Adam,
Two very interesting observations (the Ospreys and this one).
This one remind me of a sighting I had at Mountain Lodge some years ago. I was sitting on the balcony at the lodge after dinner one night watching the water hole to see what came in. It was a very misty night - presumably low cloud over the mountain slopes. Suddenly a smallish bird appeared and circled around the waterhole a couple of times. Through my bins I could see it was a male Harlequin Quail. Presumably it had been attracted/disorientated by the floodlights on this misty night, much as birds are at Ngulia. After circling a few times it dropped to the ground and landed in the open on the short grass. My bins were firmly fixed on it. After just a few seconds, into my field of view flashed the resident Verreaux's Eagle-Owl which caught the quail without any difficulty at all and then flew up onto the branch of a nearby tree and proceeded to consume it. A sad end to the Harlequin Quail. But perhaps if it had escaped the owl, one of your Sykes's Monkeys would have had it the next morning!
I'm always amazed at Mountain Lodge that the Verreaux's Eagle-Owl mostly seem to catch moths that are attracted to the lights, but clearly given the opportunity they will take large prey that comes in too.
Hope the rest of your trip goes well and that you have more interesting sightings to report.
Best wishes,
David
David Fisher, Sandy, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom.
From: kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com [mailto:kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: 28 May 2014 19:18
To: Thomas Butynski; kenyabirdsnet
Subject: [KENYABIRDSNET] A Quail-eating Monkey on Mount Kenya [4 Attachments]
Dear All,
While birding with a group from the rooftop terrace of Serena Mountain Lodge on the afternoon of 12th May 2014, we found ourselves inundated by the resident white-throated Skye’s Monkeys and they took up positions on the balconies and proceeded to scan the scene. Suddenly, one animal that I was photographing jumped off the balcony and returned about 30 seconds later with a bird in its mouth that I could see was a male Harlequin Quail. The bird appeared limp and ‘fresh’ but there was no indication that it was alive. The monkey was bold in its attempts to keep the prey item to itself and proceeded to eat the bird head first.
This observation was noteworthy on two counts; firstly, I would imagine there are few records of this monkey species eating a Harlequin Quail. Secondly, it was a strange location for a Harlequin Quail which I can only suppose was migrating over the forest of Mount Kenya at night and drawn to the bright lights of the lodge. We’ll never know if the bird was already dead or just recuperating after an exhaustive night before it was ‘dispatched’.
Sadly, it was the observation of the quail on our trip!
Cheers for now,
Adam