KENYA: Blue Post, Thika

We began the morning with an unexpected Little Sparrowhawk followed by a Great Sparrowhawk, both in the skies across the main road from the Blue Post Hotel in Thika.

The lush grounds of the Blue Post are bordered by the twin waterfalls (above) of the Chania and Thika, both rivers originating from the nearby Aberdare Mountain Range. It is a good place to get aquatinted with some of the more common birds, especially as most can be seen in close proximity and very well. Eastern Black-headed Oriole, Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater, Little Bee-eater, White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher, Collared Sunbird, Bronzed Mannikin, Speckled Mousebird and Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird (below) were easily found.

Looking down along the river course and around the thundering waterfall we found a pair of Giant Kingfishers as well as Great Cormorant, Grey Heron and Common Sandpiper, and two Nile Monitors slipped behind large boulders. A fruiting tree provided a feast for Yellow-rumped Seedeaters, Violet-backed Starlings, Spot-flanked Barbet (below), White-headed Barbet as a Grey-headed Kingfisher, an open woodland bird, made sorties from a nearby perch.

When I returned a month later on Oct 24, what little rain they had recently received had turned everything green. As one would expect, we did not see some of the birds we had in September, but did have Variable (below), Green-headed and Amethyst Sunbird, Western Citril, Mountain Wagtail, Peregrine and good views of a Bat Hawk flying over.