Dear All,
Having spent several days exploring the Mara, Vicki and I decided to spend the rest of our leave up country to see some different countryside, mammals and birds.
We accepted an invitation to explore the pretty Ngobit River Lodge, a little way north of Nyeri, and were pleased to record over 50 species from the grounds in the space of the last two hours of light upon our arrival on 6th February, and another two hours the following morning. Best of all were a pair of African Wood Owl that were roosting on the lodge grounds and shown to us by the manager Mr Karanja. They were easily spooked, however, and as they flew a short distance to cover an African Goshawk was immediately onto the smaller of the birds and chased it around for several minutes before it lost interest. All three birds were seen at the same location the following morning.
I am very poor at naming tree and shrub species in East Africa, so cannot provide any further information on the fabulous tree that was flowering in the lodge garden that was FULL of busily feeding sunbirds including Eastern Double-collared, Bronze, Amethyst, Variable and a smart male Green-headed Sunbird. Do drop me a line if you are interested in staying at this very affordable lodge and I will gladly provide you with the relevant phone numbers.
After breakfast on the morning of 7th, we took a slow drive to Solio Game Reserve (seeing several Mottled Swift along the way) where we spent a luxurious 4 nights at Solio Lodge – probably the only place in Kenya where we’ve enjoyed “camp envy” it is so stunning! The game reserve is equally impressive for numbers of Black and White Rhino, Beisa Oryx and others, and the birdlife was plentiful. Although I only claimed the one “lifer” (Wing-snapping Cisticola), many good birds were seen here, especially raptors. Nigel Archer told me this was a MUST-VISIT place for anyone interested in birds of prey and it didn’t disappoint. Oddly enough, what was probably the best raptor on site, a pair of Crowned Eagle, eluded us but we enjoyed looking through the images taken by William Carr-Hartley on the day of our arrival of the pair dismantling a Vervet Monkey at close range.
Probably the best record of our visit relates to a Pied Wheatear of the form (race?) vittata, which initially set the heart pumping as it looked very good for Black-eared Wheatear to start with! See images attached of this bird. It is described as “uncommon” in Fanshawe and Stevenson, but does anyone have an idea how many records turn up each year of this form?
Other good sightings included;
Purple Swamphen (a pair with two well-grown young), Caspian Plover (a single that was very tame), Verreaux’ Eagle Owl (a pair), more Mottled Swift over, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (8+), Eurasian Bee-eater (2 groups of 5/6 each), both African and Eurasian Hoopoe, a couple of Tree Pipit, maybe 8 or 9 Eurasian Rock Thrush, a Common Nightingale feeding in our headlights one evening, several Little Rush Warbler, a group of Black-lored Babbler (7 of the race vepres), many Isabelline Shrike, a small group of White-crested Helmet Shrike and a stunning Long-tailed Widowbird displaying in full breeding plumage to a couple of females.
All in all, a great few days that were complemented with sightings of Steinbuck (new for us), a Lioness with three cubs, two male Cheetah and a pair of charging White Rhino that we narrowly avoided!!!
Best wishes,
Adam