http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Peregrine/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Peregrine en-us Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:09:29 BST Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:09:29 BST Irsquom constantly on the lookout for snakes. Not because they frighten me although itrsquos undoubtedly a good idea to maintain a healthy respect for them but because I want to see them. The majority of snakes that Irsquove encountered on and around Mpala have been dead ones killed by locals out of fear hate and superstition some tribes believe it adds seven days onto onersquos http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-280281.html With the second phase of the Brain Hormone Project behind me and another couple weeks until we begin the third and final phase Irsquom finally able to delve into my project at least the project I developed under Dustinrsquos supervision and with his help.To sum it up quickly Dustinrsquos past research has shown that Superb Starling females show a higher rate of infidelity based on ext http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-280280.html There is something truly marvelous and unique about stumbling across wildlife in pastoral Kenya. I've visited a number of National Parks and reserves throughout Southern Africa and Kenya and while sightings of charismatic megafauna are always exhilarating it's a different experience when it's just part of daytoday life. Maybe it's the fact that it's not as expected here that the rarest anim http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-272865.html Well we managed to squeak by with enough starling specimens to make Brain Hormone Project Phase 2 a success. It was looking grim there for a while I was worried we wouldn't acquire an adequate number of samples which would have potentially rendered the samples we had already collected up to this point all the birds from the first phase useless. Although I suppose I shouldn't get too ahead http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-272484.html Minutes past 0100 the night hangs heavily over the wilds of East Africa the bewitching hour begins. A full moon bathes the bush in a dramatic glow giving it an eerie personality for it is the dead of the night yet shadows are strewn across the monochrome landscape like lost souls. Save for the confused chirp of a diurnal bird all is quiet all is calm.A female waterbuck relaxes in the still http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-270256.html A extremely tragic thing happened to me this morning in the process of trying to save a bird I inadvertently killed it. Let me explainWhile checking my email in the office at approximately 0630 a Lesser Striped Swallow flew in through the wideopen door and couldnrsquot seem to find its way back out of the room. Remembering that there was a butterfly net in the corner I grabbed it and t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-269699.html Mike Rowe may not be impressed but my job has been plenty dirty the past couple days. Allow me to elaborate starting with a little background detailThe second phase of the Brain Hormone Project is proving a bit more difficult than anticipated. So far in almost three weeks wersquove only managed to catch five adult female starlings four Superbs and one Greater Blueeared Glossy hereaft http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-269274.html The Mpala School attended by the children of Mpala staff recently won a regional competition in gymnastics and will subsequently be attending the national competition in a few weeks. Thus theyrsquove been quite eager to show me their moves the past couple evenings while Irsquove been netting birds near the staff village at the Ranch House where many of them live. It started yesterday w http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-267092.html After much anticipation and waiting Mpala has finally been graced with the sweeping thunderstorms and driving deluges that signify the beginning of the long rains. It really is a pleasing sight to see dark clouds and distant squalls approaching after so many weeks of sun and heat. Must be the Pacific Northwester in me Irsquoll always love rain. There is just something about it Irsquoll a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-265031.html Ohmygod I've got malaria . . . was the first thought that crossed my mind Friday morning as I sat beneath a tree watching a mistnet feeling the gradual oncomings of the flu. I'm not too much of a hypochondriac but I've been told time and again that if you're not taking antimalarials which no longterm researcher does mind you assume you're coming down with malaria when you begin to feel http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-264655.html Having recently made the acquisition of a fresh roadkill hyrax Kayna invited me to her friend's house so I could meet Akela the Spotted Eagle Owl actually a subspecies called a Greyish Eagle Owl for whom she had decided to stop and bag the mutilated meal. Simply an opportunity I couldn't pass up I formulated an excuse to skip out on my afternoon field work and accompanied Kayna to her secon http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-260692.html The past few days have been a bit boring I have to admit . . . I'm certainly appreciating having my days off but I'm also spending nearly every minute wishing I were somewhere else. There's just so much of Kenya to see and I feel quite helpless being stuck at Mpala. Excluding my first day off which was spent nursing a hangover barely left my banda all day from a barbequeturneddrinkfest a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-259062.html The vast majority of the last week has been spent trapping starlings for the Brain Hormone Project. We're almost two weeks into the first of three threeweek phases and I've already killed a morally reprehensible number of birds. Sure it's in the name of science and it is a novel study the first of its kind and I'll keep using that justification to keep myself from feeling too horrible abou http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-251803.html While driving along the ring road the other day Wilson spotted an odd object in the crown of a Bosquia a short distance from the research center. Upon closer inspection we saw that it was the remains of a leopard's dinner a warthog carcass. Earlier today when I mentioned this discovery to Jake he decided it was the perfect opportunity to score some sweet warthog tusks and we set off with http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-251786.html I had a bit of a shock this evening when I walked into the dining hall for dinner and saw sitting at a table a group of unfamiliar men with AK47s lying haphazardly at their feet. In the three or so weeks that I've been at Mpala I've not once seen a gun and naturally thought things were amiss. Since they didn't immediately reach for them as I entered the room however I pretended like I wasn http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-249658.html Early this morning I awoke to the most peculiar night noise I've yet heard in the African bush. So strange in fact that when I woke up for work a couple hours later I wasn't convinced it was anything more than a vivid dream.Initially the sound wasn't anything particularly unusual nothing more than the call of a fairly unimaginative owl giving a single hoot every second or two. Then sudden http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-249657.html Valentine's Day in Kenya surprisingly is not just like any other day. In fact I was intrigued to find that it appeared more important to the locals than to the researchers I don't know why but I had a misconception that Valentine's Day was a Western thing. Both Wilson and Godfrey commented on the holiday and one of Kayna's field assistants wore a bright red fleece specifically to celebrat http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-249656.html Not too far from the research center about 2 klicks is a small kopje perched on the side of hill. Known as Lookout Rock it's an easily accessible and favored site for sundowners for good reason the short scramble to the top yields sweeping views to the south and east of the plateau Mt. Kenya and surrounding ranches all bathed in the sun as it sets behind a ridge to the west. I felt t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-249651.html I just returned from the most epic nightdrive of which Irsquove ever been lucky enough to be a part. It was a somewhat lastminute decision to go at all but MAN am I glad we didThe drive actually started out painfully slow and relatively uncertain. Kayna captained the wheel while I manned the spotlight from the roof hatch and Sarah kept a watchful eye from shotgun. We saw very little for http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-249635.html Technically my day actually started very very early in the morning sometime between 24am when a Spotted Hyena woke me by whooping right outside my banda. It must have been immediately on the other side of the wall since I could actually hear its feet padding the ground as it loped by. Makes me think twice about just stepping out of my banda to go to the bathroom at night So does the seve http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Laikipia/blog-248547.html