NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 5th June 2016

Dear All,
On Sunday 5th June, Nigel Hunter and myself visited NNP, having first
tried to enter Langata Gate and finding the Customer Care Clerk had
not arrived, we entered Main Gate where we were cheerfully and
professional processed and through by 6.45am.

Although there had been no rain for two weeks, it was amazing how much
water was still lying around, and that some roads were still too
treacherous to negotiate. We heard that from Langata Gate the roads
around and through the forest were still wet and muddy and not
passable, and we found for ourselves that the start of the back road
to Hyena Dam still has a mud trap right near Ivory Burning Site, this
has been caused by heavy transport involved in the recent ivory burn.
It is still not possible to get across the creek from Karen Primary
School Dam to Eland Hollow. In addition all dams are still showing
very high levels, and there are many places with shallow inundated
basins. It should be ideal for some crake visitations soon.

There was nothing at Ivory Burning Site, but at the Nagalomon Drift
the pair of Spotted Thick-knees have returned and were in fact
displaying. Continuing the nesting theme, we counted 700 Sacred Ibis
actually on the breeding colony at Nagalomon Dam, but as Fleur
reported last week the African Spoonbills and breeding and this
constitutes the first record for the Park. There were three incubating
birds, and above these was a single bird standing on a nest platform.
Alongside the Spoonbills were two Long-tailed Cormorants also
incubating on their nests. This also is the first breeding in the
Park, although has been suspected. The next to these Black-crowned
Night-Herons also were incubating, but they were spread all through
the Ibis rookery. These birds are on the extreme left of the colony.
There was a single Darter that showed no sign of nesting and the
species still hasn’t, and a visiting Great Cormorant. Apart from an
adult Fish Eagle on top of the colony not causing any interest in the
breeding birds just underneath it, it was just the ibis crowding the
dam edges, and a pair of Long-toed Plovers were presumably visiting
from Hyena Dam.