Safari at Akagera National Park, second visit

A visiting teacher to Agahozo from New York was interested in a safari and told me she was a “wannabe birdwatcher.” I jumped at the idea… let’s split the cost and go birdwatching at Akagera National Park!

A vervet monkey on the move! (Cercopithecus aethiops pygerythrus)

Our driver was an hour late to pick us up this past Sunday, but it did not matter much as it rained from around 6:30am to 10am. Dark grey clouds loomed in all directions, and it did not look like a promising day for birds or any sort of fun.

Hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) are easy to see at Akagera

We got to the outskirts of the park around 8am in our 4x4 jeep. The road up to the park entrance goes through some rather flat woodland. From what we saw in the rain, I estimate that it would be some excellent birding on a sunny day. There were of course common birds like grey-headed sparrows, red-eyed doves, red-cheeked cordon-bleus, ring-necked doves, black-lored babblers, and white-browed robin-chats. We also picked up white-headed black chats, grey-backed fiscals, Ruppell’s long-tailed starlings, European bee-eaters, greater blue-eared starlings, and lilac-breasted rollers, which are all pretty nice looking birds. We were treated to some helmeted guineafowl along the side of the road, and three African grey hornbills rested all wet from the rain in a tree. We drove up a hill to reach the gate, as the rain still fell.

Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris)

At the entrance gate, we stopped at the welcome desk. We filled out a form, met our park ranger, and paid our $30/person entrance fee. As we were walking out the door, the receptionist noted that we were birding and that the fee would actually be $70/person. I could not find any extra services we would be offered for the higher fee so I informed her that we would not look at birds and would just stick with the $30 “game drive.” The guides are pretty good with their birds, but of the two I have had at Akagera, they do not always know the birds at the species level (bee-eaters are bee-eaters, starlings are starlings, etc.). Plus, birds are the easiest group of wildlife to see. If they expect to get a premium price from birders, they better up the services, because I can bird just as successfully for $30 as I can for $70.

Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi)

With our guide, we backtracked slightly to take the giraffe viewing road. We spotted one giraffe in the woodland, but the rain still poured. We picked up a neat mammal, a small antelope called a bush duiker, along the way. The only new birds we added were sooty chats and a lonely Senegal lapwing.

Olive baboon (Papio anubis)

The end of the giraffe road is back at the entrance gate, and I had our driver take us up to the Akagera Safari Lodge. I stopped in at the desk to get their most up-to-date contact information, as the Bradt guide and all the internet sources I have found were not current. Two olive baboons did show some interest in our car but quickly wandered off. We went to the lodge to look for the red-faced barbets that supposedly nests in a dead branch of a tree in the parking lot (I have seen in two sources, so I thought it was worth checking out). We found the ficus tree near the entrance to the parking lot that supposedly hosts the barbets, but the only dead branch had broken off and lay on the ground. We did get out and look around in the light rain, but did not find the barbets, which is a species endemic (found only) to the area west of Lake Victoria and in between the mountains separating Uganda/Rwanda/Burundi from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I had hoped to see this bird, but we missed it here and on the day overall.

Hildebrandt's Francolins (Francolinus hildebrandti)

As we descended a giant hill toward Lake Ihema (the biggest lake at Akagera), we saw two fairly large antelope, waterbucks,  foraging in the grass. We found hildebrandt’s francolins, emerald-spotted wood doves, white-browed coucals, and a soaring African fish eagle. As we reached the edge of the lake, a few vervet monkeys captured our attention; they are very cute, a mostly grey-furred monkey, with a black face surrounded by white. A woodland kingfisher, Egyptian geese, African open-billed storks, and squacco herons populated the banks and nearby vegetation. A lone hippopotamus swam in the waters offshore. And then, some stunning blue-cheeked bee-eaters landed in a bush not far away! These, according to the African Bird Club list for Rwanda and the Birds of East Africa, are migrants and do not breed in Rwanda. They were very pretty, and the rain was finally stopping enough for me to take a few pictures through my spotting scope.

