NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 19th June 2016

Dear All,
Nigel Hunter and myself arrived at the Main Entrance to the Park at
6.40am and were quickly processed. It was a cold grey day and there
had not been any rains for two weeks, yet we were surprised to find
roads still damp, and several still impassable. The road to the back
of Hyena Dam was still treacherous and to be avoided, and every road
around Langata Gate and Kisembe Forest closed or those that weren’t
still need to be avoided. There is no access from just below Leopard
Cliffs to the Mbagathi River, and the flooded creek is still blocking
the road between Karen Primary School Dam and Eland Hollow, from Eland
Hollow to East Gate Road is still off limits and all the inside roads
from Hyena Dam (including the run-off), to Eland Hollow are closed. So
this restricted access to a number of key localities.

We first started at Ivory Burning Site, where nothing was there to
entertain us, but the pair of Spotted Thick-knees was on the Nagalomon
drift. At the dam there was much Sacred Ibis activity at the rookery,
there appears to be four incubating African Spoonbills and we are
still waiting for young to record the first breeding of the species in
the Park, likewise a few Long-tailed Cormorants also appear to be
incubating and as yet there is no breeding of this species either.
Over twenty Black-crowned Night-Herons were mainly immature birds and
testified to recent breeding success. The usual Fish Eagle crowned the
top of the nesting tree, but still shows no interest in the colony,
nor the birds in it. Around the edge was a pair of the first of four
pairs of Grey Crowned Cranes today, an adult African Jacana, two
Spur-winged and a Long-toed Plover.

Taking the normal road to Hyena Dam we found one each of Squacco Heron
and the seasons first Madagascar Pond Heron, Great Egret, two
Red-billed Teal, another Fish Eagle, and just one African Jacana and
five each of Long-toed and Spur-winged Plovers. There were far fewer
birds than of late, and the typha away from the causeway is
disappearing completely now leaving a completely open water body.