Weeks 4,5 & 6

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Initially, I must apologise for a long overdue update. It’s amazing how fast weekends seem to disappear when you spend Saturday morning working and then travelling to the weekend house. The afternoon is then soon eaten into menial tasks such as shopping and washing, and then the desire to spend my weekend attached to my laptop is often diminished by the beach that awaits 5 minutes walk from the doorstep… I have then also spent a couple of weekends working on the island, which although usually peaceful and quiet, deprives me of some of the modern world comforts that the weekend brings; such as internet. And power on demand. Irregardless of where I spend the weekend though it is still true, that bats are known to scream well into the night, gecko poo can drop onto your food or face at any given point from the ceiling above, the cleaning power of the washing machine is equal to that of hand washing, ants will still find a way into most items of food ,(despite the fact they are kept in the fridge) and cockroaches still lurk in the clean crockery of the cupboards. And, of course, mosquitoes are a given. Having used all available areas of skin last weekend, they progressed onto biting the soles of my feet. Despite all this, I would still recommend this lifestyle to anyone.

You know when you’re a resident somewhere when you start using the bus, particularly when you have no clue what you are doing (Or to be honest, where you are even going). It is an even rockier introduction when, instead of flagging down the bus as intended, you unwittingly manage to stop two Mauritian gentlemen who are adamant they will take you wherever you need to go. This offer was quite emphatically turned down. I have also discovered it’s hard to walk down a road, without being harassed by about 5 taxis assuming you must want a lift. Eventually we got on the bus, which was quite a tightly packed affair, and often went at speed, madly beeping for reasons best known to the driver most of the time. The experience was then made all the more by the old gentlemen, who after ushering us over, declared there was no room for me, and continued to talk to himself in garbled French and poke me, insistent there was no room on the bus. To clarify: he was of no authority, and the bus was moving, meaning I was somewhat stuck there. Needless to say it was a long bus journey. When eventually arrived to our destination in one piece the performance of getting a boat across to work ensued. One of the joys about my job is the commute to work in a boat. With perhaps the exception of when it is raining or particularly windy. At no point, do I feel cooler than when I am on a boat, in the sunshine, with blue seas and fantastic views with the wind in my hair. Sad, but true fact of the day for you all there…

So to return to the real reason I am here: work. Well, despite it being low season (in which traditionally breeding should not occur our Passerines have flouted that belief and have become (to use a scientific term) ‘twitterpated’. For all those of you who are not down with Disney or Bambi I simply mean they have all started breeding! Which is great to see, but has meant a busy few weeks for the off season team. Breeding means nest accesses, nest watches, ringing chicks and fledglings and a lot of thorough searching of pairs, plus all the day to day jobs. This began with a discovery of unknown fledgings, and then within the week nest building had begun in earnest and we realized we might get to see a lot more breeding that originally predicted!

In the past few weeks I have rung my first Olive White Eye fledgling, very cute – even if I am biased! I have hung out with Pink Pigeon squabs, which also win a prize for fluffy endearing birds. Even at this young age, they are so much more substantial than my adult passerines, whom I live in fear of squashing with my abnormally large hands. The excitement of this week was our invertebrates transect lines, which are supposed to give us an idea of the food available in the forest, but actually just involved me getting very lost, bitten and sweaty in a Mauritian forest. The other ‘excitement’ of this week was the loudest thunderstorm I think I have ever heard that dramatically reduced the amount of sleep my 6am routine demands. I think the feeling is also enhanced when you sleep in a bunk house with a metal roof, doors flung open on an isolated forested island. It’s a good job I am an adult though and not scared of silly things like that, and therefore did not feel compelled to sleep with a sheet over my face for the rest of the night.

Work becomes much of a routine, like any job really so it is hard to give detail of any particular day passing. Unfortunately we lost one of the birds recently, which resulted in an afternoon spent post morteming, combined with pimont making and cake baking – a very odd combination of field station activity. The field station is good though, and nice evenings have been spent with good food, games, or just a good book. Fridays seem to have developed into cake and film Fridays – an activity that I am very endorsing of!

I was also introduced to a new field station on the Main land, where Olive White Eye work is carried out during the peack season so i may find myself there at some point from August and it was a good idea to become familiar with the territiories! Despite it being rather basic (bedroom is a shipping container) and having been told dubious stories of the Pot growers that roam the forest to harvest their plots and large monkeys (we were told we might want to take a Machete...) i found it all rather nice! It is very different to the island - for one the forest is much taller and i do not spend my day hunched to avoid low branches and the canopy! The flora is not native and so i shouldn't prefer it, but it offers a nice change. The weather is often cooler with more rain and the landscape more hilly! I felt like i got alot of exercise that day! By the end i was so muddy i am convinced my clothes will never be the same again - which is definately true with this washing machine!

Giant tortoise sex is something I thought I had left behind in Paignton – how wrong I was. Now i have on occasion been woken up at 6am to the sounds of it; to those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, words cannot adequately describe! I also try and swim recently, but have to regularly don the snorkelling mask now as I nearly stepped on a Lion Fish last weekend, so spend most of my time desperately treading water in fear of standing on something untoward. As of yet, this doesn’t seem to have had the desired affect of whittling away my waist!

Contact with the outside world is limited to weekends, and odd outings to buy food supplies and/or gas. Infact, last week, we were on a jaunt to the supermarket and as usual I was smelly, dirty and attracting odd looks because no self respecting person appears in public like this. But then to top it off as soon as I climbed out the Jeep I felt my trousers rip, right across the bum and down the leg. Luckily I was very kindly lent a jumper to tie around my waist and hide the main damage but it’s probably for the best I spend the majority of my time away from society here for fear of further humiliation… The fact that in two months I have only used a third of a bottle of shampoo is definitely indicative I need to wash more. The weekends don’t usually have too much excitement to report. This weekend we are climbing Black River Peak, the highest point in Mauritius! Then Saturday nights usually involve some activity, be it dinner, bar or a BBQ of some variety! I have also experienced Mauritian markets and sampled the shops. I bought guava this weekend, but was more disappointed to find out that what I thought was sugar that he had spooned on heartily was in actual fact, chilli salt. Definitely a cause for disappointment. I’m not sure I can report much by way of tan, I don’t feel like I have much of one to show off, but I hope by wearing more white I can trick people into thinking I have one? Most of the Mauritian public think me a tourist though (can’t say I blame them), and I am regularly wished a nice holiday.

I hope this has gone someway towards updating you all – I feel like I should have a lot more to say after such a long time. If you want to know anything more, ask and I will tell! But until next time, love and hugs to all J Jen x

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