Dear Brian
Thanks so much for your kind reply.

a quick note is that the photographed individual is an adult since 
they are feeding 4 pullies in a nest. but having worn out feather and 
all the variation in larks and the fact that the individual itself 
never whistled the call makes it rough on myside.

for sometimes back my kenyabirds wasn't working and so a few emails i 
sent would never go through (I'll post my last one for continuity in 
case one needed)

but in short on my last trip before this last one had  2 william's 
lark carrying food but did not have enough time to follow them and 
after about 15 min of a single individual follow up we had to move to 
other places. So i were quit sure they are nesting and a possible 
nest with young ones somewhere unless the males will lure females 
like i have seen cuckoos do before. Friedmann's were almost every 
where in the reserve in the right habitat and were all displaying. 
Later i got the right ups on Friedmann's from Dr. Peter Lack of BTO 
who had found them first in Tsavo region in the early 70s.

Just trying to imagine this would be the first record of the nesting 
William's and Friedmann's Lark i hitch a lift with Anthony Kuria and 
Gregory Maina both of Tropical Biology Association who were heading 
to Wamba to do a reconnaissance of a possible field study area and 
persuaded them to visit the site in search of the nests. However, i 
was much anticipating for Williams and not Friedmann's since i had 
seen adult carrying food.W e passed by the Shaba and had 2 days of heat.

The first morning on our way to the William's Lark's Plain i had to 
find for Kuria a Friedmann's Lark as he had not seen it before. The 
first few individuals were seem and later noticed that one was 
carrying food. We decided to follow the bird. Gregory who wasn't a 
bird a fanatic was was happy with our command to stand at the top of 
the car and watch any lions after us (just like a topi on top of a 
termite mound watching the plains for the others to feed). Just 
before stopping here we had 1 adult cheetah with 3 grown kids.
In a few hours of search with no luck despite a dozen times bring 
food and being sure it was the area of 10x10m where we were, we could 
not until Gregory himself from car's the roof top followed the bird 
on the ground walking in to the nest. This was like 20m away from our site.

In between the search we came across an egg shell that possible would be.

Just because they birds are nesting i thought it would be great to 
have the ID first clarified

Good luck Brian with your trip



At 09:59 AM 6/15/2010, Brian Finch wrote:
>Hi Chege,
>Good to see you are keeping busy. Friedmann's seems to be having a
>good year in Shaba, but I suspect they are residents in the same small
>area. Singing seems to be more nomadic.
>With regards to your photos, as you know Singing and Friedmann's look
>virtually the same. I would imagine these images as F, but when
>breeding they are richer rufous above and better marked underneath. It
>is difficult to see the state of the feathering, but they might be
>fresh and in which case I would go for Friedmann's immatures.
>Send them to Colin Jackson and see if he can work anything out from
>the state of the plumage.
>Off on a Kenya tour starting tomorrow,
>Very best for now
>Brian
>
>On 6/15/10, chege wa kariuki <chege@birdwatchingeastafrica.com> wrote:
> > Sorry just forgot to attache the photos
> > chege
> >
> > Thanks Brian
> > for your ID which i would for sure and better trust than mine. I
> > thought i was looking at a much heavier bill
> >
> > Just came from shaba and can't figure out if this would be the
> > Singing or Friedmann's Bush Lark. The photographed individual never
> > sang though other friedmann's were singing.
> >
> > many thanks
> >   chege
> >
> >
> > At 09:44 PM 6/14/2010, patrick lhoir wrote:
> >>Hi Chege,
> >>
> >>Nice to ear from you. Hope you're fine.
> >>
> >>Brian also replied on my mail :
> >>
> >>Hi Patrick,
> >>It's a Red-capped Lark bleached by the soda in the soil, many almost
> >>lose all of their pattern,
> >>Best for now
> >>Brian
> >>Anyway thank you very much. Athi Short-toed Lark was also my though
> >>but for sure Brian knows much than me.
> >>
> >>Can you tell me were in Crater Lake did you spot the Grey-crested
> >>Helmetshrike? Near the lake?
> >>
> >>Thank you very much for the place you explained me last year for the
> >>William's Lark. I found it exactly at that place. In fact I was
> >>there one week after you.
> >>
> >>Hope we can go birding together.
> >>
> >>Best regards,
> >>
> >>Patrick
> >