Kenya Birding Issue 3

HOT SPOTS

Spectacular Lake Nakuru On top of Mt. Mtelo tRAILBLAZER 025734

FLyING VISItORS Amazing bird migration

New naturalist segment

Kenya

Birding

Kenya Birding is free to sponsor (@ KES 3000 OR $ 60) and corporate members of Nature Kenya and the printing paid for by advertising and projects Š Nature Kenya August 2009 Issue 3 Front Cover: Little Bee-eater by Martin Creasser www.martincreasser.com Editor & Creative Design: Catherine G. Ngarachu Assisting Editor: Darcy Ogada Layout & Design: Daco Creative Advertising coordinators: Abigael Ongeti, Neema Mbeyu Printed Offset Litho by Colourprint Ltd. Nature Kenya contacts For enquiries, contributions and advertising write to: Nature Kenya, the East Africa Natural History Society National Museums, Museum Hill P.O. Box 44486, GPO, 00100 Nairobi Kenya Tel: (+254) (0) 20 3749957 or 3746090 Fax: (+254) (0) 20 3741049 office@naturekenya.org www.naturekenya.org www.kenyabirding.org

Nature Kenya Eco-resource Centres

Mount Kenya, next to Bantu Lodge Kinangop Reserve, North Kinangop North Coast, Gede office

Thank you to all the photographers who very kindly shared and gave permission to use their images for publication. We are also very grateful to the authors and other contributors for their invaluable support.

All copyright for material appearing in this publication belongs to Nature Kenya and/ or the photographer/ author. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher – Nature Kenya.

About Nature Kenya

Nature Kenya (the East Africa Natural History Society) is a non-profit conservation organization.

Established in 1909 it works to promote the understanding and conservation of nature.

2 9 10 12 16

100 years for nature The East Africa Natural History Society

1909 - 2009

18

Notes and News BOOK REVIEW

Consider the Birds Features

If it flies, tick it Flying Visitors Where to Watch Birds

Urban Birding

Spectacular Lake Nakuru

Photo by Elly Gathungu

Contents 22

Lake Baringo

24

Northwest Kenya

26

Mida Creek

28 31 32 34

Case for Conservation

Fabulous Lake Naivasha Tana Delta Trailblazer

Pollinators

Seasonal Wetlands

Illustrations by Dino Martins

Notes and News Hinde’s Babbler hotspot When do you consider a bird worthy of being listed?

It is that very exciting time of year again when we at Nature Kenya compile the best of birds and birdwatching in Kenya and put it together in an issue of Kenya Birding.

Herein you’ll find how Rupert Watson determines which birds he lists.

But before that in the adjoining birding notes, chosen from the kenyabirdsnet yahoo group, you’ll get notes on what is being seen and where, by birders around the country. These notes are a good illustration that birds fly! and are sometimes to be found where they are not expected. This is illustrated in the extreme by bird migration and there is none better than Itai Shanni to tackle the mystery of migration.

He explains some of the reasons behind the incredible journeys migratory birds make every year.

Ever conscious that our enjoyment of birds, sites and other wildlife is dependent on their conservation we’ve inserted a Case for Conservation segment. In it the Tana Delta and Lake Naivasha appeal for our attention.

If you can give your support to these or other campaigns to save species and habitats look us up at www.naturekenya1000.ning.com There is also another website – www.kenyabirding.org to help with your local birdwatching. Take a moment to look it up and write to us and let us know how useful the site is, how you enjoyed the magazine, or your birding.

Catherine Ngarachu Editor - office@naturekenya.org

2 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

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he Thika area (~45 km northeast of Nairobi) is a hotspot for sighting the rare Hinde’s Babbler. Since early this year, groups of this Kenyan endemic have been sighted in private estates in Gacharage and Gatuanyaga to the north and east of Thika Town respectively. The species has also been seen around Blue Posts Hotel and in Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park.

Red-winged Francolins in the Masai Mara

Hinde’s Babbler

by Edwin Selempo

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hile guiding a group of birders on a monthlong tour of Kenya, Brian Finch reported Red-winged Francolins on the Keekerok route in the Masai Mara. Brian reported seeing some francolins on the road, which were circling each other with breasts inflated and wings held forward showing off bright reddish flight feathers. He quickly ruled out Shelley’s Francolin because it does not occur on that side of the country. Brian reports, ‘it was the most exciting bird on the tour for me, as I had not seen them in Kenya before, and in fact I have not heard of a record in this country for what must be some 20 years’.

Herons find security at Nairobi Police Stations

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ince early this year two new heronries have been spotted by James Kuria Ndung’u within the grounds of the Shauri Moyo and Industrial Area Police Stations in the Eastland’s area of Nairobi.

Buffalo with Red-billed Oxpeckers by Peter Usher

The bird sightings were given on kenyabirdsnet – an e-mail group started by the Bird Committee of the East Africa Natural History Society, to inform members on interesting and rare bird sightings.

Itai Shanni is the list moderator - kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com At Shauri Moyo about 20 Black-headed Herons were observed enjoying state security. James wonders have the birds identified security hotspots of Nairobi?

Yellowbill and Thick-billed Cuckoo in Nairobi

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wo cuckoos typically found at the coast turned up in Nairobi in May. Fleur Ng’weno and the Wednesday morning birdwalk group spotted a Yellowbill at the Windsor Golf and Country Club.

Though the Yellowbill inhabits areas of forest edge in western Kenya, it only occasionally turns up in outlying areas of Nairobi. Brian Finch reported a Thick-billed Cuckoo in Nairobi National Park. This species is rare even in coastal forest and has never been recorded far inland. These two reports suggest these cuckoos may wander seasonally more than we know.

Kenya develops National Bird Research and Conservation Strategy

By Darcy Ogada

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workshop was held in January of this year to develop priorities for bird research and conservation in the country. Spearheaded by the Bird Committee of the EA Natural History Society, the two-day workshop brought together the National Museums of Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, the tourism industry, local universities, NGOs and government ministries.

Areas deliberated included research, community participation, tourism, habitat loss, policy issues, direct threats, education and outreach. A strategy document from this workshop is available from Ms. Philista Malaki, Co-ordinator, National Bird Research and Conservation Strategy, phillista@yahoo.com

Strategy meeting participants by Darcy Ogada

What causes Lesser Flamingo die-offs?

Dr David M. Harper

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n one sense we were well prepared for our first visit in 2000. I am a lake scientist, two of my UK colleagues were invertebrate ecologists and my Kenyan colleagues were ornithologists. The mix seemed ideal, because the lake had close to a million flamingos, mostly lessers, with some greaters. The sky was humming with at least as many swifts, swallows and martins and the edge of the lake was alive with scurrying earwigs, tiger beetles and wolf spiders.

But we were quite unprepared for the other surprise that Lake Bogoria had to show off.

We had arrived in the middle of the largest lesser flamingo mortality event experienced in scientific memory. We were unprepared because we had no dissecting instruments, no balances and no veterinary skills. We had no freezer and time was limited, because we had only planned a 2-week reconnaissance visit. In the short time that we had, we sought to achieve our original objectives of understanding the main drivers of the lake ecosystem, but also to try to make some sense of the mass flamingo mortality. We carried out a daily census at dawn of the birds that had died, removing the corpses to prevent any double counting.

Thankfully, the mortality event ended shortly after we left, in March 2000, but it had endured for a staggering nine months. In the 12 days

that we were working at the lake, an average of 700 birds per day died which, if extrapolated over the whole period, would represent approximately 200,000 birds. There has been a good deal written about Lesser Flamingo mortality events and their causes over the past five years, both before and after this big event, often with more guesswork than facts. Suffice it to say that the number of juvenile birds seen on our subsequent visits to Bogoria over the two years up to March 2003, showed that breeding events had adequately replaced this major mortality event which welcomed in the 21st Century.

With funding from the British Government’s funded Darwin Initiative, we’ve built up a body of data that we hope will solve the biggest mystery in Lesser Flamingo biology and conservation – what kills them. Our overall opinion is that Lesser Flamingos die mainly from diseases when they are immuno-compromised by some environmental stressor.

Samples of tissues, the lake and its hot springs have been analysed twice, in 2004 and 2006, for cyanobacterial toxins. The negative results both times, makes us believe that this is a relatively minor problem in Lesser Flamingo lives.

More on Dr. Harper’s project can be downloaded from http://darwin. defra.gov.uk/project/12003/

3 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

4 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

News

In search of the African Long-eared Owl on Mt Kenya

Ringer’s joy upon netting a Spotted Ground Thrush

By Mercy Muiruri Njeri

Paul (right) and guides at the Met Station

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by Paul Muriithi

fter more than a decade of studying one species of owl, I felt the need to try my luck at another owl – a rare species, last reported 17 years ago – the African Long-eared Owl. It is only known from Hagenia forest (3350 m) on Mt Kenya.

Preparation and planning took the better part of June and July 2008. I hoped I was gathering enough information as most of the people who assisted me - hunters, honey gatherers and wardens - had little understanding of birds. I resigned myself to the fact that more knowledge would have to be gained upon visiting the mountain forest.

I came up with a one-week budget, which included a group of four guides trained in bird identification, and a cook. Our base camp and initial search area was to be the Meteorological Station along the backpacker’s route from Naro Moru. At the very least we planned to map the likely areas for Long-eared Owl to guide future tracking.

