10,000 Birds, Friends of Kinangop Plateau, Sharpe’s Longclaw, and the Kinangop Grasslands
- Page last updated October 2009
Breeding-plumaged Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei. Kinangop, February 2009.
Non-breeding Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei. Kinangop, June 2008.
In June 2008 I was fortunate to photograph the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei (or Gathonjo ka wer?-ini in Kikuyu), a pipit-like species entirely restricted to the rapidly disappearing grasslands of the 77,000ha Kinangop Plateau (an hour’s drive from Nairobi). I offered the photographs to any interested conservation organisations and - unexpectedly - within a few months 10,000 Birds found ourselves in a position where we were actively supporting conservation in the region and had begun working with local NGOs (in particular the Friends of Kinangop Plateau (FoKP)) and stakeholders.
- I went back to Nairobi in October 2008 for what I described as a “life-changing” visit (for instance I was accorded the totally unexpected honour of being made a Kikuyu Tribal Elder for the work we’d starting doing in Kinangop), and posted a report at Life-changing Moments in the Kenyan Highlands
- I went again in February 2009 and the initial report is at Another wonderful day in the Kinangop Grasslands. A longer post (from February 2009) with more information about our ideas to help support FoKP and Dominic is at It’s all adding up now..
- I was fortunate enough to make another visit to Kinangop in June 2009, when I spent time with local farmers, visited another primary school, made a presentation of labels and posters at the Njabini Woolshop, and ended talking with FoKP members at the Murungaru Nature Centre.
By the end of 2008/early 2009 10,000 Birds…
- were working closely with Luca Borghesio, an Italian researcher who has been working in Kenya for many years
- had launched a successful campaign to fund the “Small African Fellowship for Conservation” which supports a local researcher, Dominic Kimani
- had been officially named as project partners with the National Museums of Kenya, an institution which manages three World Heritage Sites, twenty-two Museums and over a hundred Sites and Monuments across the country
- learnt that the local NGO “Friends of Kinangop Plateau” were using the reports/pages on 10,000 Birds as their ‘official’ website (which is immensely gratifying)
- were looking at ways to support the Njabini Wool-spinning Workshop - a co-operative run by the Friends of Kinangop Plateau - and are currently initiating several projects with the co-ordinators there
- were actively supporting a project that should directly impact on decisions on future conservation measures taken for Sharpe’s Longclaw
In February 2009 I made a third trip to Nairobi and took hundreds more photographs. The need to create the ‘gateway page’ you’re reading now became increasingly obvious as there was now far too much information to post on just one page.
This ‘gateway page’ will therefore contain condensed information as summarising paragraphs which link to longer, more detailed posts/pages which will have all the information anyone could possibly need to know about Sharpe’s Longclaw, Kinangop, the Friends of Kinangop Plateau etc etc.
If you/your blog/website/organisation would like to promote the work we’re doing to a wider audience please use http://10000birds.com/FOKP as the link.
Thankyou.
10,000 Birds June 2009.
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Background to the project and internal links:
- 2008 - A Conservation Project is born
In June 2008 I was fortunate enough to go on a short birding trip around Nairobi with Shailesh Patel and George Kamau. They took me up to the Kinangop Plateau (about an hour south of the city) and amongst the birds they were able to show me was one that I had never seen before and knew almost nothing about: the Endangered and highly range-restricted Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei (closely related to pipits, longclaws are an exclusively African family of birds and Sharpe’s is one of the most exclusive - it’s entire global range is the Kinangop grasslands!).
Non-breeding Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei. Kinangop, June 2008.
I managed to take a series of photographs of the bird we saw - much to Shailesh’s surprise, as he’d warned me beforehand that the chances of getting good views of such a wary bird were pretty slim - as it wandered quite close to me through an unusual-looking pasture full of thick tussocks. I posted the photos at Sharpe’s Longclaw: an Endangered Kenyan endemic, and added a postscript (subsequently updated) saying that if any conservation organisation or group wished to use the images for conservation purposes to contact me.
To my surprise and delight I was contacted both by Nature Kenya (the BirdLife International partner in Kenya), and by Luca Borghesio, a PhD Candidate based at the University of Illinois at Chicago (http://icarus.uic.edu/~lborgh2/) who was in Kenya and (amongst other projects) was setting up a survey to find out what the current population size of Sharpe’s Longclaw really is.
Our joint conservation senses went into overdrive and some six weeks and a flurry of emails later we (as in 10,000 Birds) became involved in a campaign to help conserve Sharpe’s Longclaw and the Kinangop Grasslands, and launched a fundraising project called the “Small African Fellowship for Conservation”.
To summarise the project very briefly, we initially pledged to do everything we could to raise 2000 USDollars (or more - see results below), which would be combined with money raised by Luca to provide a one-year fellowship for a local researcher, Dominic Kamau Kimani, to -
- a) conduct surveys of suitable longclaw habitat to discover exactly what the global population of Sharpe’s Longclaw really is,
- and b) take an education/awareness programme into local schools, which will talk about the longclaw and the need to conserve its habitat.
The campaign and our involvement in it has grown exponentially since then.
Sharpe’s Longclaw: Endangered and disappearing
The entire world range of this lovely bird, a relative of the pipits, is the rapidly disappearing native tussock-grasslands of south-western Kenya. The bulk of the population is now centred in just three locations, the most important of which is currently thought to be the Kinangop Plateau.
