There were 11 who came out to the nature walk for City Park birding held the first Saturday of each month, despite the most unfortunate burning the previous night of the neighbouring hawkers’ market.

Pin-tailed Whydah by P. Usher

On this Saturday (7th February 2015) we were privileged to have a member of Nature Kenya who has been leading the Wednesday morning bird walks for more than 40 years. Differentiating between the resident Black Kite and the migrant Black Kite and a discussion about an immature Pin-tailed Whydah started us off at 9:20am from the parking lot near the ‘Coca Cola’ kiosk at City Park. There is a good diversity of birds in the park and we managed to record 30 species of birds seen the next 2.5 hours on the walk.

Paradise Flycatcher by P. Usher

The park has an upland dry forest that is a habitat to many organisms including birds. Birds like Grey-headed Kingfisher and Paradise Flycatcher were seen in this forest. There was a good view of a juvenile African Dusky Flycatcher being fed by its parents. Along the trail in the forest, there was a tree with a Great Sparrowhawk’s nest. In a glade inside the forest, there was a butterfly species that had increased in population, this butterfly is called Brown-veined White butterfly Belenois Aurota. In this is a species that is known to migrate at this time of the year moving from the east heading west.  There was so much to learn and enjoy in the park.

Ruppell’s Robin Chat by P. Usher

African Dusky Flycatcher by Peter Usher

Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird by P. Usher

By Vincent Otieno