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Published: February 24th 2008
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Pastel Sunrise
An example of one of the many beautiful sunrises that has greeted me over the past week. Technically, my day actually started very, very early in the morning, sometime between 2-4am, 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 several-month-old pile of elephant dung approximately 1 meter from my front step.
I hear hyenas nearly every night, but this was the closest yet. I absolutely love the night noises around here - it has to be one of my favorite aspects of the African bush. For instance, also around 4am, a lion's roar broke the early morning's silence and again woke me up. Additionally, a regular nightly interlude has been Grevy's Zebra, which sounds like a "donkey being dragged down a flight of stairs," as another researcher so eloquently put it. Wakes me up every time.
We bird techs never get a proper breakfast except for our day off so, per ususual, I piled some sugar on a bowl of cornflakes, spread some jam on
Kenyan Waiting Room
Wilson standing outside the "waiting room" at BMK, the mechanic in Nanyuki where we hope to get some spring-traps made. a piece of toast (which was actually a treat - the generator usually hasn't started in time to make toast), and enjoyed a banana (which are deliciously sweet here, by the way). Instead of the field, however, today we headed off to Nanyuki with Wilson in the back and Dustin at the wheel of what will be my trusty (hopefully) steed for my forays into the field - a faded red Suzuki aptly named "Bloodzilla" by my predecessor, Brynn. My week of training is officially over, and Dustin is heading back to Berkeley, entrusting the success of his research to me for the next 5 months. I opted to join him on the trip to Nanyuki just so I had the opportunity of getting to know "town" a bit in case I need to make any trips there for supplies or any other reason. I became acquainted with the various "supermarkets" as I stocked up on a few things: crackers, peanut butter, and wine to name a few. There's one supermarket in particular that caters to
wazungu (singular
mzungu, meaning European or Westerner) such as myself, and they actually had a beautiful 5-liter jug of none other than Carlo Rossi,
Bloodzilla
Our trusty little Suzuki. And by trusty, I mean it hasn't completely stranded us in the field anywhere. Yet. making me a bit nostalgic. I opted for a box of something a little more local, however (but if anyone is thinking about coming to visit me, keep in mind Kenya does have some of the comforts of home!). This store was also the only one in which I could find sunscreen greater than 8 spf. For whatever reason, adequate sunscreen is next to impossible to find here.
Most of our day in Nanyuki was spent at a local mechanic shop (the road to which, quite representative of Nanyuki, is so full of potholes that it requires a 4x4 - Nanyuki has got to be one of the potholiest cities in all of Africa), trying to get some spring-loaded bird traps manufactured. A pair of Germans studying Northern Wheatears (a type of bird) at Mpala were using such traps (made in the Czech Republic), and often caught starlings as "bird bycatch." We borrowed a couple on a few occasions and - lo and behold - we had our starlings (which we later practiced fitting with radio transmitters before letting them go in an aviary). Our current method of trapping starlings requires baiting them with pawpaw (papaya) underneath a wire
Stick-and-box Trap
An example of the trap I'm currently using to catch birds, which I liken to the "stick-and-box" traps you see in classic Sunday morning cartoons like Tom and Jerry or Looney Toons. That's a White-browed (Heuglin's) Robin-Chat on the left, and Rufous Chatterers on the right. cage propped up by a stick, attached to which is a string that we yank as soon as a starling comes to gorge itself on the fruit. In other words, we wait and wait and wait, perched in the shade beneath a tree, for our bird. The advantages to the spring-traps are that they're self-closing, much smaller and therefore easier to transport, and save time from having to wind and unwind the strings. The disadvantage is not being able to discriminate which birds I want to trap, but that's negligible. It would make life in the field infinitely easier to have such traps, but after today's couple hours spent trying to get them made at BMK, I'm not going to get my hopes up. Unfortunately, having the Czech version shipped here would require more time and money than Dustin is willing to allocate. There's a chance he'll get them shipped to the US or the UK, then send them with somebody on their way to Mpala - but, until then, I think I'm stuck with the primitive and cartoonesque string, stick, and box method.