As of early 2008 the global population of Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei was estimated to be between 10,000 - 19,000 individuals, but surveys in 2008 and 2009 suggest that this may in fact be quite an over-estimate: survey data is lacking from much of its supposed range but the population is actually probably well below 10,000, and may even be nearer 2000.
Kinangop’s tussock-grasslands are being converted for agriculture and at current rates of habitat conversion no natural grasslands are predicted to remain in the area within just 20 years. The longclaw is entirely dependent on the tussocks for nesting, and spend much of their time searching them for food items. Though they are occasionally seen in converted land they never breed there, and the species’ survival appears to be linked entirely with the survival of the tussock-grasslands.
For more photos of Sharpe’s Longclaw please go to:
- 1) Non-breeding Sharpe’s Longclaw - June 2008
- For information on habitat requirements and threats to Sharpe’s Longclaw, please go to Sharpe’s Longclaw: Endangered and disappearing
The Kinangop Grasslands
The Kinangop Grasslands are part of an officially recognised Important Bird Area (designated KE004), lying between 2400 - 2700m above the Rift Valley in southern Kenya. The Sharpe’s Longclaw is almost entirely confined to these grasslands.
The grasslands are found on the Kinangop Plateau, a wide stretch of land bounded by the forests of the Aberdare mountains (IBA KE001) and Kikuyu Escarpment (KE004) to the east and south, and by a steep scarp dropping to the Rift Valley floor on the west. To the west and north, the IBA boundary follows the 2,400 m contour. Rainfall averages c.1,000 mm/year, but the southern part is wetter than the north, which lies in the rain shadow of the Aberdares. The total area of Kinangop is around 77,000 ha.
Originally, the entire plateau was covered with almost treeless, tussocky grassland, including many tussock bogs in the swampy valleys. Since the 1960s the area has been settled by the Kikuyu people, whose livelihood revolves around small-scale farming. Large areas of land have been ploughed for cultivation (mainly maize, wheat, cabbages and potatoes) or to remove the tussock grass species, which livestock find unpalatable. Woodlots of introduced water-thirsty trees, such as Eucalyptus globulus, Acacia mearnsii, Pinus radiata and Cupressus lusitanica, now dot the landscape and also causing ecological change.
- For photographs of the grasslands and the agricultural conversions affecting them please go to The Kinangop Grasslands
- For the BirdLife International Factsheet on this IBA please go to Kinangop Grasslands
Dominic Kamau Kimani.
The “Small African Fellowship for Conservation” has been set up to fund the work of Dominic Kamau Kimani, a young but extremely committed researcher from Murungaru village in North Kinangop. Dominic began birding when he was just ten and is a key component of the conservation work being done on the Kinangop Plateau: we may be helping fund him, but without Dominic there would be no effective campaign…
Given that he was born and lives in a small countryside village in Kenya (thus without the opportunities that many of us take for granted), Dominic has already achieved a remarkable amount - including acting as a volunteer Environmental Education officer for the Friends of Kinangop Plateau (FOKP), conducting ornithological research under the supervision of Dr. David Harper (University of Leicester) as a field instructor for the Earthwatch International Lakes of the Rift Valley Project, undertaking a Certificate course on Global Ecology and Wildlife management through distance learning, shadowing Tim Appleton at Rutland Water in the UK, and spending a week at BirdLife International’s Cambridge headquarters!
- Contact Dominic (for guiding, info etc) at dkk4.kimani@gmail.com
- To read Dominic’s CV (in his own words) please go to Dominic Kamau Kimani
Gathitu James Wainaina
On my second visit to Nairobi (in Feb 2009) I was privileged to spend the day with Dominic again, and with Gathitu James Wainaina (aka James), a founder-member of the Friends of Kinangop Plateau (FoKP).
We discussed many conservation initiatives together, and James told me how excited he had been when he heard about our involvement with FoKP and the Kinanagop.
James has asked that we host his CV - which we’re delighted to do of course - and sent us a very interesting amount of information (a small section of which is repeated below):
“Friends of Kinangop Plateau (FOKP) was founded in 1996, with great assistance from Dr. Leon Bennun who was by then heading Ornithology Department at the National Museums of Kenya as well as head of EAHNS. This was my dream. Most of the best tour leaders and guides especially Ornithological Safaris mushroomed during his tenure at the Museums….
…My first assignment in the field of research was in the late 1990’s when we did research to identify the 60 important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Kenya. Friends of Kinangop Plateau has over the time been one of the best Site Support Groups (SSG) for Birdlife International in its conservation efforts…
…From this year (2009) I have decided to take a different route once again. I was very thrilled to read about the conservation work of Dominic Kimani, Luca Borghesio, Dr Muchai Muchane, and Charlie Moores and I have decided to work near home for the conservation of our threatened birds especially the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw. I will therefore work closely with Dominic, Friends of Kinangop Plateau, 10,000 Birds and National Museums to support the conservation of Sharpe’s Longclaw.”
James has set up a tour company with Dominic called Kenya Wildstep Safaris and Tours, which has the slogan “For all your Ornithological and Wildlife Safaris adventures in East Africa and beyond”. James has generously decided that 15% of revenue collected will go to conserve Sharpe’s Longclaw - so if you’re looking for an experienced guide for a birding trip in East Africa AND would like to help Sharpe’s Longclaw please consider contacting him at birds_naturalist -AT- yahoo.com (replace -AT- with @) to discuss details.
