Dear All,
Gordon Boy, Karen Plumbe and myself were very kindly chauffered around Nairobi National Park today by Mike Davidson. 
We were through the gate by 6.20am, there were a Dusky Flycatcher (always a rarely recorded species in NNP), and a noisy Brown Parisoma in the car-park.
There had been very light drizzle overnight, and it was a cloudy start to the morning but soon brightened up, and was quite hot in the desertified southern portions of the Park, but of course lush, green and wet in the north.

Our first stop was the KWS Mess garden where single Willow and Garden Warblers were the sum total, and it was amazingly quiet. The Ivory Burning Site had a calling Nightingale and a male Blackcap, but that was all it could muster.
Along the back road was a female Red-backed Shrike, the first of five Northern Wheatears (three of which were near Kingfisher as is usually the case), and the pair of African Water Rails put on an aggressive display. Only a few Wood and Green Sandpipers were present. At the dam were the immature Purple Heron, two Yellow-billed Ducks with a dozen White-faced Whistling Ducks, a Swamphen, and the first of nine very well distributed Whinchats seen today. Whilst having a coffee break by the dam we were entertained by the antics of Plain Martins which were landing on the road. Some were pecking at something on the ground, whilst others were picking up long stems that were cumbersome to carry, and bouncing towards other birds showing off their prize and then the pair flying off. It was quite comical to watch.
On the run-off were the pair of Saddle-billed Storks, and they too were behaving unusually, dancing like cranes with a lot of wing-flashing and then one bird attacking an immovable small branch, maybe a signal to the other that it is time to think about nest-building.  Also here we had an adult Fish-Eagle, a single Common Snipe, a couple of Rosy-breasted Longclaws, a young Red-tailed Shrike of indeterminate form, and all three Widowbirds displaying. Circling back to Nagalomon Dam, there were the three Darters, only five Black-crowned Night-Herons and the Water Thick-knee was still present in the same place as two days ago. Along the Mokoyiet towards the bridge were an immature Northern Hobby perched low in a bush, fifty Eurasian Bee-eaters, a Fan-tailed Grassbird and a male nominate Red-backed Shrike.
As it was a bit too wet on the inside road, we took the main road to Karen PS Dam, along here there was a remarkable dense flock of forty-four Crowned Plovers, an immature very pale Yellow Wagtail that was all pale grey above and white below, and a Red-throated Pipit. There was nothing at Karen PS Dam and Eland Hollow just had a few White-faced Whistling Duck and Red-billed Teal, a couple of Wood Sandpipers and what was presumably the same Sand Martin seen there a couple of days earlier. The most interesting observation here was a beigy brown pipit that had virtually a plain back, little marking on the breast and looked very like a Plain-backed Pipit. The problem being that the bird was sitting on a bush singing for all it was worth, and the song was very typical Grassland Pipit! Driving across the top of Athi Basin we had no less than five Secretary birds hunting in the grasslands, a very good number in one day, four Shelley's Francolins, and three Isabelline Wheatears. Hyena Dam was pitiful and disappearing, there were five Spur-winged Plovers though. The only palearctic waders were one each of Common Sandpiper and Little Stint. The most interesting thing here was amongst a group of three African Spoonbills sitting at eye level to us on the top of a tree on the causeway. One was very bright with a white eye, all red legs and an intricately patterned beak, the next had a white eye with a patterned bill but the legs were all black with narrow red bands at the bases, and the third had a black eye, patternless bill and all black legs with the same red basal bands. The literature states that adults have white eyes and the young have black eyes, but why did one bird with white eyes still show black legs?
Leaving here we found a party of ten Somali Short-toed Larks in the dry yellow grass as we set out for Cheetah Gate. There was a group of a male and two female Ostrich with twenty-six chicks, a Laughing Dove nest-building and our first two Spotted Flycatchers of the day. All the way back round to Kingfisher it was birdless apart from a pair of Long-billed Pipits on the road, whilst at the picnic site there were another three Spotted Flycatchers, and a Pied Wheatear which disappeared remarkably, and nearby an immature Red-tailed Shrike.
We found nothing as we made a circuit back to Olmanyi Dam, apart from a pair of 
Lappet-faced Vultures sitting on top of the same acacia as they were two days ago. On the exit road we had an African Goshawk by the road which sat for a long period below eye-level and very close.
We exited the Main Gate at 5.40pm, having had a very full and interesting day as always.

The mammals were still low in numbers and have mainly moved off towards Athi Basin area. We had two Hippos at Hyena and several at Nagalomon Dam, and in the late afternoon, one along the Mokoyiet feeding in the grass well away from any dam. Three White Rhinos near Kingfisher where there was a single Bohor Reedbuck, and three Mountain Reedbucks back in their old haunt near the Empakasi Dam road junction. In the morning there was a single Spotted Hyena near appropriately  enough, Hyena Dam!

Best to all
Brian