From: chege wa kariuki <chege@birdwatchingeastafrica.com>
Date: 2012-10-10 16:23
Subject: Re: FW: [KENYABIRDSNET] CMC NAIROBI KILLED BIRDS
Thanks Kuria for this and all those mails to CMC and the fact that we can all stand up as a group to ask them a question. I guess the CMC manger will or has talked about it with the fellow managers over some drinks and that would have created awareness to the others. Great Job and hope this can keep on.

This might be late but yes i saw the three acacia stumps cut outside the CMC Showroom somedays ago. Therefore, i think yes CMC would be responsible with the cutting. They seemed very close or just next to the windows of their showroom. I'd imagine the trees and birds might have posed a problem for them or even with their insurance company (I don't know but i just guess) and may be they had to bring them down for whatever the reasons they had good enough or not.

However, before cutting a tree in Nairobi you need a reason and some payment done in favour of the County Council of Nairobi (CCN) to get the  licence to bring down the tree.  Therefore, i'd much think it must mean that if indeed it was the CMC they must have had CCN's go ahead and a licence.

To me on the scene, it was most worrying and annoying and heart touching and even disturbing to see a youngbird like one that has just been kicked out of the nest some weeks or days before the fledging day and the party was over sat a few meter to the CMC's Showroom and guess it must have come from the nests brought down. Pretty much a pity.

However, it's not the first time this has happened (we can remember some years back along the City Hall in the name of cleaning the town) and probably not the last time this will happen especially in a cases where one cannot insure a property because it sits under a tree that could come down any time rendering the insurance company to pay for damages that could have been avoided.

So while we accuse CMC (i being one of them) i'd suggest that we also point at the CCN's Department of Environment for licensing bringing down a tree with nesting birds.
In addition the NMK's Bird Section and KWS which are much closer to us (birdwatchers) than CCN, would also be very good institutions to write to the CCN asking them to not licence cutting of such tree if currently having birds nesting eg incubating or feeding nestlings. I guess we forget about roosting birds for now but breeding ones.

Many businesses and probably us too will not want Marabous over their parking lots, we all know how messy they can be. Though i'm not a researcher, never counted them and neither do i have little clue of how many birds are in the city, we probably don't want the ever increasing numbers of these Marabous in the city They are even taking over the Athi Dam in the Nairobi Park and the acacia riverine area in the park. However i find it MOST RUTHLESS thing to bring down a tree with such a fledgling whose mother wasted a couple of weeks building a nest, a month and a half  of incubating mostly fasting and with very little food, sited over a nest in a tree in Nairobi (City in the Sun) then spending 3month feeding the chicks and just before they fledge the tree is cut down and some others nest with eggs and so on.

In this case, the approach i'd take (personal and ready to be corrected) is that the business wanting  to bring down the tree would rather and should first bring down the nest from the start of beginning of nest building. A few repeated times will keep off the nest building pairs of these storks and they'd have to find another tree. This way they will only brought a week long and not 6months of breeding into mere waste. After they have kept the birds off from nesting on the tree then they can be allowed to bring down the tree if in deed the tree need to be brought down.

For your info, KAA at the JKI Airport did bring down the nests of the Little Swift a few weeks ago in the name of cleaning the bridge tunnel after the main barrier.  Pity little gems

NB/ Mombasa Road is under construction or going soon to be in to a super highway and there are many Cattle Egrets and Sacred Ibises nesting in  the middle of the dual carriage so it may be good for the NMK and KWS to start discouraging new nesting birds before the chinese super machines  bring down the trees in a month when they are all full of eggs and young ones.

Pss: about 3 weeks ago i counted about 250 Caspian Plovers in Masai Mara National Reserve between Talek area and Musiara, more few Black-backed Cisticolas near the Olololoo Gate

Away from birds but even much worrying......just received an sms from a friend James Kariuki doing de-snarring in Western side of Masai Mara National Park and today alone they removed 125 snares, rescued 5 animals, seen many many dead and rotting snares

Many regards and great birding
chege

At 15:09 25/09/2012, you wrote:
 

Dear all,

Herewith, please, find the email contact for CMC - info@cmcmotors.com

Thanks,
James