The Santaland Diaries

It is close enough to Christmas that I feel like I can use this title. It also makes sense to parallel the level of complete madness experienced in seeing Santa and the schedule I’ve been on.

All manner of life has been happening. Since arriving in Mabula, I’ve spent more days in the field than I have at home on Mabula. Of those nights on Mabula, the entire staff has been there two of those nights. Needless to say, we are in the busy part of the year.

I started off by going to the northernmost part of South Africa with Lucy (my boss boss) for 6 days, doing nest checks and looking for new nests. Hornbill families use the same nest year after year, so once we find a nest, we can appropriately protect it and check if they are breeding each year. So we were checking the nests we already knew, and searching for new nests belonging to preexisting groups in the area.

Nest checks ended on Thanksgiving day, and as we cruised through Bela Bela on the way home, we scooped up Adrienne, a fellow PCV from Moz and a dear friend who was coming to visit for a final few days in Africa before returning to the states. Between me, Adrienne, and Nicole (the other volunteer on the project), we managed to whip up quite a nice thanksgiving dinner, if not 100% traditional. The next few days were absorbed with finding as many cool game sightings as possible, at which I think we succeeded.

After Adrienne started her long journey back to the states, I immediately jumped back into field work, doing chick harvests. Ground Hornbills lay two eggs, about five days apart, but only raise one chick. In an attempt to boost the population, we snatch up the second chick, and take it to be hand reared for release once they are fledged. It’s a job that requires a lot of care, and a lot of driving. It’s a fun, finicky, very tiring job, which I love immensely. My coworker, Natasha, and I have been hanging out in the Kruger area for nearly two weeks now trying to harvest as many chicks as possible.

Beyond that, I’m not sure what else is new. Everything is still going a mile a minute. If you have a question that’s burning you up, or if I managed to miss a facet of my life, shoot me an email or a facebook message, and I can try to remedy the situation.  In the meantime, here are a few photos!

If strange bugs and monkeys don't do it for you, click a photo and you might find a picture of an elephant...