEAUTIFUL SUNBIRD
AFRICAN YELLOW WHITE-EYE
CINNAMON-BREASTED ROCK BUNTING
GOLDEN-BREASTED BUNTING
WESTERN CITRIL FINCH
REICHENOW'S SEEDEATER
RED-BILLED FIREFINCH
RED-CHEEKED CORDON-BLEU
WHITE-HEADED BUFFALO-WEAVER
WHITE-BROWED SPARROW-WEAVER
CHESTNUT-CROWNED SPARROW-WEAVER
GREY-HEADED SPARROW
YELLOW-SPOTTED PETRONIA
GROSBEAK WEAVER
BAGLAFECHT WEAVER
LITTLE WEAVER
VILLAGE WEAVER
RED-WINGED STARLING
GREATER BLUE-EARED STARLING
RUPPELL'S STARLING
VIOLET-BACKED STARLING
SUPERB STARLING
AFRICAN BLACK-HEADED ORIOLE
AFRICAN DRONGO