The tern colony on Whale Island is fully active this year.
Initially in late June we had only a handful Roseates and fewer
still Sooty Terns but now numbers have increased to a cloud of
birds above the island most of the day. Once again, as per last
year, we had Lesser Noddies on and around the island - this time
we estimated c.200 birds (last year if I remember right it was
c.60). We looked hard for Brown Noddy and eventually counted 13
birds.
Today a very nice surprise found on the A Rocha centre's nature
trail at plot 28 by Apolloh, an intern from KWSTI, was our second
Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon. The first was ringed on 4 Sept 2009
and we've not had any since then. It would appear that a small
population still head to the coastal forest / thickets in
August/September.
The first few returning migrant waders have arrived - especially
Common Sandpipers which are now fully present in small numbers. We
also have finally discovered and confirmed a beach to the south of
the mouth of Mida Creek where we believe all the large waders go
to roost from Mida at high tide - notably the Crab-plovers. We
will be doing further counts and surveys to double confirm this
and assess the status of the beach as a long-term roost site. In
season we have 2,000-3,000 smaller waders on the main Watamu
beach, but the larger ones never use this beach during the day (at
night you can sometimes find them, but again not in large
numbers).
On a non-ornithological note, in the A Rocha Dakatcha Nature
Reserve (which A Rocha Kenya is creating to protect specifically
the Sokoke Scops Owl and Golden-rumped Sengi) we have recently
photographed with camera traps not only the first images of the sengi
but also Caracal, Blotched Genet, Red Duiker and Bushbuck - which
is encouraging given the level of snaring that has been happening
in the Dakatcha Woodlands KBA. To date the reserve is 830 acres in
size and we are negotiating on a further 150 acres. Birdwise other
than the owl, the most notable record for the reserve has possibly
been the Sokoke Pipit (seen regularly) and Little Yellow
Flycatcher - which I've not recorded elsewhere in Dakatcha (though
Fleur, with her more widely ranging surveys in recent times may
well have encountered?!). We've not recorded Clarke's Weaver there
- but this is not surprising since there is only a tiny patch of
Brachystegia present. NatureKenya are securing a good area of this
habitat and wetlands for breeding sites for the weaver 40+ kms to
the north of where we're working.
Colin
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Colin Jackson
A Rocha Kenya
Cell:
+254 (0)722 842366
http://www.arocha.org
http://www.assets-kenya.org
http://kenyabirdmap.adu.org.za