NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 8th APRIL 2019

Dear All,

Nigel Hunter and myself met up with Jeffrey James at the Main Gate to
Nairobi National Park on his annual visit back to Kenya. Although
6.40am there were hardly any people queuing and we were soon through
the gate. No recent rain, a pleasantly cool start but it was to be
another hot dry and dusty day.

We had Nightingales on the way down, but it was otherwise very quiet.
Little was on offer at Ivory Burning Site, but a pair of Spotted
Thick-knees were on the Nagalomon Drift. A Garden Warbler was singing,
as was a Zanzibar Greenbul. The exiting Mokoyeti River was bone dry,
and the Dam itself very quiet. A party of six Black Storks flew off
together as if they had just left a roost and flew southwards, a few
African Spoonbills were displaying and trumpeting, and a few of the
seven Darters were nest building. Palearctic waders were absent, there
was an adult African Jacana, a Fish Eagle sat in a tree on the island
whilst on the Causeway was a lone female Violet-backed Starling.

Taking the back road to Hyena Dam, extremely quiet with the first of
three Augur Buzzards, an African Hoopoe is fairly unusual here, the
first of two Turkestan Shrikes and first of ten Red-backed Shrikes.
The water-level on Hyena Dam had fallen there were a couple of
Yellow-billed Storks, three African Spoonbills, the days only Crowned
Crane, six Long-toed Plovers, twenty Black-winged Stilts, a Common
Greenshank, two Green, fifteen Wood and three Common Sandpipers, and
three Little Stint. Taking the road along the Mokoyeti there was a
perched adult Black Stork and an immature flying over towards the
southwest, the first of seven Black-winged Kites, two Eurasian Rollers
and a Pangani Longclaw further north than normally. On the nearly dry
oxbow we found the young Goliath Heron with a Great Egret and a couple
more Yellow-billed Storks, and as we arrived back at Nagalomon Dam
another Black Stork was flying around.

Setting off for Kingfisher, a Common Cuckoo flew over, there were a
number of Parasitic Weavers in the reed bed below Impala Lookout, and
had the first of five Spotted Flycatchers. Apart from another Black
Stork flying around and a Brown Parisoma nothing much was to be had at
Kingfisher. In the acacias before the old burnt area we found a Barred
Warbler, and further up the road a Northern Wheatear and yet another
Black Stork was flying around. On the road to Ololo was the first of
just two Whinchats, and a few Speckled Weavers, but the river was
almost non-existent. There was a Nightingale and an Acrocephalus
scolding from cover, and the Secretarybird was on its nest, whilst
below it was another Pangani Longclaw and a Common Whitethroat.

Rhino Circuit provided a few woodland birds including nine Violet
Woodhoopoes, Red-throated Tits and a couple of Willow Warblers.
Sitting on a fallen tree was the attractive sight of five Black
Storks. The Pipeline graced us with single Northern and Isabelline
Wheatears, whilst on the river side were six Chestnut Sparrows and
fifteen thirsty Grey-headed Silverbills. The water was dropping at
Athi Dam, but it was attracting a few birds, a couple of Red-billed
Teal, thirty Yellow-billed Storks, an Open-billed, two Whites and two
hundred Marabou Storks. Also fifteen African Spoonbills, ten roosting
Black-crowned Night-Herons, a Pink-backed Pelican, two Secretarybirds
coming in to drink, five Spotted Thick-knees, four Black-winged
Stilts, a Ringed Plover, five Kittlitz’s Plovers, three Common
Greenshank, fifteen Wood and four Common Sandpipers and eight Little
Stints. Banded Parisomas were in the acacias but that was all the
activity there was there. Our lunch on the Causeway fared better as in
and around the big Acacia mellifera were a Eurasian Reed Warbler,
Olivaceous Warbler and two Willow Warblers plus the busy Spotted
Flycatcher that lives there. Near the dry Vulture Drinking Ponds at
the top of Athi Basin there was a Shelley’s Francolin sheltering from
the sun under a bush, and an attractive family of four Short-tailed
Larks.

The final two new birds for the day were at Langata Dam with a small
party of Eurasian Bee-eaters and the days only Yellow Wagtail which
was a female flava type.

It was not an ornithologically bountiful day although there was were
some good species and we finished up exiting Langata Gate with 174
species. The frequency of Black Stork sightings was very confusing,
there was a minimum of six as they were together, but there could have
been a maximum of fifteen.