On August 9 we headed up the mountain, but soon after, the weather turned and was so bad it got the better of some of the group. We only managed four days of tracking, during which we managed to record many highland specialists – Mountain Buzzard, Jackson’s Francolin, Hartlaub’s Turaco, White-headed Wood-hoopoe, Abyssinian Ground Thrush, Tacazze Sunbird and Black-headed Waxbill, but not the African Long-eared Owl.

was amongst a team ringing birds in the ArabukoSokoke Forest in July last year. The forest is well known for Spotted Ground Thrush sightings. The thrush, an Afrotropical migrant, is an endangered bird of montane and coastal regions of east and southern Africa. It’s a shy, forest bird with a small, decreasing population of less than 2500 individuals distributed widely over seven African countries.

On July 1st we opened our nets very early in the morning and managed to catch a number of interesting birds, Sokoke Pipit, East Coast Akalat, Pygmy Kingfisher, Redtailed Ant Thrush, Forest Batis, Eastern Bearded Scrub Robin and Redcapped Robin-

Chat among others. The next day we proceeded to a new site near the Arabuko Swamp and treehouse. As we waited for the first net clean up, we had a good view of a Bat Hawk flying over the swamp and Carmine Beeeaters perching on the fence. When we cleaned our nets we found Fischer’s, Yellow-bellied and Tiny Greenbuls, Peters’s Twinspot,Tropical Boubou and Olive Sunbird. On July 5th we moved our mist nets further into the forest at Nyari Track also known as African Pitta’s transect.

We caught forest birds and the most exciting was the Spotted Ground Thrush. At last our dream came true.

Bird ringers by Martha Nzisa

I plan another attempt later this year (2009) with an even greater hope of success, as we now have the aid of a digital recording of a closely related owl (Asio otus). It would also help if anyone with information would kindly communicate with me at paul_muriithi@yahoo.com My regards go to the Mt Kenya Biodiversity Group, Summit Ventures and Sammy Ndirangu for their valuable assistance.

5 | KENyA – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

News Pesticide with devastating effects

By Darcy Ogada

A new danger to Kenya’s world-renowned birds and wildlife has emerged in recent years. This threat, with terrible consequences, is the misuse of Furadan, a carbofuran-based pesticide. Furadan has caused similar havoc in the United States and the European Union, where it has now been banned.

Furadan is a highly toxic pesticide for killing soil and foliar insects, that has been registered for use in Kenya since 1989. In the mid-1990s Kenyan ornithologists began receiving reports from rice growing areas of the killing of hundreds of waterfowl using Furadan, which were being sold for human consumption. A series of meetings were held between the relevant stakeholders, and for a brief time reports of the illegal killing of birds subsided.

However, by 2001 researchers studying lions in northcentral Kenya began finding their collared study animals poisoned. More recently raptors, particularly vultures, were being found poisoned throughout Kenya. As the reports of illegal poisonings grew more frequent and widespread, concerned conservationists started conducting studies, compiling reports and comparing notes. What we discovered was alarming.

Furadan was being used by pastoralists to kill large predators, particularly lions and hyenas, that attack livestock. By baiting carcasses with Furadan, not only were predators killed, but many more scavengers, particularly vultures, but also small and medium-sized mammals, and eagles. Farmers began to see Furadan as a poison to kill nuisance animals, including raptors, crows and stray dogs. At Lake Victoria a report highlighted that night fishermen used it to poison fish, which were then collected for distribution in local markets. At the rice schemes, in Bunyala, Western Kenya and Mwea, Central Kenya, men killed birds using Furadan and then sold them locally for human consumption. Studies on the effects of long-term exposure on humans are inconclusive.

It is important to note that not all poisonings were due to Furadan. Most carcasses were discovered too late for testing, but anecdotal evidence and field surveys all point to Furadan as the most widely abused pesticide in the

6 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Poisoned vultures

illegal killing of wildlife. Similar reports were also coming from neighbouring countries.

Reasons why Furadan was so widely abused were because it was cheap, very effective and easily acquired at almost any agro-vet shop in the country.

In a recently released report, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has banned the use of Furadan beginning in January 2010. The decision was based on the unreasonable risk posed to the environment, particularly birds, after a series of disasters that killed millions of American birds. Furadan is banned in the EU and this has particular implications for Kenya’s horticultural industry, which exports large amounts of fresh produce to EU markets, because any imports with carbofuran residue will be rejected.

A breakthrough in Kenya only came when the highly rated US news show “60 Minutes” aired a story on human-wildlife conflict in Kenya. In particular, it was the deaths of lions in the world famous Masai Mara and elsewhere in the country attributed to Furadan poisoning that prompted the US manufacturers FMC Corporation to immediately halt sales of Furadan to Kenya and to begin a buy-back programme for stocks remaining on the shelves. The conservation community widely hailed FMC’s decision.

Kenya’s birds and wildlife may now be able to recover from this devastating episode. However, we have been alerted, and remain vigilant over misuses of pesticides.

Centenary Stamps

Celebrating 100 years for nature Hon. Secretary of the Society Mrs. Ng’weno and David Ngala were honoured for their contribution to the Society

The East Africa Natural History Society 100th Anniversary Gala Dinner, Nairobi Museum, 28th March 2009 A celebratory dinner was attended by 400 guests including members and corporate partners. The Guest of Honour was the Minister of National Heritage and Culture Hon. William ole Ntimama. BBC co-host of the Big Cat Diary Jonathan Scott presented a talk on his ten years on the series.

The Society honored members who have contributed significantly to the organisation’s mission – Leon Bennun, Ann Birnie, David Kuria, David Ngala, Fleur Ng’weno and Wilberforce Okeka.

The East Africa Natural History Society, represented by Nature Kenya and Nature Uganda in the respective countries, works to promote the study and conservation of nature.

In 1998, the Society began a conservation programme around 60 Important Bird Areas, which include national parks and forests and a large number of important but unprotected sites. Now with over 40 projects and working with 17 communities around the country, activities include monitoring, environmental education, advocacy, capacity building and improving livehoods through nature-based enterprises.

Established in 1909, the Society started the National Museums of Kenya, a world class research and education facility and since 1910 has been publishing the leading scientific Journal of East African Natural History. Other landmark publications include The Birds of East Africa, Upland Kenya Wild Flowers, Learning for Sustainable Living and Important Bird Areas in Kenya. In conjunction with Museums it maintains a natural history library that is one of the most comprehensive in the region.

Membership to the Society is open to everyone at a small annual fee.

Join and help save species and habitats. www.naturekenya.org www.naturekenya1000.ning.com Guides on excursion Inderjeet Bilkhu

Guides sharpen their skills during first-ever Bird Guides Workshop at Elsamere Field Study Centre Bernard Amakobe

D

uring my youth I grew up in Nairobi’s Eastland’s suburbs. As alumni’s to this part of Nairobi can attest, it is a rich and nostalgic past to have. From the colourful lifestyle, to the language and even the pecking order (boys and seniority) life was wholesome.

“Bila FEYA ya kudedisha Dush Bobo na Mwitu wewe sio noma” Literally translated, without a catapult to shoot-to-kill a dove (domesticated or wild) then you are not man enough! Thus looking at the faces of my fellow National

Bird Guides Workshop participants, I was intrigued and wished I knew what was coursing through their minds, as I am sure at one time they wielded the dreaded Feya or Rujorujo (Sling).

But those days seemed firmly in the past as we engaged in topics ranging from bird distribution and ecology, customer care, contributing to conservation, and business planning and marketing. We were amazed at what we could learn from one another.

We also undertook a four-day excursion with important lessons in time management, attention to detail, cultivating interest in birding, and gearing your personal clock to the birds’ clock. This firsttime workshop was a huge success in enhancing professionalism within the industry.

7 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Pygmy Falcons by Peter Usher

8 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Book review

Consider the Birds by Colin Tudge

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striches have penises. As do ducks. The Stifftail Duck has an immense penis rather like a fireman’s hose that withdraws into its body when not in use and forms a large part of it. Most birds, however, make do very well without one. The male usually has an aperture that is placed alongside the female’s to allow the sperm to pass through, the process taking less than a second.

480 pages in hardback Penguin, 2008 Available from $60.99 from Amazon http://astore.amazon.com/ kenyabirdingo-20 Reviewed by Abdul Jamal

For field guides, travel guides, bird books and gear, shop from this link http://astore.amazon.com/ kenyabirdingo-20

to benefit nature conservation Also visit the new Kenya Birding site

Kenya

Female birds can be prodigious social climbers. Domestic hens will forcibly eject the sperm of males they would rather not have mated with - especially when the boss cock starts paying them attention. Amongst birds that habitually live in regular groups, females can and do mate with males other than their mates and sometimes declare themselves ‘divorced’, bringing the relationship to a perfunctory end.

In one study scientists removed the highest status female from the group and immediately all females of lower rank (which was all of them) switched their allegiance to males of higher status. When the original high ranking female was returned, all the upstarts were kicked downstairs again.

Besides providing attention-catching bits of information like these, Colin Tudge has clearly put in a huge amount of scientific labour gathering and delivering data on the existing birds of the world (just over 10,000 species) and I would have expected this book to appeal more to a specialist and not

Birding

www.kenyabirding.org For birding in Kenya, this site

to someone like myself with only a modicum of relevant knowledge. But this wonderful hardback (surprisingly light in the hands, rather like a bird) consistently brims over with material that wows. The presence of unforced humour and a simple style with beautifully crafted sentences had me spellbound from the start. I wonder if he had taken lessons in a Creative Writing course at some time.

After describing the anatomy of birds that allows them the miracle of flight, he bravely devotes about 120 pages to classification, not shying away from the use of Latin names. There are two pull out pages showing how birds are related. I did consider passing over this whole section because of my own difficulty with Latin terms, but just could not allow myself to miss any page and ended up reading the volume in its entirety, often scribbling pencil notes in the columns (plenty of wows and ah ha’s).

