MAGADI ROAD 2nd February 2013

Dear All,
On 2nd February Mike Davidson, Nigel Hunter and myself decided to have
a look at Magadi Road. It was a lightly overcast day on leaving
Lang’ata, but on arriving at Corner Baridi, it was heavily overcast
over the whole of our southern Rift, and remained well into the
afternoon, although no rain. It was cool, even in the lower reaches
for the entire time.

The road from the end of Corner Baridi, through Kisamese is breaking
up, but on starting the steep descent the conditions are appalling
until crossing the Ol Kejo bridge, which has been repaired. From here
there has been a lot of patching and it isn’t too bad. Beyond
Olorgessaillie and the river, there is still flooding, with water
flowing across the road. We only went as far as the concrete ascent
road after Enosura, so cannot report on the bottom section of the road
to the lake.

Very strange driving down Magadi Road beginning of February and seeing
everything green and leafy. Even some large areas that were charcoaled
have returned to a new life with small acacias covering the ground and
surrounded with dense herbage. Places that were decimated like the Ol
Kejo Bridge area remain decimated as nothing will bring back the
vegetation. We did stop here, and there was a Little Rock Thrush on
the wire, but the bush and woodland birds are long gone.

Further along the road there was much bird activity amongst the
residents. The Somal-fauna was in good form and singing, but in spite
of all the luxuriance and breeding of small birds the only cuculus
cuckoo present was an African that was singing. In the wet season this
area would have three breeding cuculus, three breeding crested cuckoos
and two bronze cuckoos. There were Klaa’s and Diederic, but then there
are always those two species nearby, even in the driest conditions.
This strongly supports what I have suspected for a while, and that the
cuckoos termed Rains visitors, arriving with the rains are really
arriving expecting rain at that season and not having the gift of
prediction! If they could they would have been all over the place down
the Magadi Road with conditions so ideal. I expect all of the eight
species to be back breeding during and after the long rains in
May/July when they would rightly be expecting conditions to be perfect
for them.
Also in the wet season we have all four whydah species nesting
(parasitising) along this road, in some numbers. We did not see a
single whydah of any description. At Enosura in the wet, there are
nesting Southern Red and Fire-fronted Bishops and Cardinal Queleas,
the grass is all in seed, and the place looks ideal but there are none
of these species at all. There was a White-winged Widowbird in
breeding plumage with a few female types, but that was it.

Because of all of the clearance following the charcoal harvesting,
this has created a thinning of the trees and a more open habitat. Ashy
Cisticola that used to be just in the plains after the Ol Kejo River
and the plains from Ol Tepesi to Enosura seemed to be singing
everywhere from the entire length of the road after the Ol Kejo
bridge.

The grasslands before and around Ol Tepesi were very interesting, the
grass was long and there were many Singing Bushlarks. Whilst some
Singing Bushlarks are in the area all the year, there is probably an
augmentation from outside of the area when the conditions are suitable
for breeding. However in the wet season apart from some other species
mentioned, there are good numbers of Harlequin Quail and Common
Buttonquail. Neither of these species was seen or heard.
The grassy plains had attracted seventy White, over one-hundred
Abdim’s and a Black Stork flying over. There were also three Kori
Bustards including one male parading in all his finery. Black Kites
that did not used to be here were now common flying over the villages.
There were about fifteen here. Other raptors at this site were a
female Pallid Harrier and a Lanner, whilst we had over ten Eastern
Chanting Goshawks during the course of the day which is a really good
number for a bird that was progressively seen less and less.

In the upper reaches there were many Nyanza Swifts feeding overhead,
and on the river below Olorgessailie there were eight Horus Swifts
prospecting over the nest site, and in February! Really they were just
patrolling over the area, actually showing no interest in the holes
themselves, but they were glued to this one small beat along the
river. I have attached an image as it is not often seen photographed.
This was at 2.00pm when the clouds began to lift! There was a
scattering of White-throated Bee-eaters and they were in full breeding
condition.

Of the smaller bush birds, Black-necked Weavers were widespread and
very noisy we saw no active nests, in fact no active nests of any
weavers and both Vitelline and Lesser Masked Weavers were also in full
breeding dress and singing happily. However not one Chestnut was seen.
Chestnut Sparrow on the other hand were abundant and in breeding dress
and singing their cheerful redpoll-like warbles.

Migrants were a bit poor other than wheatears, with nine Northern, six
Pied and four Isabelline seen, there was a single resident male
Schalow’s below the steepest hill, and three Eurasian Rock Thrushes.
Warbler-wise it was one Olivaceous, a Barred that was only heard
churring very intermittently a few times, and could not be located and
a couple of Great Reed Warblers at Enosura. We also had a solitary
Isabelline Shrike and flocks of Barn Swallows over the Ol Tepesi
plains.

It was a very interesting day, with a great variety recorded and in
such splendid greenery…. and this is supposed to be the height of the
dry season and the hottest month!


Best to all
Brian