Blue-cheeked Bee-Eaters (Merops persicus)

We continued along the lakeshore, picking up African jacana, marabou storks, spur-winged lapwings, and long-toed lapwings along the way. We drove past a fishing village and through some woodland to another much smaller lake called Shakani. Here we saw a great white egret (same as great egret In Americas but here it is a different subspecies), numerous cattle egrets (many in breeding plumage), one intermediate egret, two little egrets, glossy ibis (same species as in Americas), hadada ibis, some great cormorants, and a grey heron. We had one sandpiper, but we had a poor view and did not bother to identify it at the species level. The highlight of this lake was a single yellow-billed stork, which we had previously only seen from afar; this bird was close, and modeled for our cameras. A single Nile crocodile swam across the lake, showing just enough to be seen- if you are looking- but it posed a certain danger to any unsuspecting bird or mammal.

Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis)

On the road away from Shakani, we checked the mousebirds but only found speckled mousebirds (no blue-naped). A bare-faced go-away bird and an African green pigeon hung around on separate branches for some great views, and we added long-crested eagle, fork-tailed drongo, and white-winged black tit to our day’s list. We passed some bushbuck (a bovine mammal) and arrived at Lake Birengero. There is an area that you can get close to the lake and scan the papyrus along the shore of the opposite side for the shoebill, an absolutely unique and amazing bird. The shoebill is only found in Africa, is specialized to eat lungfish in mainly papyrus swamps, and is not easy to see. The rain had stopped and the sky was clearing so we stayed for around 40 minutes, scanning the shore, back and forth. We did not find the shoebill. This is a bird that Akagera and tour operators advertise, and it is frustrating how hard it is to access in “one of the most accessible shoebill haunts” (Bradt Guide). Much of the opposite shore is not visible, being blocked by trees, reeds, and papyrus that are on our side of the lake. The shore is far enough away that even if you did find the shoebill, it would not be a great view. It would be easy to put an observation tower here. While canopy towers in the rainforest might be expensive to construct (with trees 150-200 feet tall), the trees by Birengero are much shorter. A tower would be unobtrusive to the habitat of the shoebill and allow Akagera to actually show one of its top animals. If the shoebill were reliably seen here, I have no doubt that many more birders would come to this park. On Birengero itself, we found a single grey heron, a great cormorant, an African fish eagle, and one grey-crowned crane.  As we looked for the shoebill, a white-headed saw-wing whizzed around, common bulbuls sat in a tree, some common waxbills darted around the reeds, and a spectacular double-toothed barbet landed low in the vegetation to our left. The Fanshawe illustration in Birds of East Africa does not do this barbet species justice; it is so much prettier in person. No shoebill though. We moved on, sad to miss this species for the day (we did not see it in other marshes in the park).

Lake Birengero (the papyrus marshes are mainly
to the right across the lake, so are not shown in this picture,
but may hold resident shoebills)

We saw yellow-fronted longclaws, little bee-eaters, and a spot-flanked barbet on the way to our picnic spot on Lake Hago.African grey hornbills and lilac-breasted rollers were particularly showy here, and they looked sharper than in the rain earlier. Some hippos nearly joined us for lunch, as they exited the water down shore and eyed us cautiously. A few pied kingfishers rested on bare branches next to the lake and African wattled lapwings were also present. We ate our hard-boiled eggs, wheat rolls, amadazi (fried dough rolls), pineapple, and bananas while contemplating what we had seen and what we might see next. On the drive to our next spot, we found an immature black-chested snake eagle, Levaillant’s cuckoo, and one of the finds of the day, a black-bellied bustard standing atop a termite mound in the distance.  Our guide pointed out the bustard and much credit to him for the difficult spot. It would be the first of three black-bellied bustards we would see that day. And also, perhaps my favorite of Akagera’s mammals, the common warthogs trotted about, looking silly with their tails sticking straight up. We had good luck with warthogs after this and saw quite a few (no pictures though).

