The North Kenya Coast to the north of Kiwayu Island is absolutely stunning. Piracy and Al Shabaab have kept this area pretty untouched and it was a real privilege to visit this wild area. The coast there is plied by boats suppling Miraa up the coast to Kiunga but other than these and a few small fishing vessels we had the coastline to ourselves. There are lots of terns roosting and potentially breeding on the old coral heads and islands that characterise this piece of coastline and I saw good numbers of Bridled, and Sooty Terns with smaller numbers of Sandwich Terns and a single White Winged. I also saw quite a number of individual Brown Noddies. Sooty Gulls were very common and I saw four Heuglin's Gulls together on one occasion. Various egrets, herons and other wading birds were common and small numbers of barn swallows were seen. The islands hold a great variety of dry country birds but we did not get much time on land to investigate further although I did watch a Mangrove Kingfisher ambushing crabs on the beach from a suitable dead piece of wood on which it was perched. 

At Vipingo Ridge migrants were more evident. There was a group of 4-5 Eurasian Golden Orioles that I saw consistently and there were large numbers of Barn Swallows. I saw a single Common Cuckoo and good numbers of Yellow Wagtails. I saw one small group of Eurasian Bee-Eaters. Another bird of interest was a Great Harrier Hawk feeding a fledged youngster. 

On the sand flats at Manda Bay there were lots of wading birds including Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers present in small numbers, small numbers of Common Greenshanks, approx 10 Whimbrels, Crab Plovers, 4-5 Kentish Plovers, 10s of Terek Sandpipers, plenty of Common Sandpipers as well as Dimorphic Egrets, and little Egrets including a Black Morph Little Egret. It is fun watching the Dimorphic Egrets hunting fish in the shallows; they hunch right down and stalk them in a cat-like manner before pouncing. There is a large roost of Carmine Bee-Eaters (estimated at up to 5,000 according to Fuzz Dyer who is based at Manda) just near Manda Bay. They roost on a small island of Mangrove trees that is right in the heart of the new Lamu Port development. There was a big dredging boat digging out a channel around the island and I am sure it is only a matter of time before this important little overnight sanctuary is lost to these birds. The area is going to change a lot with advent of the port.

On Manda I saw three different Bou Bous. These included a normal coloured Tropical Bou Bou, Slate Coloured Bou Bous and another pair of all black Bou Bous that were definitely not Slate Coloured from their behaviour (they were sitting in full view and trying to catch insects rather than skulking around at a low level in a normal shy Slate Coloured Bou Bou fashion). If anyone else can shed some light on what these may have been I would be grateful. I know that recently there has been work done on differentiating these black coastal Bou Bous.

The bird life along the shore of Baringo in Ruko Conservancy is outstanding with 90 species seen from casual observation in 2 days whilst doing some work there. We had never been here before. It is a relatively new Conservancy set up by NRT. There is an Island just off shore here with some introduced Impala, Warthog and 8 Rothschild's Giraffes that you can visit. On the mainland the wildlife has suffered somewhat and other than some Common Ostrich we did not see any other game with our own eyes. There is lots of nice woodland however and some night time trail cameras that we set up captured Striped Hyena, Hippo, White-Tailed Mongoose, Civet, Genet, Marsh Mongoose, Warthog and a Caracal so there is some wildlife left. The flooded woodland and reeds there provide some great habitat for all manner of water birds and the countryside surrounding is full of the normal dry country birds. Birds of interest here included Northern Masked Weavers, lots of Willow Warblers in groups of 5-10 foraging in the Acacias, hundreds of Barn Swallows with smaller numbers of Eurasian Swifts and Sand Martins. A single Eurasian Marsh Harrier was seen along with Ospreys and Fish Eagles. Large numbers of Yellow Wagtails were foraging along the water's edge.

I saw only one Eurasian Roller on the whole trip and that was when driving through the small patch of Ngong forest between Kikuyu and Dagoretti on the new bypass on the 30th of October.

Happy birding

Patrick