- James’s full CV and personal profile is at Gathitu James Wainaina
National Museums of Kenya
The surveys (and eventual recommendations coming from the data collected on them) are being organised and co-ordinated through Dr Muchane Muchai of the National Museums of Kenya. 10,000 Birds (very much the ‘new kids on the block’ as far as Sharpe’s Longclaw conservation goes of course) has been accepted as partners of the official team working on the longclaw, and we’re grateful to Dr Muchai for allowing us to post the following mail supporting our efforts:
“Your proposal to launch a “Small African Fellowship for Conservation” to support the project of Mr. Dominic Kamau Kimani in the Kinangop plateau is extremely interesting and I wholeheartedly support it. This proposal is in agreement with the program of research and conservation that the National Museums of Kenya have been carrying out in the Kinangop plateau of Kenya for many years”. Dr. Muchane Muchai, August 2008.
- For the full text please go to National Museums of Kenya letter.
Nature Kenya
Nature Kenya is the BirdLife International Partner for Kenya, and works closely with other BL Partners in the East African region, including Nature Uganda, the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, and the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society.
Nature Kenya coordinates the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) programme in Kenya, and has been involved with conservation in the Kinangop Plateau for many years. In 2004/05 Nature Kenya purchased a 90 acre nature reserve (the Murunguru reserve) “to save the Sharpe’s Longclaw from imminent extinction” and by January 2007, 3 resident pairs of the bird were recorded in the reserve.
- The Nature Kenya website is at http://www.naturekenya.org/
Fundraising (or ‘Small Change = Big Change’).
In late 2008 10,000 Birds set ourselves a target of raising 2000 US Dollars (USD) to support Dominic and the “Small African Fellowship for Conservation”. We pledged to donate a minimum of 250USD ourselves and asked our readers to donate just ONE dollar each (or more of course) through a Chip In widget.
Chip In collected money to a PayPal account that we set up, and the money raised - over 2000USD - was forwarded to an existing and secure bank account in Kenya belonging to the National Museums of Kenya, who are responsible for passing the funds in monthly sums to Dominic.
- For more details please go to Fundraising
Following the money trail:
- National Museums of Kenya sent a receipt for the first tranche of donations in September: Donations receipt: September
- They then sent a second receipt for the next amount: Donations receipt: November (scroll down the page)
David Fox
In 2008 our Appeal to raise funds for the “Small African Fellowship for Conservation” was greatly helped by a substantial donation from FoKP member David Fox, a London solicitor who grew up in Kenya and lived there until he was seventeen. David has become an important member of the informal ‘team’ that co-ordinates the work 10,000 Birds is doing on behalf of FoKP, and in mid-2009 provided funding for a second “Fellowship” - this time for Sammy Bakari.
- David agreed to an interview in September 2009 which explains his interest in Kenya, its birds, and why he supports FoKP and 10,000 Birds, and this is now online at Interview with David Fox
Survey work and survey updates
Dominic and his colleagues from FoKP intend to update the distribution map of the Sharpe’s Longclaw through intensive surveying, particularly looking to see if there are any populations inside protected areas or in areas that show some potential to become protected in the near future. This is absolutely vital as at present (June 2009) there is very little population data available on which to base conservation initiatives.
I was fortunate enough to join a monitoring team - which was made up of Dominic, James, and other local land-owners with a deep concern at the way the longclaw is disappearing - on my visit to Kinangop in February 2009. We spent a very rewarding couple of hours walking up and down a small ‘field’ of native grasslands where at least four longclaws were present.
- Photographs of the members of the survey team are at Kinangop Survey Team
The survey work so far has already received financial support from the British Ecological Society and the Conservation Fund of the African Bird Club. Surveying in such remote and large areas - even in relatively inexpensive country like Kenya - needs to be funded properly, and they are still actively looking for more funds (which is where 10,000 Birds has stepped in to an extent, though more funding will always be welcomed).
Dominic has been very diligent about sending us regular updates letting us know how the surveys and education programmes have been developing, all of which we have posted online.
The pages linked to below are not scientifically presented results per se but do already give an important insight into the very real threats the Sharpe’s Longclaw faces from grassland conversion and the community efforts that are going on to help protect it:
- Sharpe’s Longclaw: early survey results
- Survey results October - November 2008
- More survey results from November 2008
- A three month Report on Environmental Education in Kinangop: February 2009
- Dominic Kimani’s Report. Jan - March 2009
- Dominic Kimani’s Report. April - June 2009
Education work
Dominic has written an Education Proposal detailing his plans to promote awareness of Sharpe’s Longclaw within Kinangop itself.
The main objective will be to sensitise the local community towards the importance of Sharpe’s Longclaw as a flagship species in conservation and explain why people need to save it from the verge of extinction. He proposes to select three working sites in Kinangop, and will conduct awareness raising “…through schools, existing conservation groups, youth groups, community groups, churches and sporting clubs”.
- For more details please go to Sharpe’s Longclaw: Environmental Education Proposal
10,000 Birds and School Visits
I’ve also been fortunate to have visited a couple of local schools with Dominic while I’ve been in Kenya and have always been incredibly well-received. The warmth I’ve felt from kids who - in reality - have very little idea who I am, and the interest that my short visits has generated has been extremely motivational, and I’d like to thank everyone involved again.
