NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 4th OCTOBER 2015

Dear All,
Nigel Hunter and myself met up with Fleur Ng’Weno and Jennifer Odouri
at 6.40am at Langata Gate, it was sadly no surprise that the Customer
Services employee had not arrived and we were refused entry and had to
go around to Main Gate. Although admittedly on a Sunday it is only two
minutes, what it means is that we do not have the early morning in the
forest, and as we were working on the Pentad Atlas the results suffer.
To give an idea of just how much it effects the results, over the day
we recorded 163 species, but between 6.45am and 7.50am the following
morning (5th), I recorded 51 species in our paddock but because it is
a wooded habitat, no less than 16 species (almost a third of these),
were not recorded at all yesterday. As an interjection, whilst
preparing this I heard a Bat Hawk calling, and on looking out of the
window saw a bird giving a Yellow-billed Kite a very hard time, which
was very good to see and also that they are still in the area and
undoubtedly raising young either in IUCN or even possibly along the
river.

The place is still gripped by drought, water levels have dropped
throughout the Park, although Athi Dam has remained full. The weather
today was dry and comfortably cool but warmed in the afternoon. The
plains are dry and the grass yellow.

We started birding at Nagalomon Dam where the Sacred Ibis have left an
aftermath of despoiled waterside vegetation, and have left the area
not as they found it! Long-tailed Cormorant numbers were well down to
just ten, and only one Darter. A smart adult Fish Eagle crowned the
top of the tree but really there was surprisingly little to see.
Around the edges were a few Green and a Wood Sandpiper, and an adult
African Jacana but not much else apart from nine somewhat exposed
hippos.