From: Fleur Ng'weno <fleur@africaonline.co.ke>
Date: 2010-04-20 16:56
Subject: Migrants and more
Migrants and more
Greetings
It was a muddy start to Nature Kenya's Sunday Birdwatch on April 18 when my car got stuck in black cotton soil at Brookside Dairies. However, the car was soon pushed out by efficient young birders, and 90 species of birds were recorded in just a few hours.
The rain water that filled Sukari Dam had breached the dam wall, so that the water in the dam itself was just a series of pools. But the channel on the western side was quite full, and the variety of habitats – grassland, trees, settling pools, mudflats, papyrus and sedges – provided a rich variety of birds.
Highlights included several Fulvous Whistling Duck, a Southern Pochard, a Booted Eagle, three showy Purple Swamphen, many Spur-winged Plover (now apparently common in and near Nairobi); Zebra (now Orange-breasted) Waxbill; and two pairs of absolutely brilliant Eurasian Golden Orioles.
Welcome to the Birdwatch the third Sunday of each month, 9 am at the Nairobi Museum.
Good birding, Fleur