NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 19th AUGUST 2017

Dear All,
On 19th August, Nigel Hunter picked me up at 6.25am, there was little
traffic on the road and we arrived at Nairobi National Park at 6.35am.
There was no-body in the paying office and we were inside the gates at
6.40am. It was a miserably cold start, very dark and spitting but
never developed into rain and the place is still gripped by drought
and looks so dehydrated now. We have completely lost Karen Primary
School, Eland Hollow, Olmanyi, Langata and Forest Edge Dams but Hyena,
Nagalomon, Embakasi and Athi still have a good amount of water.

With nothing of interest at Ivory Burning Site we continued to
Nagalomon Dam, which was not very active apart from the nesting Sacred
Ibis. There were four Darters, a female Saddle-billed Stork, single
Great Egret, African Jacana and two Green Sandpipers. Taking the back
road to Hyena Dam also produced nothing particularly of interest, and
the dam itself was as quiet as we have seen it. A pair of now very
extravert African Water Rails were around the last piece of aquatic
vegetation along the causeway (see image), one African Jacana, but
Black-winged Stilts have increased to five, there were three Little
Stint, nine Wood and one Common Sandpiper. Last weeks Lilac-breasted
Roller was still present and three Green Pigeons were in the large
Acacia.

We followed the eastern side of the Mokoyeti, on the small marsh
finding an (unseen) Striated Heron, Great Egret, the first African
Spoonbill of the day and a pale adult Tawny Eagle feeding on what
looked like the remains of a young Bohor Reedbuck (see image). There
were many Lions in the area of Nagalomon and it was probably one of
their leftovers. White-backed Vultures were crowning trees in wait,
with one Ruppell’s also present, and it was full of Pied Crows. A
Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul was singing somewhere in the dense scrub.
Circling around over the Mokoyeti Bridge and back to Nagalomon there
were forty Wattled Starlings feeding in the dry grass, the males were
coming into breeding plumage (see image). Strangely no other Wattled
Starlings were seen anywhere else. There was also a very grey female
Hartlaub’s Bustard along here (see image).

We decided to look at Kisembe Forest, again incredibly quiet though
the sky was brighter now, the Bateleur seen last week sat on the same
perch near the old nest site (see image), we also had an immature
Great Sparrowhawk, an African Goshawk successfully snatched a dove and
the first of only two Augur Buzzards today. At the small dam near
Kingfisher there were two attractive lionesses and a Yellow-billed
Egret. The Picnic Site was quiet, but last weeks Banded Parisoma is
still vocal in the area.

We thought we would have a look at Leopard Cliffs, and the barren
landscape from the flash flood some years ago is not so bad now, with
a good cover of acacias and other scrub and should be a good piece of
forest in the not too distant future as long as another flash flood
doesn’t clean it out again. There was a Greater Honeyguide calling
down the valley.

Rhino Circuit failed to produce any surprise, on the river were a
Striated Heron, sub-adult Fish Eagle and Green Sandpiper, and Athi Dam
came up with four roosting adult Black-crowned Night-Herons, a
Yellow-billed Stork, fifteen Little Stint, a very early adult Marsh
Sandpiper (see image), single Greenshank and a couple each of Wood and
Common Sandpipers. In the weeds were just four Yellow-throated
Sandgrouse. Above Athi Basin were our days only Secretarybird, and
three Short-tailed Larks digging holes near the murrum pits (see
image). A Desert Cisticola with them was our only grassland cisticola
all day, no Pectoral-patch, Zitting, Croaking or even Stout! Also only
about five Rufous-naped Larks and no sign of any Longclaws. I wonder
where all these birds disappear to and yet reappear so soon when it
rains again.

At Embakasi Dam we found the male Saddle-billed Stork (see image),
almost certainly the same pair each of Crowned Cranes and Red-billed
Teal as last week and a couple of Banded Martins. The plains were
quiet from here, no Black-shouldered Kites all day and quite likely
nothing to eat there now, nor any Widowbirds or any grassland
estrildids in the dry conditions.

Back at Hyena Dam an African Spoonbill, pair of Crowned Cranes and a
noisy Fish Eagle had moved in. We decided to take the back road back
behind Athi Dam. At the small creek from the Army Camp that is a
source of Hyena Dam we found a few birds attracted by the water. It
was 3.30pm but we spent nearly an hour waiting to see what came in to
drink and bathe and in this time we had a whole swathe of species not
seen so far today. We could not see the water but birds were coming in
on both sides of the road and after abluting, perch in nearby bushes
to preen and dry. A pair of Scaly Francolins was feeding on the road;
the surprises were seven Parasitic Weavers, an immature Dark-capped
Yellow Warbler (see images) and Red-faced Cisticola. Over twenty
species were visiting.