The importance of grammar!

As the only person within my particular section of the research group who has English as a first language it is up to me to do all the editing for research documents. Usually this is just tidying up sentence structure and spelling errors. My pet hate is having words spelt in both the American and English way in the same paragraph. Well, my pet hate is American English full stop or should that be period. Anyway…

I was never very good at English at school, my handwriting and spelling always letting me down. Thank God for computers and spell check! It is only now that I am aware of how important grammar is for conveying the right message. Today I went for breakfast at Java coffee house in Pretoria. I ordered the “Alternative Breakfast” which according to the menu consisted of; Bockwurst, eggs, tomato & potato toast. I asked the waitress (or waitron as they are known here – in order not to discriminate on terms of gender) if I could have my potato toast without tomato. She said “yes sir that’s fine”. So I sat with my Java coffee, and an iced tea (both remarkably good hangover cures), and awaited my breakfast. Now to be honest the idea of potato toast was what sold me on the “Alternative Breakfast”. Not that I have a thing for potatoes (or toast for that matter), it’s just that I was intrigued as to what potato toast could be. In my mind I expected some kind of potato pancake, in the Irish style – something akin to soda bread. When my breakfast arrived it soon became apparent that somewhere between the menu, the waitron, the kitchen, and my imagination (admittedly driven my hangover hunger) there had been a miscommunication. What I got was Bockwurst, eggs, potato, & toast. Never before has a simple misplaced “and”, and a missing comma, so destroyed a mans dreams and aspirations for his breakfast. Needless to say I complain heartily in the British tradition, ending up blaming myself for their mistake.

Mozambique 1

I have just been on a sixteen day bird survey of Southern Mozambique. We were helping out on a project looking at the biodiversity of the Maputoland region that extends from Maputo in Mozambique (the capital city) down to Richards Bay in South Africa. If you imagine Maputoland as a body, then southern Mozambique is its beautiful face, and my study site in Richards Bay is (unfortunately) is its arse. I drove up from Richards Bay to meet the rest of the team at Emanguzi (Kosi Bay), and after collecting some emergency rations (beer and firewood) we drove to the border. The border at Kosi Bay is not your typical African border. The atmosphere is relaxed and there is no-one around trying to make a quick buck out of those attempting to cross. The place is so laid back they even bribe you (not quite – but wouldn’t that be great an African Border post where no bribes take place – yes I know I am dreaming but Kosi Bay is nearly there). The most striking thing about Kosi Bay border post is the stark contrast between the South African side and Mozambique. On the South African side you drive up to the border on a tar road. Get your passport checked in a brick building with air-conditioning, where they type your details on to the computer and scan the barcode attached to your passport. You go through a boom gate and then “BANG!” you hit the third world. The road turns from tar to sand without as much as a “by-your-leave”. The Mozambique border guard sits in a prefab building using a pencil to write down your details. The contrast is so vast that it reminds me of when we lived in Australia and we visited Bicentennial land where upon arrival you would walk through a time tunnel that would take you back 200 years.

Once we cleared the border we drove for another 2 hours along sand roads to get to Maputo special reserve (also known as the Maputo Elephant Reserve). The reserve has got to be the most beautiful landscape on earth. The open grasslands contrast with the patches of sand forest and coastal dune forest which appear like islands in the fog, as if floating above the long grass. The beauty of the place is so difficult to describe, it is simply breathtaking.

We set up camp near the main gate of the reserve for the first week. Every day we were sent out to different forest patches to record all the birds we saw or heard. Our day started at 0430 with coffee, a rusk or two, and very little conversation. We left camp at 0500 in order to get to our site in time for the birds to be getting out of bed. With me there was Pieter who was the observer and I was the recorder, thus giving me a chance to learn some of the birds that I will encounter in my own fieldwork. Our first morning we drove as close to our site as we could, parked the vehicle and set off on foot, as we were walking away we heard the “prrrrup” of the African Broadbill. This near-threatened bird is elusive and many a twitcher dreams of having a tick next to its name. It only calls when it is displaying. The display is apparently unbelievable. This small sparrow sized bird flies in a circle with its wings shivering, and then proceeds to hang upside down off the branch to impress potential mates. I don’t know about you but this would definitely impress me. Unfortunately for Pieter and I we heard the Broadbill behind us as we walked off into the mist toward our forest patch. Little did we know that, that was the last chance we would have to see the broadbill on the trip. To rub salt into that wound everyone else on the trip not only saw the broadbill but got great views of its display flight. Bastards!
Pieter and I carried on into the mist blissfully unaware that our GPS had decided it didn’t want to tell us where we were. It resented us walking 100m so told us we had walked 10m. It then decided that it would try and fool us in to believing that despite the rising sun at our faces we were walking west. Eventually after walking for 4km through long grass we decided to duck in to the nearest forest patch and begin our survey. Our first survey point we saw very little as the forest was so dense. Our second survey point was much the same. On route to our third survey point we disturbed some bush pig. Now when one is walking in the Maputo elephant reserve one is constantly made aware of the presence of elephants; a broken branch here, a steaming pile of dung there, and bush pig have the uncanny ability to sound just like a very angry elephant when alarmed. Bumping into bush pig is not for the weak of heart. By the third survey point my heart was beating so fast that I couldn’t hear any birds. When we had finished our survey we headed back to the vehicle. The walk that morning had not been too bad, with the dense fog we were unable to see how far we had walked. Unfortunately the fog and cleared and we could just see a small white speck reflecting the sunlight in the distance. It was a long walk but we were treated to the sight of blue-cheeked bee-eaters hawking insects around our heads.

