Busy Week

Last week was a very busy week, with little time available for writing in my blog. On Monday morning, we went to Sabaki for a shorebird, gull, and tern count. Sabaki is at the delta of the Sabaki River (which is also the Galana River in Tsavo East, and comes down from Nairobi). Unfortunately, there were too many raptors flying around, scaring up all the birds, so we could not get the count done. But we did get to practice identification at least, and also (to my great pleasure!) saw two hippos playing in the surf at the very point where the river becomes the ocean. Colin mentioned that the delta has changed quite a lot in the last few years, with much less sticky mud, and mangroves starting to fill in where the water used to come up to. There are probably two reasons that these changes are occurring. One is that poor farming practices up river are causing a lot of erosion, which makes for a greater sediment load in the river, and then much more settling occurring at the delta. Secondly, there are a number of wells that have been drilled that pull water out of the river, which supply water to all of Malindi, Watamu, and the surrounding areas. To me, the habitat at the delta seems great for shorebirds, but I wonder what these changes will bring in the more distant future (say, 50 years). 

Putting up the mist nets for catching birds.

On Tuesday afternoon and evening, we prepared for banding birds in the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, one of the largest remnant dry coastal forests in eastern Africa. This forest supports many endangered species, one of which is the East Coast Akalat, which is on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN’s) Red List, indicating that it is critically endangered. We banded four new akalats, and recaptured two, one from 2010 and one from 2008. Andrew, Colin’s research staff person, who has been here for about 7 months as an official employee, has never even seen the East Coast Akalat (he was in Nairobi for our two banding sessions), and I got to hold them in my hands! Very exciting.  

John caught a Crested Guineafowl!

Eastern Bearded Scrub Robin

My East Coast Akalat!

On Friday evening we went out to celebrate one of the ASSETS students heading off to university in Nairobi. It is very difficult for students here to go to university because they often do not have funds to go. Even getting through secondary school (equivalent to high school in the US) is very difficult for a lot of young people because of lack of funds. This particular student, Dan, made it through secondary school with the help of the ASSETS program, and now has found a sponsor to support him through university. The ASSETS staff do presentations at one of the local hotels every other week, and I think this is where Dan found his sponsor. A hotel guest was simply inspired by his story, and decided they wanted help a student get through university. So that is a really exciting thing for Dan. I went to one of these presentations, and Priscilla and Mombosa, who also went through secondary school with the support of ASSETS, got up at the end to say thank you and that they are still looking for support to go through university. Priscilla, my roommate, became close with the volunteers that I went on safari with, and they have agreed to support her goal of getting a teaching diploma from a local university. So A Rocha Kenya is doing really good work getting young people educated, which in my opinion is one of the most important things that can be done to help the Global South improve its lot.

Anyhow, we had a lot of fun at the Kalahari Night Club, with some drinks and some dancing. I am starting to pick up on some of the cultural differences here when I go out of Mwamba. One thing is that two men dancing together is not unusual and is actually very normal. There is no hidden agenda, they’re just out there dancing and having fun. The club was very clean and airy, and was very fun, although (and I will always say this about clubs) the music was too loud! Oh well, something I’ll have to put up with as long as I’m dragged out to clubs.

Leopards and Lava and Kingfishers, Oh My! (Last Day of Safari)

Gloomy weather in Tsavo West

Our last day on safari we woke up to very gloomy weather, with fog and rain preventing us from opening the top of the vehicle for most of the early morning game drive. But the weather gave me more of an appreciation for the heat of the day, and also gave us a good view of some different birds washing their feathers in the rain. Unfortunately, when there is not morning sun it is difficult to take beautiful photos of animals because their eyes look dead, without the glint in them that you see in photos from National Geographic. For instance, we got to see a real-life (not fed dinner) leopard during our morning game drive. Without the sun, you can see that this leopard almost looks stuffed, but I can assure you it was real and walking directly toward our vehicle. And look at the size of his paws! This was an absolutely awe-inspiring moment, seeing this beautiful animal in its natural habitat, probably heading to a comfortable resting spot after a night of hunting (or perhaps mating?).

