Tag: William’s Lark

Bird of the Week, Bird Photography, Bird watching

Olive Ibis (Bostrychia olivacea)

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Photo by Chin Tong Tan

African Green Ibis as it is mostly known is one of the most infrequent sighted among other species of Ibises we have in Kenya. Sacred, Hadada and Glossy Ibis are easy target to pocket. In Kenya, African Green Ibis is mostly restricted in Montane habitat of Mt.Kenya and Aberdare ranges. All my sighting of this species was in southern section of Mt.Kenya Forest Reserve mostly referred as Castle Forest, where Castle forest lodge is located.

They are mostly heard calling early in the morning and late in the afternoon where with luck you might be able to have some views of this incredible species. The bird photograph appearing above was taken at Castle Forest in June this year.

Bird watching

Kenya Big Year Birding with Arjan Dwarshuis

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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.

 

Bird of the Week

Grey-capped Warbler (Eminia lepida)

Grey-capped Warbler (Eminia lepida)

Photo@Joe.Aengwo

Grey-capped Warbler is a species of bird in the Cisticola family (African Warblers).It is the only species in the genus Eminia. The Grey-capped warbler is a very melodious in nature and calls continuously for pretty some time and once in a while popping out of is hideout which is mostly undergrowth vegetation in forest and thick bush land for lower altitude areas. This species has a very large range and can be mostly be in areas like Lake Nakuru, Aberdare and Mt. Kenya National Parks, Lake Naivasha, Mau Forest just to mention a few.