Friday, February 28, 2020

The flood scare that wasn’t a false alarm…


The flood scare that wasn’t a false alarm…

This wasn’t the first flood scare we had, but it would certainly be the one we remember.

The night before, we were woken by Stephen and Lesingo; the water from the Talek River had risen some 30 feet and was now breaking at the kitchen tent. So, in the dead of night, we packed the cars full of our most valuable things and moved everything from the kitchen to the lab tent, which sat on higher ground. We ended up with a stove and a fridge on our dining room table. But as the night went on, the river receded, I was sent back to bed, and we were in the clear…for now. 
Just as the guys had settled everything back into the kitchen so that we were able to cook food, the river rose again the next night. But this time, it didn’t just stop at the kitchen tent.

I had experienced quite a few flood false alarms since coming to Talek Camp about 3 months ago, but when Lesingo woke me that morning of January 30th at 4am, something told me that this was the moment we had been preparing for. I quickly gathered my belongings and followed Lesingo into the night to see how high the river had risen into camp. 
The kitchen tent did not have the waters breaking at its edge this time. It was completely engulfed, already about a foot deep in murky brown water, and rising still. The river made its way to the edges of the lab tent, and eventually, took that too. We had a lake instead of a driveway. The shower and the choo (Swahili for toilet) were completely underwater. We were running out of time.
In a hurry, we went through the lab tent flood protocol and loaded the Land Cruisers with the rest of the valuables that weren’t taken the night before and packed them to the ceilings with LN tanks, test tubes, ID books, GPS collars, and anything else we could fit.

Eventually the sun began to rise as we moved to higher ground and we were able to fully see for the first time how much damage the Talek River had actually caused. We waited with the cars on higher ground for nearly 6 hours, while often heading back into camp to asses the situation as the river continued to rise, and then eventually return to its banks. I made several trips back to my tent as I saw the water rising nearer and nearer each time. By the final trip, my tent no longer looked like a cozy home away from home, but rather a scene out of the Twister movie. I had stacked drawers upon desks, and bedding upon drawers, and then more rugs and clothes on top of those. I stripped my bed completely and flipped it over, stacking it even higher on top of the pile of all of my things. I don’t know whether it was the river mocking me for having turned the inside of my tent completely upside down, or simply sheer luck, but the waters never reached my tent, and for that I am grateful.
By around 9 am, just as all of our stomachs were beginning to rumble, Benson emerges from the bushes carrying a crate of soda and a Tupperware container full of leftover bread. It was breakfast for today, and we ate and drank and laughed over the fact that the guys were most upset that they hadn’t saved the chai tea from the kitchen to go with their well balanced breakfast. If you know the Masai men, you know nothing can stand between them and their chai. 
By 10 am the waters of the Talek River had finally receded. The guys had managed to drag the stove from its safe haven on the dining room table of the lab tent, to a dry and shady spot just outside of camp. Within moments we had eggs on the burners, tables and chairs set up in the grass and hot food in our bellies. From that moment on, beginning with that stove, we rebuilt camp. First a tarp to cover the stove, then batteries and lights to see in the dark, more tables for dish washing, another camping tent to store food…
It all came together before our eyes over the next few days. We made do with what we had, for we had come to realize that what we had was much more than others who had been hit by the flood, and we were feeling incredibly thankful. We had enough dry beds to sleep in, clean water to drink, good food to eat, and a warm fire to sit by. All in all, we made out from the flood pretty well. Our camp may have suffered severe damage, but we managed to save nearly everything, most importantly our high spirits. We will need those as we continue onto our 3rd week of rebuilding Talek Fisi Camp!

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

An Ode to the Mara


Most stay for a weekend
But I stayed the whole year through
And there’s nothing to say but
You’re the coolest of the cool

You got me into birding
So I’m officially a grandma
But I don’t mind
They make me ooh and ahh

And thanks for putting me with Jana
She tolerates my b.s.
Even when I ask her
To drive down The Abyss

You brought me close to my hyenas
And for that I’m forever thankful
Not to mention all the sightings
Cheetahs and leopards, you’re never dull

We drive your tracks like we belong
But don’t worry, we never take you for granted
Getting stuck when we least expect
Leaving our respect for you, un-slanted

Your skies make our jaws drop
Burning suns behind wispy clouds
Teaching us to use our cameras
And making our photos the talk of the town

Each of our clans that grace your lands
Entertain us to no end
Happy Zebra, North, and South
Intertwining, and hard to count

ANUB* and ONEK* from South to North
MOMO*, GOLI*, KNG* and more
Moving back to South, ensuring
South returns to it’s former glory

With only a few weeks left
It’s a bittersweet goodbye
You’re biggest drawback
Is you don’t have tacos
But that isn’t a surprise

So thank you for the memories
The photos and the fun
My hyenas and I won’t forget
This year even when it’s done

*Full Name: ANUB (Anubis), ONEK (Onekama), MOMO (Momo), GOLI (Goliath Bird Eating Spider), KNG (King Ghidorah)

Please see below for some of my favorite wildlife photos taken this year:
Camera stare

AMOR* on top of mom, WAFL* 
AMOR* smushed against mom, WAFL*


SPCE* framed by termites

ANUB* throws a carcass

KRKN* carries a carcass

HRLY* freaks out

UNO* freaks out

NEDL* prance

SAW* rolls 
A grumpy baby TLDA*



WSKY* got a vertebra

SNUG* yawns weirdly

Scratch!

So many yawns

Bedhead

Flehmen response

Flehmen response again

Wanna go?

