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I received a batch of photographs from Sammy Bakari last night, showing some of the new rugs being made at the Friends of Kinangop Plateau-run Njabini Woolshop. The woolshop (as regular readers hopefully know by now) is an integral part of a community-based project that 10,000 Birds supports that is trying to halt the conversion [...]

I received an email this morning via the African Birding group from Michael Mills, reporting on his conservation work in a part of the world I know very little about - Angola, an extremely impoverished country in south-central Africa which is bordered by Namibia on the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, [...]

As regular readers will know (and hopefully a lot more who aren’t regular but will know anyway) 10,000 Birds has been supporting a project in the Kinangop Grasslands in Kenya which has the ultimate aim of conserving the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei

One very important element of our support has been the funding of The [...]

I’m happy to say that our involvement with the Friends of Kinangop Plateau (FoKP), the Kinangop Grasslands, and the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw is continual and ongoing (for those new readers who know nothing about this particular involvement have a quick look at the ‘gateway page’ we’ve created for to get the full story). Much of [...]

In June 2008 I was fortunate to photograph an endangered Kenyan endemic, the beautiful Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei, a pipit-like species confined entirely to the rapidly disappearing tussock grasslands of the Kinangop Plateau, an hour’s drive from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. I had absolutely no idea then quite how involved I was about to get [...]

Our Sharpe’s Longclaw project and our support for the Friends of Kinangop Plateau - and in particular the inspirational Dominic Kimani - has been quietly ticking along over the summer, and there’s some more good news to report.
 
Firstly, the brochure that I first ‘pitched’ to FoKP some months ago has finally made its way through [...]

Back in June 2008 when I first posted about the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw - which is endemic to the grasslands of the Kinangop Plateau near Nairobi - I had no idea at all just what the year would bring in terms of our (10,000 Birds) developing relationship with the local community and especially with a [...]

Back in June 2008 when I first posted about the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw - which is endemic to the grasslands of the Kinangop Plateau near Nairobi - I had no idea at all just what the year would bring in terms of our (10,000 Birds) developing relationship with the local community and especially with a [...]

I may well be the only person who ‘gets’ the referral to the old Squeeze hit song ‘Labelled with Love’, but it seems an apt way to spread the news that the labels we and Luca Borghesio (the Italian researcher who we’re most closely working with) designed to attach to the woollen products made by [...]

As part of The Small African Fellowship for Conservation that 10,000 Birds readers generously helped provide him, Dominic Kimani provides reports every three months on the work he is doing on Kenya’s Kinangop Plateau to help conserve the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw. These reports got to the National Museums of Kenya which oversee his work and [...]

It’s a happy situation to be in I suppose, but all three of us here at 10,000 Birds are really struggling to keep up with all the posts we want to write (darn those day-jobs which pay the bills, eh). Mike and Corey have just spent a fantastic week in Guatemala and Honduras respectively and [...]

Native Kinangop Grasslands…

….lost to potato cultivation

 
The Kinangop Plateau, home to the endemic Sharpe’s Longclaw and numerous other endemic forms of fauna and flora, is rapidly being converted from native tussock-grass dominated grasslands to sub-divided agricultural plots where - in particular - potatoes and cabbages are grown.

Prior to the early 1960s most of the land on [...]

The monitoring team identifying the birds they are seeing using an excellent but extremely large ‘Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania’ Helm Guide.
 

From left to right: Dominic Kimani, James Waweru, Jack and Joakim Kiiru, James Wainaina, Kiboi Muthee and Njoroge Githuki.
 

Son and proud father, Jack and Joakim Kiiru
 

James Waweru
 

Kiboi Muthee
 

Njoroge Githuki

 
All photos copyright Charlie Moores [...]

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, [...]