Dear All,
On 31st March, I had a day in Nairobi National Park. There had been
substantial recent rain, and it was a clear day with sun for most of
it. I was through the Main Gate at 6.30am and the first port of call
was Ivory Burning Site. Obviously a mass departure, the only birds
here were a Spotted Flycatcher, two each Olivaceous and Garden
Warblers and three Willow Warblers. No sign of Nightingales which
makes the place very quiet. A Fish Eagle was calling as were Scaly
Francolin, and there was a female Violet-backed Starling in the large
croton.
Along the back road there was the first of the returning Eurasian
Cuckoos, but little else until the African Water Rail on the small
swamp. The track from there to Hyena Dam was quite treacherous, and
the dam was over the road. Another (or the same) Eurasian Cuckoo flew
over, and there were four Spotted Flycatchers in one small area, and
the first of four Red-tailed Shrikes. On the run-off there was little
but a pair of Crowned Cranes with three young, that's the fifth pair
with young now, they are having a very good year. There were a few
Rosy-breasted Longclaws and they were seen in the grassland all
through to Athi Basin. Along the Mokoyiet there was a Northern Hobby
(the only palearctic raptor of the day), perched, three Eurasian
Golden Orioles and ten Wattled Starlings. Because of the muddy
conditions I kept to the main road, Karen Primary School Dam had a
very tame male Yellow-crowned Bishop but nothing else. Along the road
there was a displaying Hartlaub's Bustard, a Whinchat being the only
migrant chat of the day, and a group of ten Cardinal Queleas in
breeding dress. There were scattered White-tailed Larks here as well
as more in the Athi Basin. Two adult Lesser Grey Shrikes were in
adjacent bushes yet they were the only one seen all day. Along the top
road towards Athi Dam, I flushed a Buttonquail from the side of the
road, which obligingly landed in the middle of the road, but ran into
cover before I could get the camera ready, the only Red-backed Shrike
of the day was here. Athi Dam had received more rain, and the basin
was so full that there was hardly any edge for waders, as a
consequence the only birds were four Spur-winged Plover, ten
Black-winged Stilts, one Greenshank, four Green, one Wood and two
Common Sandpipers and four Little Stints. Along the causeway there was
an adult Fish Eagle and the Black-crowned Night-Herons have been
replaced by a pair of Striated Herons which are possibly nesting in a
dense Ipomoea clump, there is a small colony of Speke's Weavers and
very close to them a Lesser Masked Weaver colony at present five males
and three females. It is many years since the last bred in the Park.
The track back to the Cheetah Gate road was very muddy, there were
four Temminck's Coursers along here, all adults, and a party of
twenty-five Eurasian Bee-eaters milling around. The "Orange" Tower was
very disappointing, and could only muster up a Spotted Flycatcher and
a Whitethroat, but stopping to spish in a clump of mellifera nearer to
the Cement Factory, a remarkable assemblage of birds came in, a
species I had never seen in the Park before were a pair of d'Arnaud's
Barbets, and whilst trying to get a photograph of them a
Red-and-Yellow Barbet popped up!!! Also there were three Olivaceous,
four Willow Warblers and two Whitethroat, three Spotted Flycatchers, a
beautiful pair of Marico Sunbirds and three Speckle-fronted Weavers. A
definite dry-country presence prevailed. There was little closer to
Cheetah Gate apart from a couple of Tree Pipits. A look at Rhino
Circuit showed that the bases of the riverside acacias were under
water and there was a very healthy flow, naturally the Hippo Pools was
also flowing well. Here there were only a single African Hoopoe,
Violet Wood-Hoopoes were calling somewhere, the male Von der Decken's
Hornbill was still here, otherwise a couple of Spotted Flycatchers, a
Tree Pipit, singles of the warblers already mentioned, the Red-faced
Cisticola was still present, six Wattled Starlings, seven
Speckle-fronted Weavers and a couple of Village Indigobirds. There was
little after this until the Kisembe Forest Edge Dam where the Crowned
Cranes had three young (I only saw two last week), and Langata Dam
which had a pair of Crowned Cranes with two young, the juvenile
deserted Little Grebe and the male Saddle-billed Stork.
There was a heavy Barn Swallow movement to the east through much of
the day, Quailfinch were only seen in small numbers, but there seemed
to be an inordinate number of Purple Grenadiers through much of the
wooded parts of the Park.

The mammal numbers and variety in the Athi Basin is most impressive.
Of the better species today there were two Black Rhinos in Athi Basin,
a White Rhino near Nagalomon Dam, a Side-striped Ground-Squirrel at
the Hippo Pools and a Cheetah near Leopard Cliffs.

A good day, but the numbers of migrants very much down and this seems
earlier that normal. I left through Langata Gate at 4.50pm.