In February I went to Mugumoini Primary School (in North Kinangop) and was entertained with traditional songs and dances by a group of very talented children there…photos and a few sound files are available from the links below:
- Mugumoini Primary School, Kinangop
- More Mugumoini Primary School (includes several mp3 recordings I made at the time)
Murungaru Nature Centre Dance Troupe
A highlight (amongst many) of my trips to Kinangop Plateau has been to watch the joyful singing and dancing by the Dance Troupe at the Murungaru Nature Centre.
The dancers are all active members of Friends of Kinangop Plateau who perform traditional Kikuyu songs in traditional costume (inevitably I get dragged up to join in, proving - twice so far - that my dancing days are long behind me!) partly to keep their cultural identity alive and well and partly (I suspect) because they have so much fun doing it.
The performances are a huge amount of fun and well worth witnessing for yourself. The link below goes to a series of photographs I took in October 2008 and an mp3 recording made at the time.
The Njabini Wool-spinning Workshop
One of the highlights of my trips to Nairobi has been visits to the inspirational Njabini wool-spinning workshop, a small but determined co-operative staffed by local volunteers and run by the Friends of the Kinangop Plateau with Nature Kenya (the Birdlife International partner in Kenya).
The woolshop has great potential to become an important element of the campaign to protect the Kinangop Grasslands, by creating a market for wool products thereby encouraging local farmers to keep livestock (in particular sheep) rather than convert the grasslands into agricultural land.
10,000 Birds is working in an advisory capacity with the group co-ordinating the development of the woolshop and the products it produces, and has raised funds to help produce a leaflet explaining the aims of the Woolshop and which will be distributed from the woolshop itself (as of April 2009 a final draft is with Nature Kenya) and a high-quality label (image right) which will be sown to the woolshop products clearly identifying where they were made etc.
We would of course welcome any help to promote the workshop or its products both within Africa and overseas.
We’ve posted several reports - and many photographs - from the visits I’ve made to the Njabini Wool-spinning Workshop. The links below also go to related reports (eg a post about the labels we produced called “Labelled with Love”) plus reports sent to us by Samuel Bakari and others:
- The Njabini Wool-spinning Workshop: October 2008
- Back to the Njabini Wool-spinning Workshop: March 2009
- Njabini Woolshop rugs: bigger and better: April 2009
- Labelled with Love: April 2009
- October 2009 Update
Mary Mwendwa
On my visit in June 2009 we were accompanied to Kinangop by Mary Mwendwa, a local radio producer and conservation film-maker. Mary was a joy to be with and she has become a potentially very important voice for conservation on Kinangop. As she wrote to me, she joined FOKP “to expose to the entire world the good work that FOKP are doing and to take FOKP to the next level”. She is already making short videos about Kinangop (details to be announced soon) and talking to her many colleagues about Sharpe’s Longclaw, Kinangop, and the FOKP.
Mary, I’m sure everyone involved in this project will join me in saying, “Karibu, asante kwa msaada wako”
To learn more about Mary Mwendwa and her work please go to
What are our plans for the future?
We (as in 10,000 Birds) are planning long-term to not only just ‘remain involved’ with FoKP and the Sharpe’s Longclaw, but to remain key partners in the conservation efforts. We will continue to work with existing partners such as National Museums of Kenya, and will aim to maintain all our existing relationships within Kenya and the local community.
We have a number of ideas and initiatives we intend to develop, which are outlined below:
- Create and then keep updated a ‘main page’ on 10,000 Birds which which can be used as an entrance point into the work we’re doing, and a link for all interested parties to use. (This page is obviously the result of that, and it will be updated regularly).
- Develop an ‘eco-tourism’ strategy that makes Sharpe’s Longclaw a ‘must see’ bird for any birder going to Kenya
- Support the training of bird guides from the local land-owning community who can show eco-tourists/birders the longclaw and explain what the community is doing to protect it and the grasslands
- Create a simple, lightweight, robust “field-guide” in the form of eg a spiral-bound, laminated/weather-proof note-book sized collection of plates which focusses entirely on the most common birds of Kinangop for the use of the newly-trained guides (rather than them having to rely on the existing bulky (and expensive) regional field-guides)
- Create large posters of the Sharpe’s Longclaw using some of the photographs I’ve taken. At the moment even the FoKP offices don’t have photographs of the area’s birds with which to teach the local people. Posters would make a huge impression and don’t cost much.
- Promote awareness of the Njabini Wool-spinning workshop, help promote its products to a wider market, and create a label and information leaflet for the woolshop’s use
All these ideas are relatively easy to implement but will make an enormous impact on the ground. They will take time to create of course, and they will take funding, but I’m certain that making resources available at ‘ground-level’ is the best way forward: it supports Kinangop, frees up the resources of FoKP’s partner Nature Kenya, and - best of all - is what the local community want us to do. As James himself said, he feels that FoKP is now moving in the right direction. He is extremely enthusiastic about what we plan to do via 10,000 Birds and I hope that our readers feel the same way…
World Land Trust and the Kinangop Highlands
In 2009 we heard the great news that the world-renowned World Land Trust (WLT) had launched an appeal (open until Dec 2009) to purchase land in Kinangop. Working with Nature Kenya, the WLT aims to buy enough land to set up a new reserve for the Sharpe’s Longclaw and the threatened biodiversity which they live with.