Black-bellied Bustard (Eupodotis melanogaster)
(the last bustard we saw- picture taken on the plains)

We arrived at Plage de Hippos (hippo beach) to look for ducks and waders. We saw hippos and basking crocs; we saw three white-faced whistling ducks, spur-winged geese, Egyptian geese, water thick-knees, and a malachite kingfisher. A large number of African open-bill storks were around, so many that they were actually blocking the views of most of the ducks and geese. A Eurasian marsh harrier flew by, but we turned up no other birds and decided to move on. A black-headed gonolek flew in front of the car, but other than me, no one got good looks at it.

Two crested barbets (Trachyphonus vaillantii)

On our drive to the plains, we spotted three great birds. The first, perhaps the find of the day, was a pair of crested barbets. They flew into a fruiting tree and snacked, only giving a great view at the end. The birds we saw had much more red faces than Fanshawe illustrates, but otherwise the drawing was accurate. Stevenson’s text notes that it has a red-speckled yellow face; it looked nearly all red to me. In any case, it is a spectacular-looking bird, and it was Michele’s favorite of the day. As we drove on, a Ross’s Turaco flew by and a green wood-hoopoe also flew by, showing its orange bill and spotted and lined wings.

A large topi (Damaliscus lunatus) looks at us
 with the much smaller Bohor reedbuck (Redunca redunca)
to the right in the grass

As we reached the plains, black-headed gonoleks gave much better views for all to see. We found some African buffalo with yellow-billed oxpeckers on their backs. Many topi (an antelope with a black face and leg patches) dotted the savanna and a Bohor reedbuck went sprinting by. We found many more buffalo and checked every oxpecker to see if we could pick out a red-billed, but they all were yellow-billed. Crowned lapwings, Senegal lapwings, and many African wattled lapwings surrounded the mud holes or scattered in the grasses. A single black-shouldered kite rode the otherwise empty sky. Two giraffe roamed a hillside in the distance. We found one European roller in a bush and finally got a good picture of the black-bellied bustard. The sun was nearly behind the hills, and it appeared that we might miss zebra altogether. We hoped our visiting friend would see this unique animal. As we left the plains, and drove toward the exit in the hills, common zebra finally showed themselves. We had some sacred ibis fly overhead, and two unidentified nightjars (with white-wing spots) flew in front of the car. We drove out of the park in the dark and started the 2-hour journey home.

Common zebra (Equus quagga) finally showed themselves
just before dark

Although we missed some birds we wanted to see (shoebill, red-faced barbet), we left the park having identified 73 species of birds and 13 species of mammal. Looking at the list of birds, it is heavily skewed toward larger birds. Entirely missed are many groups of smaller birds. We did see many of these birds, but from a moving car it is very difficult to ID them. Even if a small bird lands in open view, we must get the driver to stop, possibly back up, possibly get out of the car, and then look for the bird. This is not easy to do for every little bird, especially if you are trying to cover the whole park (we wanted our visitor to see the plains game in the north, and we also wanted to look for certain birds in the south). Numerous cisticolas, warblers, sunbirds, and two cuckoos did go by, but we did not get the chance to ID them. For future reference or for other birders, if you want to go for smaller birds or concentrate on certain species, you must cover less ground. For this trip, I am glad we did go the whole distance as two of our top birds (crested barbet, black-bellied bustard) all came from the north.

