NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 27th December 2016

Dear All,
We shall get on to the days birding event, but firstly an issue on the
environment. Whilst we are all concentrating on the SGR issues that
affect the Park, KWS might have blind-sided us with another
encroachment, which has not exactly been open. The mighty Mbagathi HAS
BEEN MOVED!!!!!
Whilst in recent bird reports, I have highlighted what has been going
on with the Pipeline near Athi Dam penetrating the eastern sector of
the Park with a cicatrice of habitat destruction probably visible from
the Moon, the project has taken another turn. Now the pipeline has to
be joined to the system on the southern shore of the Park, and to do
this they are putting the oil pipeline under the Mbagathi. So they
have moved the river so that it is merely a sluice carrying the water
past the area they are working, and are now excavating a tunnel under
the river destroying the fringing acacia woodland in the process and
damming the river above the site. This has created a rather nice
lagoon that a couple of Open-billed Storks found to their liking, but
the bad greatly overweighs the good side of this project.
To see this for yourself there are two routes to get to the site.
Firstly go across the Dam Wall of Athi Dam, and continue through the
grassland for a few kilometres which will bring you out onto the
pipeline itself, turn right and follow the pipe all the way to
Mbagathi River. The alternative is to take the old road from Hippo
Pools direction towards the old Cheetah Gate. The road becomes more of
a track as it reaches the Pipeline, turn right at the pipe and follow
it to Mbagathi River.

There are images on the montage, one shows the tunnel going under the
river, and the river relegated to a sluice amongst what looks like a
bombsite, and the other the damming of the river upstream resulting
from the work in progress.

Nigel Hunter, Alastair Llewellyn and myself entered at Main Gate, and
were promptly processed professionally and in the Park by 6.45pm.
There was a good attendance of visitors. Apart from scattered
Nightingales we did not encounter anything else of interest on the way
to Ivory Burning Site, and here it was also quite quiet. An Eastern
Olivaceous Warbler was heard but not seen, we had the first of three
Willow Warblers today, and a dozen of the days only Red-collared
Widowbirds flew over. We watched a pair of Red-faced Crombecs of the
race jacksoni but more on that later.