Once Tudge finishes with classification, the language become almost colloquial and he devotes whole chapters to Feeding, Migration, Sex, Social Habits, Bird Psychology and Interaction With Human Beings. Although there are no coloured photographs, we get several lovely drawings throughout.

Having already read his “Secret Lives of Trees”, I find something visceral about his passion for nature. The underlying humility of tone combined with hard science at the core of his works engages and seduces. Although fairly new to books on nature with most of my reading confined to literature, I feel that this is the best book I have read in years and expect to be dipping into it time and again.

is the place to start 9 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

FEATURES

Sunrise at Lake Nakuru by Guy Shorrock

If it flies, tick it L

ists are everything. However scorned tickers may be, however derided is the twitcher of birds by the selfstyled watcher or ornithologist, lists comprise the data bases against which change is measured. Lists of names show biological prosperity or paucity, and crucially, changes in these – and their compilation – gives collectors of all kinds, not least of seen (or heard?) birds, endless satisfaction.

Birdwatchers, ornithologists, tickers or twitchers, list names of species.

Natural things, be they plants or animals, need describing in a way that allows the description to be passed on, referred to or shared as widely and simply as possible. “The greenyblack bird with a long white-flecked tail, white-flecked wings and a curved red beak and red legs” might conjure up a particular kind of bird in the minds of most African birdwatchers, but it is a cumbersome way to refer to the adult of what most East African ornithologists call a Green Woodhoopoe (although it gets ticked off the lists of southern African ornithologists as the Red-billed Wood-hoopoe). So, call it Phoeniculus purpureus and even if most of us will have to go and look

that up in our handbooks, at least when we find it, there is no disputing the bird it is meant to describe, whether in Nairobi, Johannesburg or the British Museum. What’s in a species name, particularly a scientific name? Practically everything.

The notion of how different a plant or animal actually needs to be to qualify as a distinct species – and so as a potential component of a birdwatcher’s list– is constantly changing. These days, with DNA evidence to add to the more subjective criteria employed by earlier researchers, the trend favours the subdivision of species into two or more – in the process increasing the number birders can see. Still, the process of species acceptance is no simple matter. Up until the early 1990s there was only one ostrich, Struthio camelus with many different races (or subspecies) – one of which was molybdophanes, of Ethiopia, Somalia, and down to Tsavo in Kenya.

Since the 1999 publication of Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania there have been tentatively two species to keep each other company on the page of illustrations, with the arrival of the full blown Struthio molybdophanes – the Somali Ostrich. The distinction

By Rupert Watson

was continued in Birds of East Africa but now seems due to disappear in the next formal appraisal of East African avifauna.

Life lists are the apogee of most serious compilers, but there are any number of variations on the bird list theme. Lots of watchers keep country lists, or perhaps recognising the often artificial nature of national boundaries, lists conforming to more natural boundaries like those of the continent or East Africa. I don’t really keep a country or a world life list, but I do maintain one of birds seen in Nairobi National Park (Irania and the exquisitely named Eleonora’s Falcon being the most recent additions), and another of those which have appeared in our garden (most recently a Redbilled Quelea). I can also tell you what birds have graced my bird table (a migrating Common Buzzard being the last new one, probably attracted by the squirrels or striped mice that poke around on the ground for unopened sunflower seeds). At the entrance to any number of protected areas, checklists of the bird species occurring within them are on sale, usually compilations of sightings recorded by many different observers.

Eastern Violet-backed Sunbird by Peter Usher

10 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

What’s in a species name, particularly a scientific name? Practically everything.

But how does a bird get onto a list? What should be the minimum interaction between bird and watcher if the former is to find its way onto the list of the latter? How many pieces of the jigsaw are needed to confirm its picture?

The most fundamental decision for any list-keeper to make is whether just hearing, not seeing, a bird is enough to qualify for admission. List making is essentially a very subjective and personal business and some listers allow on birds they have heard but not seen. Nightjars are incredibly difficult to distinguish from one another as they hawk over the treetops at last light. Yet the voice of the Montane is unmistakable and many birdwatchers will give themselves a tick on hearing its plaintive call.

Lists of restricted areas bring a lot of their own problems. Does the bird have to land in the area concerned - say a garden? Probably not, but if airspace qualifies, what are the rules?

Birds in the airspace directly above the garden surely count, but how do you know if a vulture a thousand feet up is actually in your own airspace? And do you have to be in your own garden to see the bird in your own airspace, or is it still all right if you see the bird over your own plot while you are outside it?

Many garden list keepers are happy to include any bird they see while they are standing in their garden, wherever the bird may be. That is certainly how my list operates and I await the day when a Superb Starling ventures another two hundred meters down the road from its daily haunt and I spot it on the telephone wire just beyond my fence.

A few compilers impose even more

rigorous admission conditions on their lists, excluding birds which have been lured into their garden by the artificial attractions of a bird table. The same sense of self-denial would disallow a baited leopard from qualifying as one of the big five. I don’t think Chestnut Weavers would visit our garden were it not for the daily welfare handouts but they are happily included on my list.

A much more, to me, insidious interference with daily bird life for the benefit of the ticker is luring birds into the open by the use of tape recorders. After a wonderful visit to Kibale Forest in western Uganda (“wonderful” at least for the experience of watching chimpanzees, but dismal for finding birds) I asked one of the excellent guides if visitors sometimes came with tape recorders to entice birds out into the open with recordings of the species’ voices. “All proper birdwatchers have tape recorders” was the reply, immediately relegating me to the ranks of the improper. That is over my personal top, whether the recorder plays back songs it records in the forest, or rather delivers songs from pre-recorded tapes. Only birds summoned by mouth-made noises are acceptable in my code – even though this distinction may be illogical because such a sound is no less confusing for the bird tricked to be ticked. “Waah” as I might at the end of last month, I could not coax the Bare-faced Go-away-bird I heard on my next door neighbour’s plot into my line of sight.

Even if we have the rules sorted, if birds need to be seen, not just heard, how well should they be seen? The essentially subjective nature of list making will involve many personal decisions as to what does and doesn’t count. I thought I had my own criteria fairly clearly defined but on a visit to the Kakamega Forest I found myself reconsidering these in some detail. I was with James, a wonderfully knowledgeable local guide; if a tiny tailless bird showed itself for a couple of seconds between one treetop and the next and James

said it was a White-browed Crombec was that enough for a tick? (No.) I could identify a woodpecker, even see it was olive-green with a dark head, but of course I needed James’s assurance that it actually was a Browneared. So did that count? (Yes.) On the way home an oriole with a dark head flashed between the trees, giving no chance to see if it was an African or Western Black-headed.

Then James hears the sound of the Western from somewhere up in the forest tops , so does that confirm the identification, even though it was not certain if the “wi wor hor wah” was actually made by the oriole we had seen. (Yes.) When is a tick not a tick? What is it all for if not personal satisfaction?

Each to their own, and anyway, if sometimes wishful identification edges a few species onto the list which would not have got there on days of stricter adherence to our own respective codes, then does it really matter? Well yes, if we are headed for the record books, but otherwise, no, as long as we can live with our consciences, and our lists.

So, may she rest in peace, the wife of one of my lawyer partners who had no qualms about adding birds to her list that she extricated from the mist nets of Ngulia in Tsavo West National Park. With luck she might have seen a Nightingale or even a Sprosser out in the open on her own, but how else would she ever have got to tick a Basra Reed Warbler?

And did the Olivaceous Warbler that flew into our verandah window last year die in vain, or does the lifeless corpse we found the next day at least qualify it for an entry on the garden list?

About the author: Rupert Watson practices sometimes as a lawyer and mediator and always as a naturalist. He has authored three books, most recently The African Baobab and written widely on natural history and travel.

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By Itai Shanni

Flying Visitors

White Stork roost by Itai Shanni

The amazing phenomenon of bird migration

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illions of birds comprising hundreds of different species pass through East Africa each year flying from their European or Asian breeding grounds to escape the cold winter months. Preparation for this journey begins in spring when flowers are in full bloom and insects are benefiting from an abundance of nectar. Birds too, are busy feeding for a journey that will take them across seas, deserts and continents – and back again. This amazing phenomenon known as bird migration is still largely, one of nature’s greatest mysteries.

When people believed the world to be flat and mankind had very few tools to understand migration, many myths arose to explain the periodic disappearance of birds. It was once thought that Barn Swallows hibernated through the winter in the reeds of marshes and lakes where they roosted. But thanks to current methods of study –bird ringing, tracking with the Global Positioning System (GPS) and enhanced communication between different parts of the world - we can now say for sure that swallows fly south to enjoy the African savanna while it is cold in Europe.

‘dispersal of birds north or south from the tropics where they evolved. By dispersing north during the northern summer, birds would have encountered very rich food supplies and fewer competitors.

This could have enhanced their breeding success, compared to what they would have achieved had they stayed in the tropics. But as the northern winter begins, the abundance of food and habitat slowly disappears and the dispersed birds would have had to either move back to the tropics or survive through the frozen winter with little food. The study of the different strategies of bird migration, along with the importance of stopover and wintering sites for migrating birds, is at the forefront of avian conservation biology.

Migration is a predictable back-and-forth movement, which is repeated seasonally. But the process of migration is thought to have started with the Steppe Eagle pair by Peter Usher 12 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Five hundred thousand White Stork, 400,000 Steppe Buzzards, 90,000 Lesser Spotted Eagles and the whole Eurasian population of both Levant Sparrowhawk and Great White Pelicans cross through Israel to eastern Africa twice a year.

From Eurasia to East Africa most migrating birds funnel through the Great Rift Valley starting in Turkey and moving through Lebanon and Israel, which form a land bridge for safe passage and feeding, before crossing the 3000 km-wide Sahara Desert.

