Mombasa Bird Walk

Bird walk to Central Quarry Sat. 15th Dec. Water quite high. Lots of Little Egrets, (one beautiful dark phase), Cattle Egrets coming in large numbers for roosting. Lots of Reed Cormorants. Small flock of Common Greenshank (used to be huge flock here every season but they seem to have severely diminished), Black Heron doing its umbrella thing. Purple and Striated (how I hate that description) Heron and a Little Bittern which just flew from one patch of reeds to another. Eurasian Bee-Eaters which hardly seem to settle around Mombasa, always hear and see them flying over my garden, Malachite and Pied Kingfishers and a incredibly a Giant Kingfisher, a first for our bird walk and usually seen at Haller Park fish ponds where it is very elusive. Two Juvenile African Darters which I presume were the progeny of the nests we saw a month or two ago. A lovely Palm Nut Vulture flying around to crown the scene. 36 species seen in 2 hours. Especially gratifying in that we had some of our old birders back from Europe.