If you go down to the woods today...

Went out to the forest today, and bumped in to this little fella having a picnic by the road. He is an adult male bushbuck.

Just a few photos of some of the birds we see quite regularly around the forests (well those who sit still long enough for me to work out how to use the camera). On top is a Yellow-billed Kite, in the middle is a Steppe Buzzard and immediately above a Brown-hooded Kingfisher.

A Visitor

On my return from my run this morning, I came back to the gate to find a small mongrel puppy barking at me. Now, I am new to the area, and my first thought was that I was lost and come to the wrong house. However, the gate opened when I pressed the button on my keys. The dog came running up to me and rolled on to her back wagging her tail as if we were long lost friends. My second thought, I must admit, was that Father Christmas had come early. Unfortunately, for me I think it is about 6 years too early. I would love to have a dog, but at the moment I am moving around every few years to different countries, and I am not ready to settle down, even for a cute petit blonde. The dog is now sat on the mat below me, reluctant to be parted from my feet. I will have to go around the neighbours and see if they know where she belongs, although I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to her.

Richards Bay

I have been trying to think of a tag line for Richards Bay, something that the holiday companies might use to entice visitors from across the globe. I could only really think of “Richards Bay – the Milton Keynes of the Southern hemisphere”, or “Richards Bay hot as hell, industrial as Middlesbrough”. Not catchy enough I know. In fact despite being very hot, surrounded by heavy industry, and designed in that classic ‘60s new town style (all the areas are named things like Arboretum, where all the streets are named after trees, or Meerensee (lake and sea), everything has a fishy theme) Richards Bay is actually quite a beautiful town. The roads from the suburbs (or vorstaads – literally before town) are lined by canals and little pans (seasonal lakes not pots, although, there is a lady who sells plant pots on the road to the airport) where you can see fish eagles, palmnut vultures, and pairs of trumpeter hornbills who leave you in no doubt about how they got their name. There is rumour of crocodile, and I spoke to someone the other day who had bumped in to a hippo late one evening. Bear in mind that drinking and driving is still socially acceptable here in South Africa. The sailing boat harbour provides regular sightings of rare humpbacked dolphins and daily sightings of the most amazing sunsets. Estuaries, lakes and mangroves providing habitat for a large number of rare birds surround the area. The coastal dune forest provides further for birds and small mammals. The residents include my favourite, the Natal robin, who is such an amazing mimic, but often gets a bit big for his boots by mimicking eagles. The Natal robins’ impression of a fish eagle is so good it has you searching the sky in vain. Richards Bays charm is its mix of industrial and natural. Through the smoke stacks, the yellow-billed kites play tag, taking turns to fly upside down and touch talons with their mate. If you look past the smelter, you will see puffbacks, males with what appears to be a cotton pad stuck to their back advertising their wares to passing females.
What ever Richards Bay is, to me it is now home, for a while at least….

Ants in my pants

My feet are itching again, and I feel the walls of this country pushing up against me. It has been nearly a year since I was under African skies, and the time has come to get back to the Dark Continent where I feel so much more like me. I will be flying out to South Africa in the next month or so to start my PhD in Ecology. We are looking at the rehabilitation of dune forest bird and tree communities in KwaZulu-Natal.

I cannot wait to get back in to research; a year of working in factories, warehouses, and the local council has been a challenge to say the least! I will record my journey on this page as often as I can and I hope you will join me...