Half a million White Stork, 400,000 Steppe Buzzards, 90,000 Lesser Spotted Eagles and the whole Eurasian population of both Levant Sparrowhawk and Great White Pelicans cross through Israel to eastern Africa twice a year.

Once the migrants have crossed the Sahara Desert, the big groups that were concentrated along the northern parts of the Rift Valley spread out. More than 300 species of birds, including 20 globally threatened species, arrive in East Africa to feed in this rich and diverse habitat. One example is the formation of huge flocks of the gentle Amur Falcon, coming from Central Asia. This species aggregates and forms groups of a few hundred to a few thousand birds and are most commonly seen around Mount Kenya, and in Nairobi and Tsavo National Parks.

Eurasian migrants start to arrive in Kenya during the later half of September. First, are the waders that congregate along the shorelines of lakes and other wetlands. Shortly after, groups of White Storks appear along the Rift Valley to be followed later by the many

Willow Warbler by Peter Usher

species of raptors and passerines.

In order to save energy and avoid predators, small birds migrate through the night using a very active flight pattern. These constraints of time give migration even more complexity, as it entails some very dramatic physiological changes in birds. As active flying costs a lot of energy, small birds need to meet the huge energy costs by feeding and resting through the day.

In order to store the energy by way of fat, some of the organs, which are not essential for the journey, like breeding organs shrink to allow more space for fat reserves.

A small Marsh Warbler can gain 30-50% of its body weight within one week before leaving for the journey.

This fat reserve will be expended during the next three to four days of migration over the Sahara Desert.

Passerine numbers in Kenya usually build towards late November, which is when one of the world’s most important ringing schemes occurs in Tsavo West National Park. The Ngulia Ringing Project, named after the lodge where the ringing takes place, brings bird ringers and researchers from all over the world to witness as thousands of birds, attracted by the

13 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

14 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Flying Visitors lodge’s night lamps, ‘fall’ from the dark, misty sky to be caught, marked with aluminium rings and released. An average of 20,000 birds are ringed (also called banding) within these two weeks of effort. The study of bird migration in Africa has been based in part on ringing recoveries from the Ngulia Ringing Project.

For most birdwatchers, migrants are very anticipated flying visitors. Renew your acquaintance and enjoy every moment – knowing the extraordinary journey they have taken to reach you

How birds navigate has been a major subject of research for many years. Birds use different methods to find their way, including use of magnetic fields, topography and star-map-sun positioning. All these methods are thought to be imprinted on the species’ DNA, thus young birds who left their nest two to three months earlier, are already able to make the journey by themselves, twice during their first year of life. With some species, which migrate in big flocks, learning is accomplished during navigation and is the subject of many theoretical studies carried out throughout the world.

The study of bird migration in Africa has been based in part on ringing recoveries from the Ngulia Ringing Project.

Yellow Wagtail by Peter Usher

Using GPS transmitters we now can track individually marked birds throughout their lifespan. Many studies have shown that migrating birds try to optimise on time and energy, and minimize predation risks. These factors affect the final route chosen, migration time, and behaviour at stopover sites and wintering grounds.

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Urban Birding Greater Paintedsnipe by Peter Usher

Where to Watch Birds More on Mombasa birding

By Marlene Reid

MOMBASA ISLAND A large population of House Crows has helped to displace many indigenous birds but around Fort Jesus, a main tourist attraction, one can watch Golden Palm Weavers nesting in the Cycads near the gate. Red-cheeked Cordon-bleus hop around the Fort and Brown-breasted Barbets seem to have adopted the old trees for their breeding site. From the walls overlooking the sea, various Terns, Sooty Gulls and a variety of migrant waders can be seen and at the right time of year on English Point, opposite the Fort, Crab-plovers congregate. The large Baobab Trees on Mama Ngina Drive have Black-headed Herons perching where in the past there used to be a busy heronry.

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NGUUNI ANIMAL SANCUTARY A few kms inland from Malindi Road is an area of Acacia woodland, grassland, and ponds (mostly manmade). There are experienced guides at this park and it is essential to take one for a successful birding trip. This site has well over 200 species and it is not unusual to see 100 on a good morning.

Bare-eyed Thrush, African Paradise Flycatcher, Red-faced and occasionally Northern Crombec, Greater Blue-eared, Violet-backed and Superb Starling, Grosbeak, Golden Palm and Black-headed Village Weavers, Zanzibar Red Bishop, Black-shouldered Kite, Crested Guineafowl, Black Crake, moorhen, herons, Yellow-throated and Pangani Longclaw, Malachite, Mangrove and Grey-headed Kingfisher, Siffling, Zitting, Winding and occasionally Croaking Cisticolas, to name but a few species. Migrant waders come to the ponds and Allen’s Gallinule and Greater Painted-snipe can on occasion be seen in the reeds. Other regular migrant visitors are Isabelline and Northern Wheatear and Common Rock Thrush. Diederik and Klaas’s Cuckoo, Grey-headed and Sulphur-breasted Bushshrikes and White-browed Robinchat can be heard calling and with patience and luck can be seen. Such visions of beauty! Water Thick-knee abound.

Birds of prey pass overhead or hunt in the trees or over the grassland. Regular visitors are Black-chested Snake Eagle, Long-crested Eagle, African Fish Eagle, Lizard Buzzard and Palm-nut Vulture. For the keen birder this is an area that can be so rewarding with many unexpected and exciting Visitors at Mombasa Marine Park by Martha Nzisa

sightings. A trip around the surrounding area, taking in Huseini Car Track is also recommended. A guided visit to the Central Quarry where there is Purple Swamphen is also recommended.

BEACH Most Mombasa beaches are too busy for birds but a quiet and safe spot is Jumba La Mtwana, along the Malindi Road, for uninhibited viewing of migrant waders and seabirds. The forest there is also home to quite a few bird species including Peter’ss Twinspot and Tambourine Dove.

Many hotels have nurtured lovely gardens, which are full of beautiful Kenyan birds. It is in these gardens that one can often see weavers nesting at close quarters, a very fascinating process and well worth seeing.

The friendly city of Mombasa is a place to enjoy the sea, the sand and the sun, and a paradise for the birdwatcher!

Between Tsavo and the prolific African bush along the Mombasa Road, and the famous Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek in Malindi District, is the coastal city of Mombasa.

Better known as a major port, Mombasa is not without its own smaller, less well-known areas where a significant number of coastal birds can be seen.

Tambourine Dove by Peter Usher

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Directions

H

eading north from Naivasha on the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway, you will pass Lake Elementaita, an alkaline lake with numerous Great White Pelicans and Lesser Flamingos. Off the main highway you see the sign for Lanet (Nderit) entrance of Lake Nakuru National Park.

If you do not have a preloaded Smart Card (required and obtained from the Kenya Wildlife Service), you will have to obtain one at the park’s main entrance.

To reach Main Gate you will have to go through Nakuru town, where on entering the first roundabout take the second exit. At the next junction turn left, and take the next road on the right following this until a small roundabout is reached. Cross this and continue downhill towards the Main Gate of Lake Nakuru National Park.

Ensure that windows and doors are closed when leaving the vehicle to complete the ticketing formalities, or your passengers will include Vervet monkeys!

Where to Watch Birds

Vervet monkeys by Guy Shorrock

View of Lake Nakuru from Baboon Cliffs by Christopher Wade

Spectacular Lake Nakuru

For congregations

By Brian Finch

On entering Lake Nakuru National Park from the main entrance you will find a road that completely circumnavigates the lake. For quick access to the lakeshore, turn right; heading south and you will come to a campsite.

This can be good for birds and at this site you are allowed to get out of your vehicle. Nakuru is the best place for the rare Grey-crested Helmet-shrike, although the commoner Whitecrested Helmet-shrike is also here. The campsite is good for helmet-shrikes, but they can be virtually anywhere in the acacia forest along the roads. Colourful Ruppell’s Longtailed Starlings will be in the area, and Pearl-spotted Owlets live in the trees. Arrow-marked Babblers like the thick scrub.

the soda; waders and storks are along the shoreline, and rafts of grebes offshore can include Black-necked… and if really fortunate Greater Crested Grebe. Both of these grebes, unlike the abundant Little Grebes, do not have nonbreeding plumages. Tern flocks, mainly White-winged can reach four figures, and it is always worth scanning through the gulls for rare species.

Continue on across a bridge over the Njoro River and take the next immediate left. The sight of hundreds of thousands (or more) of Lesser Flamingos is spectacular. The mouth of the Njoro River is attractive to birds, many Great White Pelicans, gulls and terns come into the freshwater to wash off

At the main road, a right turn to climb onto the escarpment will reveal a magnificent vista. This is Baboon Cliffs, and on the edge of the cliff Rock hyraxes’ sprawl on the rocks, and White-shouldered Cliff Chats bounce over the boulders.

Nyanza Swifts may be flying just below.

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The trees along the river towards the mouth attract migrant eagles, mainly Steppe, but Greater Spotted are a regular feature here and remain from October to March.

Baboon Cliffs

North and eastern sides of the lake

If you had turned left, after the main entrance, taking the road that passes roughly parallel along the lakeshore, you would have come back towards Lanet. There are only two accesses to the lakeshore along this stretch, and these can be muddy if there has been recent heavy rain.

Hippo Point

The first road (Hippo Point) passes through the ribbon of woodland that surrounds the lake, then heads out across a salt-grass plain to the mouth of a small freshwater stream. The freshwater draws numerous birds and a good variety of waders include Black-tailed Godwits, Spotted Redshank and Temminck’s Stint.

Amongst the numerous gulls and terns something out of the ordinary might be found. Herons, ibises, spoonbills and storks feed on the margins, and ducks should include Cape Teal.

