first few pix

Campus Unionn from Selleck Square

This is where I work

the back of the Memorial Stadium that holds 80000

my office, a cubicle full of birds

Coming to Nebraska!

With the blink of an eye the relaxing part of the summer was over. After a week of sun, rain, sand and fun I found myself on the train to Zurich airport, slightly hung over and nowhere close to realizing what laid ahead of me. My mom sponsored me breakfast and accompanied me all the way to the check in. Fortunately, I had managed to pack just enough but not too much, so that I had no trouble checking my huge bags.
After two stop-overs in Frankfurt and Chicago, a good hour in line for immigration and a total of 24 hours door-to-door travelling, I finally arrived at my friends' Christine and Taylor's house. Compared to other trips, this one went rather smoothly. I had bearable seat neighbors, isle seats on two out of three flights and I managed to sleep quite a bit.
Christine welcomed me warmly and understood that I basically headed straight to bed.
The next day, a small marathon of office visits followed, since international students have to check in with just about everybody on campus. In addition to the student procedures, my teaching assistant (TA) training started. The TA training kept me busy most of the week with interesting lectures such as "principles of college teaching", "campus safety", "identifying a troubled student" and my favorite "cheating and academic integrity". Basically, I underwent a staff training which was quite informative, but also mostly a formality. The instructional videos that were made in the eighties could also be considered a historical attraction. ("Hi this is Troy McLure, you know me from previous movies like"how to use the college library" and ....")
The courses offered a good opportunity to get to know some people from the School for Arts and Sciences, mostly chemists, physicists and such. In between the lectures, I tried to run to all the offices and get my formalities done. I also had a small meeting with the head of the school of biological sciences, Al Kamil. Al and Alan Bond are my supervisors for my doctoral studies. Similar to me, they are two crazy guys who love their birds! They are the reason why I am moved to the middle of nowhere.
Anyway, Al and I had a good first meeting and slowly but surely I also ran into my other colleagues from the UNL Center for Avian Cognition. Of course I visited with the blue jays, the pinyon jays, the Clark's nutcrackers, the monk parakeets and the azure-winged magpies. All these species are studied here, in order to find out a little bit more about their cognitive and social abilities.
Friday was dedicated to the official UNL international student welcome, where several speakers informed new students about all the opportunities and services on campus (we have free lawyers, medical service, dentists...). This was fun because I met plenty of other foreigners from all over the world. In the evening we went to a few bars, including the Watering Hole, the all-american bar with horns and old plaques on the walls and also the best chicken wings in town. Since I am still a guest at Christine's house, I spent significant time looking for a place to stay this week. I saw some nice expensive places but also some really nasty cheap places. A forties-style apartment with wooden floors and lots of beautiful wood bars and built-in dressers ended up convincing me, so I will be moving into the place on Wednesday (pictures will follow). The place is only a 5 minute bikeride from campus in a nice quiet neigborhood. Today (Sat.), I am going to pick a free bike that is offered by a Lutheran church near the campus. Of course I will make a point of wearing my "Viva la evolucion" t-shirt. I'll let you know if anybody picks up on that.
Tonight, Taylor and Christine are throwing a big Karma party to introduce their house to everybody and to bless it with a good vibe. I'll try to take some pictures and to keep this blog updated from now on.

