With House Crows being reported in Emali the current push to get the crow control started again is very welcome. There is a real need to get rid of these pests. However, in advance of the control work we urgently need to have clear cut data on where the crows occur and at what level of abundance so the control can be properly monitored.

We are therefore launching a drive to map all the bird atlas pentads (atlas squares) where the House Crow might occur in order to do this.

Why not get involved in contributing to the Kenya Bird Map to help assess the status of this pest and its impact on indigenous birds both before, during and after the poisoning?

By atlassing all the coastal pentads regularly we will be able to track the (hopeful) decline of the crows as poisoning starts -- and the increase in local species.

This is a real conservation issue that the Kenya Bird Map is the only practical and feasible tool that can demonstrate both what the effect of the poisoning on the crow distribution and population size but also the knock-on effect of the crow control on common indigenous birds. Your contributions WILL make a difference.

The way it works is actually very simple given the straightforward and tight protocol for the atlas (made even easier by using the very easy-to-use BirdLasser app):

Currently for many of the coastal pentads you will get 100% reporting rate of crows in every Full Protocol card - i.e. if you put effort into 2 hours of birding in those coastal pentads you will definitely see House Crows EVERY time. Furthermore because the mapping method is to record species in the order you see / encounter them, then House Crows will always be in the top 10 if not 5 or even 3 species you see since they are just so common.

As poisoning starts and hopefully crow numbers drop, then we should get to see both a drop in the reporting rate (i.e. it is not recorded for every Full Protocol card) AND it will occur lower down the list as to when it was seen. Using both of these factors, calculations can be done as to abundance and thus change in abundance over time - IF repeated cards are submitted for the same pentads.

SO... please! If birding at all on the coast - get registered (email kenyabirdmap@naturekenya.org for this) and see if you can do a full protocol card for the pentad where you are staying - or better still go hit one or two of the more far flung coastal pentads that either haven't been done yet or are only yellow or orange in colour.. i.e. 1 to 3 cards only (see the coverage map for the atlas).

The aim is to "Turn the Coast Green" (when a pentad has four Full Protocol cards submitted, it turns green on the coverage map).

Repeated visits to the same pentads after that will then allow us to monitor the progress of the crow control - do get involved!

Colin

 

Good news and bad news on the bird front:

On World Migratory Bird Day, May 10, Nature Kenya's Wednesday Morning
Birdwalk saw a migratory bird ­ although most of the northern migrants have
left. It was a Sedge Warbler, feeding on the ground near a marsh in Karura
Forest. Thanks to Friends of Karura Forest for a terrific bird walk, with
over 55 species in two and a half hours.

Today May 11, however, a report from Brian Finch of a House Crow in Emali.
With the proliferation of human habitation along the road and railway line
between Mombasa and Nairobi, House Crows may find suitable habitats.

Wishing you good birding, Fleur