From: Rupert Watson <rupertwatson48@gmail.com>

Date: 2012-03-06 09:07

Subject: odd things in Nairobi Park

My first contribution since joining the net.

It was hot and dry and perhaps the most unusual sightings were of both African and Grey-headed silverbills, presumably pushed up from the Rift Valley by the dry weather.

Often I find what you don't see as interesting as what you do see, and I never saw a single cattle egret!

Hyena dam still had a lot of water in it, although the island was big enough to accommodate a very large basking croc, with a large bunch of black feathers sticking out of its mouth.  I could not see for sure what bird it must have eaten, but perhaps it was a marabou stork.  There were lots of birds sharing the island with the croc so they were clearly not perturbed.  A few months ago I surprised a lion on a marabou kill just near the dam!

On my way home, I stopped off at what I think is called Karen Primary School Dam, with large palm trees which sometimes shade lions, but were not doing so today.  There was a red-billed teal feeding very actively, dipping down under the water while a black headed heron looked on from some rushes just nearby.  As the teal carried on dabbling, a pair of Egyptian geese started squawking and as i watched the teal, it seemed that its underwater dabbling had got its head stuck under the surface.  The Egyptian geese flew over to the other side of the dam and then out of the rushes appeared a pair of spurwing geese.  These paddled up to the teal with obvious concern as it still hadn't raised its head.  I wondered if there was some type of net underwater, or if a croc had somehow got to that little dam, but both the net and the croc seemed very remote possibilities, and i was sure I would have seen signs of the croc if it was that.  The only fish in the dam are likely to be catfish and I doubt they would attack a bird, would they?  The teal continued to wave its feet, and then twisted over onto its back still waving its feet and at the same time moving short distances back and forth.  By now I thought I should get in and investigate and so I waded into the mud sending heron and spurwings over to the other side of the dam, and immediately causing the duck to disappear under the surface never to be seen again.

My surmise was that it had been grabbed by a terrapin - I have heard of terrapins getting hold of drinking birds before - but I would be interested in any comments.

Salaams, Rupert Watson