Leopard in Tsavo West

After our leopard sighting, we headed back to the lodge for breakfast, and to collect one of our party, who had stayed in due to exhaustion. We were lucky to see three elephants dusting themselves along the side of the road on our way back. They were fun to watch because we could tell that the adult was ready to leave, but the "children" weren't listening. The adult would start walking into the bush, wait for the young, and then turn around and come back. She did that at least 3 times while we watched.

Elephant dusting themselves in Tsavo West

 The lodge was pretty well empty, presumably most of the guests had already left for the day. After we were packed and ready to go, we made our way to Mzima Springs, where Mombasa, 5 hours away, gets its water. Along the way we stopped briefly at a recent (500 year old) lava flow in the middle of the park. It reminded me very much of Hawaii, except there was far less lava. At this point and for about 2 miles the road turned black, instead of its normal sandy red. In Hawaii, some of the lava flows from 500 years ago are still fairly uninhabited, but it seemed like this one was being taken over by plants already.

Lava flow from a recently active volcano

Once we arrived at Mzima Springs, Bonaya told us that the guides expect a "little something" from the tourists, even though they are paid by the park. This is common in Kenya, and I will write about it in another blog post. Our guide was an older (probably 40-something) very tough-looking man with a rifle. The others thought the rifle was for leopards or other big cats, but I think it was probably for the hippos and crocodiles. The guide told us about some of the trees along the path, particularly the yellow fever tree. When Europeans were first arriving in Africa, they often camped near swamps or rivers for the water source, but they would then come down with malaria very frequently. The originally thought that these trees, with grow near swamps and rivers, were the cause of the disease, but of course this is not true. I am actually surprised (and glad!) that Europeans didn't try to eradicate yellow fever trees!

When we arrived at the first viewing point, we saw about four hippos in the river in the distance, coming up for air once in a while and twitching their ears, which made the water splash around them. It was really fun to watch them, but they were too far to get a decent photo. While we were there, we saw two kingfishers, the giant kingfisher and the pied kingfisher. The pied kingfisher is black and white and blends in well with the branches it sits on. The giant kingfisher landed on a branch directly above us, and we were able to see all the details in its feathers.

Giant kingfisher at Mzima Springs

We then walked up to the next viewing point, which is where the water comes directly out of the Earth. It was really amazing to see the amount of water simply flowing out of rocks, and to know that this spring provides water for all of Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city. All around this area were Vervet monkeys, with a bunch of babies as well. They were very cute, and they were tame enough to sit for a picture, but timid enough to run when you got too close. I hope this means that the guides prevent people from feeding them.

Vervet monkey adult and baby at Mzima Springs

Blacksmith plover in Tsavo West

Some kind of shrike in Tsavo West, likely a European migrant

After we had seen the crocs, hippos, monkeys, and some birds, we were at the end of our safari. The others tipped the guide and we piled back into the vehicle to head to Mombasa. It was a very long ride, about five hours. The 18-wheelers in Kenya go much slower than in the US. Where in the US the trucks are often passing the other vehicles on the road to try to meet deadlines, the ones here in Kenya go about 25-30 MPH. I asked Colin why he thought this may be, and he said that perhaps they are overloaded with cargo. Maybe they also want to lessen the chance of breaking down and not having any services for miles around.

Once we got into Mombasa, I had to be dropped at the matatu station to catch my ride back to Mida Creek for bird ringing that night. Bonaya promptly warned that there are pick-pockets around, and he also had us lock our doors when we got into the city. Yikes! Luckily, I had no trouble getting into a matatu headed for Malindi, and it cost me about 3 dollars for a 2 hour ride. Unfortunately, I missed my stop at Mida Creek and ended up in Gede, where everyone in the matatu was very apologetic and wishing me good luck in getting back to Mida Creek. There were pikis (motobikes) right there, and one took me back to Mida Creek, and went slowly since I requested he not speed down the highway. I got the mzungu rate (white person rate), but I know they could tell I was in a bit of a situation to get where I needed to be. I made it safely, and the driver was very friendly, and then I spent the rest of the night into Friday morning ringing birds at Mida Creek. An epic way to end a three-day safari, staying up all night with shorebirds and an exhausted Colin Jackson!

