East Africa – Day 34

Kenya 21 August 2015

I have not been able to upload photographs to my blog without wifi or decent band width but will add my photographs to my blog post as soon as I can.

Today is the third day of our birding trip to Kenya which we have organised through a local ground agent and bird guide Moses Kandie of Birdwatching Express Tours. He provided lots of references, who all said that Moses was a brilliant guide and well organised. Having now birded with him, he is a great birder, very focused on what we want, which is seeing our target birds, and a great guy too.

We were staying at Nakuru National Park and had breakfast at 6.00 pm having got up at 5.30 pm. I felt much better after getting up half an hour later and getting a good night’s sleep.

We birded the morning around Nakuru NP and did much better than the evening before, seeing Horus Swift, Stout and Pectoral-patch Cisticola, Little Rock Thrush and Rosy-throated Longclaw.

From here we had a drive of several hours to Baringo Lake, where our lodge was on the hot and desert shore of this beautiful lake.

We went out in the afternoon, but it was quiet due to the breeze and threatening rain.

We did still see Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Black-throated Barbet, Pygmy Batis, Northern Brownbul, Red-fronted Warbler, Grey Wren Warbler, Parrot-billed Sparrow, Chestnut Weaver and Black-cheeked Waxbill.

Moses was from here and so went home between the birding. It was very hot here and when we went out birding in the dusty environment, Moses explained that as a child he saw western birders come here. He found out that they were looking for Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse, then started looking for them himself, so he could show them. He is a Maths and science teacher now when he’s not working as a tour guide but this was the beginning of his career as a bird guide. He clearly understands the importance of getting young local people interested in birds close to them, as Eco bird tourism.

Trip List – We also had an amazing Trip list – 585 birds for Uganda, 183 birds for Rwanda, a total trip list of 612 for Uganda and Rwanda, 221 trips for Kenya and 339 lifers for me.