Aberdares/Manguo Ponds 4th/5th Jan 2013

My parents, my brother, and myself left Nairobi at 6am and headed up via Mutubio gate for a night in the Aberdares. We were horrified by the state of the road between the flyover and Njabini, which is badly potholed and very slow, although the road after Njabini is great brand new tarmac. We saw 101 species in the Aberdares; these included all the usuals as well a few notable others. 

At Mutubio gate there were large numbers of malachite sunbirds alongside bronze and northern double collared. We saw a couple of golden winged sunbirds in the salient as well as numerous collared, variable and amethyst.

We did a day's fishing on the Chania River on the moorland, which was fantastic. We were surprised to see several hundred European storks feeding and thermalling on the moorland beside the river. There has been a very large fire through the area in the last year or so that has burnt off most of the giant heather leaving lots of grassland. There were several pairs of black ducks on the Chania. We saw a single common greenshank on a pool near the river.

We spent the night in the Salient and on the drive down through the bamboo we saw a mountain buzzard as well as several augur buzzards. The bamboo is dying off on masse on the eastern side of the mountain (we gather this is a normal phenomenon which occurs every 40-80 years, often post flowering). There were large groups of red fronted parrots and olive pigeons. We saw several groups of feeding montane white eyes and in amongst these we saw a pair of cinnamon bracken warblers and a single black fronted bush shrike. Thick-billed seedeaters and cinnamon breasted bee-eaters were in abundance.  There were a few small groups of Abyssinian crimson wings. We saw pied, cape and a pair of grey wagtails, as well as a single willow warbler. On the mammal side numerous buffalo, water buck, warthogs and bush buck were present and we had a great view of a single giant forest hog as well a fleeting glimpse of a leopard!

Our night was noisy with lots of hyrax and bush babies calling. On our early morning drive mammals were scarce other than buffalo, four hyenas and a single elephant, but the bird life was fantastic. Interesting sitings were a pair of mountain illadopsis', a group of brown-capped weavers, wood and green sandpipers and a yellow-billed duck family with 5 babies being chased around a pond by an Egyptian goose. African emerald cuckoos were calling all around although we didn't manage to see one.

On the way home back over the moorland we had a great close up siting of a Eurasian marsh harrier cruising low over the grassland. We have only seen one of these once before on Central Island on Lake Turkana last year. We also saw a levaillant's cuckoo in the shambas on the kinangop. Surprisingly we did not see a giant kingfisher on this occasion although they are normally fairly numerous on the moorland streams.

On our way back to Nairobi we stopped at Manguo pond for 15 minutes at 6pm beside the main Naivasha highway. There were loads of birds present. We estimated approximately 40 whiskered terns feeding as well as large numbers of sand martins flying low above the water with smaller numbers of red rumped swallows. Little, cattle and intermediate egrets were all in abundance. There was a pair of crowned cranes, a single African spoonbill, and a single grey heron. There was a large group of sacred ibis on the island in the middle alongside a small group of fulvous whistling ducks; there were other groups flying around the lake. There were a couple of both great and long tailed cormorants resting on the island. 

There were two glossy ibis feeding in the grass along with some hadadas. 10 black winged stilts were feeding at the water's edge at the left hand end of the pond. There were at least three African jacanas. Greater moorhen and red knobbed coots were numerous and we saw two groups of baby red knobbed coots with their parents. Of real interest we saw two lesser moorhens swimming in the shallows and there were two purple swamphens feeding actively in the inundated grass to the left of the pond.  We have not seen either of these species before. On the water little grebes were present everywhere. Ducks were in abundance; most numerous were southern pochards, we saw at least four pairs of maccoa ducks, there were three red billed teal flying in circles around the lake, we saw two northern shovellers and several small groups of yellow billed ducks. Just in front of us in the shallow water we spotted a single white backed duck, which was displaying aggressively to a group of young coots-another new species for us. There was a single grey wagtail feeding at the waters edge.  

29 species in 15 minutes was pretty impressive and it is definitely worth a quick stop to anyone who is passing by in the near future. We were all remarking on how twitchers in the UK would go wild for this kind of bird watching and it is just sitting there beside the highway for all to see!

A full species list for the Aberdares is enclosed below for anyone who is interested:

Speckled pigeon
Black headed heron
Cape rook
Pied crow
Stone chat
African spoonbill
Knob billed goose
Baglafecht weaver
Rufous sparrow
Cattle egret
Little egret
Common fiscal
Streaky seed-eater
Hadada ibis
Sacred ibis
Pied wagtail
Dusky turtle dove
Blue eared starling
Superb starling
Little swift
Speckled mousebird
Red eyed dove
Long crested eagle
Plain martin
Little grebe
Common moorhen
Northern anteater chat
White eyed slaty flycatcher
Olive thrush
Hunters cisticola
African black swift
Cape wagtail
Sand martin
Black saw wing
Jackson's francolin
Scaly francolin
Cinnamon breasted bee-eater
Malachite sunbird
Black duck
Alpine chat
YVBB
Augur buzzard
Mountain Buzzard
Tropical boubou
European stork
Egyptian goose
Common greenshank
Green sandpiper
Red fronted parrot
Green pigeon
Olive pigeon
Bronze naped pigeon
Hartlaub's turaco
Montane nightjar
Mosque swallow
Mountain greenbul
Slender billed starling
Black fronted bush shrike
Cape robin chat
White starred robin
Cinnamon bracken warbler
Montane white eye
Golden winged sunbird
Pin tailed whydah
Holub's golden weaver
Spectacled weaver
Common waxbill
Purple grenadier
Abyssinian crimson wing
Thick billed seed-eater
Yellow crowned canary
Paradise flycatcher
Silvery cheeked hornbill
Collared sunbird
Red chested cuckoo
Tambourine dove
Red billed oxpecker
White bellied tit
Yellow billed duck
Grey wagtail
Variable sunbird
Mountain illadopsis
Brown capped weaver
Green sandpiper
Wood sandpiper
Grey heron
Hammerkop
Chin spot batis
Black backed puffback
Crowned hornbill
Crowned crane
Dusky flycatcher
Eurasian Marsh harrier
Black cuckoo shrike
Black headed oriole
Yellow whiskered greenbul
Willow warbler
Levaillant's cuckoo
Hammerkop
Grosbeak weaver