Dear David,
Many thanks. What Rachel Carson wrote in 1962 in "Silent Spring" about insecticides and the dangers of residual poisons has not been heeded in third world countries even more than in the U.S.
I am sure you are aware of Furadan which has been used to kill lions and vultures in our national parks and reserves.
There are far too many Homo sapiens now occupying and destroying areas that were virgin and pristine. The problem is world-wide, but Kenya has become notorious for such abuses and there are indications that things will not get better! It is time that we advocated the control of human populations.
Regards,
Mo Ismail.
"Better see rightly on a pound a week than squint on a million."
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW.
Edwin Selempo and I led a Sunbird tour to Kenya between 8 and 30 January this year. Our itinerary included the following: Nairobi National Park, the Lake Magadi Road, Blue Posts Hotel, Mountain Lodge, Naro Moru River Lodge, the Solio Plains, the Aberdares, Thompson’s Fall, the Ol Joro Orok road and Lake Dondori, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Hell’s Gate, Lake Baringo, the Kerio Valley, Kakamega Forest, Mumias and Mungatsi, the shore of Lake Victoria south of Kisumu, the Masai Mara, the Kinangop Plateau, Limuru Pond, Hunter’s Lodge, Tsavo Safari Camp, Tsavo East and Aruba Dam, Watamu, Mida Creek, Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Tsavo West, Ziwani Camp, Kitobu Forest, Lake Jipe and the Taita Hills (Ngangao).
This is a tour that I have been leading every January for more than 20 years now and as a consequence we have perhaps a unique perspective on the trends in the diversity and abundance of birds seen on our route. It is sad to have to report that overall Edwin and I detect a gradual decline in the number of birds present throughout Kenya. Most species can still be found somewhere on our route, but many are no longer as easy to find as they used to be and regular haunts of some species in the past are now unoccupied – for example, the total lack of White-fronted Bee-eaters in the Nakuru and Naivasha areas (large insect populations destroyed by agricultural insecticides perhaps?), the scarcity of hornbills on the Magadi Road (most large nesting trees cut down for charcoal?), the lack of vultures throughout the country (this year we saw only one Hooded, one Lappet-faced and couldn’t find White-headed at all), etc.
But it’s not all doom and gloom though. Kenya is still a fantastic country for a birding safari, and we saw nearly 700 species during the three weeks. Highlights were many and are often personal, but I have tried to include below those sightings that have some ornithological significance.
Great White Pelican – comparatively few at Lake Nakuru due presumably to the very high water levels at the lake.
Great Cormorant – many hundreds nesting at Lake Nakuru presumably for the same reason.
African Darter – just one seen, at Lake Baringo.
Greater and Lesser Flamingos – comparatively few at Lake Nakuru due presumably to the very high water levels at the lake.
White-backed Duck - several pairs with chicks at Limuru Pond (as already reported by Brian Finch).
Ferruginous Duck – 1 male at Limuru Pond.
Eurasian Honey-buzzard – 1 in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest on the Kariracha track.
Bat Hawk – one over Kakamega Forest.
Black Kite – once again we failed to find any nominate Black Kites. All the birds we looked at were Yellow-billed. Are we missing Blacks somehow or are they less common than is supposed?
Hooded Vulture – just one bird in the Masai Mara. No sign of any in former haunts such as Kakamega town.
Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture – it appears that there no longer any birds nesting on the main cliff face at Hell’s Gate (the massive cliff on the right with all the swifts). We were told this by the staff at the entrance gate and had to travel down to the lower cliff faces nearer the thermal power station end where we counted about 30.
Lappet-faced Vulture – only one in the Masai Mara (and no White-headed). However, perhaps related to this was the total absence of Wildebeest in the Mara – not one seen inside the reserve - only a few of the resident group on the Loita plains when driving north to Narok.
Beaudouin’s Snake-Eagle – 1 adult at Mungatsi – our regular site for this species.
Verreaux’s Eagles – a pair has returned to nest at Baringo Cliffs once again after an absence of ten or more years. Hurrah!
Long-crested Eagle – good numbers seen this year in many places after several years when I thought they were getting scarce.
Amur Falcon – 1 adult female on the fence along the road across the Solio Plains – most winter in Southern Africa and winter records in Kenya are very scarce. This is our first winter record in over 20 trips. Rather few Kestrels and Lesser Kestrels on the Solio Plains this year though, and NO Greater (White-eyed) Kestrels seen on the tour.