To quote from the WLT website: “The Kinangop Highlands are the stronghold of Sharpe’s Longclaw, a bird endemic to Kenya that is seriously threatened by the loss of its grassland home. As much as three quarters of ‘tussock’ vegetation the Sharpe’s Longclaws require may have already been lost in the Kinangop Plateau, threatening the survival of these birds.
The World Land Trust (WLT) are aiming to help our partners Nature Kenya buy a strategically important area of grassland consisting of 50 acres by December 2009. The reason for the urgency is that the price of land in this area is escalating.”
Anyone involved in the conservation of these unique grasslands will welcome this initiative, and we’ve offered whatever help/illustrations/photos/data etc WLT might need if it helps our mutual aim of helping saving the Sharpe’s Longclaw and the Kinangop Highlands.
The World Land Trust’s Appeal can be found at http://www.justgiving.com/kenyangrasslands
Friends Online
Imagine how worthwhile and satisfying it will be if we really are able to make a long-lasting contribution to the survival of the Sharpe’s Longclaw and the Kinangop Grasslands? I for one feel incredibly charged up by the discussions I had on my trips to Kinangop, and my thanks go again to the community for making me so welcome and putting so much faith in my input and in 10,000 Birds.
Despite our best intentions we can’t do all this on our own though. Would you like to support the work we’re doing?
The easiest (and cheapest) way is by putting this 200×252 pixel button/logo on your site (like Great Auk - or Greatest Auk?, Bubo Listing and The Birder’s Report have done). Either download it straight from this page or mail us and we’ll send it to you.
When you use this button/logo please link to this page - http://10000birds.com/FOKP/
We will offer our thanks in one of the best ways available to us - by linking back to your blog or website (and as one of the net’s most popular birding sites that could be quite useful for sending traffic your way).
Thanks very much to the following for their support:
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Bubo Listing Great Auk - or Greatest Auk? |
The Birder’s Report The Drinking Bird |
All photographs on this page are copyright Charlie Moores unless noted otherwise. Permission to reproduce or use them will usually be given to conservation organisations, but please ask first.
Dear Charlie,
Thank you very much for this great post, on behalf of my local community, Friends of Kinangop and all those who love Sharpe’s Longclaw, receive our heartfelt appreciation for all what you are doing for Kinangop and conservation.
Kinangop has always been a forgotten place since independence but 10000birds has put it in the world map, not to mention how i’m pround to be associated with you guys.
i do have great moral to continue this great intiative.
i have completed my Global Ecology Course and the sky is the limit.
Keep up the good work. the page is exactly what we have been looking for. always feel free to write anything you know about us, you have our blessing, remeber you are part of our community.
all the best in your work, thanks for having time for me and my community and reporting very good things about us, this usually energise me to keep on keeping on.
Dominic.
Dear Dominic
I am very privileged to have been welcomed by you and your community and this page is just a small token of my (and 10,000 Birds) commitment and intention to help support Kinangop as best as we can.
I will do a post on the blog soon (when I have sorted out a few more photographs from the woolshop especially) to announce this page is now online and then mail out to Africa Birding etc to let them know as well.
Please let my friends in Kinangop know that I am thinking about them and will continue to do my best to support your and their efforts.
Charlie
Hello,
I really like this blog because it brings us news from different parts of the world + the most beautiful photos of birds we don’t see very often. Kindly, Denys.
Denys, many thanks.
Asante Sana! Many thanks
Dominic
Dear Charlie, Dominic, Wainaina and FoKP,
Kudos to all of you for this great project, supporting one of the best examples of community-based conservation in Africa (I am not exaggerating). Compliments to NatureKenya (BirdLife partner) are also in order. I am especially happy to see Dominic still going strong (we have been in touch long ago through the NK Bird Committee Small Grants). Keep up the good work of conserving wonderful birds - pretty much against the odds! - and be assured of support-in-spirit from The Netherlands!
Best wishes,
Bernd de Bruijn
Hi Bernd
Thanks very much for commenting. It’s wonderful to hear from people who were involved with this effort long before 10,000 Birds came on the scene and to receive such a positive endorsement - both for what we’re doing and for Dominic who really is one of the most inspirational people I’ve met in a very long time!
If you’d like an update on the campaign for any of the birding websites you’re involved with do please let me know: I’m anxious to promote FoKP and Kinangop to serious birders like the Dutch at every opportunity!
Thanks again
Charlie
[...] Please link the badge to our ‘gateway page’ at http://10000birds.com/10000-birds-sharpes-longclaw-and-the-kinangop-grasslands [...]
[...] For much more information about Sharpe’s Longclaw, the Friends of Kinangop Plateau, and the Njabini Woolshop please see our ‘gateway page’ at 10,000 Birds, Sharpe’s Longclaw, and the Kinangop Grasslands. [...]
[...] http://10000birds.com/10000-birds-sharpes-longclaw-and-the-kinangop-grasslands [...]
[...] Please link the badge to our ‘gateway page’ at http://10000birds.com/10000-birds-sharpes-longclaw-and-the-kinangop-grasslands [...]
Hello all,
Southern Africa gets its winter usually in July, and its blown Northward. Kenya gets a share of the same to about 9%C especially in the highlands, I hope its time to order the necessary from our wool shop please visit Njabini wool shop in the site and order now, for the sake of yourself and Sharpes Longclaw. Thank you.
James.
Dear Charlie, i am mary mwendwa, an upcoming conservation film maker and a radio producer with Transworld here in kenya, i have joined friends of kinangop plateau as a member and with my experience in journalism i wish to highlight environmental issues in Kinangop plateau.Currently i am working on a short film about the friends of kinangop plateau.
Dear Mary - it was excellent to meet you on my visit of 14th June. Thankyou so much for giving up your Saturday and for your enthusiasm for the work that FoKP (and 10,000 Birds) are doing. Your involvement is extremely welcome, and I’m sure you will become an important part of the fight to help this wonderful community save the Grasslands and its amazing biodiversity. Thanks for getting in touch, and I hope we’ll meet again next time I come over. Stay well! Charlie
Chalie…To me it was more than a tour to this lovely people of Kinangop,i was amazed with the work Dominic , you and 10,000 birds are doing to save this lovely grassland.When we were walking in one of the farmers farm i saw the eggs of sharpes long claw, this really warmed my heart because i thought if this farmer had cultivated the whole farm i could not have seen these precious eggs for the first time.My gratitute goes to the friends of kinangop , 10,000 birds and charlie for giving me a warm welcome as a member of friends of kinangop.I will give my best in terms of my journalistic approach and ofcourse as a conservationist .Thanks Chalie..
hope to see you again
mary
A million thanks to charlie and 10000 birds for providing posters and lebels to the fokp….i have put two posters on my office notice board and it pulls alot of attention .Lets keep conserving the grassland and sharpes long claw.
mary
Thanks Charlie and all people who make this blog a fantastic site for conservation.
the link for Kinangop is highly welcome, its now fitting very well in the business cards and its now opening very first.
asante sana.
Hi Charlie I followed your link from the World Land trust which I support.
The WLT are raising funds to help Nature Kenya to purchase some grassland for a nature reserve.
That is good but this project is the way to go; encouraging farming in a way that deprive wildlife of its habitat, by sharing the space. This project is fantastic I wish it all the best.
I offer a few thoughts which may or may not be of value. Someone has probably already thought of them..
What got me started was reading in one of the earlier posts someone wondering how well rugs would sell, concluding small ones would be better for foreign tourists to carry and that tourists are likely to already having a rug at home, if they need one. This reminded me of the owner of a wildlife art gallery I talked to who said people buy a picture but then that space on the wall is filled and they do not buy another. He was looking for other things to sell This set me thinking what else people are likely to buy.
Clothing and fashion always change.
Some of the jolly weavers and spinners in the pictures have hats on, so I thought you might have a local market for them and they are small for overseas visitors to take home. In various parts of the world there are traditional hat styles, many are simply knitted some are made of felted wool with or without embroidery on them.
I searched google images for woven hats and came with some craft weavers in Canada I have no idea how you make woven hats so I have put their web address they may be kind enough to offer advice. http://www.barefoothandweaving.com/product_pages/hats_headbands/01_.htm
Knitted hats are very jolly, again how you do it needs sourcing there are some pictures here:
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/200430322-001/Digital-Vision
Rugs are not a thing that seems to be a big fashion in the UK at the moment but one thing that is, is cushions. Cushions always seem expensive, by that I mean people are prepared to pay a lot for them per square foot compared with rugs. The fashion is for having a pile of cushions even on a bed.
Kelims which are woven rugs from Persia, Turkey etc which when made into cushions are fashionable and expensive.
Cushions are basically bags so not so difficult to make. I googled woven cushions and quickly came across a South African Operation which weaves them and table runners which I had forgotten but are narrow strips of rug that run down the centre of a table. Again small and easily transported items. http://www.bomkhozi.co.za/pages/wovenrugs.html remember Cushions could be backed with plain weave.
All that above being said I still love the big rug being made by Bakari and Emma in the April 12th Page. and I guess none of these (small) ideas lead to lots of wool being used.
When I live so many miles away I try to think of ways to help.
Andy, many thanks indeed for your wonderful comments about the project and your superb suggestions: making cushions in particular seems like something that the workshop could easily produce and that’s a really great idea. Thankyou.
Thanks also just for taking the time to find the links and put your thoughts down here. Members of FOKP and the workshop regularly check this page and it is extremely encouraging for the community in Kinangop to know that people overseas are interested in what they’re are doing and are thinking of ways to help: your mail will have a much greater impact than you probably realise and on behalf of FOKP and 10,000 Birds I’d just like to extend a hand of friendship and to thank you once again.
Regards
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
Although I don’t come from Kinangop, I would like to part of what you are doing. Currently am a student at Kenya Wildlife Services Training Institute-Naivasha. am very much concerned with birds issues. am little conversant with FoKP because I schooled there. Kindly include me in your findings. Thanks a lot.
Regards,
Kiarie Mathaga.
Dear Charlie.
This is beyond our thinking. Sure we are seeing a big difference.
We are impressed by the comments of the readers. It is really encouraging.
For Andy, that is a very good suggestion. Even the small products will have impact as we hope they can do in large numbers. We shall try that immediately.
Happy Bakari.