Sunset over savannah and wooded hills in Akagera

Mammals:

Olive Baboon

Vervet monkey

Common Zebra

Hippopotamus

Common Warthog

Giraffe

African Buffalo

Bushbuck

Bush duiker

Bohor Reedbuck

Waterbuck

Impala

Topi

+2 species of mongoose, but I am unsure which ones (one small, one larger)

Reptiles:

Nile crocodile

Tortoise, unsure which species

Birds (73 species):

Great Cormorant

Cattle Egret

Squacco Heron

Little Egret

Great Egret

Intermediate Egret

Grey Heron

Yellow-billed Stork

African Openbill

Marabou Stork

Glossy Ibis

Hadada Ibis

Sacred Ibis

Egyptian Goose

Spur-winged Goose

White-faced Whistling-Duck

Black-shouldered kite

African Fish-Eagle

Black-chested Snake-Eagle

Western Marsh-Harrier

Long-crested Eagle

Helmeted Guineafowl

Hildebrandt's Francolin

Red-necked Spurfowl

African Jacana

Grey Crowned-Crane

Black-bellied Bustard

Long-toed Lapwing

Spur-winged Lapwing

African Wattled Lapwing

Senegal Lapwing

Crowned Lapwing

African Green-Pigeon

Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove

Ring-necked Dove

Red-eyed Dove

Ross's Turaco

Bare-faced Go-away-bird

Levaillant's Cuckoo

White-browed Coucal

Speckled Mousebird

Pied Kingfisher

Woodland Kingfisher

Malachite Kingfisher

Little Bee-eater

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

European Bee-eater

European Roller

Lilac-breasted Roller

Green Woodhoopoe

African Grey Hornbill

Spot-flanked Barbet

Double-toothed Barbet

Crested Barbet

Barn Swallow

White-headed Sawwing

Yellow-throated Longclaw

Common bulbul

White-browed Robin-Chat

African Thrush

Sooty Chat

White-headed Black-Chat

Black-lored Babbler

White-winged Black Tit

Grey-backed Fiscal

Black-headed Gonolek

Fork-tailed Drongo

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

Greater Blue-eared Starling

Ruppell's Long-tailed Starling

Village Weaver

Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu

Common Waxbill

Parrots and other birds here and there

I am in the process of working on an article about human-wildlife conflicts, but I am taking longer to write it than I originally planned. In the meantime, here are some of the beauties Michele and I are finding around Rwanda. All of these birds are found in the wild only on the continent of Africa.

A pair of African Grey Parrots (Psittacus erithacus) hang out
near the shore of Lake Kivu, in Gisenyi, in the Norhtwest of Rwanda.

According to BirdLife International, the African Grey has
experienced significant population declines due to habitat loss
and the international pet trade. They are apparently so
popular as pets in the United States, Europe, and Asia that up
to 21% of the wild population is harvested annually. Read more.

A Red-chested Sunbird (Cinnyris erythrocerca) sings
near Lake Kivu.

A Woodland Kingfisher (Halcyon senegalensis) perches
on an acacia tree near the shore of Lake Muhazi
in Eastern Rwanda.

An African Wattled Lapwing (Vanellus senegallus)
searches for food near some rice paddies. Note its yellow
wattle on the side of its bill!

Four Lesser Striped Swallows (Hirundo abyssinica) rest atop
a banana leaf. These are the most beautiful swallow species
I have seen in the world. They make metallic-like sounds
and nest at Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village.

An African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus) patrols the shore
of a lake in Akagera National Park, which forms the
Eastern border of Rwanda.

One Hammerkop (Scopus umbretta) lands on another
in the Eastern Province of Rwanda.

A Hammerkop stands on its nest in a garden in Kigali,
the capital and approximate geographic center of Rwanda.

The most beautiful bird of all... Michele stands at the edge
of Lake Kivu, which forms the Western border of Rwanda.
Across this body of water is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As you can see, this country is rich in birds. Michele and I use our free time to travel around Rwanda in search of them and other wildlife too. I am reminded of a quote from the poet Pablo Neruda that I saw posted at the Central Park Zoo:

"I've wandered the world in search of life: bird by bird I've come to know the earth."

I hope to see them all... thanks for reading!

Organic Agriculture and Composting in Rwanda

On Friday, I joined a small group from ASYV for a field trip to learn about organic agriculture in Rwanda. This group included a chemistry teacher, school administrative staff (myself), an informal education representative, two farm staff, and a landscape staff member. Our objective was to get some ideas on how to build environmentally sustainable practices into our operations and educational programs. We specifically wanted training on composting in the tropics and on plants that could be incorporated into our landscaping and farm to decrease pests without pesticides.

