From: Fleur Ng'weno <fleur@africaonline.co.ke>
Date: 2010-10-06 16:02
Subject: World Bird Festival in Nairobi
World Bird Festival in Nairobi
Greetings
To celebrate World Bird Festival, a bird walk at the Nairobi National Museum on October 2 featured a Jacaranda tree dripping with sunbirds, a pair of Black-backed Puffbacks feeding a young one, and Cinnamon-chested Bee-eaters enjoying a sun bath, lying flat in a pool of red dust, wings and tail spread and beak open.
On October 3 Mike Davidson, Mike Plagens, Christina Murray, Martha Nzisa and myself spent seven hours birding in Nairobi National Park. Highlights among the 101 bird species seen were a pair of Ostriches with 16 small chicks, migrants such as Common, Green and Wood Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Northern and Isabelline Wheatears and Spotted Flycatcher, flocks of Violet-backed Starlings feeding on the Rhus natalensis berries at the Ivory burning site, and a couple of Rosy-breasted Longclaws in the grassland. A moorhen (sub-adult Common or unusually bold Lesser?) is still being scrutinized. Seven lions on the move were an added bonus.
On Nature Kenya’s Wednesday morning birdwalk today October 6, at the University of Nairobi Agricultural Field Station in Loresho (Lower Kabete), we recorded another remarkable 70+ species, including flocks of Eurasian Bee-eaters and Chestnut Weavers, a small flock of Yellow-crowned Canaries, and a singing Black-crowned Tchagra. The is the only site we visit in Nairobi where we find the Black-crowned Tchagra.
Wishing you good birding, Fleur