Rain and wildlife

We've had some heavy rain over the last couple of days.  The big wet season is supposed to be a few weeks away yet so I'm not sure if it has come early this year.  In any case it has been a pleasant change - settled the red dust nicely.  The rain also brought out a few critters in our backyard:

Giant African Snail

General report and a few bird notes

Double-toothed Barbet

We found out that Jenny has the week of 6-10th September off so we are heading to Speke Bay Lodge about 100 km east of Mwanza.  This involves overnight crossings on the ferry which should be an interesting experience.

Speke Bay Lodge is on the lake shore and has large areas of dry savannah country.  It is close to one of the main Serengeti National Park entrances and we hope to go on a day safari into the park although we haven't found one we can afford yet.

A fairly quiet week up on our hill but not so quiet down in the town.  The campaign has just started for the national election at the end of October.  Our fellow VSO volunteers, Michelle, Mark and Abraham live in town and their next door neighbour is the local candidate for the dominant CCM party.  Campaigning involves driving flatbed trucks around town loaded up with huge speaker systems booming out heavily distorted music and political slogans.  They occasionally drive up our way and are incredibly loud.  We can also hear the noise from in town but it is not disturbing.  Poor M,M and A have this noise going next door half the days and nights.  We saw them for Friday afternoon drinks yesterday and they were looking decidedly frazzled.  We've offered them sanctuary in our house on the hill - but I think our cold shower and squat toilet were deal breakers.

We've actually had some rain.  On Thursday and Friday morning and again today we've had thunder rumblings and a few gentle showers.  This has settled the dust a bit.  I'm a bit disappointed to be missing out on the rain people tell me they've been getting at home.  I heard today Lake Hindmarsh is full for the first time in decades.  Hopefully Lake Linlithgow will fill up as well and still have good water level when we get back.

Our modem is working well.  It's a bit slow but reliable.  We tried skype-ing some friends recently but gave up because we couldn't hear them.  Eventually we got a phone text message from them admitting their computer doesn't have a microphone!  I won't embarrass them by naming them.

Jenny and Michelle finished their school visits this week.  The last school was a privately run english language primary school.  It was the only one they visited that had power.  A couple of the government schools this week were particularly run-down, over-crowded and under-staffed.  The next stage is to start developing programs to address the needs identified by the teachers they have met and then to organise the training sessions.

Jenny's motorbike arrived on Monday and is safely locked in our shed.  Jenny hasn't received her training certificate from Dar Es Salaam yet so can't legally ride it.  It may well stay in the shed for the duration.

On Thursday I was invited along with Jenny and Michele and Mr. Josiah (their boss) on one of their school visits.  Mr J. assured me there was a nice patch of bush with plenty of birds.  I assumed this was at the school so was a bit disturbed when they dropped me off at a bridge over a small stream in the middle of nowhere and said they'd be back in two hours.  As always there were lots of people around but I wandered up and down the stream then across some rocky hills and no-one paid me much attention.  The birding was quite good with Banded Martin, Winding Cisticola and African Pipit added to my list.

Winding Cisticola

African Stonechat

Crowned Hornbill

At home there have been a few new birds possibly on the move in response to the change in the weather.  A group of Bee-eaters arrived on Tuesday but never came close enough for identification until this morning - White-throated Bee-eater - an intra-African migrant.  Also, this week we had visits from two Hornbills.  First the Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill then the Crowned Hornbill - both big birds full of character.  A Splendid Starling popped into the garden briefly on Wednesday.

White-browed Coucal

Down in town Jenny and I saw an Apalis-type bird that didn't match anything in the field guide.  We also saw a new Weaver that was probably a Slender-billed.  We need better views of both.  At the Bukoba Club last night I saw my first Grey Heron for the region.  All the others possibles have been Black-headed Herons up until now.

Eight weeks have just flown past - 15% of our time is over.  Before we know it the December-January break will be here and we need to start planning what to do with those five weeks.  Anyone who wants to come and visit needs to book in very soon.

Bye for now…

Saturday 28 August, Bukoba

Birding at a local wetland and some more photos of birds in the back yard.

On Friday I went had our friendly taxi driver pick me up early for a few hours birding away from town.  The first stop was a patch of remnant vegetation along a creek a few km south of our house.  On Google Earth it looked promising but I wasn't able to find tracks through the forest and the terrain was quite steep as the creek flowed down to the lake.  I'll try again as I can see buildings on the lake shore so there must be access.

