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Published: November 17th 2010
Blue-banded kingfisher
According to one of our bird books, this is Borneo's rarest kingfisher!Hi all,
This past week started off again with ellies—lots and lots of ellies. On the way to our survey stream on Monday we saw several, and it is amazing how quickly something as large as an elephant can disappear into the forest—an elephant! Because of our car fiasco the previous week, the station staff dropped us off and returned several hours later to pick us up, in order to avoid further car damage. We managed to see a rare kingfisher on our survey stream that night (the blue-banded kindfisher!) as well as 2 snakes, and on our way home we saw a leopard cat (so small!) and more elephants than I could count. There were lots of baby elephants about too—and in one case, when we rounded a corner, the baby immediately moved between the two adults he was with, and the adults shuffled around to keep themselves between us and the baby, then quickly moved off into the forest. So cool!
Despite our great beginning, the week wasn’t our best yet due to the several infections, bites, and stings we all managed to get. I think this may be one of the reasons that not
Rachel's leech-y and mite-y legs
The blood is from a recent leech bite, and the red bumps are from mites. everyone wants to do this job—some people just don’t think the rewards are worth all the leeches, mosquitoes, fungal infections, and other bitey/stingey/pokey things one must endure in the field. We all get our share of leeches every day, but I don’t mind them too much because they don’t transmit disease and generally aren’t too uncomfortable, save for a few that get a bit itchy. This week, James managed to get bitten by mosquitoes in his sleep, so his back was covered with horrible looking bites that scabbed over. Rachel was bitten up by mites, which covered her ankles and knees, and kept her from sleeping most of the week. Then she got a fever, a multi-day headache, and possibly a 24-hour flu! I think we were all really happy for the weekend to arrive to re-group and recover a bit. Here’s hoping this coming week will be much more body-friendly!
On a more positive note, we have discovered that it’s possible to bake bread and cakes in our rice cooker. As a warm-up for Thanksgiving, we made a pumpkin cake that was surprisingly good--almost as if it were a "real" cake! So we’re getting excited for our
Rice cooker pumpkin cake!
Who knew that rice cookers had so many hidden talents? non-turkey but pumpkin-heavy Turkey Day. If anyone wants to send us a turkey, we won’t be sad about it.
I hope this finds you all well, and getting ready for a delicious Thanksgiving. More soon from the field!
xoxo
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GAIL
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THANKSGIVING
Hi Jen, I'm so sorry you can't be with us for Thanksgiving, but you will be on our minds. I am so enjoying this blog! So exciting. Can you get a picture of these elephants? My kids at school would like you to send us a pic of 1. a red eyed tree frog & 2. a poison frog. I told them that I would see what I could do. They think you are an explorer! Thake care and say hi to James for us too. Love you! Aunt Gail