Don't fall off mom!

Ohhhh man

Trumpet!

Snack time
More flehmen response!
Full Names: AMOR (Amoretti), WAFL (Waffles), SPCE (Myspace), ANUB (Anubis), KRKN (The Kraken), HRLY (Harlequin), UNO (Uno), NEDL (Needle), SAW (Sawtooth), TLDA (Matilda), WSKY (Whiskey Sour), SNUG (Silver Nugget)

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Three Months In

African Paradise-flycatcher


We spend a lot of time outside. Pretty much from when we start morning obs at 5:30 AM and return to camp after evening obs around 8:00 PM. Being outside this much lets you really get to know the Mara and camp regulars. 

This snag almost always has a grey kestrel perched on it.


Schalow's Turaco
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see or hear African black-headed orioles, Schalow’s turacos, or African paradise flycatchers around camp. Schalow's turacos are gorgeous but stay high up in the canopy where they have proven challenging to photograph. Others are far more unpredictable. A week ago violet-backed starlings suddenly flooded into camp, and three days later they were gone. Twice I have seen a grey-headed bush-shrike skulking through camp, once in early December and again a few days ago. It stealthily crept through the branches of the trees in camp until the flycatchers discovered it and harassed it out of camp. 

African Black-headed Oriole

We also have a warthog sow and piglet who visit camp everyday. She used two have two other piglets (but we think they may have been taken by a leopard) and two warthog boars. There is a third granddaddy of all warthog boars with massive tusks who I usually see on the edge of camp but rarely comes in when the other two boars do. Four or five dik dik also run around camp with their tiny noses wiggling at full speed. 

Momma warthog with her last remaining piglet

A leopard we've seen frequently not too far from camp.


A pair of cranes that nested in our Happy Zebra territory raised a chick from a tiny ball of fluff to a funky teenager. They consistently hang out at a particular pond and so we’ve gotten to watch the chick grow up. 

Our favorite crane family

Two palearctic migrants, black storks and white storks (super creative names, right) have also showed up in the past two weeks. Large flocks of white storks have been using the marshy grassland in North territory. Rains in late January filled up a creek that runs into the Mara allowing fish to move in. The creek bends and forms a pool where fish get trapped as it dries. The black storks were fishing there alongside the regular Mara inhabitants like African spoonbills, woolly-necked storks, and yellow-billed storks.

Now that pool dried up the black storks are using the marshy grassland in North territory with the white storks. There are also tons of shorebirds using the mudflats and marshes. I’m really hoping to see more migrants moving back north at the end of this month and into April.

Solitary white stork who was hanging out with some marabous

Black stork with a fish






Wednesday, February 5, 2020

IDing hyenas: rainy season edition


Hi all!

We are currently in the midst of an “enhanced” rainy season, giving us all a chance to catch up on our favorite TV shows and movies while we’re stuck in camp. Of course, the rainy season does have some benefits. Since we collect and treat rain water to use for drinking/washing water, we haven’t had to get water from the nearby lodge for the past two months or so, and… well… that about sums up all of the benefits of the rain.

Unfortunately, the rain primarily brings two things: tall grass and mud. Lots of it. Our hyenas love to pamper themselves with mud baths, but we are less enthused about it. Not only have we gotten our Cruiser stuck numerous times while out on obs, but the mud also conveniently covers up all of the spots on our hyenas, making IDing a little trickier than usual. Just the other week, we saw 16 of our North hyenas on what appeared to be a carcass. However, with the tall grass and our inability to off-road due to mud, pictures from the session looked like this: 

 Although it’s almost impossible to record any behaviors for sessions like this, we still try to at least ID all of the hyenas who are present. So, let’s get started! First, we’ll do the easy one:



A collar! Only one of our hyenas in North territory is currently collared: WAFL (Waffles), the former matriarch. Although her collar no longer transmits a signal, it still makes IDing her a piece of cake. 1 down, 15 to go. Let’s zoom in!
While IDing, we usually try to rely on shoulder and leg spots, as multiple hyenas can have similar body spot patterns. However, this pattern is luckily unique to one individual: DEJA (Déjà vu).
Ready for a challenge? Let’s ID this individual:
We’ll zoom in to see the spots a little more clearly…
Unlike DEJA, this is unfortunately not a very unique body spot pattern… carefully looking through our ID binders, we can maybe narrow this down to 3-4 potential individuals. To make it a little easier, here are just two of the contenders: LOBI (Lobster Bisque) and ZIMU (Mzimu):
LOBI - one of the highest-ranking hyenas in our clan (she is one of SOUP's older cubs).
ZIMU - a mid-ranking hyena who belongs to JUDE (Hey Jude). 
Are you able to tell who it is? Luckily, we have another shot of this hyena from a different angle to confirm!
If you squint really hard, you can see three spaced-out spots going down the shoulder of this hyena, making it ZIMU! Another tell-tale sign? One of the other individuals I IDed for this session was actually LOBI, automatically disqualifying her for this round.

Alright, now for the final challenge! Can you ID this individual?

Let’s zoom in to see if that’ll make it easier:
Nope! The mud, tall grass, and stance of this hyena give us little to no spots to use for IDing. In this case, we simply leave the hyena as an unidentified individual, conveniently nicknamed unIDmuddy for this session.


Bonus game: spot the track! 
Another fun side effect of the enhanced rain? Most of our usual tracks have disappeared! Both of these pictures were taken while I was stopped on an actual track in one of our territories – can you tell where I’m supposed to go? 







Michigan State University | College of Natural Science