NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 17TH FEBRUARY 2014

Dear All,
It rained on Sunday night, as on the previous Thursday, a party of
Black-winged Stilts could be heard flying over the house at around
8.00pm. I thought that they must have been making for Nairobi National
Park as that was the direction they were flying.  Still we have
Eurasian Bee-eaters paying a visit several times every day, and at
5.30pm they start to come overhead, eventually heading off at 6.30pm
to a local roost somewhere. Presumably in a grove of Eucalypts.

Having suffered the three hours in traffic on our previous visit, we
decided that a different approach to get to the Park early was called
for. Karen Plumbe went round to Mike Davidsons, they then drove around
to my house, and we went up the Magadi Road leaving at 6.35am and were
in through Langata Entrance at 6.40am.
The Langata Gate is now operational again from 6.00am for all
personalised Smart Cards. From here we drove around to Main Gate
arriving at 7.00am where we waited a short while for Fleur Ng'Weno and
Jennifer Oduori, who had come from city direction and horribly stuck
in traffic. So the Park rendezvous went much better for the
Langata-side residents.

The unseasonal weather had brought in very heavy showers to the Park,
I have heard rumours that the rain/wind combination had damaged a
hanger at Wilson. So when we entered the Park, the road was very
sloshy from Langata Entrance, but still fine for getting through.
However other parts of the Park had become unreachable, and no roads
through the black-cotton soil were attempted and we restricted
ourselves to all day in the northern part of the Park.

Our first stop was at KWS Mess Gardens, it was dark and depressingly
gloomy with very little moving when we arrived, but before we left did
liven a bit. Here we had an Eastern Honeybird, just a single Tree
Pipit but in the same few square metres it has been (when there were
three) for the past few weeks, a Nightingale eventually got into good
voice, there was one Pale Flycatcher. We had Pale Flycatcher again in
the forest, this might be the only time I have ever seen the species
in two different areas on the same day! In the trees were two Garden
Warblers and maybe five Blackcaps, and the Black-collared Apalis seem
to have reverted to bachelorhood again.

On to Ivory Burning Site, very quiet we did have our first of four
Common Buzzards today, and a few migrant Black Kites. A Saddle-billed
Stork flew overhead, and was an impressive spectacle.

Nagalomon Dam was also not very active, two Darters, eight
Black-crowned Night-Herons roosted in the trees, a few Green
Sandpipers, and that was it.
Taking the back road to Hyena Dam (which we knew would be impassable),
the pair of Secretarybirds were along here, which has been a home for
them for a few weeks, we only had one other today, we found a silent
but confiding Nightingale, a flava Yellow Wagtail and had to turn back
on the black-cotton descent road as it was too boggy and could not get
anywhere near the new swamp.

On the way round to Hyena Dam we had the second Saddle-billed Stork,
the first of five or maybe six Long-crested Eagles, there seems to
have been a small incursion and who knows how many were in the
southern parts, the first of four Whinchats, a Turkestan Shrike, two
other members of the Red-tailed ilk were both Isabelline which are
much less common with us.

We arrived at Hyena Dam, and there were five Black-winged Stilts,
incredibly shy birds that took off on our arrival and although made
several attempts to return finally flew off never to be seen again. I
"know" that these were the birds that flew over the house in the dark
the previous evening. We don't see them at dams away from Athi. Whilst
we had our morning refreshments we had single Great and Little Egrets
and a Squacco Heron, an Eurasian Marsh Harrier stirred up the few
waders, four Green and fifteen Wood Sandpipers and two Ruff, and
African Water Rails called intermittently. The Long-toed Plover was
still around and a Sedge Warbler churred from the typha.

Both the track back up to the new swamp area from Hyena Dam and the
run-off were far too dodgy to risk bogging down. So we drove the long
way round to the Mokoyeti Bridge. Three Common Snipe flew past and
dropped into a boggy patch along the causeway. Red-faced Cisticola
called from somewhere along the river, we saw our only Banded Martin
of the day, and at the turn a male Parasitic Weaver sat in a small
acacia. After crossing the bridge we decided to head across to Maasai
Gate and on to Kingfisher. At the junction we started on the right
hand road, but gave up as it was very muddy and slippery, so taking
the left road towards Leopard Cliffs and going a much longer way
round, we had no sooner turned when there were two Eurasian Rollers
that were not too colourful yet, a female Lesser Kestrel in a low bush
and a singing Broad-tailed Grassbird. A little further was the
immature Bateleur that we had seen the previous week (probably the
same bird).

At the burnt area there was little to be seen, but eight Black-winged
Plovers and a single Northern Wheatear. However the bird of the day
appeared overhead. It was a strange, and eagle sized soaring raptor
making wide circles with upswept and very long wings. It was a perfect
Long-legged Buzzard, but on raising the binoculars the bird appeared
entirely black. I took images and video of the bird, and it was black.
I know that it was fairly low light with a flat grey sky, but I was
not used to seeing Long-legged Buzzards without the distinctive white
flash in the primaries and could see no pattern at all. However I was
convinced that apart from being black it was every way a Long-legged
Buzzard.

I have attached the images to this report. When I got home I started
looking at the images, and taking stills from the video. Because the
manipulation of the video is kinder than an image, I wondered what
would happen if I increased the exposure. On doing so I was surprised
to see a Long-legged Buzzard underwing appear, with a white flash
under the primaries and duskier secondaries. But as I had never seen a
dark phase Long-legged before, there was the dark terminal tail band
diagnostic of the just the dark morph. In the field all we could see
was black, I am going to have my eyes tested!
I sent the images to Itai, and he confirmed that this was a very dark
phase Long-legged Buzzard and that for the past few years they have
had a similar bird coming to winter near Eilat.

There was nothing at Kingfisher, but close by were fifteen or more
Eurasian Bee-eaters already startlingly brilliant as they caught
flying dudus around the car.

Rather than go back straight to the Main Entrance we thought a detour
around the forest would be pleasant and it was. Not so much for
interesting birds though with a Little Grebe and African Jacana at the
Langata forest edge dam, and another Jacana in the dam near Langata
Road.  At the dam near Impala Lookout some eight Nyanza Swifts were
coming in to drink with Little, White-rumped and Palm Swifts. Passing
Nagalomon Dam, seven Green Sandpipers had arrived early for roosting
and a last look at Hyena Dam produced a nice Swamphen.

Other birds were five scattered pairs of Crowned Cranes, seven
Black-shouldered Kites and Barn Swallows only seen a few times with
one party at Hyena Dam as we left.

We exited the Main Gate into no traffic at 4.10pm, and back at my
place in ten minutes.

Mammals were really poor, and undoubtedly they are all concentrated
towards and in Athi Basin.

Best to all
Brian