Lots about birds...

This last week has been one full of transitions, as we have had many guests come and go and five new volunteers arrive at Mwamba! We now have Kate and Gabe (from Nairobi and Tennessee), Helene (from Lebanon) and Jenny and Dan (from the UK). We are just starting to get to know each other, and I am looking forward to working with everyone for the next while. It was a busy week, but Henry and Belinda being back at work means I have gotten to do much more outdoor work, which makes me quite happy!

Some of the highlights in this last week or two were bird ringing on our own nature trail, and making a bigger bird cage for one of our rehabilitation project birds (funny story to come on this one). Bird ringing was really fun as we caught some very pretty kingfishers... two different kinds: two Pygmy Kingfishers and a Mangrove Kingfisher! I really like them; they are kind of comical in how big their head is relative to the body, and so pretty with metallic blue and purple feathers!

(Mangrove Kingfisher)

As far as bird rehabilitation goes, we had Bella (a Tern) and Oscar (a masked Booby) living in a fairly small cage, while we fed and exercised them. We decided that they needed more wing room, and as we had many volunteers and helpful guests this week we embarked on a bird cage building project.

(Oscar)

(Dave and Albert taking Oscar for a swim)

Wouldn’t you just know it, the same day we half-built the thing, Oscar flies better than he has since we took him in and completely disappeared yesterday! Dave and Gabe went looking for him on the beach Saturday morning with no success. But we saw him swooping around the beach over the weekend, and yesterday were told by some kite surfers about a big bird they had been feeding (!). So we went out, and sure enough it was Oscar. With some expert pillowcase wrangling by Dave, Helene and I we collected him up and brought him back for a bit more food before we release him again. He feeds out on the coral gardens, which are a few hundred meters from the beach. We are thinking that though he has regained a lot of strength, he didn’t have enough to fish enough. Hopefully it’s not that he is now dependant on us! The cage is now completed, and we hope that he’s enjoying the new home!

Dave and I also helped paint the entrance “banda” (structure) at Mida Creek with a lot of the other volunteers, where there is a boardwalk that was built by A Rocha to raise funds for ASSETS. It’s a cool structure, but always needs a lot of maintenance... so we may spend more time there soon.

For the rest of this week, I am not sure what all I will be doing, but I think that there will be more GIS learning... I’ve been learning to use the ArcGIS software package since our last GIS-savvy volunteer left, though I’ve yet to have an actual project for it! It came with a helpful 20-chapter guide, and I’m about half way through it. I’ll also be taking some time to help in the kitchen, and hopefully go to the Farming Gods Way plot at Gede with Dave.

I’ve also been thinking of home a little more, as I registered for my courses and applied for some scholarships this week. Looks like it will be another busy year, but I am looking forward to the courses J It’s hard to believe that we are halfway through our time here already! I’m glad we still have so much time left though; it feels like there is so much more we’d like to do!

Take care everyone, and feel free to email me whenever, I like getting news of home!