Entrance to the GOFTC demo farm

The training was at the Gako Organic Farming Training Center (GOFTC). The center opened in 2000 and has since trained over 60,000 farmers from Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its founder and director, Richard Mynyerango, was our host for the day.

“No matter how big you are, a president, a businessman, or anyone, at the end of the day you still have to eat.” Richard said. The center is largely focused on just that: connecting people to the idea of healthy food and the how-to of growing it.

A terraced mound garden at GOFTC

While Richard and his center promote protecting the environment through organic agriculture, their approach is centered in helping people. Richard said they are looking for ways that organic farming and conservation can boost peoples’ income, open new cottage industries, and shift people from subsistence agriculture to accessing markets. With the environment as his guide, he is searching for “anything we can do to improve the livelihood of the people.”

Many of the innovations that the center promotes are not necessarily new to the world, but they are adapted to local conditions for use by local people. For example, space is very limited in Rwanda. Not only is it a small country, but it is very densely populated. If people do not have enough land, then they may not be able to produce enough food. Since 90% of Rwandans are farmers, this is a huge issue. The GOFTC promotes several space-optimization schemes to increase the amount of food grown in the same space. Two that really stuck out to me were the mound gardens and the sack gardens.

A mound garden can double the growing space

Mound gardens are soil (and compost) piled up in a small hill. The mound allows more plants to grow because it increases the surface area available for growing. The chemistry teacher with us calculated that it doubles the amount of growing space.  The sack garden is like a kitchen container garden on a larger scale. A durable sack is filled with soil and compost, staked with a post on 4 sides, and holes cut from bottom to top. Plants like onions were planted in the sides of the sack garden and herbs on top. Again, it is an increase in the surface area- and thus growing space- that is the real benefit of the sack container.

Sack gardens are used to optimize space

Other technologies they promote are rabbit, goat, or cow pens that allow for easier collection of manure and urine for use in composting or fertilization. They are also promoting dairy goats, but face a lot of resistance as there is a stigma about goat milk here in Rwanda. They experiment with different drainage systems and siltation traps to reduce erosion and catch topsoil that would otherwise be lost. They keep bees and remind people that if they use chemical pesticides on their farm, it will kill their bees. They experiment with mushroom production and with plants as-of-yet unused by most Rwandan farmers like bamboo. Perhaps most impressive to me is that these technologies are being tried by Rwandans for Rwandans; they are using materials that are accessible locally and are affordable for most people.

Rabbit hutch with easy manure collection (this hutch was
three containers high, again optimizing space)

One technology that has potential for renewable energy production in Rwanda is biogas. GOFTC has several underground tanks that allow for anaerobic (without oxygen) breakdown of its cow manure; they are able to use one of the end products of the breakdown, methane, to power their stoves (and hopefully some day, their other electricity too). Our lunch for the day was cooked on a biogas stove, and it was delicious! We ate most of the food, but I am guessing what was left over was composted.

Lunch being cooked on a biogas stove

GOFTC promotes composting as a way that Rwandans can improve their soil fertility. From my observation, composting in Rwanda is not that different than composting in the Midwest or Eastern United States (or perhaps elsewhere, but I have only composted in those two regions). Decomposition is the same process, with pretty much the same biological and chemical forces at work, and humans are just managing it to get a desired product. Climate does affect the composting process. There are two main seasons here, wet and dry, which essentially produce opposite problems: too much moisture getting into your compost or too much moisture loss from the pile. The compost book that GOFTC uses is a UK-based book (All About Compost by Pauline Pears) that has two basic pages on composting in the tropics. For the wet season, it recommends using large leaves to cover the compost to retain moisture. For the dry season, the book recommends again using large leaves for moisture retention or to bury the compost in a shallow pit.

