On the first of three days in Tsavo E at the start of this month it seemed we had the whole park to ourselves and every bush top seemed occupied by a Eurasian Roller, surely thousands of them, just resting or hawking insects. The general direction of their migration seemed more east than anything else and there were not many left twenty four hours later.
The following day, after an hour of really heavy afternoon rain we came out of our tents to find a flock of 200-300 Amur Falcons wheeling overhead grabbing termites, and in the evening I found my first Scaly Chatterer. On our way out the next morning to Sala gate, beside the spectacular Galana River there were at least six separate Grasshopper Buzzards, not birds with which I was readily familiar but in flight and in habit, actually unmistakable.
On the way back from the coast I stopped to experience and hopefully help with the bird ringing in Ngulia. Mist obliged and sprossers, marsh warblers and whitethroats dominated the catch, spiced up by Eurasian Scops Owl, Eurasian Nightjar and Basra Reed Warblers. Afrotropical birds, mostly in the daytime nets, included Buttonquail, Jameson's Firefinch and Gambaga Flycatchers.
Out in the park it was interesting to find all three of our guineafowl species on a five km stretch of road just below the lodge.
Good birding to all,
Rupert Watson
Rupert Watson
P O Box 24251
Nairobi 00502
Kenya
Tel (254) 0722 237 138