Marabou Stork, sittin' in the grass:
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Early today (8:00) I met up with Elvis, Leo, and Leo’s uncle Furaha (who is younger than Leo, which is funny… Leo is 27 and Furaha is 22. They both grew up birding as kids – so cool). Today was our day for birding, woohoo! I’ve been wanting to get out into nature for a while. We took the daladala, which is the local public transport, and it’s really something. A daladala is a tiny bus crammed full of people. The vehicle seems to burst at the seams with people, and heads, arms, and even legs are often seen dangling out the windows. Riding one is quite the experience, with is why they even sell t-shirts here with the logo “I survived the daladala.” BTW, it’s called “daladala” because, well, I’m just going to cut and paste someone else’s explanation because it’s the same one I heard and don’t feel like typing it all out :)
“So the story goes like this: there was a time when the one Tanzanian shilling used to have the same value as the US dollar . At that time the price of the bus ticket was one Tshilling. And it is said that then the bus conductors would shout out loud,“dollar, dollar!” when trying to call out to the people to get on to the bus. Years later, the word daladala is the term for the most commonly used form of public transport of Dar Es Salaam, the city buses– well at least this is the story that was told to me by one of the locals that I’d met my first time in Dar.” (Source: http://regalchild.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/daladala-lesson-101/)
Elvis, Leo, Furaha, and I birded until noon… it was fantastic! I saw so many beauties. These guys have such keen eyes. My field notes are below:
Location: Lake Duluti, Arusha Municipality
Weather: cool in the morning, overcast and drizzling. Soon after we got to our birding locale, it started pouring pretty hard, but after 15 minutes it cleared up and the weather was alright. It started to get sunny only the last half hour of our birding venture.
Birds in order seen (lifers are in BOLD; H = heard only):
Fork-tailed (Common) Drongo (4) – down-slurred whistle; short, dry chatter
Common Fiscal (3)
Red-eyed Dove (many heard)
GROSBEAK WEAVER – 8:57, several fly-overs
Grey-backed Camaroptera – several seen throughout the day, incl. begging juvenile
Collared Sunbird (4)
Black-and-white (Rufous-backed) Mannikin
GIANT KINGFISHER – what a stellar bird! Saw him catch a huge fish, beat it against a pipe
about ten times, then swallow it whole (which I didn’t think there was any way it could manage cuz that fish looked way bigger than the bird’s gullet)
Little Egret (5)
Great White Egret (3)
GREY HERON (2)
Great Cormorant (20)
LONG-TAILED CORMORANT (10)
COMMON SQUACCO HERON (2)
MALACHITE KINGFISHER – OMG, this little birdie made my day! So cute! Such vivid,
glowing colors on this sparrow-sized kingfisher. Adorable.
African Fish Eagle juvenile
BROWN-BREASTED BARBET (2)
WHITE-EARED BARBET – a large group of 10 birds
WHITE-BROWED ROBIN CHAT (7) – mimic; like a squeaky seesaw, two notes repeated
over and over
TAMBOURINE DOVE (2) – repeated “hooting” notes
Trilling Cisticola (H) – “telephone call”
Black-backed Puffback (2) – “chew, chew, chew”; descending on the “ew”; whistly
AFRICAN GOSHAWK
LIZARD GOSHAWK – soft light gray body; stocky; black chin very distinctive; gorgeous
raptor!
AFRICAN DARTER
LITTLE GREBE (2) – cute!
Red-fronted Tinkerbird (H)
Red-billed Firefinch (4)
LANNER FALCON – flyover
Striated Heron
Hammerkop – bat-like flight; deep, arched wingbeats
PALLID HONEYGUIDE
Nubian Woodpecker
Spotted Mourning Thrush (H) – mimic; lots of scattered notes and gurgles
Amethyst Sunbird
Lesser Striped Swallow (10)
GOLDEN TAVETA WEAVER (6) – reminiscent (to me) of a huge yellow warbler; this bird is
super yellow with a beady black eye that really stand out against its yellow complexion
Trumpeter Hornbill – really cool, wheezy calls (I’m aware that “cool” isn’t a very accurate
call description J
BLACK-CROWNED TCHAGRA
White-browed Coucal
LESSER SWAMP WARBLER
Swamp Moorhen (H)
ABYSSINIAN WHITE-EYE (3)
Grey-headed Sparrow
HARTLAUB’S TURACO – amazing bird!
