It’s 5am and the sky is still dark and splashed with stars as we drive out of Marafa, at the famous Hell’s Kitchen in Dakatcha Woodlands, in Kilifi county, about 100 kilometres north of Mombasa.

We are headed to the wetland found a few days ago by Julio Mwambire and Japhet Garama — members of the Dakatcha Woodland Conservation Group — while combing the vast woodlands of Dakatcha, 40 kilometres northwest of Malindi.

The wetland in question is one of the many dotting the Gandi River which flows from the higher ground into Deki River that drains into the Galana-Sabaki and drains into the Indian Ocean. This is where the two sighted Clarke’s Weavers feeding the hatchlings in their nests.

This is only the second confirmed breeding site ever recorded of this resident bird of Dakatcha Woodlands, and Fleur Ng’weno, an internationally acclaimed ornithologist, is taking no chance this time. She is keen not to miss this rare occasion.

In March 2013, Ng’weno and her team from the conservation group tracked down the birds to the Dakatcha woodlands, solving the mystery of where the birds nest.

Clarke’s Weaver are considered globally endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species.

Because of the bird’s small population and extremely limited range (found only in Kilifi county), it is threatened with extinction.

Finding the first and second breeding sites is therefore important in a number of ways: For conservation, the find identifies sites that need to be protected to ensure the survival of the species; For science, it adds considerably to knowledge of the life history of the little-known species in the weaver family, a remarkably diverse family of birds; For tourism, bird watchers who want to see as many endemic birds as possible are more likely to actually find and photograph Clarke’s Weaver at their nesting site.

Dakatcha will become a must-visit site when the conservation team can predict exactly where and when the birds will be at the breeding grounds. For the community in Dakatcha, Clarke’s Weaver is a valuable natural heritage found only in Kilifi county.

The nesting site now gives local bird guides the opportunity to become citizen scientists as they observe them in their habitat and provide much needed information to ornithologists.

The conservation group also observed that Clarke’s Weaver population is beneficial to local farmers as the birds were photographed feeding on large caterpillars and other insects to their young meaning they can act as natural pest control.

In future, so long as the birds population survives and does not migrate, their nesting sites will be a source of income for bird guides and associated hospitality industry support systems.

In the month of May alone, several people who were in Dakatcha to see the birds have stayed in a guest house in Marafa, bought food in local restaurants and used the services of a mechanic.

Ninety minutes after leaving Marafa, we’re at a high ridge inside the woodlands and begin walking downhill along a narrow path lined with dew-drenched grass and wild flowers, through a maize field and over a column of the best-to-be-avoided safari ants. We make it to the wetland just on time to see the Clarke’s Weavers perched on their nests hanging on the sedge stalks.

By 8am these iconic birds of Dakatcha woodland fly out in flocks and return with caterpillars in their beaks to feed their young in the nests. “It’s a soft healthy food full of protein for the chicks,” says Ms Ng’weno excited at finally seeing the birds feeding their chicks.

In the bird world, it is a momentous occasion for this is the only second recording of Clarke’s Weavers seen feeding their young in the seasonal wetlands of Dakatcha Woodlands. As I mentioned earlier, the first time was in March 2013.

Background

Fleur Ng’weno’s eureka moment happened in 2010 when Martin Odino, researching on bird deaths due to poisoning by the agro-pesticide Furadan around Bunyala in western Kenya, reported observing a Weyns’s Weaver in Kenya.

Ms Ng’weno learned that Weyns’s Weavers lived in forests but were also observed to nest in swamps, and she immediately decided to search the seasonal wetlands of the north coast as well as the Brachystegia forests in Dakatcha Woodland. And she finally found the nesting ground in 2013.

“We know almost nothing about these birds,” says Ms Ng’weno who has been coming to Dakatcha Woodlands since 2007. “Nobody knows their breeding seasons, their movements or their population, except that they live almost entirely in the Brachystegia forests and now we know that they nest in the wetlands of Dakatcha Woodland,” she added.

“And now we’re learning more about Clarke’s Weavers. We now know that they do not nest at the same time because they nested in March 2013 and now it’s May 2015. It seems that they nest when conditions are right. But the big question,” she ponders, lowering her binoculars, “is whether we can conserve Dakatcha Woodland, its Brachystegia forests and its wetlands.”