from Gary Davidson - our [first] man in Africa [Photos by Paul Whalen]

Now I hope you all realise that just because I called this email Day 1, that doesn't mean I intend to send one every day! But Day 1 in such a new place is pretty significant!

Our hotel here in Nairobi has a bit of nice habitat, with grass and trees, and a creek and forest on the neighbouring property. Our main tour doesn't start for a couple of more days, we just wanted to get here a bit early to used tot he place and have a little tine to explore on our own. After our 17 hour journey yesterday we weren't too ambitious today. We spent most of the morning just sorting out the birds in the gardens. By lunch I was fairly comfortable with the16 species I had managed to identify. There were a couple I was unsure of, so we left those out for now. The very first species identified was a BLACK KITE, I know this bird from Australia, (although some authorities consider the Asian subspecies to be a full species). The dark ibis wandering around the lawn was easily identified as a HADADA IBIS, by its heavy bill. The black-and-white crows flying about were easy to: PIED  CROW. The black and yellow 'thing' required a bit more research but was eventually pegged as a BAGLAFECHT WEAVER, (not sure who saddled this bird with such a clumsy name!) [Yes, I know, Ken, this was on our list of things to learn, but apparently I didn't learn that one well enough.] My study did, however, allow me to immediately recognise the COMMON FISCAL, RED-EYED DOVE, OLIVE THRUSH, WHITE-EYED SLATY FLYCATCHER, and AFRICAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER. I also recognised the BRONZE MANNIKIN as a manikin, but I had to check the species. Such was the case for the AFRICAN PIED WAGTAIL, VARIABLE SUNBIRD, RED-BILLED FIREFINCH, CINNAMON-CHESTED BEE-EATER, and YELLOW WHITE-EYE. Other species we identified today were HOUSE SPARROW, SPECKLED MOUSEBIRD, COMMON BULBUL, SACRED IBIS, and WHITE-BROWED SPARROW-WEAVER.

Tomorrow we will venture a little further afield; the grounds to the museum have lots of trees and this is just five minutes from our hotel. That should keep us occupied tomorrow morning.