Welcome to the Marine Mammal and wildlife Research and Community Development Expedition blog where you can keep up to date with all the happenings and information from Kenya

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Bird Nerds are back!

My first week on marine as part of the staff team has been busy, but very exiting! I have been dong some extra work in terms of the bird surveys that we want to start doing in different locations around Wasini Island, and I have been looking at the data collected in the mangroves since the first expo in 2007! I found that more than 40 bird species have been seen around the island! The most frequently seen include the Fork tailed drongo, Black kite, Grey heron, Palm nut vulture, Yellow billed stork, Western reef heron, African fish eagle, and a few different Egrets and Ibises.

The Palm Nut Vulture perches in a mangrove tree

Two Yellow Billed Storks wading through the mud




From next week onward I plan to have at least two bird surveys around the island in the mangroves but also in other areas including the forest patches and rocky shelf areas. Interestingly, this week we have already spotted two beautiful Collared Sunbirds and an African Paradise Flycatcher. Hopefully we will spot some more species in the different habitats around Wasini Island. It will also be interesting to compare the species we find around here to the ones on the other side in Shimoni.


So next week will be an exiting week with lots of cool birds! YAY…
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