ABSTRACT
Wintering birds at the coast are far less numerous than the Curlew Sandpiper, and frequent more sheltered mudflats, lagoons, estuaries, creeks and pans, rather than the open shore. Of the Kenyan species, the African Snipe is a breeding resident, while the rest are non-breeding migrants or vagrants from the Holarctic. Both North (N) and South (S) migrations are marked (Br) but, as in the Little Stint, birds wintering in the rift valley migrate N two to three weeks later than those at the coast, so that these two populations must adopt very different northward migration strategies. The Bar-tailed Godwit is very rare inland, with records of single birds from Lake (L) Turkana, L Baringo 50A, L Nakuru 62A, L Naivasha 62C and Nairobi 75B. The Green Sandpiper is shy, and occurs solitarily or in pairs on secluded pools, lake edges and small streams, even inside forest.
