MAGADI ROAD…. ICROSS ROAD (towards Kudu Hills) 12th June 2013.

Dear All,
Adam Kennedy and myself met at Rupert Watson’s house at 6.30am on the
overcast, nunu-ing and cool morning of 12th June. Our intention being
to get out of the premature July-type gloom that has struck Nairobi.
We headed off down the Magadi Road, and after passing Corner Baridi,
things got far more pleasant, warmer and brighter although the sun did
not really make an emergence until about 10.00am.

We birded a little down the steep hill after Olepolos club, where
there was a nice patch of Leonotis that was attracting some hungry and
quite indifferent Bronze, Golden-winged, Beautiful, Scarlet-chested,
Marico and Variable Sunbirds. The Maricos glistened in colours that
had to be seen to be believed.

Then the remainder of the day was spent just birding along twenty
kilometres of the Icross Road as far as the dam to the right of the
road, getting close to the base of the vocanic plug-like hill of
Oldonyo Narok.

What a spectacularly birdy piece this turned out to be. All green and
lush, but nearly all fenced. However so much of the habitat was in
good stead behind the fences, and the birds could be seen from the
roadside. A few areas were unfenced that permitted walking around.

I have attached a list at the end of all the species that we recorded
along this road, and here just detailing the highlights.

Our first interesting find was right at the junction, where there was
a Bush Pipit singing its scratchy simple refrain from the top of an
isolated acacia. Then not too far up the road, we had a pair of
Short-tailed Larks right by the car. In beautiful crisp plumage one
bird (presumed male) was hammering at the ground, characteristically
digging holes in the whitish dusty soil at its feet, and successfully
finding titbits, whilst its mate was grabbing hold of beakfulls of
vegetation, (presumed female), and when she had a load, she flew off
and went to the other side of the road where there was rank grass and
bush, immediately followed by the male. Another local breeding record
after the nest at Olorgessailie a couple of months ago.
Continuing on a few more kilometres we were trying to locate the local
kiwanukae dark race of Black-faced Waxbill for Adam who had not seen
the species in Kenya. We were very successful, and seemed to encounter
them the rest of the day as well. Whilst here a Pringle’s Puffback
called, and we had very nice views of a foraging male. This of course
was the still undescribed silver-backed Ngong endemic, and not the
normal black-backed form.

We finally arrived at the little dam, fully enclosed with vegetation
all round including sedges growing around the rim and plenty of trees.
Although this habitat looked incredible for attracting something out
of the ordinary, apart from nesting Lesser Masked Weavers, there was
little else of note.

On the return we found three Two-banded Coursers, always nice to see.

We turned back from here at 3.30pm, birding slowly back to the Magadi
Road Junction, and having little problem with the traffic in Ongata
Rongai were back home around 6.00pm finding that the weather had
remained cold and gloomy and the power went down at 5.00pm, and as at
now as I write at 9.00am, no sign of it returning!

Here is a list of species, that we recorded just on the Icross Road section….

Cattle Egret
Black-headed Heron
Hamerkop
Sacred Ibis
Black-shouldered Kite
Black-chested Snake Eagle
Gabar Goshawk
Eastern Chanting Goshawk
Augur Buzzard
Lanner Falcon
Yellow-necked Spurfowl
Buff-crested Bustard
Two-banded Courser
Crowned Plover
Three-banded Plover
Black-faced Sandgrouse
Emerald-spotted Wood Dove
Namaqua Dove
Speckled Pigeon
Ring-necked Dove
African Mourning Dove
Laughing Dove
White-bellied Go-Away Bird
Red-chested Cuckoo
Klaas’ Cuckoo
Diederic Cuckoo
White-browed Coucal
Speckled Mousebird
Blue-naped Mousebird
African Pygmy Kingfisher
Little Bee-eater
Rufous-crowned Roller
African Hoopoe
Abyssinian Scimitarbill
Red-fronted Tinkerbird
Red-fronted Barbet
Black-throated Barbet
Red-and-Yellow Barbet
d’Arnaud’s Barbet
Nubian Woodpecker	
Cardinal Woodpecker
Fawn-coloured Lark	
Short-tailed Lark
Fischer's Sparrow-Lark
Grassland Pipit
Bush Pipit
Red-rumped Swallow
Lesser Striped Swallow
Rock Martin	
Common Bulbul
Spotted Morning Thrush
White-browed Scrub Robin
Capped Wheatear
African Grey Flycatcher
Rattling Cisticola
Ashy Cisticola
Desert Cisticola
Tiny Cisticola
Tawny-flanked Prinia
Red-fronted Warbler
Grey-backed Camaroptera
Grey Wren-Warbler
Yellow-breasted Apalis
Red-faced Crombec
Yellow-bellied Eremomela
Banded Parisoma
Abyssinian White-eye
Red-throated Tit
African Paradise Flycatcher
Chin-spot Batis
Taita Fiscal
Brubru
Brown-crowned Tchagra
Rosy-patched Bush-Shrike
Sulphur-breasted Bush-Shrike
Grey-headed Bush-Shrike
Slate-coloured Boubou
Ngong (Pringle’s)  Puffback
Common Drongo
Pied Crow
Hildebrandt's Starling
Superb Starling
Eastern Violet-backed Sunbird
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Variable Sunbird
Marico Sunbird
Beautiful Sunbird
Rufous Sparrow
Chestnut Sparrow
Yellow-spotted Petronia
White-browed Sparrow-Weaver
Grey-capped Social-Weaver
Speckle-fronted Weaver
Black-necked Weaver
Vitelline Masked Weaver
Lesser Masked Weaver
Chestnut Weaver
Red-billed Quelea
Cardinal Quelea
Green-winged Pytilia
Red-billed Firefinch
Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu
Blue-capped Cordon-bleu
Purple Grenadier
Crimson-rumped Waxbill
Black-faced Waxbill
Grey-headed Silverbill
African Silverbill
Village Indigobird
Pin-tailed Whydah
Straw-tailed Whydah
Paradise Whydah
Reichenow’s Seedeater
White-bellied Canary
Brimstone Canary
Southern Grosbeak Canary
Cinnamon-chested Rock Bunting
Somali Bunting