I am currently sitting atop the roof at Mwamba where meetings are often held because there is usually a steady breeze up here. Although it is not hot right now, the setting also has a nice view of the ocean, and is a good spot to work on the computer. According to everyone here, the weather has been very much atypical for this time of year. Usually, it is sweltering hot with very high humidity, but we have had slightly cooler days, not very high humidity, and a nice breeze off the ocean in the afternoons. I have even been wearing a sweater at night to keep the chill off. If the weather stays like this, I think I'll be very happy.
Unlike the weather, I do hope to get a little more variety in the coming weeks, although I do mostly enjoy the work I have been doing. I have mostly been working on the bird banding database, trying to clear up some bugs, make it a little more user-friendly, and figure out exactly what data has been entered. Anything to do with data is usually tedious, but I tend to find it very rewarding when all the data is entered, or when you have developed a nearly perfect database that will be used for many years to come. I am making slow headway because the data is a little bit scattered, with chunks having been left unentered, and my head is beginning to spin a little. I think I will try to break up my day a little bit more so I don't go crazy.
On Wednesday morning, instead of breaking up the day, we extended it by about 6 hours. We were out of bed by 2:00 am and out on the beach by about 2:30 setting up mist nets to catch shorebirds. It was actually really fun, everyone was in good spirits, and working in the dark was not as hard as I expected. We collected twelve birds, mostly greater and lesser sandplovers, which I was excited about because plovers are one of my favorite families of birds. Although I didn't get to band any, I did get to pull one out of the net. My job was to scribe (write out the banding data), because Colin wants me to learn more about it for entering data into the database, and I'm hoping for future banding opportunities.
On Thursday evening we went to do a crow count in Malindi. There are two types of crows here, the Indian house crow, and the pied crow. Pied crows are native species, while house crows are non-native and cause quite a lot of problems. According to the reports here at A Rocha, the house crows were being controlled by a poison called Starlicide up until about 6 years ago, and the population was down to about 30 crows in Malindi. The Kenyan government banned the importation of Starlicide, even though it is safe for use (we use it in the United States to control European starlings). At one site in Malindi (there are two), we counted almost 3000 house crows, and only 74 pied crows. The population explosion is obviously out of control, and I have not heard of any plans to begin controlling them again. Perhaps by continuing to count the crows and show a need for Starlicide, the Kenyan government will be more willing to allow importation.
I really enjoy the outside work, so I hope to get to do more of that. I also hope that I break out of my shell a little bit to explore the area and learn more about the Kenyan experience, rather than just the "volunteer at A Rocha" experience. I have had a number of suggestions from Benjo, one of the staff members here who came on in September (and already speaks Swahili!), and the other volunteers would be happy to go on an adventure with me to explore the area a bit more. For my first official outing, a group of us went out for traditional grilled meat last night at a place called the Coconut Car Wash Cafe, just down the road from Mwamba. Because our crow count went late, we didn't get to the cafe until about 8:30, where Benjo had already ordered the food. We ordered drinks and waited about an hour and a half. The food still not having arrived, we inquired and learned that our order had never been placed with the cooks! In the end, our food arrived at about 11:00pm when the place was being packed up for the evening, and we didn't arrive home until midnight. But it was fun!
These monkey photos are for Addi!! Hope to get a better one, with my 200mm.
I think (and hope) that I will continually get more comfortable and confident with my surroundings so that I am able to explore more and really learn about Kenya. I am still getting over jet lag a little bit, and learning peoples' names here at Mwamba, but every day I am a little more comfortable with everything
On Wednesday morning, instead of breaking up the day, we extended it by about 6 hours. We were out of bed by 2:00 am and out on the beach by about 2:30 setting up mist nets to catch shorebirds. It was actually really fun, everyone was in good spirits, and working in the dark was not as hard as I expected. We collected twelve birds, mostly greater and lesser sandplovers, which I was excited about because plovers are one of my favorite families of birds. Although I didn't get to band any, I did get to pull one out of the net. My job was to scribe (write out the banding data), because Colin wants me to learn more about it for entering data into the database, and I'm hoping for future banding opportunities. 
On Thursday evening we went to do a crow count in Malindi. There are two types of crows here, the Indian house crow, and the pied crow. Pied crows are native species, while house crows are non-native and cause quite a lot of problems. According to the reports here at A Rocha, the house crows were being controlled by a poison called Starlicide up until about 6 years ago, and the population was down to about 30 crows in Malindi. The Kenyan government banned the importation of Starlicide, even though it is safe for use (we use it in the United States to control European starlings). At one site in Malindi (there are two), we counted almost 3000 house crows, and only 74 pied crows. The population explosion is obviously out of control, and I have not heard of any plans to begin controlling them again. Perhaps by continuing to count the crows and show a need for Starlicide, the Kenyan government will be more willing to allow importation.
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