BARTHELOMEW NAMASASMBU
BOX 52428 NAIRIBI
Dear friends of kinangop
Even if i have never been to the kinangop grassland i appreciate the work being done by the members of the organisation please keep up because today world reguires people like you to save mother nature for today and future generation soon im looking forward to visit kinangop
Regards Barthelomew
Dear Sammy Bakari, Good luck and take care these are only ideas you need to find out what sells were.
Try and find places where wild life lovers are visiting and market there, with your background it should help.
I read about log fires in the Kinangop Guest House “Tree House” and this reminded me how I keep warm when there is a chill in the air in the eveing. I use a knee rug. I am a bit old fashioned, they used to be common in the UK when I was young especially when car heaters were not very good, but when I google “knee rug” there were few hits from uk but lots from Australia and New Zealand.
Knee rugs do not have to be very large, but they have to be soft to fold over you and merino wool would be very good for making them. Not woven I think, but I am not a weaving expert.
I came across this website to give you some idea what they look like using crochet work.
http://www.toggle.co.nz type “knee rug” into the search box and click on the pictures that come up.
[...] I wasn’t able to get any photos, but Charlie Moores has some great ones. [...]
I wrote what follows then wondered if this blog is the place to discuss these matters. I decided to go ahead because to me this is what birding is all about: making the world more hospitable to them, so man and birds can share the same land. This is what I try and do in my own small way with 5ha I have.
I have worked in Agriculture in the UK and I have worked with smallholder farmers and on plantations in the Pacific, so I am very cautious about making suggestions but hope this is helpful.
The comments that follow are based on what I interpret from reading the 10,000 bird blogs and I may have the wrong idea. However they are just ideas based on conservation management techniques used in UK, and are designed to act as a springboard for people with local knowledge to develop.
I realize that reserves are an answer and it is wonderful that Mr Gichia and his family are leaving some land for the SLC but for the areas around the reserves and on other land on farms with SLC like Mr Gichia’s, I have some suggestions:
I read in the blog the SLC are active on short grass early and retreat when the farm gets busier. I think it is important to know why: are the birds shy? as they seem to be, compared to the black winged lapwing, or do the insects they feed on get less active as the day hots up, so they stop feeding?
Somewhere on the blogs an area of 0.4ha was suggested as a possible area needed for a SLC. This is 40m by 100m. I think this idea of small reserves on working farms need trying out and could be the next step for 10000 birds support. (I wonder it 0.4 ha is a lot for some farmers to leave for the SLC)
If there are plenty of insects about on sheep grazed land and it is “just” nesting sites that are the problem, Longclaws that are less sensitive to disturbance could possibly survive and breed successfully if they had small areas of tussock.grass reserved for them to nest in.
In UK the skylark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylark a ground feeder and nester, likes almost bare ground to nest. A cereal field when it is just sown and starting to grow is just what they like, but as the crop grows, it gets too dense for the birds to finish nesting successfully. They will however nest successfully if small areas of 4m x 4m are left unsown in dense cereal fields. http://www.rspb.org.uk/images/skylarkplot_tcm9-132769.pdf
With permanent sheep farms a scattering of small fenced tussock plots could be used, but if you want to change the land use later and cultivate, scattered plots could get in the way. To avoid this problem the corners of adjacent fields could be fenced to give one larger area which is not grazed.
Fencing allows control of the grazing and would reduce the risk of trampling for the Lapwing as well. Out of the breeding season the tussocks could be grazed to keep them in the right condition and the land would then not be totally lost to production.
If the birds are nervous they may still forage if they are near cover, so if the birds can nest successfully with tussocks smaller than those shown on Marania Farm pictures, an alternative could be to fence a narrow strip along the field boundary to give a strip 3-4m wide and tussock grass allowed to get large there. (as long as some predator or fire does not use the fenced corridors as a highway.) The long thin areas would mean that the SLC would always be near cover and possibly able to use more land..
If SLC occurs/feeds on a mixed (livestock and cropping) farm, the bit next to the fence in crop fields could be left to get tussocky. This area at the edge of the field often yields less due to compaction of machines turning on it and driving round it and it is often weedier. One of Charlie’s pictures of a cropping farm has a tussocky edge left unploughed. Here no extra fencing would be needed.
These are ways conservation management is being fitted into commercial farms in UK .
I don’t know if these are good ideas?
How big these areas have to be is the first question.
Fencing will certainly cost money; how much? So trials would need some assistance but eventually a “Sharpe’s Longclaw Champion” farmer would be a “Friend of the Longclaw” and as well as some personal satisfaction he could gain financially from customer support and appreciation for his care of the environment. In the UK it is partly because of consumer’s motivation for environmental care that they are buying organic farm produce, though it costs more.
Another reason for testing these approaches now is if the Kenya Gov. is planning to allocate more tussock land to farmers, if it was fenced with strips /areas as above, before it was handed over there would be less of a feeling of loss of land by the recipients.
As I said at the beginning all I know is what I read on the 10,000 bird blog and these things may already be in hand.
I think it is best to try some of these ideas as soon as possible as since the SLC population seems to be declining so rapidly there is a smaller and smaller number of individuals to select amongst to find ‘people-tolerant’ individuals. Those that have “hung on” on farms have been selected for some degree of tolerance to disturbance and we must go some way to meet their needs to help these individuals breed. The SLC that exist on reserves may be there because they do not like human presence and getting them to expand out might be slower.