Next we went to a bridge Neil Baker had told me about: 1°28'22.58"S, 31°40'30.61"E.  The bridge crosses a large marshy river flat with extensive reeds and papyrus areas and some open water with sandbars.  The slopes leading away from the river were rocky with grass and occasional small bush areas.  Quite a few birds here.  On a sandbar was my first Rufous-bellied Heron - a bit of a skulker so nice to see one out in the open.  On the water nearby were African Jacana and White-faced Whistling-Duck.  A Malachite Kingfisher and some Little Rush Warblers were in the reedbeds.  Overhead was a spectacular Palm-nut Vulture and an African Marsh Harrier quartered the swamp downstream from the bridge.

In the nearby grassland I saw small flocks of Fawn-breasted Waxbills and Fan-tailed Widowbirds and several African Stonechats and Swamp Flycatchers.  Lurking in the scrub were Dark-capped Yellow Warbler, Yellow-throated Leaflove and Black-bellied Seedcracker.  On the drive home I added White-browed Coucal, Long-crested Eagle and Sooty Chat.

I'll endeavour to visit this area monthly for regular surveys.

Here are a few photos of more birds in our backyard:

Black-and-white Shrike-flycatcher

Bronze Mannikin

Eastern Plantain-eater

Holub's Golden Weaver

Birding in Bukoba - update

I'm continuing to add birds to the house list.  Recently I've seen Black-winged Kite, Gabar Goshawk, Little, White-rumped and Palm Swifts, Pied Kingfisher, Greater Honeyguide, Grey Woodpecker, Chinspot Batis, Black Cuckooshrike, Black-headed Oriole, Yellow-throated Greenbul, Barn Swallow, Violet-backed Starling, Snowy-crowned Robin-Chat, Village Weaver, Vieillot's Black Weaver, Yellow-bellied and Black-crowned Waxbills and Yellow-throated Longclaw.  70 species now for the house survey site and 84 for Bukoba in all.

Baglafect Weaver

Scarlet-chested Sunbird

I've retracted Paradise Flycatcher because I now suspect it was a female Black-and-white Shrike-Flycatcher (a species I've seen fairly regularly now).  I've also deleted Westrn Citril because I think I got it wrong and the Northern Puffback was more likely a Black-backed Puffback (again one I've seen several times now).  There are a few non-breeding plumage bishop/widowbird/whydah/quelea type birds around but I haven't figured out what they might be yet.  I'm endeavouring to photograph them to help with identification.  Most of the canaries are Brimstone but I've definitely seen at least one Yellow-fronted Canary as well.

Any time now the European migrants will start arriving.  The Barn Swallows I saw a few nights ago were probably early arrivers.  I need to study up the warblers and raptors in particular.

Down in town I've added a few species but haven't spent much time looking there.  We saw a spectacular little Sunbird along Shore Road which had a bright blue back in the sunlight.  The only close match is Western Violet-backed Sunbird but we both agree it wasn't white underneath.  Any suggestions?  An African Green-Pigeon was also down near the lake on the weekend.  At the wooden bridge over the stream flowing into the lake were several tiny flycatchers.  Swamp Flycatcher would seem most likely but none of the 4-5 we saw had the brown chest band of adults of this species.

A few birds seem to be thinking about breeding.  I've seen Rüpell's Starlings and Bronze mannikins carrying nesting material without any real purpose.  Some of the Weavers seem to be practicing their skills stripping bits of banana and palm leaves.  A pair of Augur Buzzards are building a nest close to our house as well.

Monday 16 August, Bukoba

Minor annoyances and major pluses

Life is not all bliss here.  I thought I'd put in a few of my (very) minor annoyances and then a few of the things I really like about living here:
On Saturday we bought a small fridge.  This will transform our lives because we can buy more food, store leftovers, keep drinks cold, maybe get some milk etc.  Unfortunately our power supply seems unable to cope with the fridge and the power board for charging computers and having a couple of lights on.  On Friday night nothing we could do would stop the power from tripping off.  More frustrating was that the neighbours all had power for their sound systems, TVs etc.  The problem persisted through much of Sunday and we called our landlord who arrived with an electrician.  They decided to replace the tripping unit but when they came to do it today (Monday) all systems were working properly.  They decided it was probably a blown globe in one of the bedrooms that was causing the problem.  Since they have left this morning the system has tripped several times and all I have on is one hotplate for boiling beans.

I've already mentioned the bureaucracy for getting a post office box.  Hopefully this week the key will arrive from Dar es Salaam or wherever they keep them. The whole process has been truly bizarre.

