theragingbirder: Unorthodox Kenya: Makueni County to Taita Hills

Most people, when visiting Kenya, go for the spectacular: Mara, Nakuru, Amboseli...

But for two backpack rebel birders, we sought alternative activities. Now, since Rwanda dragged on longer than anticipated due to the difficulty of finding our target species, we lost Wilson to a contract and had little time for visiting Lake Turkana, the last major area of Kenya I've not been to (other than the northeast, for obvious reasons). That, combined with reports of heavy rains all along the route (and the danger factor) convinced us to axe our plan.

A new and unexpected opportunity arose. Martha invited us to join her team of scientists and community outreach people in a remote community in Mukueni County, 'the heart of rural Kenya' I call it. Martha's activities are always the most interesting and happily Wilson was also on contract with them, making for a fascinating cultural experience with 3 of my best friends.

Our farmer host (I can't remember his name) gave us a hearty welcome and showed us all around his impressive farm on the shores of the Athi river, where we cut down many a paw paw fruit (devoured on the spot).

The time of harvest has come

I got a lifer White-winged Widowbird, but had to look it up on my EA life list later to actually confirm if I had seen one before. Thus is EA birding, even though it was my fourth time in the country I could not even remember what was a lifer and what was not!

After a presentation in a church on tips for encouraging polinators (and reaping their benefits), the team surveyed lepidoptera on the farm and certainly had their work cut out for them. Interviews were recorded for a documentary they were preparing as an educational resource. When it got dark, the action intensified even more with the erection of a very busy moth station. Then things got more interesting...

(credit: Martha Mutiso)

Our host said he wanted to slaughter a goat in celebration of our visit, and he asked me specifically if I would do the slaughtering. Of course I said yes and had an interesting lesson from Wilson who has been doing this since he was about 12. We skinned and prepared the animal although he more or less took over since I was being too slow about it and it was getting late. Only a machete, a [sharp] knife and a rope were needed. We cooked it (in a pot and by roasting the liver on sticks) over the fire. Other than a little salt, no seasoning was used as the natural flavour of a fresh goat is flavour enough, according to our new friends, and obligatory ugali to complete this Kenyan feast.

Preparing a feast is hard work - fortunate Wilson was there! (credit: Martha Mutiso)

We feasted in silence, as is the Masai way, so as to fully enjoy the sweetness of the meat and so as to not bring about bad luck. My luck came useful as I would soon find out...

Martha spotted a snake. It was gone, but we went looking for it again and surprisingly found it. It was all black with a small head and pointy tail. I figured probably a mole snake as I'd seen pictures of them. In any case, I figured, it would be cool to handle it and I thought "as long as I use the proper grip, there's no way it can bite me anyway..."

Small-scaled Burrowing Asp (Atractaspis microlepidota) (credit: Martha Mutiso)

I would later learn that this was a foolish thought as within seconds of gripping the thing (behind the head) a solitary fang shot out within 0.5cm of my thumb. I quickly put the thing down and scooped it up in a bug net. What the hell had just happened? What kind of snake can shoot out a single fang without opening its mouth?? There was no wifi or expert present to find out, but we needed nevertheless to get this snake off the property because the farmer was about to kill it. He told us he kills every snake he sees since he's got two grandchildren on the property and assumes they're all dangerous. I told him I was saving it and would explain later, so we took it a good 300 meters from the house and let it go. We crossed paths with a bush baby and a gennet, then a slender-tailed nightjar sitting on the bare ground. Using my headlamp to stun it, I carefully crept up and snagged it in my butterfly net! My first time holding a venemous snake outside North America and nighjar, what a night...

(photos credit: Martha Mutiso)

At last it was time to retire to my tiny tent with Wilson, who smelled like goat.

After our thrilling night we decided to part ways with our friends in hopes of scrounging up as many lifers as I could get in 3 or so days. We analyzed the map and estimated how many lifers we could get in each of several areas. Tsavo East was considered (Somali Courser, game) along with Aberdaires (Aberdaire Cisticola, Moorland Francolin) but in the end it was Taita Hills that won the bid due to proximity, budget, potential lifers and a great guide called Mkombola.

It was not my first time. Back in 2012, I'd visited with Nature Kenya but the trip was poorly organized (in my opinion) in terms of seeing rare birds (too much socializing and late morning starts, thus no Taita Thrush seen).

We hooked up with top-class local guide Mkombola (Nathaniel) who looks after the precious remaining native forest fragments up there.

