NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 10th NOVEMBER 2016

Dear All,

(Please note that to cater for a Megabyte budget, the Montage is in
three different sizes so choose the size you would rather download as
the file is rather large at 100%.)

Nigel Hunter and I met Fleur Ng’Weno at Main Entrance to Nairobi
National Park just after 6.30am. Having had no traffic on the road in,
and immediately processed, we were soon at Ivory Burning Site.

There had been light rain and it was still intermittent light drizzle,
it must have been fairly heavy in places as there were puddles on the
road particularly towards the SE, whereas at home we had only scraped
1mm. Still better than nothing.

The bushes were thronging with pinks, churrs and snatches of songs of
Nightingales. There must have been hundreds in the Park today. One
Common Nightingale was seen briefly, many flashed through the scrub
and were difficult to see. However one Sprosser was feeding right in
the open around the picnic table and seemed fearless! The first of
four Willow Warblers, three Garden, a single Blackcap and the first of
four Common Whitethroats were seen here. A single Eurasian Hobby flew
fairly high westwards, and there was a bird resembling a Eurasian
Hoopoe feeding under the trees. Although the bird appeared to be very
stripy across the wings, it seemed to stop short of the primaries, and
this was confirmed with entirely black flight-feathers when it flew.
It also lacked white sub-terminal tipping to the crest, but
superficially it looked like a Eurasian but was evidently not.
On the lower burning site our first of three Seretarybirds was
patrolling the short grass and a Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul sang from
the bushes.

At Nagalomon Dam it was fairly quiet with all the Sacred Ibis gone and
all birds having finished breeding. A few of the juvenile Darters were
present though. Around the edge were a few White-faced Whistling
Ducks, but they were present on five different dams today. Three
African Spoonbills, but there was also a single at Hyena Dam, and
eleven each at both Athi and Olmanyi Dams. Whilst most dams had both
Grey and Black-headed Herons, there was a remarkable scarcity of heron
species today, the only others being a few Cattle Egret at Nagalomon,
and three roosting adult Black-crowned Night-Herons at Athi Dam. The
waders around the edge consisted of resident Spur-winged, Blacksmith
and Three-banded Plovers, migrants were seven Black-winged Stilts, a
dozen Wood and two Green Sandpipers. Parties of Wattled Starling fed
noisily in the bushes and the first of six Spotted Flycatchers were
along the causeway.