Consumer goods here are mostly very poor in quality and not cheap.  We have tried several sources for AA batteries but they never seem to last long.  The cost works out to be similar to that we would pay at home but they are basically rubbish.  Other things like dish cloths, sponges, brooms, mops, notepads, toilet paper etc are similarly poor in quality.  Some things seem to be unobtainable here.  I haven't seen dental floss or vegetable peelers, for instance.  We are putting together a list of items Jenny's sister Lyn might post to us if we ask nicely (and if we ever get our PO Box key).

Road rules basically don't exist or are ignored.  Pedestrians (like us) are the lowest rung and are expected to get out of the way of bicycles, motorbikes, cars and trucks in that order.  Many of the roads are red dirt and no-one slows down when they pass you so you come home from a walk covered in dust.  There is an interesting gender divide with only a very few women riding bicycles and hardly any riding motorbikes or driving cars.  Women do much of the food and water fetching but normally have to walk.  I must ask someone about this issue.  It doesn't seem at all fair.

Now the things I like:

The food is fresh, simple and tastes great.  Vegies are all full of flavour, cheap and plentiful.  Eggs likewise although small.  Meat is available but the quality is not brilliant.  We've found a shop that sells little packs of mince beef and have enjoyed that with pasta sauce a couple of times.  My first foray into cooking the local beans was not a success but we've mastered them now and they are also becoming a regular part of our dinners.  We have several edible things in our yard with a couple of different types of tomatoes and a tomato/eggplant hybrid thing I've never seen in Australia.  We also have potatoes and sweet potatoes apparently but I don't know when we should harvest them.

Our water supply seems fine and our filter does a great job.  No more tummy bugs touch wood.  Sodas (fanta in several flavours, coke etc) and beer are cheap.  The doughnuts are delicious even when a day or two old.  Bread is limited to white, sugary thin sliced loaves but is fine toasted.  Samosas filled with spicy mince meat are readily available and cheap for lunch.

We've found a local FM radio station that has BBC or Voice of America news fairly regularly so we've been able to keep up with the major stories from around the world (nothing from Australia of course).  Apart from this the radio is best left off unless you like a solid diet of !

We've found a great internet cafe in town where we can take our laptops and they seem relaxed about how long we spend there.  We are still looking into getting a USB modem.  They cost 70,000 shillings and then you have to pay for the download gigabytes which are quite expensive.

The little market up our road is proving to be everything we'd hoped and many of the staples can be bought there.  Fresh food is seasonal here so the choice from the local stalls is a bit limited but with the fridge we can get things like pineapples and melons in town once or twice a week.  It's a lovely walk to the market and we chat to our neighbours as we go.  I think the local kids are used to us now because they no longer hang around the house calling 'Mzungu! Mzungu!"

Yesterday we spent the morning sweeping every room and then mopping them.  This has greatly cut down on the existing dust and the kanga curtains are keeping out new dust.  We've also covered our loungeroom bookshelf with a kanga to give more protection to our meagre collection of DVDs and our electronic gadgets.  I still need to clean the window slats but pole pole.  Still no sign of rain but our landlord has been predicting it for two weeks now.  It will be interesting to see what effect the wet season has on our lifestyle.

Jenny has been visiting her district primary schools and getting to know the teachers she will be training and the issues they deal with.  There are many many issues and it's a bit overwhelming.  Where should you put most effort?  Jenny saw one class where the kids were being taught to read an analogue clock.  The teacher had one small clock to demonstrate to 50 kids and didn't seem too sure how it worked in any case.  She has made a couple of cardboard clocks for a few shillings each to show how it might be done more successfully.

We had a lovely lunch down on the lake on Saturday.  Grilled fish and chips and a couple of Kilimanjaro beers under a shady spot watching Lake Victoria waves on a sandy beach.  Jenny's birthday in a couple of days so I'll get her a cheesy card, some chocolates and take her for a nice meal.  No cake this year - I just don't see how I can make one with our current kitchen setup.

I hope you are all finding these blogs of interest.  Please take the time to comment or, better still, send us an email with news from home.  We have no real feeling for how the election is going back home.  I doubt if we will hear anything on the news here about the results.

Monday 16 August, Bukoba

Birding in Bukoba - first impressions

Blue-spotted Wood Dove

As I've previously mentioned our house is high (150 m) above Lake Victoria and the business centre of Bukoba.  While the house itself has no garden to speak of we are surrounded on three sides by lush gardens with bananas, plantains, avocados, papaya, mango and assorted vegetable crops.  The front of the house looks over a large grassy paddock used for drying clothes and grazing a small cattle herd.  This combination attracts lots of birds and I've been keeping a daily log for the Tanzanian Atlas of birds seen within 500 m of the house.