I can say that of all the places I've visited in Kenya, Taita probably has the most genuinely friendly people and we had a really pleasant stay at the Lavender Garden Hotel there (more upscale compared to some hostel we were at last time, which, rumor has it, has bed bugs). They were pretty firm on the price but Jack always comes away with something and we got our free laundry service, hehe. And, the local food was unreal! BEST chapatis I've tasted in my life!!! Now I understand why Noah Stryker stopped here on his big year!

Day 1

We started at Ngangao forest, the usual convenient spot near Wundanyi town. Unfortunately, it was super windy all day. The faint calls we could hear over the wind were few and far between with only about 5 species observed, but apparently this is typical of Taita: a high degree of plant endemism with very low diversity of birds. After painstakingly boring searching we ended up getting a fleeting flash (like a ghost) of two birds running off to the side and below us we were sure were Taita Thrushes, but as soon as I raised my bins they were inexplicably gone. Like, gone gone! No way I could count it, we'd blown our only chance that day. On the upside, we had superb views of Taita Apalis (apparently split from Bar-throated Apalis) and Black-throated Bush-shrike, as well as Yellow-faced Woodland Warbler, Cabanis's Greenbul and the bizarrely-named Stripe-cheeked Greenbul. Taita Falcon had not been around. We realized that to get the Thrush we would need to bird the other forest, the much larger and much less accessible Mbololo Forest.

Taita Apalis (endangered)

Black-throated Bush-shrike

Since it was a Sunday, Mkombola was not permitted to use his boda for work, so we needed to rent 2 and double up. He called a couple of his boys to meet at a very early hour (for them) well before dawn.

As we drove the 90 minutes or so it took to cross to the other hill, we passed through an epic valley, into dry acacia forest and back up into montane cloud rainforest. The sunrise was epic with Mt. Kilimanjaro off in the distance.

On the way, we made stops for interesting birds as we found them. Streaky Pipit singing was a pleasing sight, one we'd seen in 2012, plus two great lifers stole the show: Brown-breasted Barbets eating fruits on a farm and Brown-hooded Kingfishers on the telephone line!

Brown-breasted Barbets!

At last we reached the seldom-visited Mbololo Forest and began painstakingly combing for the thrush, splitting up loosely and listening for it's call and song which sound remarkably similar to the American Robin (both in the genus Turdus by the way!).

The Taita Thrush seems very similar to the widespread and familiar African Olive Thrush, but when you search for them you realize they are much different. Specifically, they are supremely shy. I've searched for very shy birds before and I'd say they are in the same league as Green-breasted Pitta and Nahan's Francolin in terms of shyness. I've had an easier time finding certain rails.

Frustratingly, I saw the form of one running in the leaflitter after detecting a subtle sound akin to dropping a peanut on dry leaves - thus was the level of stealth we were dealing with. Again, the moment required to raise my bins was enough for it to make its escape. We converged on the scene but were only taunted by its alarm calls from high in the canopy, just out of sight. We moved on to try and find a different bird.

We were being watched...

Two or three hours later and not a single sign of the bastard, other than some scratched-up patches of leaf litter which Mkombola told us were made by him. This is its very specific feeding behaviour which distinguishes it from the Olive Thrush, more of a generalist. Suddenly, Jackson whispered urgently for us to converge on his position. A Taita Thrush had just landed 2 meters in front of his feet, giving him point-blank views! Somehow, Mkombola detected the thing running down a slope and we were able to carefully track it through the understory. We thought we'd lost it probably three times. Crawling carefully on my belly, I was able to follow it further down a steep slope and observed two parents feeding a fledgeling! It was a special moment to observe a critically endangered bird whose population numbered about 1400 in 2000 and whose range encompasses c. 3.5 km^2!

The best shot you can get of a Taita Thrush!

One the walk back, after all that effort, it seemed appropriate that a Thrush would perch for 10 seconds in full sunlight right above the path before flying off, its robin-like alarm call telling us "you did all that bushwacking for nothing!"

Right to left: Me, Mkombola, Jackson and our 2 boda drivers (forgot their names)

After a celebratory forest 'refreshment' we returned triumphantly to friendly Wundanyi to taste the best chapati, maharague and chai this beautiful country has to offer. I ate so many chapatis, we overheard the cook lamenting to the waitress "if he loves chapati so much, give him the recipe and he can make them himself!"

Maybe I will!!