From: Patrick Avery <doctoravery@yahoo.com>
Date: 2015-01-23 20:01
Subject: Re: [KENYABIRDSNET] Re: Karen Club bird walk report, 23 January 2015
Hi Mike and John,

Karen club is always a great place for bird walks and it sounds like you saw many of the usuals.

To add further to the brown backed woodpecker sightings, we live on Westwood park road not far from the dukas and we always have them in the fig trees in our garden. A very common species for us so I would suspect they are fairly common throughout forested areas of Karen?

Cheers

Patrick 

Sent from my iPhone

On 23 Jan 2015, at 19:15, "'Mike Davidson' miked@surfbirder.com [kenyabirdsnet]" <kenyabirdsnet-noreply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Hi ALL
 
Interesting about the Brown-backed Woodpecker .  It is quite often seen on the Wednesday bird walk i Ngong forest , so no reason why it should not be on the course !
 
From a cold uk , and birding finding only half your  numbers normally on a bird walk around here in Dorset
 
best to all
 
Mike

Karen Country Club bird walk, 23 January 2015

 

On a cold and overcast morning (is this really January?!) we set out enthusiastically – JD, Mick and Jane Wilson-Smith, Karen Plumbe, Barb Schlegel, Alastair Campbell and Sharon Inzaule – on the first Karen Club bird walk of 2015. At the dams, the only migrants were Common Sandpiper and Black-winged Stilt, but the locals were in good attendance – Grey Crowned Crane, Grey Heron, Hamerkop, Egyptian Goose, Three-banded Plover, Yellow-billed Duck, Little Grebe, and Reed and Great Cormorant.

 

As we walked around, some very interesting sightings soon dispelled the gloom, including a female Black Cuckooshrike, and good views of a Cabanis’s Greenbul. The sweet liquid song of the Black-headed Oriole rang out clearly, and we were told that “It will rain” by both the Red-chested Cuckoo and its impersonator, Ruppell’s Robin Chat.

 

Back at the wetlands, we were treated to a wonderful array of sights and sounds. The Grey-capped Warbler again proved itself a true Nairobi gem, for both its loud crescendo song and its attractive appearance, once it emerges from the bush. A Long-crested Eagle squawked its disapproval when a Black-headed Heron joined it at the top of an acacia. Speke’s, Spectacled, Reichenow’s, Grosbeak, and Holub’s Golden Weavers were all busy, as were Spot-flanked and White-headed Barbets. A small flock of Willow Warblers were flitting through the crown of an acacia.

 

But the gem of a very enjoyable day was excellent views of a Brown-backed Woodpecker, the first sighting for the Karen Club. Surely this species is far more common around Nairobi than is often supposed.

 

On our way back to the clubhouse, some Rock Martins and Lesser Striped Swallows brought the total for the walk up to 53 species, hardly to be expected when we set off, but what a great start to 2015!

 

Birds seen and heard on Karen Club bird walk, 23 January 2015

 

Egyptian Goose

Yellow-billed Duck

Little Grebe

Sacred Ibis

Hadada Ibis

Grey Heron

Black-headed Heron

Hamerkop

Reed Cormorant

Great Cormorant

Black Kite

Long-crested Eagle

Common Moorhen

Grey Crowned Crane

Black-winged Stilt

Three-banded Plover

Common Sandpiper

Red-eyed Dove

Red-chested Cuckoo

Speckled Mousebird

Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater

Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird

Spot-flanked Barbet

White-headed Barbet

Brown-backed Woodpecker

Black-backed Puffback

Tropical Boubou

Black Cuckooshrike

Black-headed Oriole

Pied Crow

Rock Martin

Lesser-striped Swallow

Singing Cisticola

Yellow-breasted Apalis

Grey-capped Warbler

Grey-backed Camaroptera

Common Bulbul

Yellow-whiskered Greenbul

Cabanis’s Greenbul

Willow Warbler

Olive Thrush

Ruppell’s Robin Chat

White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher

Bronze Sunbird

Variable Sunbird

Kenya Rufous Sparrow

Grosbeak Weaver

Baglafecht Weaver

Spectacled Weaver

Holub’s Golden Weaver

Speke’s Weaver

African Pied Wagtail

Streaky Seedeater