Safari Day 2

On day 2 of the safari, we got up for an early game drive at 6:30am, just when the sun rises and the animals are most active. It was a cool and breezy morning, so I was glad to have my long pants and long-sleeved shirt. We headed out of the lodge well-rested and excited to see new animals. Our first sighting was a beautiful male impala. The animals in the park seem used to vehicles, which is fortunate for us safari-goers, but I am almost certain that the animals would run away as soon as a person tried to get out of a vehicle.

Beautiful impala in the morning sun.
Only wish the background was cleaner!

Our second major sighting was the Cape buffalo, a feared animal among Africans. The buffalo is very dangerous and short-tempered and can easily kill a person. But they are beautiful animals and, in the safety of our vehicle, we were able to see them up close.

Cape buffalo with food hanging from his mouth!

 Soon after spotting the buffalo herd, Bonaya heard on the radio that there was a lion spotted not too far away. So we rushed to the place and discovered about forty other vehicles also there, vying for the best spot to see the lion. Fortunately, we had a good look at the lion, which started off lying in the grass, but then he got up and began walking. Male lions are often solitary animals, because they get kicked out of the pride at maturity. Also, males generally do not hunt, partly because their main can cause overheating or impede camouflage. However, when the male is alone, it must hunt for itself to survive. We only stayed for about three minutes to watch this lion, while I would have stayed until it was out of sight; what we might have missed was this solitary lion making a kill!

The lion we saw. Beautiful animal, wish we could have
watched it for a bit longer though.

 After leaving the lion behind, we had some beautiful views of elephants, giraffe, and impala feeding in the same area together. It was really impressive to see all these typical African species together in a group, going about their daily business.

Elephants and impalas feeding in the same area. There were also giraffe in the trees to the right of this photo.

Lugard's Falls

After our game drive we went back to the lodge for a quick breakfast and to grab our belongings from the rooms. We were back on the road looking for wildlife by about 9:30. At this point, we were headed to Lugard Falls, which is a really interesting land formation with beautifully sculpted rocks of different type (metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous) that had been overturned some time in the distant past by geological forces. While there, we saw a fish eagle and a hamerkop. After enjoying the change of scenery and the chance to get out of the vehicle for a little while, we went a little further up the road to a lookout. The lookout was high on a cliff, and we could see the river down below, with crocodiles and even a hungry hippo. I managed to take a decent photo of the hippo through the scope that Roger had brought with him for looking at birds. Hippos are actually feared by the locals more than crocodiles, and they are extremely dangerous.

The hungry hungry hippo!

After our stop at the lookout, we had our boxed lunches and were on our way to Tsavo West. All of us (except the driver!) slept most of the way to the gate, because it was very hot and we were tired from getting up early. On our way from the Voi Gate exit to Tsavo West, we went by the "Maneaters Lodge", and then Bonaya took us off the main highway to the old highway to see the bridge that was being built when the men were getting eaten by lions. It's easy to joke about the "Maneaters Lodge", and we had a laugh when we saw the sign for it. But when you really think about the camps of men being terrorized by two crazed lions, it's spooky to say the least. I remember watching the "Ghosts in the Darkness" when I was younger, but I will want to see it again when I go home.

The bridge that was being built when the Tsavo
Maneaters went in their rampage.

Tsavo East, mostly open and shrubby plains

Tsavo West, mostly thick brush

Upon arrival at Tsavo West, I discovered that the landscape is completely different from that of Tsavo East. There are many more hills and the brush is much thicker, which makes for difficult wildlife viewing but beautiful scenery. Because big game viewing is more difficult, we got to stop and look at more birds than in Tsavo East. We saw some really awesome birds, like the Secretary bird, in Tsavo West, but we also saw lots of beautiful birds in Tsavo East. Luckily, Bonaya seemed to be keen on birds and stopped when he saw something new or interesting.

Kori bustard, seen in Tsavo East

Abyssinian roller, seen in both East and West

Vulterine guineafowl, seen in Tsavo East

Secretary bird, seen in Tsavo West

 In Tsavo West, we drove around in the Rhino Sanctuary, but did not get to see any of the rhinos that are supposedly in there. Bonaya is convinced that there are far fewer rhinos in the sanctuary than the staff claims (no more than 10 versus 60). We did, however, see the Secretary bird here; I spotted it, but Roger identified it. The bird is odd looking, with the body and face of an eagle, but very long legs. The long legs evolved as a defense against snake bites in the thick bush where the bird lives. I and the others were very happy to see this bird, and it was simply luck that allowed us to spot it.

