Dear All,
On 14th July two carloads of Nature Kenya bird atlassers set off for a
day on the Magadi Road. The fist driven by Samira Khan also had her
birding friend Farah from India out with her family, Fleur Ng’Weno and
myself, whilst that driven by Ben Allen carried Jennifer Oduori, Peter
Mureithi and Timothy Mwinami.

It was a cloudy start when we reached Corner Baridi at 8.00am and the
birds were quite inactive, a few were found on a short walk down the
road but nothing surprising and Lyne’s Cisticolas kept to cover,
although there was a showy Klaas’ Cuckoo which was our only cuckoo for
the day. It got brighter and warmer as we descended away from the
Ngongs and our next stop was the steep descent just after Kisamese
(now signposted as Kisamis!). Here there was a good deal of activity
to keep us interested, and birds only recorded here today included
Red-winged Starlings, extravert Red-fronted Tinkerbirds, Southern
Grosbeak Canary (as well as Brimstone, White-bellied, African Citril,
Reichenow’s and Streaky Seedeaters), a rather high male Eastern
Violet-backed Sunbird (as well as Variable, Bronze, Marico,
Scarlet-chested and Beautiful), very surprisingly a pair of Red-headed
Weavers (very rare in this area), very handsome Black-necked Weavers
(and additionally Lesser Masked and Baglafecht), Black-faced and
Crimson-rumped Waxbills, Schalow’s Wheatear, Little Rock Thrush, the
now resident Zanzibar Greenbuls, Black-backed Puffback at its only
location on this road after leaving the Ngongs and a distant
Long-crested Eagle. On leaving here after our picnic breakfast we had
already exceeded fifty species.

A brief stop at the Water Tower for a pair of extremely extravert
Rosy-patched Bush-shrikes also gave us Nyanza Swift, Ashy Cisticola,
and another Southern Grosbeak Canary as well as some commoner
additions, and sadly a little further down the road was a crushed male
Slender-tailed Nightjar.
Whilst driving past the Icross Road, I thought I might have heard
Pringle’s Puffback, so we backtracked to the junction and called the
front car back. We played the App. But no response at all. So we
looked for a way into a boma that brought us in to a good stand of
acacias and Balanites, in fact it was almost closed canopy but very
open underneath. We were picking off new species regularly, including
Von de Decken’s Hornbill (only two of these and one Red-billed were
recorded today as there are hardly any trees larger enough for them to
nest in nowadays), Taita Fiscal, Hildebrandt’s Starling, Fawn-coloured
Lark, Buff-bellied Warbler, Green-winged Pytilia etc. On deciding to
leave we had started but I thought I had heard the Pringle’s give a
couple of muffled notes, but that is all it did. We continued looking
in the same area still picking up new birds for the day and playing
the App. and not getting any response at all decided to leave again.
The once again I thought I had heard the bird give just one harsh
“chht” but this was certainly not a vocal bird, and we turned back yet
again and played the App. Silently in an acacia a male Pringle’s
Puffback appeared and fed unconcernedly and silently. We called Ben
back again and everyone had very nice views of the bird. The important
thing about Pringle’s Puffback on Magadi Road is that it is rare, an
undescribed race and endangered by all the charcoal harvesting and
having no safe refuge. I first discovered the bird at the end of the
last century!

The bird slipped off as silently as it had appeared and this time we
were heading off too. On the walk back to the road, a single acacia on
the edge of the scrubby patch, had a pair of African Bare-eyed Thrush
in it, and a pair of Red-throated Tits in it, but as we looked in this
one small tree we started to find other things and for a tree of
uncommon species this was it, with pairs of Mouse-coloured Penduline
Tits (Africa’s smallest bird), Banded Parisomas, Cut-throats,
Blue-capped Cordon-bleus, as well as singles of other species.

Walking back to the car we met with a couple of Morans who had seen us
birding on the land, but expecting some controversy they were very
friendly and welcoming. In fact everyone we bumped into today was like
this, but then we didn’t get out of the cars at Oltepesi the hotspot
for confrontation! After a few more additions we set off to look for
Spotted Eagle-Owls in a ravine that were seen by Peter the previous
week. More birds along the road gave us White-crowned Shrike and
Vitelline Masked Weavers. We walked (clambered over boulders actually)
up the ravine but the only species of bird were a few Common Bulbuls.
There were a couple of female coloured Ngong Agamas (only ever found
along this road and recently described).