After dropping Dustin off at the
matatu stand (he decided to take the cheaper, overland
Riverside Tents
Some tents situated along the river at River Camp, where student groups stay when they visit Mpala. Unfortunately, since all the student groups between now and June have been canceled, this camp won't see too many visitors. It's a shame, as this is quite a nice place, and has undergone (and is undergoing) some major changes to make it world-class. Apparently a leopard is a frequent visitor to a specific perch across the river. method of travel back to Nairobi), Wilson and I made our way back to the center. I drove the first half, past the police checkpoints where, had Wilson been driving, he likely would have had to fork over 500 or so Kenyan shillings (about $8 - nearly 2 days' wages for the average Kenyan).
Wazungu are never stopped, however, and we made it back to Mpala without a hitch, just in time for lunch. I've spent the rest of my day relaxing - a much-needed and long-awaited activity (lack thereof, rather) after the last week of constant information bombardment and training from Dustin. To quickly summarize, everything I'm supposed to do during the next 5 months (trap birds, bleed birds, kill and take tissue samples from birds, fit birds with radio transponders and follow said birds with telemetry, etc., etc.) was discharged on me over the last several days and, needless to say, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. My one consolation is that I've only been here a week and will inevitably begin to feel more comfortable the longer I'm here. My plan of attack is to focus on each project as it comes, and not stress about what's next.
Clifford's
Dustin enjoying the view from the top of the kopje at Clifford's. We were watching the wild dog research team dart African Wild Dogs for rabies vaccinations from here. I have this ominous feeling that that's easier said than done, but only time will tell!
And it's not as if I haven't enjoyed myself during the last week. Nearly every morning, since I wake up at the buttcrack of dawn, I'm greeted by a breathtaking sunrise over Mt. Kenya (see the panorama in my previous entry). I've had the opportunity to see quite a bit of Mpala Ranch and Mpala Research Center, including the river camp where I would have lived with Cornell students for my first three weeks here had the class not been canceled. I've also had the fortune of seeing some beautiful country and plenty of game - impala, eland, Greater Kudu, warthogs, Grant's and Thompson's Gazelles, Plains and Grevy's Zebras, Reticulated Giraffe, hippos, Cape Buffalo, Vervet Monkeys, Yellow Baboons, and (of course) dik-diks. A morning spent climbing about a large kopje yielded views of Klipspringer, Rock Hyrax, an elephant herd, Beisa Oryx, and African Wild Dogs, while a night drive produced waterbuck, bushbuck, eland, White-tailed Mongoose, two species of genet, bushbabies, Black-backed Jackal, Bat-eared Foxes, Striped Hyena, and Aardwolf. And, of course, lots of good birds - far too many to list - several
Hippo Pool
Dustin watching hippos watch us at the Hippo Pool, created by a small hydroelectric dam on the Ewaso Ny'iro river. of which have been in hand.
The people here are quite intriguing as well, though it's taking some time to get to know them. The only time people every really find an opportunity to socialize, it seems, is during meals (which is a set time and dictates everyone's daily routine, much to their chagrin). I'm looking quite forward to becoming more acquainted with them, though - like I said, they're intriguing people with intriguing studies. There are gecko people, termite people, Grevy's Zebra people, large herbivore people, and wild dog people, to name a few. Then there's the staff, all of whom are Kenyan except for the director and her husband, Margaret Kinnaird and Tim O'Brien. The administrative staff joins us for meals, while I run into the rest of the staff (cleaning ladies, waiters, chefs, mechanics, field assistants, and security known as
askaris) at various times throughout the day. Wilson, my field assistant, is slowly teaching me Swahili (Kiswahili to those who speak it) so that I can communicate with them, though the majority of them are proficient enough in English to hold a decent conversation. Regardless, it'd be nice to know the basics of the non-English national
Reticulated Giraffe
One of many . . . there's a group of four that I've run into a few times that includes two youngin's, quite cute. They're a riot to watch run - like slow motion. language (keep in mind there are some 40+ other languages spoken among the numerous tribes, and nearly everyone speaks Swahili and English in addition to their tribal language).
I have a feeling, now that I'm more or less on my own and not following Dustin around like his shadow, that I'll settle in a bit more and become more acquainted with everything associated with Mpala. I'm looking forward to finding my place here for the 5 months.
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