After we left the sanctuary, we headed up a steep hill to get to the Ngulia Safari Lodge. The lodge is pretty nice, but not quite as nice as Voi Safari Lodge. We made our plans for the next and last day of the safari, and then watched the spectacle that occurs every night at the lodge. For many years now (at least thirty I believe), the lodge has been putting out a leg of meat for the leopard that comes pretty consistently every night for its feeding. This leopard is about thirty-forty feet away from where people are eating their dinners, and the cat eats calmly through hundreds of flashes from cameras. I don't think this is appropriate, because the cat may become accustomed to people, making it more vulnerable to poachers, or it may associate people with food and some day try to eat a person (and probably succeed). I don't know what would happen if they stopped feeding this leopard, but the lodge should at least stop this practice when this leopard dies. The watering hold is also very close to the lodge, and people take hundreds of flash photos, but the flashes don't seem to disturb either the elephants or the leopard. I just hope that these animals are not being put in danger by becoming accustomed to people. These animals are being corrupted or adulterated by being too close to people.

"Feral" leopard

Safari Day 1

We left on Tuesday at 7:30am for the first day of our Safari. I went with June, Les, Roger, and Angela who were also volunteers at A Rocha, although they were in their 60s and 70s. June and Les had been on numerous other safaris, so I was glad to be going with a group that knew what to expect and could ask to go to certain places that were special. Our drive/guide was Bonaya, and the tour company was African Memorable Safaris.

 We headed away from Mwamba and onto the road towards the Sala Gate of Tsavo East. The road is dirt and either really bumpy or washboard the whole way. We had wanted to get to Lugard Falls before lunch, so the driver was going very fast. After one particularly bad stretch of road Bonaya stopped to check on something, and discovered that a u-bolt had broken on the right-rear wheel; we were stuck. About ten other safari vehicles stopped to see if they could help, but the break required a mechanic. We transferred into another vehicle and were driven to Sala Gate.

Our broken-down van and others trying to help.

Along the way to the park, we saw a herd of elephants trying to get shade under a bare tree, and the safari vehicle we were in drove right up to them. I was pretty surprised that we were allowed to leave the road in what seems like a very fragile habitat, but I later learned that driving off-road is not allowed inside the park. We were just outside the park at that point, although I still think it was not a good idea to trample the soil and vegetation. It was really exciting to see my first herd of elephants, but we didn't stick around too long so that we wouldn't disturb them.

Elephants trying to get some shade.

After driving for about an hour to the park entrance gate, we were dropped off and waited for about 3 hours for another vehicle to come get us. While we were waiting outside the park, I saw a waterbuck in the distance, crocodiles being called in by one of the locals like dogs, and zebra that were probably within park boundaries. The stop also had a beautiful view of the Galana River, where we saw some shorebirds foraging (like Greenshank). We also had lunch while waiting, since we wouldn't get to the lodge in time, and it was a really delicious plate of beef tips, rice, vegetables, and fries.

View of the Galana River from the Sala Gate.

When our new vehicle and driver got to the gate to pick us up, we went into the park and began speeding towards the Voi Lodge where we would spend the night. We did stop to look at some animals, but we were going so fast that it was hard to spot anything. When we were about 20km from the lodge, our driver heard from Bonaya that the van was repaired and he was on his way to get us again. So we turned around and sped back towards the Sala Gate. I don't understand why we didn't just do a normal-speed game drive while Bonaya drove to the park, which would have been much more enjoyable than rushing around on those bumpy roads.
Once we got back into our original vehicle with Bonaya, we started going more slowly so we could see our surroundings and spot wildlife better. We started seeing more zebra, elephants, waterbuck, giraffe, and lots of different bird species. We also saw ostrich, gazelle, impalas, dikdik (tiny deer), and lots of hornbills. The landscape in Tsavo East is mostly open plains with scrub/brush and thicker trees around any water, so it is really easy to see lots of wildlife, since they are not hiding in thick bush.

I was really excited to see giraffe, they are so strange!

Zebra in their natural habitat.

Adult and calf zebra. There were lots of young animals to see.

