Month: October 2015

Wetlands of NNP

Images by Trish Heather-Hayes

“The grandfather of birding lists is the Nairobi one, with 605 sp. rdecorded from the city & environs. NNP is the nest with 529 sp.” So writes Stephen Spawls in his epic tome, KENYA, A Natural History…& the reason for this huge biodiversity is variety of habitat..

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NNP (& Nairobi, including the Karura & Ngong Road Forests) boasts an incredible array of habitats, from the dry plains of the Athi Basin to the Langata Forest in the west..

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The most important & fragile (dependent of the source of water) are the Park’s wetlands, such as Hyena Dam, pictured here: full of nutrients for this Yellow-Billed stork (the sewage from the blocks of flats upstream!)

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A moorhen feeding it’s chick

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Black-headed heron, otherwise known as a Snake bird owing to it’s propensity for gobbling snakes: this sp. is not always associated with water or wetlands..

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Beautiful & elergant White-faced Whistling ducks

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A Purple Gallinule or Swamphen (not such an elegant name): easy to spot at Hyena Dam…