BLACK-HEADED ORIOLE (2 adults; 1 juvenile)
Ring-necked Dove – “work harder, work harder, work harder…”
The guys:
Leo, looking cool. Leo is one of the most top-notch birders in Tanzania:
A view of foggy Lake Duluti:
Little Egret:
One of the roads around Lake Duluti:
Leo and Elvis, strolling along:
A pretty marsh along the lake:
Fisherman in the marsh:
On our way out:
Checking out army ants:
After birding, we all went out to a little café to sit outside and eat some lunch (I, for one, was ravenous). We drank an incredible chai that was so warm and nourishing and spicy and rich in its milkiness… pure bliss in a cup. Guess the cost. I bet you won’t. Each cup of this joyous wonder cost 300 Tanzanian Shillings or 19 cents! Find that in Starbucks! Also, this is when I had THE BEST AVOCADOS OF MY LIFE. First, they are big – twice the size of our puny ones. Second, they melt in your mouth, so smoothly, so deliciously. There’s just no comparison. I guess I’d say our avocados have a fattiness/greasiness to them… they’re very buttery. Which I like – I’m not complaining about our avocados. I’ll love avocados no matter what kind they are (well, the ones that are appropriate for human consumption, at least… not the ones suited for quetzals). But the avocados here, wow, they just MELT. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s like – as soon as the avocado flesh makes contact with your saliva, it immediately disintegrates into a beautiful softness and a burst of flavor that’s out of this world. Heavenly. That got me talking about food in America and how not fresh it is, for the most part. I told the guys how one has to go out of their way to obtain super fresh produce and how the best stuff is the most expensive. I said, “During our winter, no fresh fruits and veggies are available, so we ship them in from California. But they are picked unripe, and then they travel via truck or plane across the country to arrive in a supermarket where they are then sprayed with a hormone that gets the fruit/veggie to ripen on the market shelves. Oh and usually these fruits and vegetables are produced using many fertilizers and pesticides…” The guys looked at me with repulsion in their faces. Elvis said, “That sounds so… wrong.” “Yep,” I replied. “That’s what tropical countries have on temperate ones – fresh food year round, locally produced goods readily available at any time. Wait till I tell you about our meat industry…”
They were all captivated, so I described a few of the mass-produced meat practices. That did it. They looked utterly shocked and disgusted. They kept shaking their heads and saying, “That is wrong. Are you serious? That is just wrong. Not human.” The conversation shifted to America’s exploitation of cattle in Central and South American countries (e.g. cutting down rainforests for McDonald’s cows to range), immoral banana and destructive flower industries, and corrupt pastors. That’s right, from all this talk about big business and the Western world’s obsession with over-consumption, we somehow got on the topic of Jonestown and the many priests and pastors here in Tanzania who claim they are prophets… and for some reason, masses of people believe them, throw money at them, and you see them driving on the dusty dirt roads in their sparkling black limos. Anything wrong with this picture?? Oh, I remember how we got on this topic! After all the stuff I said about bad business, Elvis said, “Whoa, people need a new Jesus. The old Jesus has expired. They need a spiritual education and a spiritual life, but they seek it in all the wrong places.” (Did I mention that Elvis is DA MAN!) We all laughed heartily at that, and I reflected how no one has ever listened to our wise true prophets and mystics… how many thousands of years have passed, and how have we changed as a collective society? Very little indeed.
Here's a look at the plate we all ordered. I bought four of these plates for me and the guys, and can you guess how much they cost me (along with two refills of the tasty chai)? Eight dollars US. Amazing.
I am so white!!
Did a little sock laundry when I came home. Here's my high-tech drier. Ah, thank you, African sunshine:
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