I saw three grey crowned cranes at the Malindi airport at around 6.15 PM yesterday. I was on my way back to Nairobi. The plane was on the tarmac waiting for clearance when I saw the cranes about 30 meters away. They were foraging in the grass and did not seem too bothered by the plane. I would have taken a picture had I known they were not common there. It is a hard species to get wrong and I don't think there was anything I doubted. 

I wasn't aware of the significance of this observation until I mentioned it to Colin Jackson and he told me it was unheard off at the coast. 

As an aside, I was on my way back from helping Colin and his team organize a mountain bike race to raise funds for conservation of the Arabuko Sokoke forest. It went well, all the national teams participated and we managed to raise quite a bit of money that will go towards families staying along the forest edge in order to make then stewards of the forest. 

Wish you good birding,

David