The second Saturday in May has always been a day for birding, recognized worldwide as “International Migratory Bird Day.” Each year at this time the World Series of Birding is held in Cape May, NJ, USA as an effort to raise money for conservation and spark interest in a love for the outdoors. Ross has participated in the World Series, even winning it two years in a row, and it was this event that connected him with fellow young, like-minded birders that he still talks to to this day. eBird hasn’t been around nearly as long as the World Series has, but I like that they picked their spring “Global Big Day” to coincide with the World Series of Birding and International Migratory Bird Day. While eBird isn’t used as much around the world, it still hosts an international event that is garnering an increased interest in birds and with each passing year more and more people start using the platform for documenting their avian sightings.
Logistics are Ross’s specialty. He’s a skilled birder, don’t get me wrong, but fundamentally it is the intimate knowledge of geography, skill with reading maps, in depth planning, and adaptive ability on the fly that we can attribute much of our independent birding success to. Logistics are everything when it comes to efficiency on a birding trip. And for this year’s Global Big Day we threw efficiency out the window.
Ross found Chege on eBird. Last October Chege participated in eBird’s fall Global Big Day and had a record of Collared Lark from Garissa, a very good bird to see considering a trip to Somalia, the core of its range and a country full of socio-political strife, could end very poorly for a visitor. We were always going to go to Garissa, far northern Kenya bordering Somalia, for Wajir Flycatcher but some security concerns had us questioning venturing into a potentially unsafe area alone. Chege works as a bird guide, but since he was already planning a trip to Garissa for the big day, he invited us to join him as friends along with his friends, Jon and Edwin, and we agreed. Going with someone like Chege who knows the area better than anyone would be better than going alone, so for the sake of safety, we opted to cross into Kenya from a different border and go directly through Nairobi to meet Chege for the Global Big Day in Garissa. Our original plan had us crossing into Southern Kenya and working our way north to Garissa. Logistically what we were doing made no sense because now we would have to backtrack to bird in the south.
Chege referred to our trip as a bit of “hide and seek” and we would just have to stay mostly hidden so as to not run into any Somali militants. Our plan was simple: drive part of the way, bird around a bit, sleep in the relatively safe town of Mwingi, wake up early, drive into Garissa for the big day, drive out. Easy.
Ross knew his life list was getting very close to 7,000 but he wasn’t sure what his number was exactly, so on the drive he decided it would be a good time to see where he stood. It was on the drive to Mwingi that he realized he was only two birds away! I was hoping he would hit this milestone on the “big day,” but with only two birds to go, there was no way. He quickly had a lifer Chestnut Weaver and was only one bird away with a whole afternoon of birding still to go. But somehow, much to Ross’s dismay, we hardly saw any other birds all afternoon, let alone another lifer! He went to bed that night with a life list at 6,999.
The next morning we woke up at 3AM to drive north to Garissa. What would be number 7,000?! Well, just after dawn a massive group of Vulturine Guineafowl crossed the road. DING DING DING. 7k! Chege was disappointed because these guineafowl are an extremely common bird, but Ross didn’t mind. Vulturine Guineafowl are really cool birds with a unique pattern and beautiful coloration. Not to mention they are just a bit bizarre, making them even more fun to look at.
(There may or may not have been a Yellow-vented Eromomela that the rest of us saw that “flew” away before Ross had a chance to see it.)
dik-dik 
gernuke 
Vulturine Guineafowl
On our Big Day we were up from pre-dawn (3AM) to post-dusk (11PM), with no significant rest, save for a quick lunch of yogurt and peanuts under the confines of a nearby tree. (We may or may not have forgotten to pack a lunch…) We remained birding even during the hottest parts of the day, where I joked that all of the smart animals were staying in the shade. If there ever was a time to forget sunscreen, this surely was not it! Even though we weren’t standing under it, searching the shade proved to be a useful tactic as we spotted dozens of dik-diks, gernukes, and giraffes shielding themselves from the harsh sun.
Periodically we would get out of the car and walk amongst the acacia turnbulliana, the preferred habitat for our target bird. Red sand was the primary soil type and turnbulliana acacia were plentiful. Edwin and Jon spotted a lark early on in the morning and got us all excited, but soon realized it was a Pink-breasted Lark and not our main target! We also quickly found a family group of flycatchers which superficially appeared to be our target Wajir Pale Flycatcher until Ross concluded that African Gray Flycatcher was here as well and we would have to sort through them to find the one we were after.
Mid day, when every self-respecting animal was tucked away in the shade to avoid the heat, we birded around and believe it or not, managed to collect photos, audio recordings, and video footage of a rather brazen Collared Lark! Collared Lark is a rather attractive lark, with a cinnamon-rufous coloring and a streaked black and white hind neck.
It was a very long day, and we all were exhausted by the end. Jon joked that he would “sleep like a monster” after a day spent almost entirely in the sun. It was long, but no doubt successful, and we ended the day seeing 77 species, including Wajir Flycatcher (a future split from Pale Flycatcher) and Collard Lark! We may not have racked up high numbers like someone in the tropics would, but not bad for some desert birding! Ross managed several new lifers, putting him well over the 7K threshold and we were able to spend the day with new like-minded friends. (Edwin will soon be moving to Maine, USA to complete his PhD and we hope to meet again someday!) Oh, and several species of birds that we submitted were the only ones submitted by anyone else in the world for the day!
Wajir Flycatcher 
“White-bellied” Variable Sunbird 
Green-winged Pytilla
If you would like to bird with Chege, we can’t recommend him enough. He is one of the top listers in all of Kenya (with a list nearing 1,000 for the country) and knows exactly what birders’ need. Contact him at +255 722 329 570 or visit his website www.birdwatchingeastafrica.com