On the shoreline amongst the numerous Lesser Flamingos here should be a few Greater, and amongst the Black-winged Stilts, walking around their feet, some Avocets. African Fish Eagles and migrant Harriers quarter the swampy edges.

The second road is a fairly steep descent, often with deviations around huge fallen acacias. The freshwater to the right attracts waders, whilst Pied and Malachite Kingfishers fish zealously.

Towards the lake there is a marshy area with small pools and a reed bed, birds congregate around here, but are best seen through a telescope as there is no access.

Northern Puffback by Peter Usher

Acacia woodland birds The acacia woodland around the lake is very rich, particularly in the mornings when some secretive species feed on the road. These include Bluespotted Wood Dove, which is uncommon but regular, small numbers of African Thrush, and amongst the Red-billed Firefinches the occasional group of African Firefinches. In the trees the local specialities include Black Cuckoo, Broad-billed Roller, Scaly-throated Honeyguide, Red-throated Wryneck and Northern Puffback. There are numerous White-bellied Tits, Spectacled Weavers, Yellow-breasted Apalis and in season, Willow Warblers.

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20 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Spectacular Lake Nakuru Lesser Flamingos by Guy Shorrock

Besides the campsites, the two lodges providing accommodation in the Park are in the southeast – Sarova Lion Hill Lodge and Lake Nakuru Lodge.

Between the two is a dirt road, which crosses a causeway (Muya’s Causeway) between two freshwater basins. The pond on the left can be very rewarding when there is sufficient water, and attracts good numbers of waders and ducks. Swallows feed over the open area, including the large Mosque Swallow and streamlined Grey-rumped Swallow.

Useful contacts:

Hotel Kunste + 254 (0)51 2212140 Lake Nakuru Lodge + 254 (0)20 2733696 Sarova Lion Hill + 254 (0)20 2714444

Following the road to Naishi and Makalia Falls takes you though interesting open grassland and scrub, and finally to the calcite cliffs where White-fronted Bee-eater, Horus Swift, Abyssinian Black Wheatear and Plain Martin breed in holes. Sometimes there is a family of Southern Ground Hornbills in this area. The cliff at Makalia Falls does at times lure

Slender-billed Starlings to bathe in the falling water.

If the two lodges are beyond your budget, it is always possible to stay outside the park at the Hotel Kunste on the corner of Subukia Road. The Park gates open at 6.30 am.

Turning right at the next junction and again at the following junction will bring you out onto the southeast shore of the lake. Another freshwater creek leaches in and is also a draw for waders and waterbirds, and has produced some good species over the years.

From here it is possible to drive clockwise along the lakeshore, and rejoin the unpaved road that circumnavigates the lake.

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Where to Watch Birds

Lake Baringo

Perfect weekend birding

By Anthony Kuria

L

ake Baringo is about 110 km north of Nakuru – an easy trip on tarmacked road, not requiring a 4WD vehicle to do comfortably. Spread over 130 km2, it is the second largest freshwater lake.

Along the way Getting to Baringo on the NakuruKabaranet road you pass Kabarak University and a vast expanse of dry acacia scrub along the way. White-bellied Goaway-bird and Silverbird may tempt you to a few birding stops. At your stop, check in the Acacia abyssinica common along the roadsides – you could be rewarded with Brown Parisoma.

You will also pass Mogotio Town, where you cross the Molo River. At Mogotio you could top up your shopping with anything

you may have forgotten before the final stretch to Baringo.

Mogotio was a vibrant town that thrived on wealth from huge sisal plantations. Today, it survives mainly on trade from pastoralists from further north and small influxes of tourists.

Don’t attempt the sign-posted alternative route to Baringo, via Maji Moto (the road branches off at Mogotio and goes through the sisal plantations). Rather stick to the main road to Marigat Town.

As you start to descend to Marigat, Lake Baringo forms a silver lining in the horizon. Soon after to the right, you pass the turning to Lake Bogoria. A little further as you cross Perkerra River, is a left turning – this heads up the Tugen Hills and into Kabaranet Town, another 50 or so kilometers. Suddenly, you are at Marigat. It is the biggest town before you reach Lake Baringo, which despite its barren and thirsty look, manages to offer a year round supply of delicious melons.

Your ultimate destination is Kampi ya Samaki another 20 km from Marigat. It is a fish-landing ‘port’ on the shores of Lake Baringo and the main road through the town will get you there. But before you reach there you will cross a few seasonally dry riverbeds, which offer good birding and photo opportunities. Note though, these rivers can be a major challenge to cross when there has been a heavy rain up in the Tugen Hills.

Even as conditions become drier, rockier and hotter, keep an eye on the open, uncultivated land to the right (now fenced with cactus) for resident Black-headed Plovers. The power lines overhead are seasonally preferred hunting perches for

Blue-naped Mousebird

by Peter Usher Eurasian, Blue-cheeked and Madagascar Bee-eaters making this final section (Marigat-Kampi ya Samaki) very birdy.

Extras such as Hildebrandt’s and Fischer’s Starlings, D’Arnaud’s, Black-throated, Red-fronted and Red-and-yellow Barbets, Yellow-spotted Petronia and Common Drongo all appear along this section of road.

In the background, towering cliffs take shape. If you have time, make a stop.

Otherwise, plan to visit another day to tick off Hemprich’s Hornbills, Bristle-crowned Starling, Brown-tailed Rock Chat, Lanner Falcon, White-shouldered Cliff Chat and more. In the bushes nearby Pale Prinias, Red-fronted Warblers, Three-streaked Tchagras, Eastern Violet-backed Sunbirds, Mouse-coloured Pendulines and Northern Grey Tits are very likely.

As you approach the cliffs, you will come to a junction with a collection of signs.

Here, take the turning to the right. This will bring you to a barrier managed by the Baringo County Council, where you pay entry fees (Ksh100 and 200 for residents and overseas visitors per day, respectively. Kids and vehicles are charged Ksh50 and 100 per day, respectively). It’s recommended you negotiate for a guide as they will know where you can find the priceless Slender-tailed Nightjar, Whitefaced Scops Owl, a dark-eyed race of the Spotted Eagle-Owl and Heuglin’s Courser.

Lake Baringo from the Important Bird Areas in Kenya 22 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Birds of Lake Baringo Over 500 species, 35 of which are associated with the Somali-Masai biome, have been recorded at Baringo. Your best birding hours will most likely be in the late afternoon and early morning – when it is still cool. Around Robert’s Camp and the adjacent Lake Baringo Club are Jackson’s Hornbills, Brown Babblers, White-billed Buffalo Weavers, Spotted Morning Thrush and African Mourning Doves. In July, you are nearly assured of seeing Great Spotted Cuckoo and Madagascar and White-throated Bee-eaters. Northern Red and Yellowcrowned Bishops are often seen just after heavy rains.

Many waterbirds (both residents and migrants) including African Darter, Great White and Pink-backed Pelicans, Goliath, Purple, Green-backed, Black-crowned Night and occasional Black Herons, Great and Long-tailed Cormorant, African Spoonbill, White-

faced and Fulvous Whistling Ducks, Glossy Ibis, Garganey are to be found on the lake. The muddy flats are good for waders like Three-banded, Spur-winged and Kittlitz’s Plovers, Common, Green and Wood Sandpipers while in the short reed beds, in temporary pools, you may find Greater Painted-snipes.

To add to your list, one can hire a boat for an exciting trip to scan the shoreline and visit the islands on the lake. Look for Senegal Thick-knee near Teddy Bear Island, Goliath Heron, Allen’s Gallinule, Common Squacco and Green-backed Heron, and Jackson’s Golden-backed Weaver. Unfortunately, with the turbid waters of the lake, kingfishers are not as common as one would expect. The feeding tables at Island Camp and Lake Baringo Club might also be busy with Northern Masked, Little and Lesser Masked Weavers.

About the author: Kuria is an enthusiastic ornithologist and the national coordinator of the Fundamentals of Ornithology (FoO) course; Kuria manages the Africa office of the Tropical Biology Association including its international field courses for graduate biologists.

Heuglin’s Courser (above), White-shouldered Cliff Chat, Gabar Goshawks, White-browed Scrub Robin by Peter Usher

Accommodation Finding accommodation is not a problem.

Soi Safari Lodge, Lake Baringo Club and Island Camp cater for the high-end visitor.

Island Camp is located on one of the islands in the lake and their charges are inclusive of boat transfer to and from the mainland.

For those seeking a comfortable and pocket-friendly camping experience, there is Robert’s Camp who offer self-catering cottages (at Ksh 6500-9500 for a group of four sharing depending on the season) and bandas (at Ksh 1500, self-catered and 3950 for full board accommodation per person) as well as expansive camping grounds if you bring your own gear at Ksh 350 per person per night. The camp boasts clean washrooms with showers, running water and barbeque areas. If camping, don’t forget a gas stove for cooking, as firewood is not readily available. Watch out for the hippos that come out at night to graze on the lawns.

Island Camp Limited Tel: 0724 874661 / 0728 478638 Lake Baringo, P. O. Box 1141, Nakuru, Kenya E-mail: admin@islandcamp.co.ke

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Where to Watch Birds

Turacos and Barbets

WHERE TO WATCH BIRDS IN NORTHWESTERN KENYA

View of Mbara village valley on Mt. Mtelo

by Luca Borghesio

Mtelo View Point Campsite

By Ng’ang’a Bakari, Jan Stipala and Luca Borghesio

Double-toothed Barbet by Peter Usher

Directions to Mt Mtelo From Nairobi, plan for a full day of travel and an early departure. Drive through Nakuru, Eldoret and then Kitale. You may stop briefly for lunch at Kitale, but we recommend packing a snack. A four-wheel drive vehicle is necessary. After Kitale, take the Makutano-Lodwar route and drive for about 90 km. Just after Kapenguria, the altitude falls gradually as you descend the valley between the Cherangani Hills.

