Dear All See from Brian... ,

Mike Davidson, Fleur Ng’Weno, Jennifer Oduore, Karen Plumbe and myself met up at the Main Entrance to NNP at 6.30am. The weather started off mild and overcast, and became progressively colder and more overcast although there had been little overnight rain and the place was drying out.

Our first stop was the KWS mess garden, where the Nightingales were feeding once again on the rubbish tip! It makes them very easy to observe. There were four present. Ivory Burning Site failed to deliver, and Nagalomon Dam could muster up six Green Sandpipers and that was it. The Spotted Thick-knee was at its usual site on the drift.

Along the back road we had African Water Rails calling and a nice Common Snipe.

Hyena Dam was attracting a few birds, with a Yellow-billed Stork, African Spoonbill, a strange ring-necked Western Marsh Harrier, calling African Water Rails, a remarkable assemblage of fifty Wood Sandpipers plus a couple of Green, a couple of inderterminate female Yellow Wagtails, a few of not many Barn Swallows today and a couple of Whinchats.

On the Hyena Dam run-off there was a pair of Saddle-billed Storks, a dozen Eurasian Bee-eaters, a couple of Rosy-breasted Longclaws, three more Whinchats, five Jackson’s Widowbirds in breeding dress (as were the Red-collared and White-winged) and a very nice breeding male Parasitic Weaver.

We broke our usual circuit to retrace back to the Main Entrance to drop Fleur off at the gate, on the way there was a stunning Emerald Cuckoo singing for all it was worth from a completely exposed perch.

Across to Karen Primary School Dam there was a male Kori Bustard, the first for some time, and a Spur-winged Goose and another Spotted Thick-knee at Eland Hollow.

At Athi Dam there was an adult Pink-backed Pelican, a single White Stork with a good collection of thirty Yellow-billed Storks in all plumages, six African Spoonbills, the same Pallid Harrier female as the previous week and an adult Fish Eagle terrorising a Sacred Ibis which took refuge in deeper water, which seemed to work. In the resident wader line there were still thirty Spur-winged Plovers and a similar number of Kittlitz’s Plovers and three Black-winged Stilts. Migrant waders additionally included two Ringed Plovers, a dozen Little Stint, and single Common Greenshank and Common Sandpiper. There was a Red-throated Pipit along the shore and two immature Black-crowned Night-Herons on the causeway.

On our return via the Mbagathi River we found an immature Black Stork, two Steppe Eagles and a solitary Grey-headed Silverbill. Near Kingfisher there were our only two Northern Wheatears of the day.

We exited the Main Entrance at 2.00pm,

Mammal-wise, we had four Lion Cubs on the back road to Hyena Dam, they were not seen to have any attending adult. There were another three Lions on the Main Entrance road. Other than that there was nothing unusual,  and most of the plains game was from Karen Primary School Dam to Athi Basin, and a collection around Kingfisher.

It was a good day, and a good variety but not one species of migrant warbler was found!

Best to all

Brian