Hello All,

 

Over the weekend of 5-6 Feb 2011, I was lucky to be among team of waterbird counters heading of to Lake Olborossat, Nyandarua. We camped at the KWS station in Manguo, a km away from Thomson Falls and adjacent to Marmanet Forest.

 

On the evening of 5th, a group of us decided to take a brief walk into the forest, and within a really short time, we had managed to see almost 30 bird species, including really good views of Narina Trogon, Hartlaub's Turaco, White-tailed Crested Flycatcher, Blackcap, Abyssinian Crimsonwing, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Yellow-whiskered Greenbul, Fine-banded Woodpecker, Montane White-eye.......and of course very fresh signs of existence of elephants in the forest. At night, calls of tree hyrax filled the really cold night.

 

During the waterbird counts on 6th, the section my team covered didn't let down: the highlight was a pair of Collared Pratincoles (attached photo); Thousands of Red-knobbed Coots; hundreds of Hotentot Teals, Red-billed Teals, Northern Shovelers, a Saddle-billed Stork, many waders etc. However, the duck shooters who have been visiting the site since my childhood (I was born not too far  from site and have heard shots since those days) were around proceeding with their sport - with their dogs and boats.............

 

I observe the warmth and excellent help we received from hosts: KWS, Nyahururu Bird Club, the Municipal among others. For birding in these areas, you may get in touch with Nyahururu Bird Club members -  Peter Karani, George Ndungu (georgendungu2008@yahoo.com; 0723550552) and Amina Njoki (aminanjoki@ymail.com; 0727873090)