I have just finished a two week tour with David Sibley, better known
in North America for his N. Am field guides to birds and trees
(separate books! ), but because of the freeze in Europe stranding him
here, it is ever extending!
When I picked him up at JK on the evening of 6th December, the skies
opened and we had to shelter from a torrential downpour for twenty
minutes before making it to the car-park. We drove direct to Maasai
Lodge, where I had collected a room key that very afternoon so that we
did not have to wait to get to the room, and it was by now after
midnight.
The morning of the 7th was David’s first day in Africa, and so we
walked around the lodge. With the entrance to Nairobi National Park
via Maasai Gate, only a kilometre away it was possible to get there
nice and early. Wrong! The gardens and surrounds of Maasai Lodge were
so incredibly birdy, with a huge variety that we did not reach the
gate until after 9-00am!!! I never realized that this was such an
incredibly good area, and regret having not personally discovered the
potential before. Some species rarely recorded in the Park are
resident, in fact they are in the Park being in the Mbagathi Ravine,
but the area is not accessible from inside the Park. Cliff Chats were
along the cliffs as well as on the buildings, Red-winged Starlings
feed around the illuminations in the bar area well after dark, then
roost on the light fittings. They have certainly got life worked out!
Both Grey-olive and Zanzibar Sombre Greenbuls are resident and noisy.
Whilst the Grey-olives are a good record, this came as no surprise as
I have recorded them on five occasions now in the Park, and surmised
that they would be resident in the gorge. I had heard Zanzibar Sombres
once from Leopard Cliffs but all my other records are from Nagalomon
Dam-Ivory Burning Site area. Other birds in the garden included
Eurasian Reed and Marsh Warblers, Olivaceous, Garden and Blackcap. And
some sixty other species. Before entering the Park we found the pair
of Red-faced Cisticolas. The staff at Maasai Gate were so very
pleasant, but because it had been cloudy, the solar-powered Smart Card
system could not operate, and they had to radio ahead to Main Gate to
say we were coming in there to check-in. We got there about   1.00pm
and completed the formalities. Birds seen inside the Park numbered a
pair of Saddle-billed Storks near Hyena Dam where African Water Rails
called but did not show themselves, a few Black-crowned Night-Herons
at Nagalomon Dam, and a stunning and rather tame immature Crowned
Eagle in the Kisembe Forest. At Kingfisher Picnic Site was an
attractive pair of Levaillant’s Cuckoos (the first for quite a long
time), the Broad-tailed Grassbird was displaying along the Mokoyiet
Road near Nagalomon, but the main interest was the palearctic migrants
and driving the tracks we found particularly near Langata Gate, some
ten Iranias, six Eurasian Rock-Thrush, three Whinchats, a number of
all three migrant Wheatears, no less than six Great Reed Warblers, and
over fourty Whitethroats as well as small numbers of Willow, Garden
and Blackcap. and the more usual species resulted in David’s first day
in Africa, although having visited Europe, still netted him over a
hundred new species. We had a good selection of mammals as well,
including Black Rhinoceros.
That night it rained, and in the morning of the 8th at Maasai Lodge we
had another good selection of birds and made it through Maasai Gate a
little earlier, but with the same problem of solar-driven Smart Cards.
There was a flock of fifteen Parasitic Weavers near the entrance,
interestingly all but one an adult male in breeding dress. Making our
way towards the Athi Basin we found many Pied Wheatears along the
road, slightly fewer Isabelline and only a couple of Northern. In Athi
Dam area was a very obliging singing White-tailed Lark, and a
reasonable assortment of birds at the dam included a Collared
Pratincole.
We departed through East Gate at 11-00am and set off for Ngulia. On
the high wires along the pylon line near the entrance at Mtito Andei
there were about 25 Madagascar Bee-eaters in full breeding plumage.
Every year at this time they are present here. At the Museum there was
a small assortment of migrants, and in Rhino Valley several Golden
Pipits in breeding plumage. On the approach road at dusk we found
Eurasian, Dusky, Plain and Donaldson-smith’s Nightjars. We met up with
David Pearson, Colin Jackson and a strong contingent of ringers from
Kenya Museum, UK and Israel. There was no mist to speak of that night,
and a good sleep was most welcome.
On the morning of the 9th, we joined the ringers around the Swimming
Pool, where they had some birds that had been caught near the lodge.
