It was midweek in June and I had a decision to make. Clarke's Weavers had been spotted in Dakacha woodland since late May. This species only nests during sustained rains in seasonal wetlands in Dakacha, about an hour and 30 minute drive from Malindi. I called up Adam SK cause I'd head he had a plan to fly to Malindi on Friday afternoon, get the weavers, then fly back Saturday afternoon, a 24h whirlwind trip. I was super tempted but I told him I was just too tired from work and needed to sit this one out. Add to that the stress of making a 17:35 flight (my work ends at 15:45 on Friday) and the cost (8,000 flight each way + other costs).
I chickened out.
I got the after-action report from Adam on Sunday. Not only had he seen the weavers, but he also got Dwarf Bittern, Miombo Blue-eared Starling and Mascarene Martin, a vargant from Madagascar that's only been recorded in Kenya like 4 times. One of the things about me is that when I get a powerful case of FOMO, nothing will stop me. I started writing down all kinds of crazy strategies of how I could make it to the coast as soon as possible. In the end, I opted for a relatively safe plan. I took a 7,000 ksh flight from JKA on Saturday afternoon. The plan was for Apolloh to pick me up in a rental car, then we'd drive to a guest house 30 minutes from the Clarke's Weaver roost. Then we'd see the weavers as they gathered before their morning flight to their woodland feeding rounds. Finally, we'd burn off the rest of the day looking for whatever else we could find. I'd then get the 7pm night bus back to Nairobi, arriving at 6am, giving me an hour and a half to get ready for 7:30 am work.
At the last minute, Harry asked me if I could play keeper for our staff vs. staff schools tournament on Saturday morning. I could not dodge my duty any longer, so I got on the bus to Thika. I had a clean sheet for the whole tournament. I had to grab a matatu from Thika back to my house in a bit of a hurry to grab my gear and a taxi to the airport with about 40 minutes to spare. I made the flight.
We got up at 4:00 am and drove to the birding site. A hedgehog scuttled across the road in the dark. I tried to get out and grab it, but the door was locked and I fumbled it in the dark so it got away. In short, we got to the roost to find at least 300 Clarke's Weavers noisily gathering in the reedbed of a tiny seasonal wetland. About an hour after sunrise, they were all gone, off to their feeding ground among the Brachystegia trees of the nature reserve.
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| Clarke's Weavers |
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| 'Miombo' Greater Blue-eared Starling |
The ensuing birding was leisurely. It was very birdy and the best find was a couple of Miombo Blue-eared Starlings which I guess is a subspecies of Greater Blue-eared which moves seasonally from Tanzania and is only recently described in Kenya (I read an article in African Bird Club Bulletin by Fleur N'gwendo). We drove to Bore wetland, one of the bigger ones but still small. It was the heat of the day. This was where the Mascarene Martins had been spotted a week prior. It didn't take too long to spot 4 of them among the common Lesser Striped Swallows. They were a tad bigger and more compact with a slightly notched tail and brown streaking on the breast, greyish head with a dark line throrugh the eye.
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| Mascarene Martin |
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| Leaving Boré wetland with 2 lifers on the belt |
I rattled off a few photos just to get confirmation. As I was examining the photos for these details, Julio called out "Bittern!" about as enthusiastically as he is known to be. I fixed my bins on a perfect Dwarf Bittern cruising right past us, enjoying a ridiculous view for about 8 seconds in perfect light. One doesn't care if one gets a photo with such a view as this. I was elated. As the day wore on the fatigue was takign its toll and I was struggling to stay away during the car ride. We hit up one more wetland with hopes of Red-headed Quelea but came up short. We decided to head into Malindi for a nice dinner to finish off the day. It was grilled tuna and octopus and it was amazing.
The night bus was not so bad. It left at 7am sharp (Mash Poa is typically on time), and arrived early, at 5:30am. I hoped on a boda and was at work by 7am. Pro tip: get the VIP seat, it's totally worth the extra 1000 bob! I even got some sleep!!
