NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK - 30th JANUARY 2013

Dear All,
Rupert Watson, Munir Varani and myself met at the Main Gate to Nairobi
National Park at 6.30am and were through the gate soon after. There
had been some recent fairly heavy rain, but our day was dry although
overcast with a dramatic inversion layer over the city and a lot of
cloud to the south of us and over the Ngongs.
We were just at the point of leaving the gate when two male lions
appeared in the middle of the road just in front of us. This seemed
like an auspicious start, and so we set off for the KWS Mess, with
both Black-and-White Mannikins and Yellow-bellied Waxbills calling in
the scrub on the way, and a Common Buzzard perched along the road. In
the garden there were ten or so Blackcap, one Garden Warbler was
singing, as was the Eurasian Reed Warbler in its winter territory.
Some three Nightingales were also very vocal in fits and starts, and
the Black-collared Apalis is still present and also noisy. There was a
superb migrant adult Black Kite, and I have attached an image to show
how beautiful these birds can be.  At Ivory Burning Site not much was
happening, a lone Eurasian Bee-eater was flying around, there was a
Brown Parisoma in the acacias, and Red-collared Widowbirds were once
again in full breeding plumage! At Nagalomon Dam there was a young
Darter, single Wood and Green Sandpipers, and two Great Reed Warblers
singing from each side of the causeway. We continued on to Hyena Dam
via the back road, The African Water Rails were in their place and  a
Syke’s Yellow Wagtail in the marshy patch, whilst at Hyena Dam there
was a female Saddle-billed Stork, a subadult Fish Eagle, twenty Wood
Sandpipers, and the first of just three Whinchats today. Also the
first of three different Martial Eagles today, this being an adult,
with an immature hanging around the nest along the Mokoyeti and
another immature at Athi Dam.