A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson

They had been carrying on their Tuesday morning affair for almost two years now and though Mr Malik had never had an affair, he supposed that a certain furtiveness was necessary to achieve full satisfaction in these things. Standing furtively to one side were Patsy King and Jonathan Evans. Joan Baker and Hilary Fotherington-Thomas were leaning against a car talking to a couple of pink-faced men, one bearded, whose pocket-infested khaki clothing instantly identified them as tourists and their accents as Australian. Seated along the low wall in front of the museum a gaggle of Young Ornithologists (YOs), mostly students training to be tourist guides, chattered and preened.

Few would forget the incident with the Governor General’s wife’s corgi. Of course it wasn’t quite accurate to say that he had no memories of the javelin throwing. He could still recall the brush of feathers against his face and that single moment when as the bird’s talons closed around the prize its yellow eye looked into his. At his first school sports day (how many years ago was that now could it really be fifty?) Mr Malik remembered little of the sprinting and javelin throwing and fathers’ sack race but he would never forget the kite which swooped down from nowhere to snatch a devilled chicken leg from his very hand. Expert scavengers, they thrive on the detritus of human society in and around Nairobi. You never know exactly how many kinds of birds you will see on the Tuesday morning bird walk of the East African Ornithological Society but you can be sure to see a kite. How many times had he heard Rose Mbikwa say those words?Īlmost as many times as he had been on the Tuesday morning bird walk. Which is, of course, not black but brown.’ Mr Malik smiled. Ah yes,’ said Rose Mbikwa, looking up at the large dark bird with elegant tail soaring high above the car park of the Nairobi Museum, a black kite.

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson