Tag: #bigyear

Bird of the Week

Karamoja Apalis (Apalis karamojae)

Karamoja Apalis

The Karamoja apalis is a globally threatened warbler, which is very poorly known. It was first discovered in 1919 in the Karamoja District of north east Uganda, hence its English name. This bird has greyish upperparts, whitish underparts and a black bill. The wings and tail are dark grey, and the tail has white outermost feathers. The inner secondary feathers of the wing are white, forming a narrow stripe. There are two subspecies or races; Apalis karamojae karamojae is found in Uganda, while Apalis karamojae stronachi is found in Northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya, mostly in the Vachellia drepanolobium habitat found in northern part of Masai Mara game reserve. This photo showing in this page was taken by Arjan Dwarshuis who is currently doing the Big year challenge at Naboisho conservancy .

Bird watching

Kenya Big Year Birding with Arjan Dwarshuis

Arjan and Ethan 049

After Noah Strycker Big year in Kenya July Last year, Arjan Dwarshuis came for his Big Year in April 16-29 2016.His visit coincided with April rains and therefore,  everything was green and all the Whydahs,Bishops, Widowbirds and Weavers were all on their full breeding plumage. We were even lucky with some migrants on their way north. The trip was put together by African Birding Safaris and my friends Zarek Cocker and Stratton Hatfield were kind enough to have invited me to provided some guiding services to this experiences birder. joining Arjan in this trip  was Ethan Kistler from Birding Africa in South Africa, an exceptional birder who has done extensive birding in Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda,Tanzania Ethiopia, South Africa and and Malawi. He was blessed with musical ears and for that reason we put him in judge of bird calls confirmation, a duty he diligently performed.

Our choice of destination included; Mt.Kenya, Shaba and Samburu game reserve, Aberdare National park, North Kinangop grassland, Lake Nakuru National park, Lake Baringo, Kerio Valley, Kakamega forest, Lake Victoria, Masai Mara national reserve, Tsavo West and East National park, Taita Hills and Arabuko sokoke forest, Mida Creek and Sabaki estuary

  In 16 days, we recorded 634 species, using our clement list, and some the highlights of the trip included; William’s Lark, Aberdare Cisticola, Sharpes Longclaw, Gray-crested Helmet Shrike, Boran Cisticola, White-crested and Black-billed Turaco, Blued-headed Bee-eater, African Broadbill, Yellow-crested Woodpecker, Amur Falcon, Karamoja Apalis, Bronze-winged Courser, Red-naped Bush-shrike, Sokoke Pipit and Sokoke Scops Owl. He is now in Uganda keeping up with the chase, and I wish him well, as you may know, Noah isn’t a pushover.

 

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2015 Big Year Ended for Noah Strycker and Big Year 2016 Started with Arjan Dwarshuis

Noah Strycker ended his big year adventure two days ago, with a stunning 6042 species, with Silver-breasted Broadbill being the last bird on that incredible long list.Noah and Raunak 163

British birders Ruth Miller and Alan Davies held the previous Big Year world record with 4,341 bird species seen in 2008, going by those numbers; Noah surpassed the existing record by 1,700 species. Statistically, it means Noah managed to see a new bird everyday in the year 2015. I’m very proud to have been directly involved in the big year expedition in Kenya and it was a humbling experience to bird with this ever excited, energetic and patience record breaking birder.

Birding with Noah in Kenya
Photo by Joseph Aengwo

With the exit of Noah Strycker from the scene……entered Arjan Dwarshuis, a young Dutch birder. Like, Noah rightfully puts it, records are made to be surpassed in any case, and that will be an assignment for the next birder to come along. The new big year bird watching expedition to break the new record which was set two days ago started yesterday in the Dutch delta in Holland. Arjan is attempting to break the world record set by Noah. I’m again privileged that I will be Arjan Dwarshuis guide in Kenya, together with my colleague Stratton Hatfield and Zarek Cockar. I wish him well in his endeavor in setting a new world record.
From Kenya Birding and Silent Fliers Safaris team, we look forward to birding Kenya with you this year. And to everyone else, best wishes for a wonderful, birdy, peaceful, joyful and healthy Happy New Year!