NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 17th APRIL 2019
I have taken the liberty of taking these records from eBird, for
Rupert Quinnel’s day in Nairobi National Park on 17th when he had a
very fortunate encounter with a lost Abyssinian Roller!
Little Grebe Long-toed Plover (5), African Jacana, Green Sandpiper,
Pink-backed Pelican (2), Goliath Heron, Yellow-billed Egret, Glossy
Ibis (2), African Hawk-Eagle, Violet Woodhoopoe, Eurasian Roller (3),
Abyssinian Roller, Red-backed, Turkestan and Lesser Grey Shrikes,
Willow Warbler, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Upcher’s Warbler (2),
Spotted Flycatcher (3), Nightingale, Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush (2),
Whinchat, Long-billed Pipit, Pangani Longclaw (2).

I think that James Bradley did a sterling job of getting the message
about the Abyssinian Roller onto kenyabirdsnet so quickly and we
should all be very grateful that we have someone on the lookout for
the unusual records that appear there, it was just so unfortunate that
the bird was a mean individual on this occasion!

IMAGES OF ABYSSINIAN ROLLER AT NAGALOMON DAM, TAKEN BY RUPERT
QUINNELL, ARE ATTACHED.


NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 19th APRIL 2019

Dear All,
Nigel Hunter took almost empty roads to the Main Entrance of Nairobi
National Park, braving a visit on Good Friday. When we arrived the
queue was outside the door and across the car park when we were
through with the formalities. It took forty minutes but three desks
were operating and the girls did an excellent job. Not surprisingly we
headed first to Nagalomon Dam just in case the Abyssinian Roller from
two days ago makes a reappearance, but it didn’t. It is what is known
as a “Finders Bird,” meaning that it is only ever seen by the person
who originally found it. Luckily it was on the Nagalomon Causeway, and
photographed on wither side of the road in the trees, and once when it
dropped down to pick something off the road in front of the car.
Both Nightingale and Garden Warbler were in the scrub, but the dam was
really quiet, no Palearctic waders of any description. There were six
Darters, a Squacco Heron, a pair of Striated Herons which are rare
here at any time but certainly never a pair before, and the days only
Great Egret. Several African Spoonbills were trumpeting from potential
nest sites on the island. The adult African Jacana was still present,
and a young Gabar Goshawk flew by.

We drove by the Mokoyeti and back up to Nagalomon Dam in case the
Roller was in scrub along the edge. Here we found the first of over
fifty Red-backed Shrike seen today, though we only had two each of
Turkestan and Lesser Grey. There was a Northern Hobby flying over
high, and the only one seen today, and the first of two Tawny Eagles,
the first of six Back-winged Kites, a handsome Jacobin Cuckoo posed on
a bush and a group of some fifty Parasitic Weavers shared some stubble
with an out of plumage male Jackson’s Widowbird.