KENYA – Castle Forest Lodge : Part 2
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Mar 1, 2009 | by Adrian Binns
Opening the door to my cottage at just about sunrise I was greeted by a flock of noisy Red-fronted Parrots going over. Mt. Kenya, for a change, was completely visible yet in the direction there was a solid bank of clouds and a far reaching rainbow. Close to the Castle porch where we had breakfast Black-and-white Mannikins were busy feeding and a couple of Green Pigeons flew into a tall tree before moving on. The activity around the end of the line of cottages was busy with Streaky Seedeaters, Western Citrils, Yellow-bellied Waxbills and Montane White-eyes feeding amongst the flower heads and Stuhlmann’s Starlings singing near the top of the tree above them. A male Tacazze Sunbird (above) was actively courting two females, with one clearly being his first choice.
A walk along the northern track was interesting as we would go through birdless zones followed by small patches of life. Hartlaub’s Turacos were awfully boisterous but not one of the estimate half a dozen showed itself. All along the path there was a swathe of bracken and shrubs on either side butting up to the forest canopy. My eyes could not help but be drawn to Mt. Kenya in the background (above). It is an oddly shaped mountain top with various jagged rocky peaks, certainly not what one would expect Africa’s second highest peak to look like.
One could not have asked for a nicer morning. Our only mammal, unless you count cows, horses and dogs, was a pair of Sykes Monkeys cavorting through the trees. Northern Double-collared Sunbird, Grey-headed Negrofinch (above), Grey Apalis Mountain Greenbul, Thick-billed Seedeater and an Upcher’s Warbler were sighted along with the ubiquitous Hunter’s Cisticolas. There were a few butterflies along the path including a number of Hannington’s Fritillaries, Common Bush Brown and a Long-tail Admiral.
all photos © adrian binns