Interestingly we have quite a few small eucalyptus groves nearby and there are Silky Oaks (Grevillea robusta) from Queensland and radiata pines scattered around.  Lots of trees I can't put names to of course.

Bronze Mannikin

Daily visitors to my atlas patch include Hadada Ibis,Red-eyed Dove, Blue-spotted Wood Dove, Eastern Plantain-eater, White-headed Saw-wing, Common Bulbul, Rüpell's Starling, African Thrush, Bronzy and Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Northern Grey-headed Sparrow, Red-billed Firefinch and Bronze Mannikin.  I've also seen Black Kites soaring overhead every day.

Hadada Ibis

Less frequent but regular visitors include raptors such as African Fish-Eagle and African Harrier-Hawk, the weird Hamerkop, the spectacular Ross's Turaco, Common Fiscal, Tropical Brubru, Lesser Striped Swallow, Baglafect's Weaver, Holub's Golden Weaver and Northern Brown-throated Weaver.  These are probably present every day but are less conspicuous or visit at times when I'm not keeping an eye on things.

Northern Grey-headed Sparrow

Then there are a number of species that have popped in for a quick visit or two.  Eventually I hope to see patterns but at the moment I have to assume that these species are in low numbers locally or wander far and wide.  Included in this group are things like Palm-nut Vulture, Shikra, Augur Buzzard (seen more often a bit further afield), Speckled Mousebird, Malachite Kingfisher, Little Bee-eater, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Double-toothed Barbet, Black-and-white Shrike-flycatcher, Northern Puffback, African Paradise Flycatcher, African Blue Flycatcher, Angola Swallow, Black-lored Babbler, African Yellow White-eye, White-browed Robin-Chat, African Dusky Flycatcher, Green-headed Sunbird, Olive-bellied Sunbird, Grey-headed Nigrita and Brimstone Canary.

Down in town the lake dominates and I've added a number of species.  A surprise was the number of Pink-backed Pelicans.  These seem to be far more numerous than the White Pelicans but I haven't spent a lot of time looking at them.  The huge and ugly Marabou Storks strut around the lake vicinity or soar overhead.  Two Abdim's Stork,  a few African Openbill and two Spur-winged Lapwings were seen on the weekend in front of the lake campground.  Pied Kingfishers are everywhere there is water.  Hundreds of them hunt over the lake in a constant flurry of activity.  A fish wouldn't stand a chance.

Pink-backed Pelican

A few other sightings in town include Purple Heron, Speckled Pigeon, Woodland Kingfisher, Angola Swallow, Violet-backed Starling, Western Great and Little Egrets, African Pied Wagtail and African Palm Swift.

Readers with African birding experience will note some absences in the species listed above.  I've seen no Cisticolas, Pipits, Larks, Chats etc.  I've been surprised not to have seen any of these.  Some of the open grassy and rocky areas should have them. 

Red-eyed Dove

I should also add I've seen a few species that I haven't yet identified.  These include several raptors, swallows and swifts.  More work to do!

Ross's Turaco

Monday 9 August, Bukoba

First week progress

Jenny's view on her walk to work

Lots of progress to report.  Jenny had a couple of days at work, met some of the teachers she will be working with and got hold of copies of the Standard 7 exams in Maths and Science.  These are for our equivalent of Grade 6 kids.  The exams were very interesting - mostly multiple choice and some questions covering material our kids wouldn't be expected to learn until year 9 or 10 high school.

We've made several trips to town, learning where everything is, buying food and household essentials (buckets, mops, cooking utensils etc).  Still heaps more to get but we can't do everything in one hit.  We've made significant progress on our post office box.  We have a number and a photo ID card that says we have one (PO Box 1951, Bukoba, Kagera, Tanzania).  Unfortunately we don't have a key for it yet.  Maybe later this week…

The annual Nane Nane festival has just been held.  This is the region's agricultural show and we went to see it on Friday.  Lots of good ideas to take back for Sheepvention.  Jenny bought 5 kangas (large colourful sheets of material used for clothes by women here) and we have curtains on most windows now to help keep the dust down.

So far we haven't had any rain.  One night there was a big noisy storm but no precipitation.  The weather is mostly sunny and warm - probably nudging 30 degrees most days.  It doesn't get cold overnight but the locals are often rugged up.  Many of the school kids wear jumpers all day.  I saw one chap in town wearing a thick fleecy-lined parka.  Babys on mother's backs are often swaddled in blankets and wooly caps.