Entebbe

After the trip to Murchison it was time for the good-bye party at camp. All the field assistants, housing staff and researchers were invited. For dinner we had chapati (thin bread), beans, beef, g-nut sauce (the best) and cabbage. Five cases of beer, 5l of Waragi, 3h of dancing and lots of laughter later, the party was over and I had to give everybody a ride home. What a night it was though! Even though I have only spent six weeks in Budongo, I have become really attached to the people and the place. One day I will be back!
On Monday I packed my stuff, said my goodbyes and early Tuesday morning we took off towards Entebbe. The only thing I was really worried about, was the transportation of Erglis! The eagle had been doing great, running and pooping all over the library and cheering everyone up. Now it was time for him to receive professional care at the UWEC (Uganda Wildlife Education Center) in Entebbe. There he will get a proper education (!). Seriously though, they will start feeding him with life pray and are hoping to train him to the point where he can be released - at least into the vicinity of the UWEC. Erglis received little food and an extra dose of water and already we pulled out onto the Royal Mile. A last time passing by Obita's house, the sawmill, the Sonso river and finally Angelos hut. Through the villages of Nyakafunjo and Nyabyeya and off towards Hoima. Once through Hoima, I encountered the first paved roads in almost two months. What an akward feeling.
About half way to Kampala, Fabian in the back noticed that Richard the driver had a hard time keeping his eyes open. After the second warning I told him to pull over and I drove the rest of the way. As soon as I saw the traffic situation in Kampala, I was glad to give up the position and let the now well-rested Richard do the rest of the driving. After 5 h of worrying about my baby-eagle, we finally pulled up next to the UWEC. We met up with the veterinarian of the Ngamba chimp sanctuary (www.ngambaisland.org), Lawrence Mugisha, who led us to the reception area of the UWEC and made sure the local vet would receive him. Erglis had been real good all drive long, only trying to escape the box he was travelling in twice. I was sad to see him being taken into the back of the isolation area, but the people there are really nice and were very happy to see him in such good shape. Good luck buddy!

Once that was done, Joy, one of Zinta's volunteers who had come to town with us, and I strolled through the zoo part of UWEC and relaxed by Lake Albert. Quite a beautiful place! We saw a Kimoto dragon and a big gang of vervet monkeys tried to steal food from us. They rewarded us later with a big play and grooming session, involving about 30 animals with at least 12 young ones.
The zoo keeps animals that could not be reintroduced again, and so we got to see Rhinos, Shoebills, Lions, Grey Parrots and so on.
In the evening, Fabian and I enjoyed dinner at a nice asian restaurant, went for a few drinks and stayed at the Flight hotel. The next morning at 5 I was picked up by the airport shuttle....

Murchison Falls again!

Roman, Cathy, Finn, Gemma, Fabian, Marie and I took a quick weekend trip to Murchison. Here the nicest impressions, enjoy!





This one is uploaded in full size

ERGLIS!!!

Last week, Zinta's father, Afeku, Gophine, our guide Raymond and I were birding in a grassy area near Nyakafunjo, the first village outside of the Royal Mile. Just as we were about to leave, a local guy walked up to us, carrying a Long-crested Eagle nestling. He was already quite big, but his plumage has not fully developed yet and he was extremely weak. Since it had been raining throughout the night and also on that morning and there was no way of telling how long it had been laying underneath the tree where it was found, we decided to take the little guy to camp and see if we can help him survive. In the beginning we also thought that his leg may be broken. So I carefully wrapped him in my sweater and we drove back.

Once at camp, I filled my waterbottle with warm water, mixed some eggs and milk powder and checked, whether he would eat. Slowly, he started swallowing the protein-rich mix, though he was barely able to lift his head. His eyes were dull and his movements slow and few in number. During the following night, I fed the little guy his special food every four hours and he started to look better. The next day, I picked up some intestines, stomach lining and also a bit of good meat because I figured that this would resemble his natural diet more closely. To make sure that the meat slipped down the hungry throat nicely and also to kill off bacteria and such, I poured a little bit of boiling water on the small meat pieces and added a raw egg.

Oh boy, does Erglis (latvian for eagle) love his meat. Starting off with two or three pieces a feeding, we have now reached 8 pieces a meal, and if he could, he would eat more! A few pipettes of water after the meat make sure that our little patient does not suffer from dehydration. He happily poops all over the library and escapes his box every once in a while. His balance and coordination are not quite stable yet, leaving us laughing at this crazy bird swerving all over the room, flapping his wings in excitement. Most of the time he spends looking at me and begging with an open mouth.

Unfortunately, I am taking off to Kampala and eventually Capetown (unfortunate for the bird lover in me, I can't wait to see my brother...) on Tuesday. I am not quite sure whether he could be reintroduced to the wild, once ready to fledge (my guess in 3 weeks), so we are taking him to the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe, near the airport. There, the vets will care for him and decide over his reintroduction. And even if he has to spend the rest of his life in the zoo, he is still better off then if he would have stayed in the rain and slowly faded away....

