Lake Naivasha was overly disappointing despite having a joyous five hour voyage around the Lake with John Gitiri on Saturday- 30th July-.  Not a single Teal or Whistling Duck! We only encountered four Yellow-billed Ducks, a handful of Egyptian Goose and less than 20 Little Grebes. There were pretty of African Fish Eagles and one of those was about to fight with a Yellow-billed Egret, perhaps for a fish, but flew away once we approached.

The Great White and Yellow-billed Egrets were relatively many on the floating emergent vegetation. We also had a nice time of the day with Squacco Herons and a fantastic view of a Little Bittern. Grey-headed Herons were also common but I remember counting only one Black-headed Heron, which was in fact on flight. There was also a couple of isolated groups  of Great White Pelicans- containing less than five individuals.

Cormorants never disappoint in Lake Naivasha, both Great and Reed- they were very many.

The Crescent Island was colorful with close to fifty perching Grey-headed Gulls,  assorted Egrets and Grey-headed Heron.

My biggest disappointment was the many fishing nets around the Lake with white reflectors which one would mistake for floating Gulls at a distance. The fishing nets have some obvious effect on the presence and population of ducks especially the diving ones. Disturbances from engine boats- very common at the lake- is another worrying factor for the waterbirds.

Happy birding,

Gladys Kung'u