About 1 km after the Marich Pass Field Studies Centre, on the road to Lodwar, take the diversion sign posted ‘Mtelo View Point and Campsite’ on the left. It is little more than a dirt track threading its way through dense bushland thicket. Two kilometers after this diversion are a pair of concrete tracks zigzagging up the hill to the ‘antenna’, a steep climb from 1000 to about 1800 m in less than 5 kms. Continue through the tiny Chetinon Trading Centre and Mariny. Then drop down into Mbara Valley, at about 1800 m. Mtelo View Point Campsite is in the middle of the small village of Mbara and is an ideal base for the exploration of Mt Mtelo.

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The north-west region of Kenya offers a sense of wilderness that few other places can match. Located up in the highlands north of Kitale and the Cherangani Hills is Mt. Mtelo and the Mtelo View Point and Campsite, a great base for some stunning vistas and highly rewarding bird watching.

White-browed Robin Chats, Brown Babblers, Ross’s Turaco are among the vocal birds that will wake you up with their uncoordinated choirs. You may see 20 other species around the camp. As the day breaks, you may walk down to the river next to the camp. The vegetation here is a mosaic of fields under maize crops, with introduced trees like Grevillea robusta. Acacia-Combretum woodland occupies the few uncultivated areas. Here you will mostly find common species, although with patience you might see Little Rock Thrush, Pallid Honeyguide, scimitarbills and Green Wood-hoopoe.

Along the main stream Fig trees such as Ficus thonninigi, F. vasta and F. sur are abundant, which when fruiting attract many fruit eating birds. If you are lucky to visit at the right time of the year, you won’t miss species like Crowned Hornbill and Ross’s Turaco - one of four species of turacos found on Mt Mtelo.

In the evening a walk higher up along the riverine forest at altitudes between 1900-2000 m can be quite rewarding.

The riverine vegetation here gets quite impressive, with huge trees such as Aningeria adolfi-friedericii, Croton macrostachyius, Albizia gummifera and Cassipourea malosana. This habitat has a continuous canopy with many trees taller than 30 m, but much of it has been transformed into agricultural fields, therefore it is severely threatened. Here you will find more than 30 additional species. Look out for Black-breasted Apalis, Double-toothed Barbet, Purplethroated Cuckoo-shrike and Grey Woodpecker. A keen eye will not miss a Crowned Eagle soaring overhead.

You might plan to climb up Mt Mtelo (3336 m), but this is a hard walk only suitable for the physically fit. The ascent can be done in one day from Mbara village, but we suggest to spend the night at another village on Katugh Pass (2400 m), or, even better, in the silent and lovely Lakalat glade (2850 m; a word of caution, there is no water at Lakalat, you must bring it from Katugh Pass). Leave early in the morning to allow for a leisurely pace with stops for bird watching.

Cherangani Hills Marich Pass

Alpine scrub at 3200 m

Podocarpus forest starts at 2200 m

Porters can be easily organized with the help of John Yoposiwa at Mbara. Walking through the dry, highland forest of Podocarpus falcatus, Olea africana, Dombeya torrida, you may see Hartlaub’s Turaco, the rare African Cuckoo Hawk, Brown Woodland Warbler, Lemon Dove and many others.

The canopy here is about 20-25 m high with many epiphytic mosses and lichens due to high levels of mist. At the highest elevations, the forest shades into dense Ericaceous scrublands 1-2 m tall, where Erica arborea and Protea sp. are the main species. Here the main birding attraction is the sunbirds and you can tick close to ten species, including the Eastern and Northern Double-collared, Tacazze, Malachite, Goldenwinged, Green-headed, Collared and Variable. As you climb you might encounter mammals like the Blue Monkey and Guereza Colobus. Look out for the Blackand-white-casqued Hornbill gracefully darting high up into the canopy. Although this area supports a lot of birds and other biodiversity, it is evident that it’s under major threat due to habitat

loss from human encroachment.

What seemed like a big forest just a decade ago is now under maize plantation and the trend seems to be continuing.

Mtelo View Point Campsite

Mtelo Point Campsite The Mtelo View Point Campsite is situated in northwestern Kenya on the Mtelo mountains and is the only available facility close to the Mountains. Managed by a friendly family, it offers facilities like secure sleeping bandas, camping sites, shaded seating and hammocks. Services include a variety of food choices, but please do not expect French cuisine here! Fresh tapped spring water is available.

John Yoposiwa, the owner of the campsite, is a dedicated environmentalist and will give you all the assistance that you may need. Information can be obtained from John at 0737941400 or 0729-449502.

Mbara Village

Bakari with chameleon Photos by Jan Stipala

Mixed Podocarpus and Olea forest

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Colin preparing mist net at Mida Photo by Cheryl-Samantha Owen

Where to Watch Birds

Mida Creek’s

Legendary high tide roost Colin Jackson

As a boy growing up in Nairobi, there were certain places in Kenya that held a ‘legendary’ birding status for me. One of these was Mida Creek, which today is a firm favourite of mine.

Located about 100 km north of Mombasa and 25 km south of Malindi, Mida Creek shows clearly from space as a large gourd-shaped intrusion of ocean water extending some 5 km inland surrounded by dense mangrove forest. Mida is almost entirely fed by tidal seawater, flooding and draining its 32 km2 area. This twice daily flooding together with the significant supply of freshwater, which seeps underground into the creek from the adjacent ArabukoSokoke Forest, allows for conditions in which organisms can survive. These include a rich fauna of several species of crabs (including one endemic), many fish, corals, and a feeding ground for young sea turtles. Together with seven of the world’s nine species of mangrove and 33 species of seaweed, Mida has been called one of the most productive mangrove ecosystems on earth and, as such, is well worth visiting.

As a birding site, 69 aquatic species have been recorded at Mida Creek and if you time your visit right – it is a spectacle of several thousand migrant waders, terns, herons and flamingos roosting together just off the mangroves. A bird hide is located at the end of a hanging walkway through mangrove forest and provides wonderful views of birds at roost on a high tide. At low tide the birds are quite far off, but you can reach the sand from the hide and walk across the flats to approach the birds. The highest numbers of birds are seen between September and April during the non-breeding season.

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Many of the waders and terns are restricted to the coast and therefore very sought after by inland birders. In particular, is the unique black-andwhite Crab-plover for which Mida is the most accessible place to see it in Kenya.

Counts of over 1,000 birds have been made of this species, which is the only wader in the world to breed in colonies and underground (taxonomists are wondering if it isn’t in fact a weird gull rather than a wader).

Another coastal speciality that is easy to see here is the feisty Terek Sandpiper – constantly charging around busily foraging with its beautifully long, upturned bill and steep forehead.

Mida is also the best site to guarantee Eurasian Curlew, the eastern race, with its outrageously long decurved bill, of which there are normally 60-70 roosting together slightly deeper into the water beyond the other smaller waders.

With large congregations of waders and terns, it’s always worth looking out for something unusual. Common Redshank, Kentish Plover, Eurasian Oystercatcher and Broad-billed Sandpiper are among some of the rarer species seen in recent years. There are normally a few terns hanging around – most commonly Gullbilled, which constantly amazes me when it dives full speed from 20-30 m to pick up a small crab with such precision so as to not end up with its bill buried in the sand. Saunders’s and Lesser Crested Terns are also regular, and sometimes Whitewinged hang around for a few weeks and less commonly the odd White-cheeked Tern can be seen.

Whilst the sand flats are so rich, the mangroves around the creek are surprisingly deplete of birds.. However, there are some good birds to see if you are

patient and look hard – Pale Batis, normally a Brachystegia woodland species, can be found as well as flocks of Chestnut-fronted Helmet-shrikes in a feeding party with Common Drongo, Black-headed Orioles, African Paradise Flycatcher, Purple-banded Sunbird and Black-bellied Starlings. During the northward migration occasionally the mangroves can be heaving with Willow Warblers and the golden flashes of dozens of Eurasian Golden Orioles.

The small areas of bushed grassland just behind the mangroves can be good for Red-backed and also Lesser Grey Shrikes. Local specialities around here include Yellow-throated Longclaw (and look out for Pangani which can also occur), Trumpeter Hornbills, Mangrove Kingfishers, Purple-banded Sunbirds, Woolly-necked and Yellow-billed Storks, Great Egrets, and in season, stunning aerial displays by Carmine and Whitethroated Bee-eaters. It can be good for raptors too. If you hear and see all the waders take off together it invariably means the local Peregrine is around.

Wahlberg’s Eagle is also not uncommon, as are African Fish Eagles, Osprey, Lizard Buzzard, Long-crested Eagle, Great Sparrowhawk and once in a while Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle can be seen.

Having visited Mida many times now, it still holds that ‘legendary’ status for me – and I’m sure it won’t disappoint you!

About the author: Colin is Director of A Rocha Kenya based at the Mwamba bird observatory & field study centre in Watamu since 1998.

Mida Creek bird hide

by Shelley Thomas

Directions • Distance and time from nearest town(s): the high tide roost site is approximately 25 km from Malindi, 15 km from Watamu and 40 km from Kilifi; the mouth of the creek is approximately 8 km from Watamu village, 5 km from Turtle Bay Beach Club (where matatus turn around) • Public transport: matatus are easily picked up from Malindi, Gede (5 km away) or Kilifi; for the mouth of the creek take a boda-boda or tuk-tuk from Turtle Bay. • Accommodation: Watamu is the closest and best place to stay for visiting Mida. Budget-wise, Hemingways tops the list, followed by Ocean Sports and the very popular family hotel, Turtle Bay Beach Club who do a lot for conservation in the area.

