NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK 11th May 2019

Dear All,
Whilst we advance into May, this week has at last brought rain of some
significance to the area. Water levels in most dams are up, but Athi
has not been as blessed and little appears to have fallen in the
basin. Much of the Park had no go zones, where it was not safe to
proceed without too high probabilities of getting stuck, we played the
whole day on the safe side and as a result came away unscathed, and
even unmuddied!

Jennifer Oduore arrived early and was already at the front of the
queue when Washington Wachira, Fleur Ng’Weno and I arrived on the
scene at 6.30am, we were in the Park in only five minutes thanks to
Jennifer’s pre-presence. There had been a little rain overnight, but
the heavier rain had come a couple of days earlier. In the past the
arrival of good rains had brought about a major reshuffle in the bird
population resulting in some good records and we were hopeful that
today we would have some good sightings.

In recent correspondence on both “kenyabirdsnet” and “Facebook,” Paul
Murithi, Kenya’s own owl saviour had been promoting his “I am not a
Bad Omen,” project to convince the local people that Owls are good for
them and the environment and are not evil spirits. For some reason
today, even though I have had the tee-shirt for fifteen years, chose
to wear the one with a Mackinder’s Eagle-Owl on the front, and the “I
am not a bad omen” slogan on the back, and see what good fortune it
could send our way, well first of all we didn’t get stuck, and that
can really put a dampener on birding in the Park!

We drove through the main gate, had not even been in a minute, and in
the Eucalypts on the right of the road sat a pair of adult Verreaux’s
Eagle-Owls with a similar sized young bird. (See Image). For a species
barely reported once a year in NNP, this was a great find especially
as it shows that the species is breeding and is no doubt the first
breeding record for NNP.
There was quite a bit of activity and a number of commoner species
were found, and for a change we thought we would go and check out the
KWS Mess gardens. There was considerable activity here as well with
parties moving through the Brachylaena. The most interesting bird was
the most beautiful form of Paradise Flycatcher from the ferretti
subspecies. Although seen in the Park a few times, it has certainly
not in the last two years. It was a male without fully formed central
tail-feathers. Similar to a normal bird but with a large amount of
white on the wing, and white central feathers to the rufous tail. (See
image). Other birds included four handsome Tambourine Doves, two
Willow Warblers of the far eastern race yakutensis, the worlds
champion longest distance passerine migrant (no, not Northern
Wheatear!). There were three Kikuyu White-eyes amongst numerous
Abyssinian, and the only other species of special interest was a
Little Sparrowhawk. Ivory Burning Site was particularly quiet and we
did not linger there, however Zanzibar Greenbuls were happily singing
as usual.

Nagalomon Dam was active, no less than five crocodiles were hauled out
onto the sand spit, not leaving much room for birds, but still had
eleven White-faced Whistling Ducks running around amongst them. The
Darters were standing with their full grown and demanding young,
whilst other adults were arriving with fresh nesting material, it was
difficult to see anything of the Long-tailed Cormorants activity as
the vegetation has sprouted some greenery, but African Spoonbills sat
tightly on their nests but still no sign of anything hatching. One
Great Egret fed along the shore and an adult Fish Eagle perched in a
distant tree overlooking the dam. There were no migrant waders.
Under normal circumstances we would have taken the back road past the
units on the way to Hyena Dam, but it gets notoriously muddy and
slippery after heavy rain and so we thought better of it and left it
alone, driving direct to the dam. Red-collared and White-winged
Widowbirds were in fine breeding plumage, and the grassland birds were
very vocal and active. The barren expanse of water was higher and no
margins, no sign of the Goliath Heron, a White Stork was a bit
unexpected (see image), the first of four pairs of Grey Crowned Cranes
were here, several African Spoonbills were along the feeder stream
which was flowing nicely, a pair of Hottentot Teal must be the first
in NNP for over a year, the only Palearctic waders were three
remaining Black-winged Stilts, and the seven Long-toed Plovers
included the white-winged southern-looking bird. There was also the
first of three Augur Buzzards.