On Saturday there was a picnic lunch organised by the local VSO volunteers.  Some travelled for a couple of hours on mini-buses to get here.  It was in a shady spot down by the lake and very pleasant.  A major highlight was meeting a chap who lives near us who told us that down our road was a small market area where we could buy many of our daily food needs.  We checked it out on Sunday and, although most stalls weren't open, it looks like we will at least halve the need for walks into town.

Today Jenny headed off for her first full week of work.  I walked down to town for some supplies (shampoo, toilet paper, birthday card for Toby etc.) and to use the internet.  Internet access here is limited to three places in town as far as we can tell.  All 40 minutes walk away.  The power goes off regularly in one of them and another had no connection when we tried it on Saturday.  I managed 30 minutes today.  We will investigate buying a USB 3G modem for our laptops but these are expensive and it will be interesting when we say we have Mac computers.  One of the volunteers has a modem she is willing to sell us assuming we can get it to work.

I think we are still a week or two away from getting a good routine going but I reckon we have made excellent progress in our first week.

 
Monday 9 August, Bukoba

And so we arrive in Bukoba!

Finally the day came and early Saturday morning we assembled outside the hotel to catch taxis to the airport.  Of course this is Africa (TIA) so only one taxi had been ordered for four adults, one child and heaps of luggage.  The taxis are not big here either.  We eventually arrived at Dar airport where I sent texts to all my St. Kilda supporting friends and relations after Essendon's third victory over them in a row.

We caught a turbo prop with Precision Air to Mwanza on the southern shore of Lake Victoria.  This was about two hours.  Then we caught an Auric Airlines Cessna Caravan (Google it! One engine, one pilot!) across the lake to Bukoba - about 40 minutes.  The plane obligingly did a big sweep around the town before landing on the grass strip.

We were met by Jenny's local colleagues and taken to our respective houses.  Mark, Michelle and Abraham are in a large house in the centre of town.  We haven't seen them since so don't know how they are faring.  Our house is high above town to the south with a great view over the lake to the east..  It's about a 30 minute work to Jenny's office and the same into town.  Walking back up the steep hill is hard for a couple of old mzungus and I suspect we will get to know a couple of the taxi drivers quite well.

Our house is larger than we were expecting.  It has three bedrooms, a nice loungeroom with a servery into the kitchen.  There's another room off the kitchen and a basic toilet (a squat type) and shower (cold).  We're buying a few bits and pieces each day to start making it a home.  We have a high wall around the house and the large back yard has the foundations laid for another, smaller house.  It's very untidy at the moment with bricks and rubbish lying around but we will tidy up and get some outdoor furniture.

If you are interested you can see our house on Google Earth at S 01° 20' 42.4", E 31° 48', 09.7" elevation 1285 m.

We have hundreds of neighbours who all return our greetings as they pass by.  There is a large girls secondary boarding school down the road so there is plenty of traffic but it is still really quiet for the most part.  The local kids find us endlessly fascinating for some reason.  Every time we step out the front we hear little cries of 'mzungu mzungu!".

We are surrounded by banana, coffee, pawpaw and avocado trees.  There is also a patch of huge eucalyptus just down the road that looks like it should have koalas.  Our yard is almost devoid of vegetation but there are trees and birds everywhere and I can happily spend an hour sitting quietly to see what turns up.

Some of the birding highlights so far are Fish Eagle, Augur Buzzard, Blue-spotted Wood Dove, Ross's Turaco, Eastern Plantain Eater, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, African Paradise Flycatcher, White-headed Saw-wing, Black-lored Babbler, Rüppell's Starling, Violet-backed Starling, African Thrush, Bronzy Sunbird, Green-headed Sunbird, Baglafect Weaver and Grey-headed Nigrita. One gets the feeling that just about anything could turn up.  I met Neil Baker of the Tanzanian Bird Atlas project in Dar last week and he has persuaded me to keep plenty of geo-referenced records.  One problem I'm having is the ability to identify raptors flying overhead.  One I've seen on several occasions seems to match Eurpoean Honey Buzzard but they shouldn't be here at this time of the year.  I'll keep working on it.

I've been a bit crook for the last couple of days but am on the mend and will take over the domestic duties from tomorrow.  Shopping is quite different here.  There are a couple of small supermarkets where it is possible to get most of what you need and luxury items like tinned fish and deodorant.  Prices in these shops is higher than from the market and small stores.  It can be really hard to find what you want at the market etc however and it all takes longer.  We have to keep reminding ourselves to operate in African time.

Wednesday 4 August, Bukoba