The feeling that I experience when taking care of Erglis leaves me short of words. This royal animal looks at me, begs from me and in a way, we helped him survive. I am just thankful for having had the opportunity to take care of him. Who knows, maybe I will drift off further into the direction of conservation than previously thought. Enough said, enjoy the pictures....

Our first encounter with the little guy.

Zinta's father takes a picture, while the guy holds the bird in the wrong way. He seemed to be scared of the beast.
Erglis, now in top shape! The whole camp loves this guy!

Doing his wing exercise in his box. In the beginning he could barely lift his head...

No more hanging crest! This is a happy little long-crested eagle, and happy we are too...

PhD Decision

Dear family and friends,
I am happy and proud to let you know that I have accepted the offer made by the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska Lincoln to conduct my PhD under the supervision of Dr. Alan Bond. My studies will be financed for the first year by a teaching assistantship. This means that I will be giving classes or assisting in labs for undergraduates at UNL. My research will broadly focus on bird cognition, with a special interest in the role of the species ecology thereon. The avian cognition lab keeps several species at the university and has contributed largely to the current literature (http://bsweb.unl.edu/avcog/).
I have taken a long time to consider my options and now I am sure that this is the place where I will be able to succeed. The most important reason for me is the passion I have for birds and the many questions one can ask them in this experimental set-up.
Hopefully, some of you can come and visit. Now, I have to get everything on track for me to move to Nebraska. Surely, one or two adventures will be involved. I'll keep you updated....

Birds

African Harrier-Hawk


The same guy, with his wing stuck.... ;)


huge birdie....

Hornbills and Blue Monkeys feeding on termites that swarmed over night


Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill, posing


ditto


what are they looking at?


taking a sunbath

Monkeys

ba-booooon (Kobe in Swaheli)





Two blue monkeys (pix by Marie)

Football in Africa

could there be a nicer setting for a football session?


Monday and Sam celebrate a goal


Different speeds of motion, I love this picture

People

Here a few pictures of people, for once ;)


This was a little birthday party for a guest. Next to me is the founder of the project here, Vernon Reynolds and next to him the conservation biologist David MacDonald (Oxford) and on the right, Vernon's wife Frankie. On the left you can see Ania and partially covered the birthday child Femke.


This is Afeku with his baby-daughter


Monday, one of the nicest men I have ever met. I am lucky to go in the forest with him every day.

260308

Time for a new post. It has been a nice but somewhat quiet time around here. Last week, I spent much time in the forest and the evenings were dedicated to football practice. We (Musungus Roman and Mario plus our field assistants and other guys from the village) were supposed to play against a team from a nearby village. Unfortunately, the game was cancelled because one of their players had died and the funeral was held instead. Death is ever-present here, many children die of malaria, HIV/Aids and car accidents strike down the adults. Well, despite the sad news we had a nice get-together at Roman and Cathy's place followed by a trip to the Disco in Nyeabyea.

This week, the highlight was the going-away party of Muzee (old man) Vernon and Mama Muzee Frankie. But before I could enjoy the party, I had to endure a phone interview with the board of graduate studies of the St. Andrews School of Psychology. It turned out to be a lot of fun, since my cell phone reception was horrible, leaving both sides struggling to understand the other. Therefore, the panel cut the interview somewhat short. But I think it went just fine. As most of you know, my visit here in Budongo is actually aimed at helping me decide between working with chimps for St. Andrews University (www.st-andrews.ac.uk) and working with Corvids at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (www.unl.edu). I was given two more weeks and then I will also let everybody know.
Back to the party: All staff of the Budongo Forest Conservation and Research Station showed up and quite a feast it was. Sarah and Mary, our two lovely cooks and angels for everything created huge amounts of a lovely meal. Then, we watched a short film about the project which had been produced for the opening of the Budongo Trail in Edinburgh Zoo. And finally, there was no stopping the disco. We danced until 2 in the morning, despite having to get up at 6 and walking in the forest by 7.....

I will post a few nice pictures from the last few days soon