Mwamba Field Study Centre run by A Rocha Kenya costs Ksh 2,000 full board and a new guesthouse, ‘Frog House’ around the same.

At Mida itself is the ‘Eco-camp’ and just across the road beside the forest some new community-run self-help bandas run by the Mida Creek Conservation & Awareness Group Crab-plover by Tasso Leventis

• Entry fee: Mida is part of the Watamu National Marine Reserve so if you go in a boat you will need to pay the Kenya Wildlife Service entry fee ($10 for non-residents, Ksh 200 for residents, Ksh 100 for citizens)

Useful

Best time to visit the A Rocha Kenya bird hide: The very best time to visit the hide is on a 2.4 m or 2.5 m high tide – or a lower one. You could also try and time your arrival on the falling tide when the birds are returning to feed.

This is approximately 2-3 hours after high tide as per the high tide time on the tide table – the birds come in to land right in front of the hide before spreading out as sand is exposed by the receding tide.

See http://tinyurl.com/ltdyt4 for tide times.

27 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

websites

and

contacts:

A Rocha Kenya (Mwamba Field Study Centre): www.arocha.org/ke-en; mwamba@arocha.org; 042-32023 / 020-233-5865 Arabuko-Sokoke Schools & Eco-tourism Scheme (operating the bird hide): www.assetskenya.org Hemingways: reservations@hemingways.co.ke; www.hemingways.co.ke KWS Watamu National Marine Park: kwswatamu@yahoo.com; 042-32393 Mida Creek Conservation & Awareness Group: arafabaya@yahoo.com; tel: 0714-356348 Mida Creek Eco-Camp: felicityfowkes@aol.com; www.midaecocamp.com Ocean Sports: info@oceansports.net; tel: 04232008; www.oceansports.net Turtle Bay Beach Club: reservations@turtlebay. co.ke ; www.turtlebay.co.ke ; 042-32003 / 32226

Fabulous Lake Naivasha in need of urgent attention Common Fiscal by Peter Usher

By Don Turner Lake Naivasha by Harvey van Diek

Case for conservation Described by Joseph Thomson in 1884 as one moving mass of ducks, ibises, pelicans and other aquatic birds, Lake Naivasha is unique in the chain of Eastern Rift Valley lakes in being the only freshwater ecosystem in an otherwise string of soda lakes. Naivasha (a Masai word meaning rippling waters) is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful of all Kenya’s Rift Valley lakes. It lies at an altitude of 1860 m (6018 ft) bordered by the Mau escarpment to the west, the Kinangop Plateau to the east, Eburu to the north, and Longonot and Hell’s Gate National Park to the south. The lake, with no surface outlet, is fed by two permanent rivers the Malewa and Gilgil, but receives most of its water from underground sources. The papyrus fringe that encircles almost the entire lake acts as an important natural filter system and is protected by law.

Guereza Colobus by Guy Shorrock

Lake Naivasha supports diverse habitats, comprising submerged aquatic plants in the lake’s shallow littoral zone, a fringing papyrus belt at the water’s edge, and the lake shore acacia woodlands.

Papyrus is the most dominant emergent plant at the lake’s edges and is

28 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

by far the most important plant of the entire lake ecosystem.

It acts as an efficient silt and nutrient filter as well as providing important habitat for fish species and other wildlife as both a refuge and feeding area. However the extent of the papyrus belt has changed dramatically in recent years as a result of receding water levels, fires, bovine and human encroachment, and subsequent conversion to farmland and agriculture.

Greenhouses at Lake Naivasha by Guy Shorrock

The dominant floating plants in the lake are exotic plants.

Several other submerged plants that were once a feature of the lake’s shallow waters only re-appear when the population of their main grazer, the introduced Louisiana red crayfish collapses. The once spectacular water lilies so common up to the mid 1970’s have largely disappeared, also as a result of grazing pressure from an earlier introduction of Coypu or Nutria, large semi-aquatic rodents, as well as the crayfish.

Lake Naivasha surprisingly supports no native fish species, a situation that has been attributed to historical periods of the

Common Sandpiper by Peter Usher 29 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

lake drying out. The sole exception being a small carp that disappeared from the lake around 1962. The current fish population therefore consists of species introduced between 1925 and today, which include the Black Bass, Tilapia and common Carp, the latter an accidental introduction first encountered in 2001, and which today completely dominates the commercial fishing scene. Large stands of Yellow Fever Trees or Naivasha Thorn dominate the acacia woodlands that surround the lake, providing an important habitat for birds (particularly the Grey-crested HelmetShrike, currently regarded as globally vulnerable) and several species of large mammals including buffalo, giraffe, eland, zebra, waterbuck, impala and leopard. The lake also supports a population of over 1,200 hippopotamus.

sunlight per year has made Naivasha one of the leading flower-growing regions in the world. Similarly a geothermal power plant, the only one of its kind in Africa, utilizes water from the lake to generate 18% of the national electricity production. Such labour intensive industries have in turn attracted tens of thousands of migrant workers.

Census figures indicate that Naivasha’s population has increased from 35,000 to around 350,000 in the last 25 years, transforming it from a rural agricultural outpost to a bustling semi-urban society with all of the expected environmental challenges. A little further away in the upper catchment areas overlooking the lake, smallholder farming reduces the amount of water reaching the lake, while increasing sediment inflow.

Waterbirds often occur on wetlands in spectacular The Lake Naivasha Management Plan was drawn up to deal concentrations and are one of the most obvious indicators with all potential threats to the lake, and its gazetting in of the richness and diversity of any wetland ecosystem.

October 2004 was seen at the time to mark the beginning of Lake Naivasha is no exception, and it has long been a a new era in the history of Lake Naivasha. It was developed major wintering area for many thousands to ensure that all adverse impacts on the The Lake Naivasha of ducks, waders and other shorebirds lake’s ecosystem were minimized and Management Plan was corrected. It was also seen as a tool with from the Palaearctic Region during the northern hemisphere winter, as well as drawn up to deal with all which to lay down guidelines towards a major breeding ground for resident effective regulation of human activities potential threats wetland species. Over 150 wetland species in the entire Lake Naivasha basin. The to the lake (30% of the total birds of the region) have implementation of the Management Plan been recorded at Naivasha, with numbers was vested in a committee comprising reaching peaks of 20-25,000 individuals during the months the nominated representatives of: Lake Naivasha Riparian of January and February. It is not surprising therefore that Association, Lake Naivasha Growers Group, Naivasha Lake Naivasha has for decades attracted both local and Tourism Group, Lake Naivasha Fishermen’s Cooperative, overseas visitors.

Naivasha Pastoral Community, IUCN, National Environmental Management Authority, Kenya Wildlife Wetlands are internationally recognised as one of the world’s Service, KenGen, Naivasha Municipal Council, District most productive ecosystems, with both wildlife and people Commissioner’s Office, Fisheries Department, Water highly dependent on them. They attract more wildlife Resources Management Authority and the Physical Planning (particularly birds) than any other habitat, while at the same Department, Ministry of Agriculture. Within time providing numerous benefits to both governments and weeks of its being gazetted, a self-interested local councils. They are however among the most threatened minority prevented the implementation habitats in the world today due largely to uncontrolled of the Management Plan by drainage, land reclamation, pollution and over exploitation. obtaining a court injunction. It remains in force today.

Aware of the potential harm that man’s activities could have on Lake Naivasha and its fragile ecosystem, the Lake Meanwhile the lake is Naivasha Riparian Association (formed in 1929) drew up seriously under threat a Management Plan for the lake, which was later adopted from habitat degradation, as the official management strategy for the entire Lake nutrient enrichment, Naivasha region. This Management Plan, which had the over grazing, over support of all sections of the community, was adopted by fishing, introduction the District Development Committee and thereafter by the of alien species, Kenya Government as the official management plan for over-abstraction Lake Naivasha. Formally gazetted into law in October 2004, of water, and within weeks it became (and still remains today) sub-judice. inadequate law enforcement.

Lake Naivasha is arguably one of Kenya’s most valuable ecosystems and freshwater resources. The lake’s fresh water in a region that boasts over 300 days of intense equatorial

30 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

White-browed Coucal

by Peter Usher

Tana Delta

In the midst of new Scramble

Mangos ready for delivery upriver

District Environmental meeting

Village on the Tana River Photos by Francis Kagema

By Serah Munguti The River Tana is 440 miles long and is Kenya’s longest river. The Delta covers 130,000 ha in total and is one of Kenya’s largest and most important freshwater wetlands. The Delta is a vast patchwork of palm savanna, seasonally flooded grassland, forest fragments, lakes, marine wetlands and the river itself.

This ecosystem supports several communities and enormous numbers of livestock, wildlife and water birds.

These include two of the world’s most endangered primates, the Crested Mangabey and the Tana River Red Colobus. Fish and other marine life spawn in its mangrove swamps which also soak up floodwaters.

The local people have adapted their lifestyle to seasonal extremes. Some cultivate crops while others raise livestock or engage in fishing. In times of drought, pastoralists bring livestock from as far as the Somali and Ethiopian borders to graze on the grasslands.

The Tana River Delta has been designated an Important Bird Area – a site critical for the conservation of birds. In times of flood, the Delta fills with water and waterbirds from all over Kenya nest and raise young, replenishing bird populations throughout the country. Globally threatened bird

species include the Southern Banded Snake Eagle, the Malindi Pipit, and the migratory Basra Reed Warbler whose breeding grounds in Iraq are also under threat. The Tana River Cisticola, local and on the verge of extinction, has recently been recorded.

