Dear all,

My apologies for not sending this report out sooner, but better late than
never.

On April 8, Tyler Davis and I attempted a “Big Day” at Angama Mara and the
Mara Triangle. We had a great day out birding and ended the day with around
242 species. We would have likely broken 250, but afternoon storms
prevented about 1.5 hrs of birding.

We began the day before sunrise at Angama Mara. The resident *Wood Owls*
were very cooperative as were *European, Montane, Freckled, Dusky* and *Swamp
Nightjars*. At sunrise we were on the Angama Mara deck and quickly picked
up a number of Oloololo escarpment restricted species, including *Rock-loving
Cisticola, Trilling Cisticola and Scaly Francolin*. From here we made our
way to one of the forested gullies along the escarpment. Luck was with us
and within a few hours we had picked up most of our targets. *Tullberg’s
Woodpecker, White-headed Wood-hoopoe, Buff-throated Apalis, Green-capped
Eremomela,* and *Joyful Greenbul* were some of the highlights. A quick stop
in some moist Acacia woodland close to the forested gully produced *Red-necked
Wryneck, Red-throated Tit* and one of our best finds of the day, a
juvenile *Barred
Warbler*. A new Mara species for Tyler and I! See attached a few pictures
of the bird. It was in very strange plumage for a spring migrant, but the
shrike like bill and the size of the bird were good ID features. A quick
breakfast stop seated in front of Tyler’s bird bath gave us great sightings
of *Grey-winged Robin-chat* and *Red-capped Robin-chat*. See attached a
very poor photo of the Grey-winged Robin-chat taken through my binoculars.
I am trying to figure out the movement patterns of Mara’s Red-capped
Robin-chats. They seem to be around all year.