Our most exciting siting of the day was a cheetah resting in the shade of a tree. We could tell it was a cheetah because it had black "tears" from the eye down to the chin. There were about eight other safari vehicles there also looking at the cheetah. When the drivers spot something interesting, like a lion or a rhino, they will get on their radios to let all the other drivers where to go, and that is why there are often pile-ups around special wildlife. I would much rather be out in the bush than on the road with forty other safari vehicles, but this is how it is for tourists.

The cheetah we saw on our first game drive.

We got to the Voi Safari Lodge at about 6:30, which is when it starts to get dark. The lodge is perched on a steep hillside with beautiful rooms and a beautiful view of the savanna below. There is a watering hole at the base of the hill where we saw elephants coming in at dusk to drink. There is also a blind near the watering hole, so you can get up close to the animals that come in to drink without disturbing them, which is really important also for making sure the animals don't become accustomed to humans. This was not the case at our next lodge.

Me at the Voi Safari Lodge in Tsavo East.

View from the Voi Safari Lodge.

Watamu Turtle Watch

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the Watamu Turtle Watch. The center is right across the street from Mwamba, so it was just a quick walk to get there. I wanted to post specifically about this organization because they are doing really awesome work for marine conservation here in Kenya. The center currently has 3 rehab turtles that they are hoping to release back into the ocean in the near future. One of them was a gigantic Green Sea Turtle, probably 4 feet long, which had been hit in its eye by a rock (I think) that had been thrown by a boat propeller. The poor thing has bandages on his face and is in very little water until the wound can heal. Other than that, though, he is healthy. He does, however, need to regain good sight to be able to survive in the ocean.

This turtle's eye is covered with bandages from his injury.

Another of the turtles there had been hit directly by a boat propeller, and her shell was cracked open. Luckily, I learned, turtle shells are like fingernails and will grow back eventually and allow her to be released back into the ocean. The third turtle was quite small and had buoyancy problems, so she can not dive for her food, which includes prawns and squid.

The turtles are often caught in fishermen's nets, and the fishermen can call Turtle Watch to have them rescued. When the staff go to collect the turtle, they also pay the fisherman for calling in and allowing the turtle to be collected by Turtle Watch. I found this a bit strange, but our guide did not believe that the turtles are being targeted for monetary gain. Paying the fishermen may also really help because turtles are eaten here, and they can also be turned into turtle oil, and their shells are quite valuable.

This is Olivia, the turtle with buoyancy problems.

Watamu Turtle Watch also does a nightly beach walk to check for nesting sea turtles, which are vulnerable while on the beach. Lights can disorient them and prevent them from laying their eggs, and they can also choose poor spots for nesting. Turtle Watch both protects nesting females, the nests themselves, and will move the nests if necessary. The coolest thing about this particular organization, I thought, is that they take the turtles out to the ocean to swim once in a while to check on the turtle's progress. I don't know if many other marine animal rehab centers do this, but it seems like a really good idea to allow these creatures to be in their natural habitat while being rehabilitated. Then, when the turtle is ready, the staff release him into the ocean.

This turtle's shell was cracked.

I would encourage anyone interested in marine conservation to look up Watamu Turtle Watch and support them in any way you can! Check out www.watamuturtles.com! Also, if you don't want to support this particular organization, I would encourage you all to find the small non-profits that need and deserve support from the local community!

The Owl is the Devil

Today, after long hours of data entry and a nyama choma (grilled meat) feast, 5 of us piled in the car to head to Malindi Airport. Colin had received a call earlier in the day from the Wildlife Management employee at the airport complaining that an owl had taken up residence in one of the sheds. The woman made it clear that the owl was not the problem (other than a risk of colliding with an airplane), but that the airport staff was the problem. In some cultures in Kenya, the owl is a bad omen, and it is believed that every time the owl cries, a person will die. Even after trying to convince some of the staff members that the owl was not killing people ("even if the owl does not cry, someone dies!"), they still wanted it removed.

