Kenya holiday part five

August 5th:

Understandably we had a lie in, following our nightmare the previously day. We headed out to see the Singing Wells, a place where the Samburu people come to water their cattle, after breakfast. I saw this wonderful pair of Wahlberg's Eagles on the way:

After a great hour at the wells, we headed back. Up at the waterhole, a large flock of birds appeared in a small bush. I found the following species in amongst the flock: pin-tailed, straw-tailed and eastern paradise whydah, african and grey-headed silverbills, chestnut and lesser masked weaver, African and red-billed firefinch, blue-capped and red-cheeked cordon-bleu, cut-throat finch and crimson-rumped waxbill. It made quite a remarkable sight. I found a mixed group of northern brownbuls and rufous chatterers feeding the thick scrub behind our house as well. On our evening drive I added white-headed mousebird, northern crombec and magpie starling to my list. We headed out once again after supper, and were rewarded with a fantastic aardwolf sighting.

I put my camera next to the porcupine den in camp and caught these pictures:

August 6th:

A morning drive once again brought a good number of new birds for the holiday, with African mourning and dusky turtle doves, long-billed pipit, tiny cisticola and pale flycatcher. On the way back, we saw a pair of African hawk-eagles gliding high in the sky. My only new bird in the afternoon was a black-headed oriole which flew over our garden. Beside several genets and white-tailed mongeese, our evening drive brought very little, but our night drive more than made up for that. We found nightjars, thick-knees and Heuglin's courser on the road, but it seemed very little else was around. We did however have a great view of a buff-crested bustard by the roadside.We had given up seeing anything of great interest and were speeding up the airstrip when one of the spotters started calling 'gele-gele.' I knew this meant aardvark and we got our driver to stop. He reversed and I got a glimpse of the aardvark disappearing into the bush, my second in as many trips to Sarara. We spent a short while searching for it, but it seemed to have disappeared down into a burrow, but I did see a new bird for the holiday, a pair of common button-quails which we disturbed with our car.

Buff-crested Bustard, Sarara 6/8/12

I put my camera out around the back of the camp, hoping to catch the bush pig and anything else that went past.

Bushpig, Sarara

Porcupine, Sarara

Vervet Monkey, Sarara

White-tailed Mongoose, Sarara

August 7th:

We decided to go and explore the semi-desert area a little way away from Sarara this morning. On the way I saw my first harlequin quail ever and an Abyssinian white-eye. A little further on, we had a stunning view of a pair of lanner falcon perched in the top of a tree. In the semi-desert we searched for bat-eared fox, but to no avail. We did, however see a mixed flock of wattled and Fischer's starlings. We also saw a single Liechtenstein's and a pair of black-faced sandgrouse. There were several grassland pipit and fawn-coloured larks as well as a gabar goshawk. As we headed back, we saw the magnificent white-breasted bustard, as well as several of the stunning golden pipit. We found a pair of black-headed lapwing on the way back as well as a perched African hawk-eagle. It ended up as being quite a magnificent morning's bird watch.

Liechtenstein's Sandgrouse, Sarara 7/8/12

Lanner Falcon, Sarara 7/8/12

Black-faced Sandgrouse, Sarara 7/8/12

Black-headed Lapwing, Sarara 7/8/12

African Hawk-Eagle, Sarara 7/8/12

An afternoon watch at the waterhole brought the usual mammals, including elephant and lesser kudu, as well as the usual finches in the the same bush next to the waterhole. One new addition to the bush was a lifer for me, a yellow-bellied waxbill. A lizard buzzard was a great bonus. Walking back to our house, I saw the tiny shikra, Africa's second smallest bird of prey after the pygmy falcon at only 26cm long.

In the late afternoon we drove up to the foot of Wargis mountain to head up to our camp, a short way up the mountain, seeing the resplendent African paradise flycatcher and a group of helmeted guineafowl on the way. On our short climb, I saw my first common fiscal of the trip and had a great view of a pair of African hawk-eagle hunting. As we arrived, my first Hemprich's hornbills flew overhead, creating a magical sight. A short, but superb walk behind camp in the montane forest as the sun set brought a montane oriole, a speciality up in these hills, as well as African cuckoo and grey-headed bush-shrike, but sadly no sign of the Narina trogon we were searching for. 

