On the evening of January 5th some 350 white storks came to feed (emerging termites?) in the grasslands, bathe in the temporary lake just southeast of the airstrip created by very heavy rain two days earlier (which also held a pair of Egyption geese) and roost in the Acacia trees at very green and wet Shompole (just north of Lake Natron). They were accompanied by a dozen or so Abdim’s Stork.

Other goodies were displaying Kori bustards (at least a dozen seen), Maasai Ostrich, 2 adult Lappet-faced vultures, one of the brown eagles probably Tawny, Eastern Chanting Goshawk, a pair of crowned cranes, Spotted Thick-knee, two-banded courser, a large group of a few hundred terns heading south, one large and one small type (too far to identify but from the jizz probably gull-billed and one of the marsh terns), white-rumped swift, Grey-headed and Pygmy Kingfisher, White-throated bee-eaters displaying, Red-fronted Barbet juveniles emerging from the nest hole, Red-and-yellow Barbet, Fisher’s Sparrowlark, Pin-tailed Wydah, Black-necked Weaver, Vitelline Masked Weaver (feeding young), Chestnut Weaver, Spotted Morning Trush, etc. What was really nice also with the rains and the ensuing termite activity, in combination with the dark clouds is that both Aardwolf and Bat-eared foxes were out in numbers during the day.