From: Colin Jackson <colin.jackson@arocha.org>
Date: 2013-05-08 14:28
Subject: Clarke's Weavers roosting among shambas + other notes
Following on from the news that Fleur and the Dakatcha Woodland
Conservation Group found Clarke's Weavers nesting in a small
seasonal swamp, David Ngala - the renowned bird guide from
Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and recently awarded the Disney Global
Conservation Hero Award - was returning from doing one of his
surveys of illegal activities in the forest and stopped by a tiny
wetland just outside the boundary of the forest at the southern end
which was swarming with weavers of various kinds. In the middle of
Golden Palm and Grosbeak Weavers he noticed a female Clarke's Weaver
and ended up staying a further two hours to confirm it leading to
his seeing more females and then also some male Clarke's Weavers
coming into the wetland.
He called other A Rocha Kenya staff to go back there with him that
same day to confirm it (I was unfortunately away in Naivasha) so
Henry Kigen + 3-4 others accompanied him back that evening and fully
confirmed Clarke's Weavers present in a small seasonal swamp near
Chumani on the south boundary of Arabuko-Sokoke.
This is also therefore very ground breaking news. Whether they were
actually breeding there was not certain and so last Friday (3rd May)
I visited the site with 12 other visitors, volunteers and staff to
do some further observations. On arrival at 5pm there were just a
handful of birds in the sedges but over the next hour c.250 more
Clarke's Weavers came into the reedbed from out of Arabuko-Sokoke
and settled in the sedges with Golden Palm and Grosbeak Weavers.
With careful observation we looked hard for any evidence of breeding
activity and whilst we saw 2-3 female-plumaged birds entering a
couple of nests, there was no evidence of real breeding behaviour -
in fact two males seen were well on the way to moulting into
non-breeding plumage.
The final assessment therefore is that whilst they may have nested
there earlier in the season, currently they are not nesting but are
in fact roosting in the seasonal swamp. This is new information for
the species as the roost site and behaviour have also never been
described. We'll be publishing a full report on this in Scopus in
due course.
An additional bonus while there was a Bat Hawk cruising over head at
dusk...
Arabuko-Sokoke Forest yesterday in pouring rain in the morning
surveying other seasonal wetlands in the southern end of the forest.
Some beautiful habitat in that area; one wetland in particular was
significant in size (200x100m) and had Black Crakes in it and, most
surprisingly, the southern race (species?) of Little Rush Warbler
singing away in the sedges (and another Bat Hawk over mid morning in
pouring rain).
Sabaki River Mouth today - very few birds. The estuary has totally
changed with the flooding that has happened the past month and the
sea has been pushed even further back by vast amounts of mud and
sand that have been deposited from eroded shambas in Ukambani.. WHEN
will our Agricultural Department get its act together to enforce the
law that prevents people from farming right up to a river bank and
thus reduce the amount of erosion of top soil into the rivers and
eventually the ocean??
Highlights were a handful of Collared Pratincoles (no Mad Prats -
unlike last month when we had over 600...), one White-cheeked Tern
amongst c.100 Common Terns, four Caspian Terns, and a pair of
Black-winged Stilt on the now wonderfully flooded freshwater pans in
behind the shoreline. These promise to be very rich with birds once
they start to 'mature'.
Colin
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Colin Jackson
A Rocha Kenya
Christians in Conservation
Cell: +254 (0)722-842366
Land: +254 (0)20 260 0731
www.arocha.org
www.assets-kenya.org
Blog: www.arochakenya.wildlifedirect.org