The most interesting bird was not caught however, and was a female
Eurasian Sparrowhawk which after a couple of frustrating fly bys,
landed in a tree and was duly digitised. If this were not enough it
was later joined by a young male. Two Eurasian Sparrowhawks together,
that has to be news! The African contingent were elated and left the
ringing to see the perched female, however the Brits and Israelis
would not budge and were “oohing” and “aahing” over a Camaroptera they
had just caught. It was a great example of “different strokes!!!”
After breakfast which was punctuated by a few niceties in the front
bushes with several Jacobin Cuckoos, Barred and Basra Reed Warblers
and a Rufous Scrub-Robin, we left for a full day in the sub-desert
scrub below. The dismal grey and very light showers kept birds active,
but the otherwise arid conditions meant that birds were for the major
part silent. Our highlights were two Dwarf Bitterns presumably looking
for adult foam-nest frogs (Chiromantis) in the low canopy of Tamarind
Trees, so different to see them actively hunting instead of the usual
motionless views! A pair of Broad-billed Rollers were very noisy and
active at the small dam on the way to Tsavo Gate. We successfully
encountered several Red-naped Bush-Shrikes, whilst Pringle’s Puffbacks
were rather aloof. We found several pairs of Pale Prinias, the scrub
was alive with calling Sprossers, other migrant chats and warblers
were present, and flocks of sizzling Chestnut Weavers. After lunch we
visited the Hippo Pools area, and it was most rewarding though nothing
of outstanding interest. That evening there was mist rather early and
numbers of passerines could be seen coming down even whilst we had
dinner.
At just after three in the morning of 10th, David Pearson kindly
knocked on the door to announce that the birds were dropping in. From
there until mid-morning nearly 1500 birds were caught, and the list
was remarkably varied… Red-backed and Turkestan Shrikes, Eurasian
Rock-Thrush, Pied Wheatear, Rufous Scrub-Robin, Sprosser, Nightingale,
Irania, Spotted Flycatcher, Tree Pipit, Barn Swallow, River, Eurasian
Reed, Great Reed, Basra Reed and Marsh Warblers, Garden and Barred
Warblers, Whitethroat and Blackcap, Willow, Olivaceous, Upcher’s and
Olive Tree Warblers, and another 25 species of Afrotropicals which
included Common Buttonquail and Jameson’s Firefinch. Whilst Marsh
Warblers super-dominated the proceedings there were over a score of
Iranias, and rather a lot of Upcher’s Warblers for one session. It was
a fantastic array, and allowed for some detailed examination of
closely related species, and all of the Ringers were so helpful in
assuring that we got to examine all of the species. Although Eurasian
Nightjars are a regular roosting sight on the overhead wooden beams in
the restaurant, a male Slender-tailed Nightjar was certainly the first
I have ever seen roosting up there, and my first roosting off the
ground! We took our leave after breakfast picking up a few species on
the drive out, including over fifty Vulturine Guineafowl in different
groups, which deliberately ran towards our vehicle and were at there
most happy when feeding only feet from us. A very strange but
endearing habit! Other birds seen were Eurasian Cuckoo, several Alpine
Swifts over the lodge, and still good numbers of Eurasian Golden
Orioles passing through. Eurasian Rollers were nothing like their
abundance a few weeks earlier, and there were no migrant Falcons or
any Grasshopper Buzzard. In fact very few raptors. The return to
Nairobi did not leave time for any en route birding.
On the 11th, we left the Red Court as early as was possible, being a
Sunday the roads were clear and we were through Lavington and joining
the Highway only twenty minutes after leaving the hotel. We called in
at the Flyover on the way to Naivasha. There was a healthy number of
Sharpe’s Longclaws, a family party of Levaillant’s and a single
Wing-snapping Cisticola. Our only Long-tailed Widowbird was here.
Descending to Hippo Camp on Lake Naivasha we found single Great
Crested Grebe, White-backed Duck, for the third successive visit to
the site, a Dwarf Bittern. The Ringed Plovers were behaving very
strangely and giving the slow wing-beat courtship flight familiar in
the northern spring, but not in Kenya. There was an extremely good
variety on the swampy margins and in the rank aquatic grassy beds
off-shore. There were  small parties of Purple Herons in the air at
one time, and a scattering of Black-tailed Godwits amongst the waders
but no sign of the less common species there yet. For me the most
interesting sight was seeing Goats wade out into the water to eat
Eichhornia (Water Hyacynth) leaves. Maybe there is a possibility of
using one noxious pest to reduce the other on a much larger scale!