August 8th:

Early in the morning, we had another search for the Narina trogon, sadly to no avail. He did however see the stunningly colourful Hartlaub's turaco, as well as another pair of Hemprich's hornbills and African firefinches. We went down from the hill to take breakfast, before driving to Lewa. On the course of the drive, we saw two Somali ostriches on the road (right), as well as a gerenuk, tawny and martial eagles and black-shouldered kite. We then passed through the particularly unappealing town of Isiolo, seeing a black-headed heron flying overhead. A little way out of the town, a spectacular small roadside pond contained several more black-headed herons and a single grey heron, as well as sacred ibis and grey-crowned crane. We arrived at Lewa, just before lunch. On the way in, we saw Grevy's and Burchell's Zebra, elephant, reticulated giraffe, waterbuck and black rhino. Near the entrance was a group of green wood-hoopoe and in the marsh were several sacred and hadada ibises, grey-crowned cranes and a pair of blacksmith lapwings. Remarkably, while taking lunch we disturbed a Verreaux's Eagle Owl from its roost. In the early evening we went for a drive, seeing more of the same mammals we had seen earlier, as well as white rhino. The drive also took my holiday bird list past 200, with lappet-faced vulture, white-browed coucal, Shelley's francolin, taita fiscal, rufous sparrow and kori bustard, the world's heaviest flying bird, being the new additions to my list. We also saw more black-shouldered kite, tawny eagle, gabar goshawk and bateleur. We headed back towards the marsh, with the stunning spectacle of flocks of grey-crowned cranes, sacred and hadada ibises, grey and black-headed herons and great egrets. A little further on, we found a group of lion, resting on a dead tree.

Lion, Lewa

August 9th:

In the early morning, a scarlet-chested sunbird appeared in the garden, before we went over to a nearby river in an attempt to do some crabbing(!).  A group of Fischer's lovebirds were in a dead tree next to the river, and an African pied wagtail was on the rocky stream. A spot-flanked barbet appeared in the tree over the river, and an African paradise flycatcher flew downstream. After we had caught literally hundreds of crabs, we drove over towards the exit of Lewa. I went past my last Kenya holiday total as we drove down to Nairobi via Nanyuki, with yellow-throated longclaw and long-tailed fiscal before we left Lewa, and African stonechat, baglafecht weaver and wire-tailed swallow before reaching Nanyuki. After taking lunch in Nanyuki, we pushed on towards Nanyuki. I added Cape rook and speckled pigeon as we approached Nairobi. In Nairobi, the skies were filled with yellow-billed kites, and there were marabou storks on top of every roadside tree and in every roundabout. We got to the Nairobi aeroclub late in the afternoon, and an afternoon's birdwatch brought me several new species for the holiday, African citril, yellow-rumped seedeater, bronze and collared sunbirds, bronze mannikin and Cape robin-chat. I also saw more yellow-billed kites, marabou storks, little swifts, baglafecht weaver, common bulbul, house sparrow and streaky seedeater.

At eight o'clock, we drove to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and caught our flight back to London, ending a remarkable holiday.

Hilfield 20th July

On what was seemed to be the first sunny day for a couple of months, a magnificent hobby, my first of the year, passed over in pursuit of swallows and swifts on the 20th. An absolutely magnificent bird and only the third I've seen at Hilfield and sixth overall.

Yellow-legged Gull Templecombe

I spent some more time today trying to identify the 6 possible yellow-legged gulls, and have eventually come to the decision that there were 3 2nd summer yellow leggeds in the field next to the white storks, making them my first in England.

Long weekend in Pembrokeshire 12-16th July and White Storks in Templecome

We set off in driving rain on the 12th for a weekend's fishing and birdwatching in Pembrokeshire. It didn't look like being a good weekend's weather with the rain becoming heavier as we headed north. We arrived at Marloes Mere for the night. Early in the morning we headed over the Martin's Haven to get the boat over to Skomer for our overnight stay. Waiting for the boat, I saw my first birds of the trip, a small groups of linnets, as well as several stonechats and whitethroats. From the boat, a peregrine headed over and we started to see the first puffins, guillemots and razorbills.

