Dear All,
On 21st to 23rd August 2011, Nigel Hunter and myself had the
opportunity to stay at Sosian Ranch for some exciting birding and
mammal watching.
We were guests of Steve and Annabelle Carey, who have been managing
the place for several years, and Albie Venter who has been working
there part-time, and used to be the manager of the first Naibor Camp
in the Maasai Mara. Both Steve and Albie are extremely keen birders,
and as there was the only lull in bookings until the end of the year,
they were able to come out birding whilst we were there. There was a
charming British couple who were visiting Africa for the first time,
with their two sons. Sadly for the children we completely changed the
parents into keen birders the first game drive!
Nigel is writing the complete species list we recorded on Sosian
whilst we were there, and will send it in to the net, but here are the
highlights.
The Swallow-tailed Kites, have left and took their three successfully
raised children with them. The night before we arrived there was a
male fully-plumaged Pennant-winged Nightjar flying around the Suguta
Swamp. A few weeks ago, an African Crake flew into the lounge at night
and was captured and released in good condition the following morning.
In the early part of the year White-headed Mousebirds paid a brief
visit.
Our first piece of birding was to a Freckled Nightjar nest on an
exposed rock face by the Ewaso Narok river. It had been on an egg for
a few days, but Olive Baboons had been on the rock, and there was no
sign of the egg when we saw it. However we had incredible views, it
was a remarkably pale male, with intricate irrorations on the
feathering. There were a couple of rufous spots on the nape, that from
the side looked like a collar, and another non-Freckled feature, the
white band went right across the throat, not restricted to either
side. The bird was both photographed and videoed. From here we visited
the Suguta Swamp for the Pennant-winged seen the previous night, but
it had obviously moved on. There were a couple of responsive African
Water Rails, two Madagascar Pond Herons, Greater Painted-snipe was
calling in the evening, and from the north were two White-winged Black
Terns, singles of Greenshank, Common, Green and Curlew Sandpipers,
about ten each of Wood Sandpipers and Little Stints. We continued on
for a bush dinner, and on the drive back to the lodge had two separate
Striped Hyaena sightings, a stunning and huge Aardvark, and single
Heuglin's Courser and Dusky Nightjar. The mornings of 22nd and 23rd we
went up on to the grass plateau to look for Grass Owls which are seen
there with some regularity, but all we could flush were five Marsh
Owls. Expecting Black-bellied Bustards up there, we were amazed that
the four birds we encountered were all male Hartlaub's and although we
looked we never saw a Black-bellied. There were good numbers of Larks,
these included a nice party of fifteen Somali Short-toed, and two
White-tailed Larks. There were six lark species there. Another nice
surprise was a handsome pair of Bush Pipits. There were scattered
Ethiopian Swallows, but a steady stream of Barn Swallows were passing
through the area. Mammals up here were a Cheetah, about fifteen
Laikipia Hartebeest (one of Africa's rarest mammals with an estimated
population of 1500 and falling fast for no obvious reasons), a similar
number of Beisa Oryx, a female and young Gerenuk, a couple of
Steinbok, a Grey Duiker, three Klipspringer, eight Grevy's Zebra, plus
good numbers of most of the common plains game. We saw Reticulated
Giraffe at various places, so all of the Samburu large mammal
specialities were present, with the added bonus of the Hartebeest.
Whilst we were here, the other guests were enjoying Wild Dogs and
Lions.
Getting to northern Laikipia has always seemed a daunting long trek on
very uncomfortable roads. Not any more, it was door to door only four
hours travelling. The only dirt road all the way to Rumuruti was a 200
metre section of short-cut near the Kinangop Flyover.
The route we took was the highway from Kikuyu to Naivasha, then the
road up to the Aberdares, but at North Kinangop turning left onto the
road to Ol Kalou, then on to Nyahururu and Rumuruti. From here it is
twenty kilometres of rutted dirt road, but at a sign on the right
Sosian Police Post, it is only four kilometres on good dirt road to
the lodge. For the return we were told that there was a better way,
and it was as we did not have to descend into the Rift, and out again.
We had the same route as far as the intersection at North Kinangop,
but instead of turning right we continued on the super highway to
Njabini. The along another stretch for twenty kilometres, bringing us
out onto the the Kinangop Flyover-Kieni Road. Crossing this onto a 200
metre section of dirt road, directly opposite brought us out onto the
main highway back into Nairobi. It was an extremely painless journey
and so little traffic.