This is not an alternative to reserves but it is something that anyone with land (where SLC are still present) can participate in.
Dear Charlie and all,
hope everybody is fine, i have been a little bit mute but i am still fine.
i appreciate all our supporters comments about our work in Kinangop.
i am happy to report that we have received 500 dollars to buy some few sheep for demostration in the reserve and support the Sharpe’s Longclaw monitoring exercise. the donation have been given by Proffesor William and Patricia From USA.
more details soon.
thank you.
Dominic
[...] fairly radical things on 10,000 Birds (supporting conservation in Kenya by giving a voice to the Friends of Kinangop Plateau springs to mind) with plenty more to come. Nonetheless, we are by no means talking to a global [...]
Dear Sir,
I am research scholar in Dept. of Botany, Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajsthan. I am doing my PhD on Grasslands of Sirohi Dist especially on Wadakheda grass bid located 7 km to Sirohi City with title “Ecological & Ethnobotanical Study of Grasslands of Sirohi District with special reference to its Avifauna”. My one of the aspect is The role of grasslands in carbon sequestration & conservation and management, and Role of grasslands to provide habitat, food, nesting, roosting, & breeding ground for birds. Sir I required your valuable input due to your exclusive work. I am requesting to you, please send me belonging research paper on grasslands, its importance & other aspects would be helpful to me.
Please share your experience on Interrelationship of birds with grasslands.
Thanks & Regards
HITES SUKHWAL (09785455597)
M 4 Jaykaypuram,
JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd.
Sirohi, Rajasthan
hello?
thank you very much!
i hope you can come tu china!
Hi Charlie and all,
Thanks for the great work you are doing in Kinangop. I was searching literature about Kinangop grasslands. I discovered that it is only when one understands the threats facing Kinangop that one comes to realise the the magnitude of the work you guys are doing.I have worked with Dominic, Wainaina and FoKP very much (at NMK), during waterbird monitoring and elsewhere and I understand the enthusiasm these guys have for birds. I might be working in Kinangop with Dom and Wainaina from 2010 and I know it would be great.I support your Kinangop efforts.
Henry, thanks for getting in touch and thankyou for the kind comments. There are serious problems facing the Kinangop Grasslands, and the work we are doing on the Sharpe’s Longclaw hardly touches such issues as drought and population pressure, so all the help that FoKP can get is warmly received I’m sure! Please do feel that your involvement will always be useful and your support is welcomed by all involved. Thanks.
Charlie.
Thank you very much for the continued support.
It is amazing how you keep the readers engaged. It is clear that the readers realize that we need them very much.
Andy.
I like your commitment.
Your comments are very much helpful. We are working on tuning the range of products to fit a broader target. It is sad that there is no hope that the authority can allocate more grasslands as pasture for livestock or habitat for the SLC. The future is limited to persuading the farmers with remaining patches of grasslands to retain them. This has to be with a financial reason which is what we are doing in the Wool spinning workshop. The other is purchasing of reserves and encouraging Eco-tourism in Kinangop.
Also we need to have more understanding of the ecology of the SLC.
Henry
We are happy about the people intending to do more research in the area. This will help us have a better understanding of the habitat and the ecology of the grassland birds.
All the readers are also thanked for their individual support.
DEAR 10000BIRDS,
This comes to show you my apretiation for the good work being done by you guys for kinangop people. am a member of the fokp. and possibly the youngest of all the members. I was introduced to fokp by my dad (joakim kiiru) and it has been pleasure to do conservation alongside him and good people like Dominic and James, I admire their effort to market the group.
Am aiming to introduce as many youths as possible to the group so as when people like my Dad will be old, conservation will not cease. Be assured that your work will be passed from one generation to another.
once again thank you.
Good afternoon Jack
Thankyou so much for your comment. I of course remember meeting you with your father (a great man!) earlier in the year (have you seen your photograph at http://10000birds.com/monitoring-team-feb-2009.htm)
I know how hard you and the FOKP are working to preserve Sharpe’s Longclaw and I just want you to know that I will support you for as long as I possibly can. I’m sure that you will be doing a excellent job introducing young men and women in Kinangop to the work you are doing, and I wish you all the very best with it.
Thanks again and best wishes from the UK
Charlie
Good morning charie,
Am fine here in kenya and hope everyone there in UK is fine too. I saw our photographs of the monitoring team and those of Sharpe’s Longclaw and they are absolutely superb.
Thanks alot for the good work you’ve done and you are doing for the FOKP. We are ready to put your ides into practice and we shall never fail you.
Thank you very much. Hope to meet you again, Bye.
jack kiiru.
Charlie and Others,
A small note that since October 2008, we founded Nyahururu Bird Club to concentrate at Lake Ol’ Bolossat IBA (further north of Kinangop)where I led a team to confirm a new population of Sharpe’s Longclaw in August 2007. The club is doing fine and should the government consider a proposal to gazette the wetland as a conservation area, then a new lease of life will be given to this species and many others as this will be the first protected area with a confirmed breeding population. The main threat at Ol’ bolossat is encroachment by people who come along with many other detrimental effects like soil erosion, over grazing and habitat loss. the situation is pathetic and needs very loud voices to stop the adverse effects.
Wamiti