An Ornithologist and a Search for Bush-Babies
Monday, September 5, 2005
This evening Heather and I decided to relax in the garden for a while, tired after our afternoon's hike on Kilimanjaro. I took my tea and Heather brought her beer over to a table underneath an enormous mango tree
. A hedge of jasmine perfumed the air.
Our drinks finished, we took a wander around the Marangu grounds and along our way we met a very interesting man.
His name was Peter Oliver, an Englishman with a strong Irish accent, and he was the resident bird-watcher.
He led us over to a telescope set up among the flowering shrubbery and let us peer through it to show us some rare nesting falcons. These gorgeous birds were two African "hobbies", as they were called, and they hadn't been seen around Marangu in thirty years.
He was a font of information on the local birds and pointed out various species as we walked along. "Ah, these are variable sunbirds", he would nod, pointing to some little birds on a nearby branch. It was his job to take small groups of visitors around the area on birding tours. He told us that we could pick up a checklist of birds seen in the hotel gardens from reception, which we later did.
Peter also identified some of the trees growing here that I was curious about. The tree with the pink pom-pom-like flowers was known as the "powder-puff bush", which is exactly what I would have called it.
Later on this evening, after dusk had fallen, we Jeff and I met Peter Oliver again, this time sitting under the mango trees and talking to Wayne and Anne-Dorte.
Peter told us that if we were interested night-time here on the hotel grounds was a good time to look for chameleons in the big hedges. They would often have pale skins at night making them easy to see by flashlight.
He also said that he'd seen bush-babies here at night, which are squirrel-sized nocturnal mammals with huge saucer-shaped eyes. Wayne said he heard one behind the shower-block last night. Bush-babies are named because their sound is said to resemble the noise of a crying infant, but Wayne says it sounds more like a little dog yapping: ow ow ow ow ow !
Jeff and I decided to set off with flashlights in hand right then, looking for chameleons and bush-babies. But although we wandered around peering up into trees for nearly an hour, we did not find any animals.
This evening Heather and I decided to relax in the garden for a while, tired after our afternoon's hike on Kilimanjaro. I took my tea and Heather brought her beer over to a table underneath an enormous mango tree
. A hedge of jasmine perfumed the air.Our drinks finished, we took a wander around the Marangu grounds and along our way we met a very interesting man.
His name was Peter Oliver, an Englishman with a strong Irish accent, and he was the resident bird-watcher.
He led us over to a telescope set up among the flowering shrubbery and let us peer through it to show us some rare nesting falcons. These gorgeous birds were two African "hobbies", as they were called, and they hadn't been seen around Marangu in thirty years.
He was a font of information on the local birds and pointed out various species as we walked along. "Ah, these are variable sunbirds", he would nod, pointing to some little birds on a nearby branch. It was his job to take small groups of visitors around the area on birding tours. He told us that we could pick up a checklist of birds seen in the hotel gardens from reception, which we later did.
Peter also identified some of the trees growing here that I was curious about. The tree with the pink pom-pom-like flowers was known as the "powder-puff bush", which is exactly what I would have called it.
Later on this evening, after dusk had fallen, we Jeff and I met Peter Oliver again, this time sitting under the mango trees and talking to Wayne and Anne-Dorte.
Peter told us that if we were interested night-time here on the hotel grounds was a good time to look for chameleons in the big hedges. They would often have pale skins at night making them easy to see by flashlight.
He also said that he'd seen bush-babies here at night, which are squirrel-sized nocturnal mammals with huge saucer-shaped eyes. Wayne said he heard one behind the shower-block last night. Bush-babies are named because their sound is said to resemble the noise of a crying infant, but Wayne says it sounds more like a little dog yapping: ow ow ow ow ow !
Jeff and I decided to set off with flashlights in hand right then, looking for chameleons and bush-babies. But although we wandered around peering up into trees for nearly an hour, we did not find any animals.
posted by Spider Girl | 8:19 PM
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