Three weeks in Kenya July/Aug 2016 (1 Viewer)

[MKinHK]

Five years ago my godmother very kindly invited my mother, my wife and I and my sister's family (five, including six-year old twins!) to spend three weeks in Kenya with her to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday. She and my mother had shared a flat and - I kid you not - a butler called Jeeves in Mombassa in their early twenties. OK that requires an explanation. My godmother was born and raised in Kenya in the days when it was common to have multiple servants. Jeeves - an elderly Kenyan - man was despatched by my godmother's father to take care of her and her friend, who had newly arrived from England to work for British United Airways.

Anyway... fast forward 50-odd years to 2016 and eight of us descended on my godmother's house in the northern suburbs of Nairobi and a garden absolutely full of birds. I had bought a new camera - a Sony RX10iii - especially for this trip and spent every spare moment enjoying the terrific diversity on show in the garden and on the small pond at the bottom of the slope below. This was not my first visit to Kenya. I had also spent 5 weeks visiting my godmother as a brand new birder in my teens back in the 1980s, and twice visited South Africa in the 90s, so I had a vague familiarity with East African birds.

All of that was long enough ago that everything seemed new and exciting, starting with the pair of Hadeda Ibises that stalked the lawn first thing every morning. They were joined there by a handsome piebald Cape Wagtail and several African Collared Doves, but the real action was around the bird feeders and the trees surrounding the small pond and a very English bird bath in one corner of the garden. These included three weavers. The full-hooded paroptus Black-headed and reichenowi Baglafect's Waevers were best separated by the dark neck stripe down the golden yellow breast of the former, while the female Baglafect's had a neat black cap and the male a classic black bandit mask - both against golden yellow face and underparts. Both sexes looked so bright it took me a good while to figure out they weren't males of two different species. Thankfully Stevenson and Fanshawe's Birds of East Africa illustrated all the relevant sexes and races. It proved to be a solid high quality ID guide throughout the trip. Easier to identify was the impressively primeval Grosbeak Weaver. Once again both male and female birds were on view. As I look at these again this bird just grows and grows on me - both the spot-breasted female and the rough-hewn splendour of the male.

 

[MKinHK]

Other easy garden birds - in addition to the Hadeda Ibises and the Cape Wagtail mentioned above included a showy Olive Thrush, the subtly lovely Dusky Turtle Dove on the bird table, a Yellow-billed Kite perching rather incongruously on the bird bath and some real quality in the shape of a stunning Bronze Sunbird and several Cinnamon-chested Bee-eaters that I failed to capture dropping into the pond to bathe, but nonetheless posed nicely while they were drying off. I'll spread the pix over a couple of posts.My top bird was the small flock of five Purple-backed aka Violet-backed , aka Amethyst Starlings that dropped briefly and distantly into the top of the tallest tree. One of those birds that looks like it was made up by a deranged Facebooker, the colour just seems to outlandish to be real, and I was sorry they were too far away for pix.

 

[MKinHK]

 

[foresttwitcher]

Nice photos, Mike, keep them coming.

 

[MKinHK]

Thanks Pete - your wish is my command!

While in Nairobi we made a half day visit to Nairobi National Park, giving us a first taste of East African megafauna as well as some more cracking birds. A pool right by the entrance held Malachite Kingfisher, a statuesque Blacksmith Plover and a wonderfully confiding African Black Crake, with a fluorescent yellow-green bill and scarlet feet. Less spectacular were a scruffy family party of Wattled Starlings and an elegant female Hartlaub's Bustard, perfectly camouflaged in the dry grass. Bird of the day was a fabulous Masai Ostrich - the pink-necked East African race of this magnificent and astonishing bird.

to be continued ...

 

[MKinHK]

We also enjoyed point blank views of a fabulous Grey Crowned Crane with its half-grown chick and a range of small birds including an unidentifed lark, a fine male Red-cheeked Cordon Blue, a Long-tailed Fiscal, a female Spot-flanked Barbet that posed beautifully in a thorn bush and an african icon - Red-billed Oxpecker - on the neck of a giraffe.

and a few mammals to come ...

Cheers
Mike

 

[lgonz1008]

Beautiful shots and report so far, would love to see more of it, it's giving me a taste of what to expect for a trip I'll be hosting in the future for my local birding group!

 

[MKinHK]

Thanks lgonz - how cool to be able to travel - its being stuck in Hong Kong that has provoked me to come back to this old trip. Anyway, stand by ...

Please note that my standard format is to put non-bird species names in bold italics.

Apart form the birds it was an absolute pleasure to get close to a range of the big African mammals. The first we got close to was a beautiful Maasai Giraffe feeding right by the roadside. It was not at all shy, and it was fun watching it curl its purple blue tongue around a plant and pull it out of the ground. Over the course of the morning we saw several more and could clearly see the variation in colour even in this small population.

There were good numbers of Zebras and Impalas, a couple of Kudu and an inquisitive white-whiskered Warthog. and a couple of the impressively large Eland.

We also had wonderful close views of a family party of Rock Hyrax sunning themselves on an outcrop, where ensuring the continuity of the family line seemed to be the only form of recreation. While we did not see any lion, leopard or rhinos the truly magical moment of the visit was when a Serval appeared out of the roadside grass carrying one of its kittens! This was the animal I most wanted and least expected to see and I was completely spellbound as it trotted along in front of us before disappearing back into the grass.

Others included several Vervet Monkeys including one at the picnic stop that seem to be thriving despite the loss of a hand and the larger and rather beautiful Kolb's Monkey, which sported a broad white crescent on the breast, white-tipped ears, olive back and slaty-blue legs. My one picture falls far short of doing it justice.

A final flurry of birds on the way out included a male Common Waxbill, the iconic Secretary Bird, a gang of African White-backed Vultures hunched atop a squat acacia and a gaggle of Sacred Ibis at a drinking pool, amongst which were a couple of very newly fledged African Spoonbills.

 

[MKinHK]

A problem with BF prevents me uploading my pix for the previous post, so here they are. I'll start with the giraffes - all Maasai, but three different colour schemes:

More to come ...

 

[MKinHK]

Here's a series of the very approachable Rock Hyraxes. We drove right up to the rocks they were camped out on this remarkable animal whose closest relative is, against all probability, but based on their teeth - the elephant! Either they're the most outrageous exhibitionists , or they were simply not interested in us at all!

Cheers
Mike