KENYA – The Magadi Road : Heading South

The Magadi Road begins south west of Nairobi at the base of the Ngong Hills and runs 80 kms all the way to Lake Magadi through some beautiful rolling thorn scrub landscape and Masai pastoral land with a backdrop of ancient volcanic hills.

Our first stop was at Olepolos where we walked along a stony wadi that ran through the acacia thickets. A surprise in this hot rocky landscape was a Northern Wheatear, but the expected birds were certainly about. White-bellied Go-away Birds, Blue-naped Mousebirds and D’Arnaud’s Barbet were heard often as we watched Red-fronted Barbet, White-browed Scrub Robin (above), White-bellied Canaries, many African Grey Flycatchers and Rock Martins gliding over the taller vegetation.

Grey-headed Social Weavers were busy putting the finishing touches to their nests while Black-necked Weavers were looking for material under the dense shade of an acacia. In the more open scrub Purple Grenadiers and Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu’s fed on the ground as a Black-crowned Tchagra foraged around the edge of a few bushes.

We made a second stop when we sighted a Dark Chanting Goshawk on a post and Common Ostriches. I walked across the road amongst more open acacia trees as I heard duetting Red and Yellow Barbets. This led me to a Grey Hornbill that attracted considerable attention from parenting African Grey Flycatchers and a pair of Yellow-bellied Eremomelas (above). By now the day was beginning to get hot and Namaqua Doves had become more numerous.

A walk around the Olorgesailie pre-historic dig site produced some of the same species as at our first stop. Emerald-spotted Wood Doves were all over and very skittish probably due to the more open nature of the vegetation. There were a few African Mourning Doves and Yellow-spotted Petronias and an Eastern Violet-backed Sunbird. I tracked down the deep three noted hau-hau-hau call of a Black-throated Barbet (above) and found it successfully hunting down insects.

all photos © adrian binns