Kenya is a difficult place to get things done, especially at the pace they're done in North America. Ingrained beliefs and customs make it hard to sway people's opinions, and offending a person in charge of your permits can mean the death of your research project. I learned this secondhand recently when I went with Benjo on a snorkeling boat to survey the tourists. Benjo had already gotten permission to bring Joy, his official assistant, with him on the surveys, but because she was terribly ill, he brought me along to help. This sort of thing would normally be fine in a North American setting, as I'm officially a volunteer with A Rocha Kenya. However, the Kenyan Wildlife Service has the idea that bringing different volunteers to do tourist surveys on snorkeling boats would look like volunteers are getting free tourist activities (even though we were not snorkeling). So Benjo had to smooth things over and promise that he would never take me on the boat again, and that only Joy would assist him. Darn, because I may be doing survey work for my PhD and the experience would be good for me!

Another place that customary values comes up is with the treatment of elders. Of course elders deserve the respect of younger generations, as they do in most cultures. Here in Kenya though, it is very impolite to speak up against an elder's opinion. A Rocha Kenya often participates in community meetings, and has to deal with this situation. One example comes from an elder who believes that putting radio tags on turtles is against God's will, and that he will kill any turtles he see with a radio tag on it. It is not appropriate to disagree with this elder, at least in public, and especially for a white person to do so at a community meeting.

In this kind of situation, it is hard for me to believe that anything will be improved here. But I can see the work that A Rocha Kenya does, and there are many Kenyans that we meet that also understand how important wildlife and wildlands are, and that scientific research can help conserve these. This is where my hope comes from that every place in the world can be made better, but that it will be hard work. Whether or not this work is for me I have yet to decide. There are dire problems in North America that need to be solved, and there is no place like home. At the very least I will take what I learn here back with me as a reminder of what can and needs to be done.

Arabuko Sokoke Forest and other outings

My second week at A Rocha Kenya has now come to a close. I've done a lot more work with the database, entering data, checking feather codes, updating some of the tab orders on forms. Colin and I are going to work on changing all the age codes to the updated version this week, which can be a bit scary because if you do a "replace all" wrong, you can't change it back in Microsoft Access. So we will have to be very careful when we start to update everything.

Besides sitting in the office working on the database, I also had the chance to go into the field quite a bit. On Monday afternoon I and two others went into Arabuko Sokoke Forest, which is the largest remnant of the dry coastal forest in Kenya. We paid 15 USD to the Kenyan Forest Service to get into the forest, and then another 1800 shillings each (about 20 USD) for a guide to show us around the forest. Unfortunately, our timing was not the greatest, and we went at the point in the day when least likely to see wildlife. We saw a chestnut-fronted helmet shrike, a flock of hornbills, and hundreds of butterflies. There are elephant shrews in the forest, as well as buffalo and elephants, but we did not get to see these. Maybe another time.

Three boats with snorkelers who didn't learn anything.

On Monday morning I went out with Benjo onto one of the boats used to take tourists snorkeling, because his assistant has been out sick with malaria and a number of other bad infections (she is starting to get better now and is back in Watamu!). We went out and interviewed six people about the information they had received prior to snorkeling. The information they were supposed to have was that the place they were snorkeling is a National Marine Park and is protected by law in Kenya, and that there are ways to keep the coral safe (i.e., do not pluck pieces of coral to show your friends back home). The group on the boat that day was from the International School in Nairobi, where all of the children of Embassy workers go to school. In my opinion, these should be students and teachers that are in the know when it comes to conservation and the environment, or at least make an effort to learn about it when on a field trip.

I was shocked to discover that this group knew very little about coral reefs, they did not understand that the place they were going to was a National Marine Park, and they had not gotten any information from their guides about the park, safety, or how to snorkel without harming the coral. There seemed to be very little appreciation for the fragility of the reef. There may be a very good reason behind this lack of appreciation for the reef. Many Kenyans are afraid of the ocean and will not go swimming in it, and many Kenyans (even fishermen) do not know how to swim. I speculate that Kenyans themselves do not appreciate the value of the reefs they are responsible for because they have never seen them! Benjo has been giving swimming lessons to some of the Kenyans that work at A Rocha so they can see the reefs, but it has not been going smoothly. Just a couple of days ago, George went out to practice swimming, and he nearly drowned! It will be a long process, and a lot of improvements are needed (like regulating the snorkeling boats as they are in the US), but I can see that the changes needed are coming to light.

