NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 10th June 2013

Dear All,
On 10th June, Heather Elkins, Fleur Ng’Weno, Karen Plumbe and myself
gathered at the Main Entrance Gate to Nairobi National Park at 6.30am,
it was a very dark and cold morning but the traffic was surprisingly
easy. There had been no rain for several weeks and the place was
starting to show that it was the dry season, and the roads were dusty.

We started off at KWS Mess Gardens, where it was so quiet and
miserably cold there was nothing much apart from abnormal numbers of
Red-eyed Doves that were thronging into, but not seen to consume any
of the fruit of the Crotons. There was a female Black Cuckooshrike
which could have been a southerner, and a flying Honeybird, but it was
too dark to see anything on it! Leaving here we looked at Ivory
Burning Site but still nothing of note.

We followed this with Nagalomon Dam, finding two Madagascar Pond
Herons sitting together on a tree with a Darter (which turned into two
adult Darters on passing the dam again when leaving). The first of the
young Black-crowned Night-Herons were trying their wings on top of the
typha, but they had far too short primaries to take off. Although the
species probably bred here last year, no flightless young were ever
seen although immatures were present. So this must constitute as the
first successful breeding for the species in the Park. There were also
a pair of Three-banded Plovers with two chicks.

Taking the road to the back of Hyena Dam we were entertained by two
Egyptian Mongooses. We did not see anything of avian interest along
here, but at Hyena Dam there was a Swamphen (no sign of the pair with
the three chicks, or the baby Little Bitterns), and an African Water
Rail walked brazenly across the short grass in front of the car.

On the run-off there were streams of Jackson’s Widowbirds pouring into
the sedges from the open grasslands. Many adult males now had no tails
but were otherwise in breeding plumage. There must have been over a
hundred birds involved. Cardinal Queleas were fairly numerous here and
at several other places as well. There was a scattering of
Orange-breasted Waxbills here and in the northern parts. Quailfinches
had come into the Park in numbers and were all through the grasslands,
especially near water.

Intriguingly last week we stopped at the Martial Eagle nest along the
Mokoyeti River, and both adults were there, with the immature that had
been dependant on them for over the past year. Today it appeared that
the female was back incubating on the same nest, and there was no sign
of the young bird. This is a remarkable turn-around, and they don’t
seem to have time off!! There were unusual numbers of Black-shouldered
Kites over the Park, at least fifteen and maybe twenty birds observed.

We circuited round back towards the Main Entrance where we left Fleur,
then carried on along the Mokoyeti and out towards Leopard Cliffs.
Firstly a detour to Olmanyi Dam where there were a few Yellow-crowned
Bishops, and we encountered more at four other dams with over twenty
at the pool before the road to Empakasi Dam.

I have only ever seen Violet Wood-Hoopoes immediately adjacent to the
Mbagathi River, but for the first time ever there were a pair with a
young black billed bird in bushland between Baboon Cliffs and the main
road to Hippo Pools. Admittedly not that far from the River, but still
not right beside it.

It was still cold and miserably overcast as we went around to Athi Dam
where birds included Black-chested and another Martial Eagle, a
Bateleur, whilst at the water the slim pickings included a couple of
Spur-winged Plover and a pair of African Spoonbills, plus a thirsty
Speckled Pigeon. On the causeway there was one immature Black-crowned
Night-Heron roosting in the usual bush.

Whilst we stopped for snacks and coffee, Karen called out to say there
was a Hoopoe on the track across the causeway behind us. It seemed a
bit open for an African Hoopoe, and I asked her where it was. As soon
as I saw it, even though it was still at a great distance, I could see
that the bird was not an African Hoopoe, and said I thought it was a
waibeli. We climbed back into the car and drove as close as it would
allow.
This would be the first I had ever seen in Nairobi, having never
previously encountered it south of Nakuru before. In all the books
detailing distribution, the southern limit of this northern migrant is
given as south to Nairobi. Personally I think this record refers to
just one vagrant individual rather than the limit of the regular
occurrence. As I said I had never seen it in this area before and we
do get a lot of Hoopoes including a few palearctic nominate in season.
Whilst I was in the Park I was happy it was a vagrant waibeli.
Now I have studied the literature I am not so sure.
There is quite a bit of confusion about separating waibeli and
senegalensis in the field. The literature states that the epops group
has three colour grades, palest being nominate, slightly darker
senegalensis and the darkest waibeli. The waibeli we see are indeed
dark and much the colour of the common africanus in chestnut-rufous
ground colour.

Examination of the images shows, firstly the clear whitish tips to the
secondaries on the closed wing, immediately ruling out africanus,
apart from the fact it looks like a zebra!
The black tips to the crest have cinnamon below them, this is white in
nominate and dismisses that. Leaving us with waibeli and senegalensis,
where literature gets a bit hazy (and I noticed that in the Handbook
open wing images B and D have reversed captions).

To me this bird is almost nominate coloured, soft pinkish-grey, and
more greyish on the mantle. I have never seen this in the waibeli that
we get, or we might be mistaking them with nominate. I don’t think I
have ever seen a bird like this before, and additionally the amount
and breadth of the three wing bands look wider and more dramatically
banded than waibeli.

Under normal circumstances I would be over the moon finding a waibeli
in NNP, but couldn’t this be an even more lost senegalensis?