Now some discussion, firstly the presence of Hartlaub's Bustards.
We had four widely distributed Black-bellied/Hartlaub's Bustard in the
high grasslands. The field-guides seem unaware of Hartlaub's Bustard
in Laikipia, in Zimmermann & Turner, only Nairobi southwards and east
to Tsavo. The only northern hemisphere distribution mentioned being as
a post-rains visitor to Meru and Marsabit.
Stevenson & Fanshawe state that the bird occurs from n. Kenya
southwards, and have a great wedge which heads north through Meru to
Marsabit, but not covering west to western Laikipia. The most horrific
feature on the plate that would definitely confuse birders is that the
illustration shows both sexes of Hartlaub's with pale yellow eyes, and
Black-bellied with dark eyes. If this were only true there would never
be a problem sorting out the two similar species. Now people are
seeing a dark eye thinking Black-bellied Bustard and going no further.
The truth is that both species have identically dark red eyes.
Lewis & Pomeroy, "A bird atlas of Kenya,"  correctly show Hartlaub's
in the Laikipia square whereas Britton gives Nairobi, Meru and N.
Ewaso Nyiro River, but not to western Laikipia and the Ewaso Narok
River.

So the four bustards we encountered, we pursued and flushed, all four
had black rumps and tails, with the black on the trailing edge of the
secondaries short and inconspicuous, and the area of white in the wing
very extensive. In short all four birds were Hartlaub's and not
Black-bellied Bustards. With this misleading representation in the
field-guides, any Black-bellied Bustard encountered in the northern
areas should be flushed and the diagnostic patterns seen before the
assumption is made that the bird is a Black-bellied Bustard, which we
never encountered.

We had a nice flock of about fifteen Somali Short-toed Larks on a dirt
road, just like the athensis birds of Nairobi, but the breast streaks
could possibly have been heavier.  Z&T shows the species as Nairobi
south into Tanzania, being totally unaware of the breeding population
in the Maasai Mara or anywhere west of the Rift. For the Northern
Hemisphere they have a single sight record from the Huri Hills (where
it is in fact very common in the grasslands in large flocks with
Masked Larks), a record from Buffalo Springs, and a sight record from
south of Maralal, but seem unaware of its presence on Laikipia (Sosian
but probably elsewhere on the Plateau). Further unaware that it is a
seasonal (presumably breeding as concentrations of displaying birds),
visitor to the grasslands as far east as Lake Jipe. S&F is very
non-committal with the distribution in text as uncommon away from Athi
Plains and Arusha, and the map showing the southern birds, Maralal and
Huri Hills. L&P in the Atlas have a single record from Samburu, and
Nairobi south into Tanzania but no-where else, and Britton gives a
record in Buffalo Springs (presumably the Samburu record in the
Atlas), as the only record in the Northern Hemisphere, no records west
of the Rift, and nothing for Laikipia. However it does have a Tsavo
West record of one coming to light at night at Ngulia Lodge.
It is possible that the species is widespread as a resident or a
seasonal visitor on Laikipia.

We found two White-tailed Larks singing over their territories.
Absolutely identical to Nairobi birds, but very unlike those of
Mara-Serengeti. In Z&T, the only birds ever recorded in the Northern
Hemisphere are from a disjunct population at Lewa Downs (between Timau
and Isiolo). Otherwise they are aware of the western population, but
not that it could be in any way different from the eastern birds. S&F
give no written detail of distribution, but have a rather unrealistic
huge swathe covering much of central and western Kenya and throughout
eastern and northern Uganda! L&P's map has the western population
extending well north along the Uganda border, but the eastern
population all south of the Equator and unknown from Laikipia.
Britton gives a distibution Bondo east to Kitui, but only south of
there and nothing extending into the Northern Hemisphere.
The bird is probably a resident in the Laikipia black-cotton grasslands.

In the same area as the two species of larks we had a nice pair of
Bush Pipits. Back in January of this year I saw three Bush Pipits on
Sosian.  Amazingly Z&T were not aware of a single record north of
Ngong or Konza either side of Nairobi. Even more amazingly S&F show
the map as only just sneaking over the border from Tanzania, not even
as far north as Nairobi, and no other records and certainly nothing in
the Northern Hemisphere!
L&P in the Atlas which was produced way back in 1989 could only locate
one record for the entire country in "recent times," and that was on
the Ngongs. Britton has the distribution with no records north of a
line Maasai Mara-Ngong-Konza.
In spite of the lack of northern records, finding the bird on two
successive visits, January and August, suggests more than just
vagrancy. The bird almost certainly is occurring on other parts of
western Laikipia, and I did see it once on Dol-Dol in eastern
Laikipia.

So a brief visit to Sosian yielded four remarkable distribution
records, and undoubtedly this very exiting area still harbours more
ornithological secrets.

Best to all
Brian