The third destination of the week was Mida Creek, and I was there three times. The first time was to practice shorebird identification using telescopes with Colin, Roger, and Juma. As I said in my last post, I'm not very good at identifying birds without any prior knowledge. The second time we went to Mida Creek was for 16 hours, from 4pm straight through about 8am the next morning. We stayed overnight because we were banding shorebirds, and you can only catch shorebirds in mist nests when it is dark out, otherwise they would see the nets and avoid them. We caught 77 birds, including 10 crab plovers, two of which I got to band (yahoo!!). I am a little rusty at banding birds, and crab plovers are much bigger than anything I have banded in the past. Banding them is really funny because you lay them upside down in your lap, and they just sit there calmly on their backs while you put bands on their legs and take measurements.

My favorite! The crab plover.

People started to get a little goofy around 3am from exhaustion, but I felt pretty good the whole night. Alex was laughing hysterically, and Colin was singing funny songs to keep himself awake. Right around 3am we went out to check the nets, and the tide had started to recede, leaving pools of salt water. As I walked through them, I noticed the water around my feet would sparkle blue and green, sort of like fairy dust in Disney movies, and because of the exhaustion I was surely experiencing, it felt like I might be hallucinating. The cause was a tiny organism that is bio-luminescent, it glows when disturbed. It was very cool, and came a close second to my banding of crab plovers.

Once we piled back into the truck and got home to Mwamba, we all went straight to bed. The rest of the day was a write-off for the most part. On Saturday most of the gang went back to Mida Creek to set out shorebird count transects, but I stayed behind and counted tourist boats because my feet had gotten cut up by my Chacos on the night of ringing.

It was a really good week. I am hoping to go on safari on the 14th with four other older volunteers, and at the end of that I'll be in Mombasa for a day at least. So I will have to gear up for sightseeing on my own a little bit. I'm also hoping to walk around Watamu and the area around Mwamba this week. I will report back again soon!

I'm not really much of a "birder"

Lots of bird watchers in the world keep what is called a "life list", or a list of every bird they have ever seen. Some birders even keep track of when they first saw the bird, where it was, but especially what number it is on their list. The goal, of course, is to see as many birds as possible in a lifetime. Lots of people get joy and satisfaction out of doing this, but I see it more as a hassle. I do admit to putting a check next to a bird if I've seen it, but I couldn't tell you how many I've seen, or when I saw them (unless it was for a job that I was seeing them). I also don't go out to look for birds like most Birders do, I instead most enjoy going out to watch the birds I already know, like the bobolinks at home. I do, however, want to see some of the more spectacular birds while here in Kenya (like the rare Sokoke Scops owl).

So I am not a birder in that traditional sense. However, I do really enjoy birds, and almost every time I see a bird I haven't seen before or hear about one that I could have seen if I had been in the right place, I tend to say "ooooh, those are my favorite!" I've caught myself saying it a number of times here in Kenya. I said that about the plovers, I did spend 2 summers watching piping plovers after all. The crab plovers are what I was really excited to see, and they are stunning. And then I heard there might be African Skimmers, oooh, those are my favorite! I do love watching Black Skimmers on the East Coast of North America and remember the first time seeing them in Connecticut, and being amazed they didn't catch their bill on something just under the surface of the water.

For me, birding is a way to learn about birds, how they live, what they eat, how things in their ecosystem affect them (like grazing). I have been keeping a list while here in Kenya, although not religiously, and many on the list were brief sightings that I couldn't point out again if I saw them. I would rather hold a bird in my hand, or study it in the field to really get a feel for it. It's hard to forget a species when one of them bites through your finger while retrieving it from the net.

When people see my resume and all the work I've done with birds, they assume I'm a keen birder. Colin, another volunteer, and I were out at Mida Creek again today to check how well we could ID the shorebirds, and Colin was quite surprised when I didn't really have a clue! I know generally what a plover looks like, and a curlew, and can tell an egret from an ibis, but I must be taught to get to a species level. Roger, on the other hand, who is from Britain, just knows the birds; Roger is a keen birder. I just love birds.

The nest of an African Golden Weaver, which nests colonially with other weavers. This particular colony was right on the main road between Gede and Watamu, and had probably 50 or more birds making a racket. I wonder how the eggs don't fall out of the nest...