Dear All,
On 1st March, I set off for Kakamega with Adam and Vicky Kennedy. The
idea was to obtain images for species that were poorly represented or
missing for the forthcoming Birds of East Africa photographic
guide…such as Toro Olive Greenbul, Chapin’s Flycatcher, Turner’s
Eremomela and Forest Hyliota (called Southern in the literature).

We stopped for a short while at Timboroa Dam, and briefly had a male
African Marsh Harrier, although once a regularly observed species from
many parts of the country, this was my first in Kenya for over ten
years, such is its rarity now. In fact there are hardly any records at
all for that same period. It was an exciting observation. Other birds
there included a pair of Lesser Jacanas and Levaillant’s Cisticolas.

We took the Lessos Road to Kapsabet, the road is in excellent
condition and the recommended way for getting to Rondo Retreat Centre
where we were staying for three nights.

The next morning we drove the short distance to the South Nandi Forest
extension for the forest species. In the section we worked which was
less than a kilometre in length we had five Chapin’s Flycatchers, they
remained high but one image was taken clearly showing how pale they
are compared to the other population in Bwindi (SW Uganda).  Of the
two Hyliotas met with, the nice adult got away but we did manage
images of a fairly scruffy immature. But the highlight was a party of
five Turner’s Eremomelas, not because of any rarity, but their
abnormal behaviour. They stayed with us for twenty minutes until we
were saturated with them and left them where they were. These birds
were feeding in Vernonia heads around two metres from the ground, and
were actually dropping to the ground. They were absolutely relaxed
with us.
Never have I heard of such a thing in this mid to high canopy species,
and on questioning the resident guides none of them had ever seen
anything like this in their lives.
The images on the attached montage are not photos but grabs taken from
the lengthy video I took.


After lunch we took the Yala Reserve Road alongside Rondo. Along here
we had three Green-backed Twinspots feeding using their strange
broken-wing technique. They were constantly shuffling and throwing
themselves at patches of dead leaves, then pecking rapidly and
presumably had disturbed small insects. They were doing this for a
very long period and maybe with the lack of food in the middle layers
of the forest as a result of the dry conditions, were forced to feed
on the ground. A browse at the literature shows no mention of this
weird feeding strategy, not in the “Handbook, Birds of Africa” nor
Clement et al, “Finches and Sparrows.”
One bird (an immature) was videoed for some time whilst thus feeding.
Although best described as a “broken-wing” movement, the head  and the
tail are lowered, and the bird shuffles, randomly changing directions
left or right in a haphazard pattern. The wings are held tight and the
effect is hunchbacked, and very rodent-like. Sometimes when suddenly
throwing itself at dry leaves, its head would disappear under them for
a short while. The next day we found three Green-backed Twinspots
(adults and imm) in Zimmermann’s Grid, doing exactly the same thing.
Unfortunately the road was blocked by a fallen tree, and with much sky
rumbling we turned back without reaching the river. Some Toro Olive
Greenbuls called and reacted to playback. The birds were moving
rapidly around us, leaving the cover to perch in pine trees (another
bizarre first!). On the Saturday morning we found very responsive
birds right at the accommodation block and secured the desired images.
For the video it was a nightmare as the birds move too rapidly and the
aperture too small, but there is a grab attached. After late afternoon
rain on the Friday, Saturday morning saw White-spotted Flufftails out
feeding like chickens in a run. Just along the ravine track alongside
the buildings we had eight and of course there were others all along
the creek.

A few other points of interest. Three species are now resident in the
garden that I never remember previously, White-browed Robin-Chat,
Yellow-throated Leaflove (Greenbul), and Diederic Cuckoo. This might
all testify to the thinning of the environment which is out of
control. There is now no-where along the road where the foliage from
the right side comes anywhere touching foliage from the left side
which is distressing and the road is wide enough to land a small
plane! Things have seriously changed for the worse.

Another interesting thing was that the Red-rumped Swallows of the area
are white not rufous, and look a shade smaller. There were a pair of
adults breeding and collecting mud, all underparts, near complete
collar, underwing coverts were whitish but the rump was reddish. There
were no streaks anywhere on the underparts. There seems to be a
different race rather than emini, on its way to resembling West
African Swallow. As the birds were nest-building this is assumed to be
as good as they are going to get, but this is nothing like the
chestnut breeding plumage that the seemingly stockier emini from
Nairobi attain.

Leaving, we went back the same route and stopped at Timboroa Dam
again. We were delighted to see a pair of African Marsh Harriers
quartering the swamp, and spending long periods just sitting on the
reeds. On one occasion they called, and it looks like this pair is
going to breed, which will be a wonderful event. Great images were
taken and there are a few grabs of the male on the montage, (upper
two) whilst the female is the lower. She might be a young bird with a
streaky pale breast band, the male was a stunning individual. As you
can see the images in S&F and Z&T look nothing like an adult male
plumage and the bird is far far more attractive in life, and is grey
not dark brown. Also this bird is more prominently chequered on the
flight feathers from above than below. Very many submitted images of
African Marsh Harriers over the years have been Western Marsh
Harriers.

The bottom left image is a Green Hylia also from the video.

Calling in at Manguo Ponds it was wall to wall birds, but sadly too
dark by now to see what was there and no telescope. What was
noteworthy were, the over 5000 Yellow Wagtails roosting in the nearer
sedges, looking like the vegetation was strewn with fruits.

On Sunday 5th, I joined the expedition to Kakuzi Estate to look for
the Orange-winged Pytilias.. We failed to positively locate these but
some high-pitched quite loud sharp notes were heard from some scrub
but the birds not seen. For me the most interesting was a pair of
Senegal Plovers. Whilst in S&F the map shows a block of distribution
from Lake Victoria across to the coast, the true range is nothing like
that. I have located one old Thika record and one for Meru NP. The
only vagrant bird I had encountered before was one flying over Baringo
at night! The true range of the species in Kenya is almost confined to
the Mara in the west, but occasionally around Lake Victoria. On the
coast it is common in the Tana Delta in places, particularly Nairobi
Ranch. At times it occurs on grasslands at Gongoni, Sabaki and Mida.
It is reported as regular  in Tsavo, but I have never had it there. So
this pair at Kakuzi were very special to me. Our host Nikolai van Beek
who lives on the estate said that he saw a pair a couple of months
previously.
There are two images on the montage. In brief the birds differ from
Black-winged Plover in;
 a) the white on the forehead is smaller and defined, not extending
back to and over the eye as in BWP.
b) the eye is bright yellow with faint yellow orbital ring, lacking
the reddish orbital ring of BWP whose eyes are also more
orange-yellow.
c) the grey breast terminates in a narrow clear black band, not the
broad black band that is more diffused in BWP.
d) fairly lanky longer legs and feet entirely blackish-grey, entirely
reddish tinged in BWP and they are shorter.
e) in flight SP has all brownish wing coverts, but very contrasting
all white secondaries, whereas in BWP this is entirely reversed with
white wing coverts forming diagonal bands that give a broad “V” across
the wings. In a sitting BWP this forms a very narrow white line along
the edge of the body, in SP this shows on the sitting bird as a small
white notch.
f) finally the calls are entirely different, BWP has a very loud and
rasping “kreek-kreek…” call that often lasts for a long time, but SP
has a softer but nevertheless far carrying melodic “kuu-yu” usually
bisyllabic with second note lower and given between long pauses.

Best to all
Brian