Very few Coqui Francolins seen – just two in the Mara. This species used to be much commoner.
Purple Swamphen – four in front of the accommodation/picnic hut on the shores of Lake Jipe. This remains an uncommon bird in Kenya.
African Finfoot – one at the Hippo Pools in Nairobi National Park. The ranger/guard told us that he has seen up to four there recently.
Kori Bustard – just 3 singles seen in scattered localities. Not as common as in the past?
Long-toed Lapwing/Plover – we couldn’t find any in any of the regular haunts this year. Continuing it’s gradual decline?
Ruff – hundreds at Lake Nakuru – presumably due to the high water levels.
Grey-headed Gull – hundreds at Lake Nakuru as well as two Black-headed Gulls in non-breeding plumage. No sign of Brian & Nigel’s breeding plumage bird nor their Slender-billed – we were there two days later.
White-winged Black-Tern – thousands at Lake Nakuru.
Black-faced Sandgrouse – no sign of any along the access road to Tsavo Safari Camp where they used to be common. Still plenty in Tsavo West though.
Purple-crested Turaco – one on the road to Machakas – so still holding on there.
Bohm’s Spinetail – missed it at Arabuko-Sokoke this year - as we have several times in recent years. They used to be seen every year without any difficulty. Perhaps getting scarcer?
Horus Swift – no sign of any at the ‘Hippo Pools’ on the Mara River where we sometimes see them in January (cf. Brian’s recent sighting).
White-fronted Bee-eater – as already mentioned still no sign of them around Nakuru or Naivasha where there used to be large colonies in all the quarries. Our only sighting was three on the road to Baringo, perhaps 10 miles north of Nakuru town. Major crash, as I reported 4-5 years ago and still no sign of recovery.
Freckle-breasted Woodpecker – 1 at Mungatsi – our regular site for this scarce Kenyan species.
White Wagtail – one found by Edwin (in the rain) around the buildings at the exit gate to Tsavo West when driving north from Lake Jipe.
Black-lored Babbler – a very nice example of one of those white-throated Black-lored Babblers (as illustrated in Zimmerman et al) in the garden of Naro Moru River Lodge, but the bird was associating with what appeared to be a 100% normal Northern Pied Babbler. They were clearly travelling around together.
Common Rock Thrush – this species doesn’t seem to be as numerous as it used to be. Still plenty in the lowlands of eastern Kenya – Tsavo etc. - but we saw none in the west.
Black-backed Cisticola – one in the grasslands of the Mara a little west of the Olololo Gate (more or less where we saw it a couple of years ago). This species would seem to have colonised the Mara in recent years, but probably gets easily overlooked.
Piapiac – following Chege’s posting on this site we looked for the Piapiacs in Mumias town and were delighted to find 5, but better still we watched an adult (with a black bill) feeding a young bird (with a red bill). The first proven breeding of the species in Kenya?
House Crow – House Crows seemed to be MUCH commoner around Watamu and Malindi this year. I suspect they are having a population explosion which is bad news as they will become as big a pest in coastal Kenya as they are in coastal Tanzania. When we left Turtle Bay at dawn each morning flock after flock was flying south along the coast road presumably coming out of a big roost. Time for action perhaps, before all the small bird populations crash?
Somali Sparrow (sort of) – last November Edwin found sparrows at the Sala Gate in Tsavo East which resembled Somali Sparrows. We saw them again in January and they were feeding young so are breeding there. However, I have sent photos of these birds to various people who know this bird from eastern Ethiopian and Somalia and they think that the Sala Gate birds might be hybrids – or at least have some House Sparrow DNA in them. They have full rufous-chestnut crowns and shoulders, and pale grey mantles heavily streaked with black. But they show little or no yellow in the cheeks or underparts and have black centres to some of the wing coverts (which should also be chestnut). Further research is needed on these birds and anyone passing through Sala Gate should stop and look at all the sparrows carefully. If you see any with chestnut crowns please try to get good photos of them and send them to Edwin and me.
Rufous-tailed Weaver – we visited the nesting colony of Rufous-tailed Weavers in the Mara. We counted 16 birds and saw lots of old nests. This colony is clearly now well established and the bird is no longer a Tanzania endemic.
Red-billed Quelea – there were vast numbers of Red-billed Queleas in Tsavo East this year, mostly along the road to Sala Gate from Aruba Dam. It was like a scene from an African wildlife documentary! We put down tens of thousands in our log.
David Fisher and Edwin Selempo