NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 10th JANUARY 2016

Dear All,
On Sunday 10th January 2016, Nigel Hunter and myself arrived at 6.40am
and were efficiently processed at the Main Entrance to Nairobi
National Park. It was our first visit to the Park this year, and the
previous ten days had been dry resulting in falling water levels and
all previously treacherous tracks now dry and firm enabling access
throughout.

On the main road in, there were Nightingales singing in the scrub, and
others were at five other locations in the north, and on the way to
Ivory Burning Site was the first of only two Spotted Flycatchers. The
Site failed to produce anything of interest, although there was an
Irania singing from a patch of thick scrub nearby, attempts to lure it
into sight failed miserably. Whilst looking for it, a pair of
Dark-capped Yellow Warblers was nest building. On the way to Nagalomon
Dam there was no sign of the Spotted Thick-knees, but on the dam it
was all go in the Sacred Ibis rookery. There were a few chicks but
most were incubating. Towards the top of the rookery were three
African Spoonbills which were displaying. If these were to breed then
it would be a new nesting species for the Park. The few Cattle Egrets
present showed no sign of nesting, but the scattered Black-crowned
Night-Herons already had flying young. The margin was quiet with a few
Green and Wood Sandpipers, but on the sand spit was a smart young male
Knob-billed Duck and an adult African Jacana. Crowning the top of the
tree only a few metres from the nesting Ibis was an adult Fish Eagle,
whilst the only Darter present sought a quieter perch off to the side.

Taking the back road to Hyena Dam, there was a Thrush Nightingale
singing in the scrub but it remained in cover. Not a species that
usually winters in NNP. Passing the apartments where someone keeps a
pigeon loft, the birds were receiving much attention from a Great
Sparrowhawk. Usually there is a chase and either success or failure
and the bird moves on, but on this occasion the pigeons only kept
flying between a tree and the loft, and the raptor kept in the area
and persistently swooped on them. We left the bird there with the
nervous pigeons. In the swamp at the back of Hyena Dam there was an
African Water Rail, a few Wood and Green Sandpipers and a short-billed
fairly dark Snipe (see image). Of the two Yellow Wagtails one was a
young male lutea and the other indeterminate. Our first of six
Whinchats was along here, all birds today were in dull plumage, but
the best bird was the adult Great Spotted Eagle perched on a small
acacia and later flew right over us several times affording superb
views (see images). At Hyena Dam the water is receding but the
assemblage was varied with a female Darter, pair of White-faced
Whistling Ducks and a Red-billed Teal, two Yellow-billed and an
attractive adult Open-billed Stork, an adult Glossy Ibis and two
non-breeding Squacco Herons. A Fish Eagle perched in the large acacia,
an African Water Rail sauntered across the road, just one Swamphen and
the same for Long-toed Plover, but the two Spur-winged were present.
Two African Jacanas, but no sign of the immatures, whilst migrant
waders consisted of a dozen Wood and five Green Sandpipers and two
Common Snipe. In the lantana along the causeway were three Sedge and
two Eurasian Reed Warblers, the last were both singing, and one was in
exactly the same little clump where one wintered last year, suggesting
the same bird and site fidelity, but then maybe the Sedge are also
returnees. The reeds held ten Yellow-crowned Bishops, but today only
three Red-collared and one breeding male Jackson’s Widowbirds were
seen indicating a massive withdrawal from the Park.
We continued along the run-off and made a circuit crossing the
Mokoyeti Bridge where there was a pair of Wahlberg’s Honeybirds giving
aerial chase.

We then looked at the most scenically beautiful piece of the Park,
which is the Kisembe Forest with the small rocky river of the same
name. There was a reason to take this route, and that was to take
images to make people aware of what we are about to lose if the Kenya
Government gets its way to destroy it with the railway-line carving it
up with irreversible damage. In addition the destruction of the river
which is the source of the water courses that flow southwards through
the Park to the Mbagathi River. The area is home to the most important
of all Black Rhinoceros territory in East Africa. The species has
always survived well in NNP, it is not a reintroduction but the
original descendants of animals that were widespread but now
exterminated. It is from this core area for the species that important
reintroductions were successful in other Parks, Reserves and Game
Ranches. Were it not for the Nairobi Rhinos, there would be far far
fewer in East Africa and the continent would be all the poorer.

When Nairobi was first populated, the area had extensive
Brachylaena-Olive-Croton Forest, but soon the town and later city
engulfed the unique habitat, it is only with the timely creation of
Nairobi National Park that a small representation of this attractive
mix of forest, glades and open vleis was saved. Once this has gone the
unique habitat will be lost for ever, to say nothing of the Black
Rhinoceros resident there, and the abundant and varied life forms that
call Kisembe Forest their home. So I thought that a collection of
images of the habitat would make a nice memento of the future “what
once was!”

Earlier I took a photo of the plaque on the small monument
commemorating the visit of the Chinese Premier, and his excellency
President Uhuru Kenyatta for the ceremonial second Ivory burn at Ivory
Burning Site. It states on the plaque…. no, best to read the
Presidential proclamation for yourself, it is the centre of the
montage remember this was just twenty months ago.

As we drove slowly along the tracks there were numerous butterflies,
scattering Suni and a very attractive pair of Ayre’s Hawk-Eagles, as
well as a Bateleur. This is the only breeding pair left in Nairobi,
and today it is a long drive to the nearest Bateleurs, the most
stately, and most attractive of our eagles. The only migrant Common
Buzzard was also here. The Hippogrebe Dam, Langata Dam and the
Forest-Edge Dam each had a pair of Grey Crowned Cranes, four other
small dams today held paired Crowned Cranes, Karen Primary School Dam
has one unattached bird. Undoubtedly we did not see every pair of
cranes in the Park. Grey Crowned Crane numbers are falling at an
alarming rate outside of protected areas, on an Africa-Wide
classification the species is now considered threatened with
extinction, and everything should be done to protect it. Nairobi
National Park has a very healthy population that annually produce
young successfully, hopefully this iconic species will receive all the
protection it requires and deserves, and will continue to be a
familiar sight for future generations.
Langata Dam held the days only Little Grebe, and a few pairs of
White-backed Vultures were perched near nests in that area, but it
could not be ascertained whether they were currently using the nests
or not. Next to Forest-Edge Dam we did watch a vulture nest-building.
Interestingly it would break branches off neighbouring trees, which
was a revelation and explains why you never see vultures as with other
birds of prey collecting sticks off the ground, but I wonder why this
is. White-backed Vultures have declined by 95% throughout Africa in
the past decade, Kisembe Forest and other parts of Nairobi National
Park have the most successful breeding population of the species left
on the planet. It would be a travesty to lose a single pair of this
greatly endangered species.