MAGADI ROAD 9th April 2013

Dear All,
On 9th April, Mike Davidson, and Nigel Hunter met at my place at
7.15am, for a day trip to the Magadi Road.
There had been considerable rain overnight, and the road through
Ongata Rongai and Kiserian was damaged with some of the river
crossings in urgent need of repair.
Our first stop was Corner Baridi, but the fall of migrants hoped for
did not materialise. There were a few Garden Warblers but that was it
as far as bush birds were concerned. The air was more interesting, and
in the clear visibility typical following wet nights there were many
swifts and swallows. By far the most dominant swift was Nyanza, there
were five or so birds resembling Pallid Swifts, a few Mottled Swift
but with them an Alpine Swift. This species in inexplicably rare
around Nairobi, and the only other local bird I have seen was one once
in Nairobi National Park. There were a number of Little Swifts with
the collection, and Barn Swallows with two House Martins accompanying
them.
The bridge across the Ol Kejo River only months after its recent
repair has fallen again, and there is a hairy narrow path to squeeze
by a dangerous drop to the river that is very undermined. It’ll not
see another large storm, then Magadi will be completely cut off. Lucky
for us the day was a really beautiful one, sunny but not getting hot
and the bridge was still there when we came back!
So many birds were vocalising, but raptors and whydahs were decidedly
absent. Seasonal Cuckoos were restricted to four Jacobin and one
Black. Along the lower levels we found so much nesting and watched
Chestnut Sparrows mating outside nests of Grey-capped Social and
Lesser Masked Weavers, that they had purloined for their own broods.
Migrants were pretty scarce with one Whitethroat, one Willow, three
Olivaceous, one Upchers, two Red-backed and three Lesser Grey Shrikes.
At Olorgesaillie there was a bird singing vaguely like a Friedmann’s
Lark, but we were a long way away when we heard it. On getting to the
area it took twenty minutes to find the author which was one of a pair
of Short-tailed Larks, the male of which called in a very short song
flight, the call instead of being a smooth slurred call was broken
into two syllables. Whilst watching the birds one went into a dense
tuft of vegetations and sat down on its nest! Also here were four or
five Capped Wheatears, I have always thought these cold season
visitors, but birds were singing and looked at home. It will be
interesting to see if they breed in the desert, as in Kenya as a
breeding bird it is mainly high altitude short but lush grasslands.
We only went as far as the Olorgesaillie River, no Horus Swifts were
at the colony unlike Naivasha birds a few days ago, but a pair of
Rufous-crowned Rollers were interested in the river cliff.
There were many White-throated Bee-eaters is very nice plumage and
“singing” as if ready to breed. They are probably waiting for the
rains to finish. There was a White-fronted Bee-eater on the plain at
Kisamese. This is the third successive year that birds have been
present at this site at this time of year.
At Ol Tepesi we watched a Taita Fiscal remove a baby Beautiful Sunbird
from its nest, also here there were a number of Singing Bush Larks in
song flight, and Fischer’s Sparrowlarks were also in the midst of
pairing.

Undoubtedly more rain is to fall, but at present it is such a green
drive and there are some interesting flowers making an appearance. At
Olorgesaillie Southern Long-tailed Lizard were pairing and we saw
quite a few. This involved incredibly rapid chases over open ground
that were difficult to follow. Pair were found with one biting the
other on the neck and holding on, there didn’t seem much difference
between territorial aggression and pair bonding!

Best for now
Brian