In 2008 Kenyan conservationists went to court and secured a stay order against the Mumias Sugar Company who wanted to plant over 20,000 ha of sugar cane in the wetland, displacing thousands of pastoralist people who depend on this area for dry season grazing. Since then Mat International Sugar Ltd is targeting to invest in sugarcane projects in Tana River and Ijara Districts. Both sugarcane projects aim to produce large amounts of ethanol for export to the European market.

Now biofuel companies want to convert 160,000 ha of the land immediately surrounding the delta into Jatropha curcas plantations. Added to this scramble is Qatars’ request to Kenya to lease 40,000 ha of land to grow crops in exchange for support for a major new port in nearby Lamu.

Paul Matiku, Director of Nature Kenya says ‘Kenya needs development, but not a scramble for our resources which destroys our wildlife, displaces pastoral tribes who have depended on

the area for centuries, dries our rivers and removes more sustainable longer term economic options such as fishing and ecotourism. We are working with communities in the Delta who share our opposition to these plans and who have positive proposals for enhancing their livelihoods through community owned iniatives’.

Paul Buckley of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Britain, which has helped support Nature Kenya’s defence of the Delta adds ‘It is tragic to witness the risk of the riches of the Delta being squandered. The Delta suffered poor planning for decades and the river is already dry after recent droughts, even without these major proposed new irrigation projects. We hope that the world will help Kenya to develop the Delta in a way which harnesses its unique global assets, protects its wildlife and helps its people’ An economic study has already shown that a master plan which integrates better and more sustainable management of existing activities could generate more income and better livelihoods than these large and ill-thought out developments. www.tanariverdelta.org

31 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Pollinators Dino Martins

Dawn creeps upon the rustling reeds. The fine, lacy mist softens as the bright orb of the sun wrenches itself free of the distant, clasping hills. The light strengthens and the incredible diversity of colours and forms growing amongst the grasses and reeds becomes evident. This highland swamp, near Kapsabet in western Kenya contains an almost infinite variety of wildflowers.

The buzzing grows louder, and then I see its source. A fat, shiny, black-and-white tuxedo-clad bee weaves through the reaching leaves of sedges and reeds. Like a fussy gourmet, she hovers delicately over several blossoms before flying on. Stumbling through sucking mud I follow the bee’s progress. She weaves about, flying in arcs and wheels, never quite pausing.

Bright, rich mauve and royalpurple dissotis, with clusters of golden-yellow anthers blaze like flares in the sunlight. Speckled gladioli and opalescent lilies open their waxy blossoms to the cool air. Lemon-yellow hibiscus, like incompletely folded origami, slowly unfurl their petals and shyly reveal their deep maroon hearts. Dense, symmetrical kalanchoes thrust their teetering panicles above the heads of competing sedges. Parasitic alectra and cycnium, brazenly advertise their presence. While in the arms of a stunted, waterlogged tree, a tangle of orchids betray themselves with a pleasant, permeating, sweet-spicy scent.

Suddenly, she vanishes behind a creeper-covered bush. I run, if forward motion in the swamp can be so labelled, around the bush.

Standing, magnificently tall before me is a fine example of a flowering ground orchid. Tall flowering spikes reach up many feet above my head. All along the length of these spikes, exquisitely arranged, are bronzy-purple, pink and green flowers. Each flower is a bizarre and clever arrangement of petals, sepals and reproductive organs perfectly poised for action.

Each of these flowers greets the day with a desperate hope. The sole purpose for their existence, at this place and point in time, can be summarised in one word: pollination. All the bright colours, the complex shapes, the enticing scents are simply the means to an end: fertilisation resulting in viable seeds. As I ponder the intricacies of evolution that have produced so much complexity, a faint buzzing sound starts up in the distance.

32 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Squinting, I look up into one gently bobbing flower. Nestled within it, her large abdomen protruding, is the bee. This bee, a carpenter bee, is Kenya’s and indeed Africa’s, largest bee species.

I seize the spike and gently bend it closer. The carpenter bee, alarmed by this motion, slides out backward. As she does so, she brushes against the column.

The column forms the fused pollen-bearing and stigma (pollen receiving) parts of the flower. As the bee slides out, she dislodges a paired structure of pollen masses known as pollinia. Armed with viscous glue, the pollinia are fastened onto the bee’s lower back

Nature’s essential ingredient to production

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(thorax). She frees herself of the blossom and weaves noisily around my head before flying off over the multi-coloured tapestry of buds, leaves and flowers.

I release the flowering spike, it bounces sprightly back into position. An amazing journey has just begun. The orchid’s pollinia, attached to the carpenter bee’s thorax, represent a hope and an investment. Hopefully, she will carry the pollen far away to another flowering orchid of the same species. Once there, if she visits a fertile flower, the pollinia will detach as she brushes the sticky stigma on her way into the flower. These pollinia will make an investment for the plant – genes. With this vital genetic material, the receiving flower’s ovary swells with seeds into a fat, ripe pod. While the orchid’s chances of pollination may seem rather slim, a single pod produces millions of seeds. Therefore, the orchid has delicately balanced a single cross-fertilisation event, through a complex arrangement, with the production of abundant, viable seed.

The carpenter bee is an unwitting yet essential participant in this system. She is one of an infinite number of thousands of species of insects that every single day perform this singular and vital service for plants and people, that we call pollination. Without them life as we know it would end. A world without pollinators would be one without seeds and fruit – this would quickly lead to the collapse of agriculture and most ecosystems too.

Dino J. Martins, an environmentalist and biologist, is currently a PhD student in entomology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.

Tips for watching and studying pollinators Don’t startle them! Sit quietly and watch without moving too much.

Sunny days are best for watching most insects visiting flowers.

Note the time and numbers of flowers visited by a pollinator.

Make careful observations on the behaviour of different visitors to flowers – some of them might not be pollinators, but nectar-robbers who just take the flowers’ rewards!

Watch flowers at different times of day – some pollinators only visit flowers at specific times.

Illustrations and photos by Dino Martins

33 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

HiddenWonder: Seasonal Wetlands in Nairobi

By Fleur Ng’weno Photos by Bettina Ng’weno

Typha (cattails and reed mace)

Trailblazer A seasonal wetland area in Nairobi before and after rains

T

he hillside lies between the busy city and the National Park. If you walked there during the dry season you would think it looks like the surface of the moon – expanses of gray-brown rocks, dry gray grass, dry brown soil pitted with hollows. It is the rains that bring the land to life.

The day after the first heavy rain there are clumps of green jelly on the ground – an alga that swells up with water. Within days plants have sprung up from underground rootstocks, and within a week there are pink bouquets of Ammocharis tinneana, a wild amaryllis, above a fan of green leaves. The pink Ammocharis is followed by the yellow stars of Hypoxis, the white stars of Anthericum, and rafts of purple and white rock violets. The rains wash the dusty air, and from this hillside, you can see across the grasslands to Kilimanjaro, or across the city and wooded hills to Mount Kenya.

As the rains continue, rainwater percolates through

With the rains, what looks like unproductive land the volcanic rock, emerging as seasonal springs and seeps. The bare rock slabs become flooded, the thin layer of soil waterlogged. It is here that the rarest plants grow – Euphorbia brevitorta, like spiny clumps of coral scattered over the rock slabs, and Brachystelma, perhaps lineare, or a new species altogether. Brachystelma survives for years as a swollen rootstock, but in a wet year it puts out a tuft of grass-like leaves and narrow-petaled flowers that give out the scent of cow dung. Since the leaves are difficult to distinguish from the grass, one usually finds this flower by following one’s nose!

If the rains go on, rainwater fills a myriad hollows, turning them into seasonal pools that explode with life. Brilliant dragonflies and other insects wing in to lay eggs in the water. Frogs and toads emerge to sing, mate, and lay strings and rafts of eggs. Mud terrapins dig out from the mud, and snakes come out to hunt.

The same winds that bring the rain bring migrant birds who now pause to feed on this bounty.

34 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

Euphorbia brevitorta, Ammocharis tinneana and a Nairobi Damselfly

Photos by Bettina Ng’weno

suddenly abounds with plants, flowers and animals At the muddy bottom of the pools, other eggs waited. Now, soaked with water, they hatch into fairy shrimp, clam shrimp, seed shrimp and copepods. Their lives are in rhythm with drought and flood. They live for a brief season in the brimming pools, then lay eggs to survive one dry season or more, and start the cycle again.

Sometimes the water is cloudy with these tiny crustaceans.

Sedges and reeds grow up around the edges of the pools. Marsilea ferns, like floating four-leaved clovers, and Aponogeton, with purple spikes of flowers, grow from the bottom mud. Yellowcrowned Bishops, like giant gold and black bumblebees, defend their poolside territories.

On the rock slabs, hardy rootstocks grow leaves and flowering stalks that now decorate the rocks –orange- Commelina lugardii that flower in the morning and close at midday, and –blueMurdannia clarkeana whose blossoms open at 11 am.

Within a few weeks the rainy season ends and the pools, teeming with tadpoles, insects and crustaceans, begin to dry out. Seasonal springs and streams continue to flow for some time after the rains end, with tiny annuals blooming at the edges – exquisite miniatures like yellow Sebaea, magenta Nesaea, blue Lobelia and rosy-white Utricularia arenaria. Soon the bottom of the pools is littered white with the dry shells of tiny crustaceans, and the land is dry again, waiting for another life-giving rain.

The hillside that I walked these many years is almost gone now, enclosed by a wall, slated for housing. The land changed hands many times, and each time the issue of its hydrology and biodiversity was raised and denied. It is a loss to us all. Now we look for other hidden wonders, seasonal wetlands – in Nairobi National Park across the fence, and wherever you may roam in the countryside.

35 | Kenya – THE WORLD’S BEST BIRDING

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