While atlassing the Kijabe pentad yesterday I had an experience I don't 
recall having had before - in about just 20 minutes I saw no less than 
eight species of sunbird in one tree: Variable, Bronze, Tacazze, 
Collared, Amethyst, Green-headed, Northern Double-collared and Malachite 
-- and five minutes earlier I had been watching a ninth - Eastern 
Double-collared (which was in the same tree as the others this morning). 
I've also just added a tenth to the list - Scarlet-chested Sunbird and 
last week I had Golden-winged as well. Amazingly the tree was not an 
indigenous tree as might be expected but a Eucalyptus in full flower. 
There were also White-fronted and Cinnamon-chested Bee-eaters, weavers, 
bulbuls, sparrows, white-eyes and a lone Willow Warbler in the same tree 
(oh, and a nest with a large chick of an African Harrier Hawk which had 
an adult Great Sparrowhawk visit and sit there for a good 30 minutes...).

At the beginning of the month at the Fundamentals of Ornithology course 
held at Elsamere in Naivasha there were very few sunbirds - I think 
there was just one record of Variable in the whole week (normally very 
common there), a handful of Bronze and that was pretty much it for 
sunbirds. Presumably with the very dry conditions they've moved up to 
higher elevations...

Other good species for the atlas card which I finished yesterday 
included Rufous-breasted Sparrowhawk, Abyssinian Crimsonwing and Grey 
Cuckoo-shrike...

This morning I started another atlas card and had 29 species in 25 
minutes in only about a 300 m walk...

Viva atlassing!!

Anyone interested in atlassing who is not yet registered, please 
register with the Kenya Bird Map office <kenyabirdmap@naturekenya.org>. 
If you have a smart phone download the free BirdLasser app that is 
superb for just keeping your own birding observations but also makes 
atlassing incredibly easy...

-- 
-------------------------
Colin Jackson
A Rocha Kenya

Cell:
+254 (0)722 842366
       
www.arocha.org
www.assets-kenya.org
http:/kenyabirdmap.adu.org.za