Hi Darcy...

Nice records!

Third/fourth images are of a warbler - looks to me like a first year Common Whitethroat - eye too small for a Nightingale / Sprosser and not dark brown enough above. The rounded crown and steeper forehead and slightly thicker bill would be good for a Sylvia warbler, not an Acro. Yellowish legs also fit for Whitethroat...

Hornbills have also become more scarce here in Watamu, actually - this is where the Kenya Bird Map data is really going to show this up starkly - though for this to be possible we need regular and frequent repeat cards from the same pentads as well as cards from new pentads.

Also for the kingfishers - again the atlas will be able to show these sorts of movements very nicely when we have enough people contributing.

Right now the Afrotropical migrants from the south are departing / have left - Red-capped Robin Chats left us this past week (my atlas card this week was the first without a Red-capped for many months) and similarly Mangrove Kingfisher seems to have left. Yellowbills are still around but fewer - and this will be picked up and highlighted by the atlas by their ranking coming much further down the list than a few weeks back when they were commonly heard. VERY sweet data being gathered by the Kenya Bird Map - and if anyone out there is keen to do some analysis of them, they are freely available from the project.

If anyone would like to contribute to the atlassing - which is a heck of a lot of fun as well! - please ask Sidney to register you on kenyabirdmap@naturekenya.org

Colin

 

Hi all, 

I thought I'd report on some interesting sightings and non-sightings in Thika of late. 

Yesterday, this Levaillant's Cuckoo was one of my first visitors.  I am struggling to recall the last time I saw one in Thika.  I believe I have, but not anytime recently. 

An interesting photo, was this of a Spur-winged Goose that clearly shows its spurs in flight.  I have never been close enough, or at the correct angle to notice them before. 

A week ago I had this visitor, and I think I am correct in saying it is a Nightingale and not it's near twin.  But please correct me if I am wrong. 

  

Red-faced Cisticolas have been very vocal.  

There was a Eurasian Scops Owl on 9 Nov, also in Thika, but not at my house.  It was dragged into a house by a cat, and very unfortunately it only survived for about 48 hrs.

Also, Pygmy Kingfishers are around. Last year about this time, Don Turner kindly set me straight on this species when I found a dead juvenile. He explained is was the northern nominate form which does come south from the Northern Tropics at this time of the year.  I hadn't realized they were migratory.  Fascinating little birds!

In terms of non-sightings, I have not seen or heard a Trumpeter Hornbill in well over one year.  Please let me know if others in Thika are still seeing this bird.  I still occasionally see Silvery-cheekeds, but even these are much rarer. 

Cheers, Darcy

Darcy Ogada

Assistant Director of Africa Programs
+254-722-339366
P.O. Box 1629-00606

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Nairobi

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Kenya

The Coexistence Co-Op