After reaching the island, we put our bags in our room in the farm, and went for a walk around the island. There were good numbers of goldfinches, meadow pipits, skylarks and several sedge warblers as well as a chiffchaff around the farm. We then headed down to the public hide on the north pond, on which there were huge numbers of gulls, as well as a four female teal. While making my way out of the hide, I caught sight of a strange-shaped bird landing on the stone wall. Getting the scope onto it, I discovered that there were two great little owls on the wall, one an adult and the other its young offspring. After twenty minutes or so watching the owls, we decided to move on. Almost straight away, a short-eared owl appeared flying straight towards us. It came very close to us, allowing a breathtaking view, before heading over towards the cliffs. It was the first of the magnificent species I had ever seen, after dozens of attempts around Dorset and Somerset, and it had certainly been worth the effort.

We then went down towards Skomer Head, past dozens of oystercatchers and several wheatears. From the point, I saw most of Skomer's breeding seabirds fly past, including two Manx Shearwaters. 8 or so Harbour Porpoises also passed. Then we walked over towards Wick, one of the main puffin nesting areas. There were hundreds of puffins, kittiwakes, fulmars, razorbills and guillemots as well as all the common gulls. I also saw a pair of choughs, a bizarre-looking corvid with its remarkable curved red bill and a real speciality to this stretch of Welsh coastline, as well as being the first I had seen in the UK. Walking back, we had a great view of a pair of peregrines, one covered in blood, through the scope. We returned to Wick later in the evening to witness the huge numbers of puffins returning to their burrows, and also saw several curlews. The enormous clouds of puffins created one of the most remarkable bird-watching sights I've had in Britain.
 After a failed attempt to see the storm-petrel colony, the Manx shearwaters started to arrive. The 300,000 pairs on Skomer make up 75% of the world population, and they, along with toads, frogs and slugs covered the paths across the island. The shearwaters remarkable shrieking calls echoed across the island, and reminded me of similar experiences on Heron Island and Port Fairy in Australia. The next day, we returned to the mainland and headed over towards Strumble Head. We had a quick walk along the beach at Abermawr, where I added sand martin to my UK 2012 list. We had a short (and unsuccessful) fishing session at Pwll Deri, where I saw a group of 5 choughs on the headland.

The next morning we had a brief walk on Goodwick Heath, where there were several reed buntings and reed warblers, as well as a pair of ravens that passed over. In Goodwick Bay, there were dozens of oystercatchers, as well as pair of redshanks and a curlew. A sea watch from Strumble Head brought just several manx shearwaters, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and gannets. A kestrel headed over and another landed, before being mobbed by a though

In the mid afternoon we headed down to Penfafach for some wrasse fishing. I only caught two wrasse, but the number of manx shearwaters heading past in the late evening was quite remarkable and more than made up for the lack of fish. Two kittiwakes got blown close to the headland by the strong winds and there were also two grey seals. Most incredibly, a magnificent ocean sunfish, possibly one of the strangest-looking creatures I have seen, with its enormous staring black eye, huge circular body and habit of swimming on its side, using its enormous dorsal fin to push itself along, passed just metres off the headland.

The next day, we headed home, but hearing the news of the white storks at Templecombe, we stopped off there. We found the the three white storks quite soon, looking stunning with their long red legs and bill but rather miserable in the torrential rain. They were a first for me in Britain, and to have them so close to our home made the sight of the three magnificent birds even more special. We then scanned flock of gulls for some any rarities. At first there seemed to be only herring, black-headed and lesser black-backed gulls, but 6 birds looked like potential yellow-leggeds. After spending a good deal of time attempting to work out what they were but to no avail, we headed home.

Pictures from weekend in Skomer

Hilfield 10th July

There was an unusual selection of fly-bys at Hilfield today: a pair of mallards, at least 35-40 swifts (a Hilfield record), three or so house martins and a stock dove. It was good to see that the swallows had fledged at least 5 young, as had the spotted flycatchers.

July 8-10th

Durning a break in the atrocious summer weather, I had a quick walk around Hilfield. There was good amount of bird song, but the only species of any interest was a great spotted woodpecker, a chiffchaff and a stock dove. There are also lots of newly-fledged birds around, including pied wagtails, robins, wrens and great and blue tits.

On the 10th we went to Southampton, where I saw, along with the usual gull species and single common tern and a little egret. On the way back I had an all-too-brief walk in the New Forest, and saw a great spotted woodpecker and two fallow deer, as well as a single crossbill. Another little egret was in a flooded field near Blandford.