Compost site with greens and browns waiting to be processed

GOFTC builds small structures over their compost to reduce moisture loss, protect from torrential rains, and keep their compost form baking in the equatorial sun. The compost cover has a post on each corner and a basic roof structure of attached sticks and large leaves draped over the sticks. As GOFTC does a lot of composting, these structures were fairly large and provided nice shade for us as we observed. The method of composting that GOFTC uses is called lasagna composting (called that in America, but I am not sure if they have names for different methods here), and it involves building your compost pile with specific layers. They start with sticks at the bottom to provide aeration and room for macro-invertebrates, then a 30 cm layer of dry brown materials, a thin layer of dry ash, a soaking of water or animal urine, a 30 cm layer of dung, a layer of topsoil, a 30 cm layer of freshly dead green materials, dry ash, and then start over adding another dry brown layer. Richard presented a reason for each layer, such as for instance, using ash to add potassium. He recommended checking the compost every 3 days and then after 14 days turning it. Most of these “waste” materials are available on a Rwandan farm, and while they will break down anyway, composting them in a managed way can provide the farmer with quick and high-quality humus that improves their soils’ productivity. Richard said they get finished compost in about 4 weeks.

Smaller compost site at the demo farm
also has a pit for materials storage

I got the impression from Richard that organic agriculture is still in its infancy here in Rwanda, but it has serious room for growth. One major challenge is that most people here cannot afford the higher prices of organic food. Organic food commands premium prices, but these are mostly from external markets, not local ones. Encouragingly, he said that the perception of the organic approach has changed in the last ten years from discouraged and un-modern to viable; he said even some agencies are beginning to promote it. Richard said, “no longer do the organic farmers walk with shoulders down. They now hold their shoulders high.” For the sake of the butterflies, birds, and the people of Rwanda, I hope that organic agriculture continues to grow and improve the lives that it touches.

Digging in!

Safari at Akagera

This past Sunday, our volunteer group headed out from the village for a safari at Akagera National Park. With over 1000 square kilometers, Akagera provides habitat for hundreds of species of animals, including large mammals such as hippo, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, lion, and elephant. Its bird list includes over 500 species, including the shoebill. With such potential, I could hardly sleep the night before, and I stayed up studying other peoples’ trip lists and the plates in the field guide for what could be a bonanza of new birds.

Akagera National Park

Only three of the nine people on the trip were birdwatchers so we agreed to try for a balanced safari with a mix of birds, mammals, plants, and any other wildlife we could find. Our chances for some animals were pretty slim due to the events of the past twenty years. Akagera has lost over half of its original space due to people settling and cultivating its lands (about 1500 square kilometers lost), and several of its big animals have been devastated by poaching. Still, it is a giant space… what did we see?

Once inside the park gate, interestingly enough, the first bird we saw was a red-necked spurfowl, and it gave great views. This was such a contrast to the experience with the spurfowl that I described in the last post (In Search of Inyoni). Whereas it took us days to get a good look at ASYV, the spurfowl were fairly easy to see throughout the day in Akagera. Soon after passing some impala (a type of antelope) but before even reaching the park headquarters, we found two excellent birds, the crowned hornbill and the African grey hornbill.

African grey hornbill (Tockus nasutus)

The park cost $30 for each person to enter, and you have to have a vehicle to enter the park (luckily we had a vehicle for the day). A guide, paid for in the entrance fees, accompanies visitors during the safari drive. Our guide was named Charles, and although he claimed his bird knowledge was just ok, he proved to be a great companion in helping identify difficult birds and in sharing his knowledge of the local ecology.

Nile Crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus)

At our first lookout point near Lake Ihema, we found Ruppell’s long-tailed starling, African open-billed storks, an African fish eagle, an African darter, glossy ibis, Egyptian geese, a pied kingfisher, and a woodland kingfisher. The spot seemed to be ripe for finding birds. We were not, however, permitted to stay long or wander away from the specific place we had stopped. One drawback to Akagera is that you are not allowed to leave the vehicle except at lookout points and then not allowed to stray from those points. This was a major challenge to finding birds.

Hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius)

As we drove through the park, we found two types of primates, the vervet monkey and olive baboons. Nearly all of the bodies of water contained hippos, and we saw a good number of Nile crocodiles too. Birds like African jacana, black-collared barbet, helmeted guineafowl, and bare-faced go-away birds impressed even the non-bird folk. A few warthogs darted in and out of the bush just long enough for us to see. As we approached the northern section of the park, the big mammals became more numerous. Impala, bushbuck, waterbuck, topi, and zebra grazed in the woodland that surrounded the road or even crossed it in front of our vehicle.

Common Zebra (Equus quagga)

African open-billed storks (Anastomus lamelligerus),
spur-winged goose (Plectropterus gambensis),
white-faced whistling duck (Dendrocygna viduata)

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a body of water called Lake Mihindi. The view was spectacular and made up for the simple lunch of bread and bananas. With hippos and crocodiles further out in the water, open-billed storks, spur-winged geese, white-faced whistling ducks, spur-winged lapwings, and water thick-knees populated the banks. Shortly after lunch, we passed a tree with a couple European bee-eaters. Michele and I had searched and searched for this species in Israel in August 2009 but we never found them; they had already migrated from the area for the year. No worries after all- we got them in Rwanda!

African buffalo (Syncerus caffer)
with yellow-billed oxpecker (Buphagus africanus)

Once we made it onto the plains, we found three additional very large mammals: the eland (largest antelope in the world), the African buffalo, and a single giraffe. These brought the mammal count to 11 for the day. As everyone took in the beauty of the open grassland and its wildlife, Ido spotted three grey crowned cranes far in the distance. A black-chested snake-eagle soared overhead, giving us a total of 54 species of birds on the day. The variety of life on the plains was a thrilling conclusion to our visit, and we soon reached the park exit.

Grey crowned cranes (Balearica regulorum)

Seeing 54 species of birds is a mere scratch of the surface of Akagera. I am eager to return and explore different parts of the park. I really want to find spots that allow for some out-of-the-car bird watching, such as trails, but they may not exist. Let me illustrate how few birds we saw, relatively speaking. On average, I see about 36 species each morning at ASYV in about two hours; ASYV is not a park nor does it contain a variety of habitats. In about nine hours at Akagera, which contains several habitat types, we saw 54 species. Covering so much ground on the safari and being limited to searching for birds from the car made this not so much a bird watching trip but a get-lucky-and-see-what-is-around-while-doing-other-things type of trip. The car had to keep moving on, or even if we did stop, the birds sometimes flew just out of sight from the car. I have read that the outskirts of the park are also quite good, and you are not bound to stay in a vehicle. The birdwatchers among us vowed to return to try to see some of the other roughly 475 species that live in or visit the area.

Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) with Homo sapiens Ido and Michele

In Search of Inyoni (birds)

3 weeks. 21 days. More than 500 hours. It has been just a short time since I first set foot in Rwanda. As you may know, I came here to volunteer at a youth village designed to help orphans repair their hearts and then help repair the world. I am very interested in the role that outdoor environmental education can play in helping the students, and I have dedicated myself to exploring the possibility.

Last sunrise of 2010, Eastern Province, Rwanda

Before I start any programs or proclaim that birds or trees can help people here, I need to know what is out there. Documenting the flora and fauna of the village will be a long-term process, but I have started thus far by using a good amount of my free time to document the bird life here at Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV).

View of ASYV and beyond from the school

ASYV is about 144 acres large, which is bigger than 100 American football fields. The land is mostly spread out over one side of a hill, but the property does contain the top of the hill and some of the other side. There are farms and other people that live and share this hill with ASYV, and we are bordered by a perimeter fence. At the lowest point of the property is the farm and residential area; as you go up the hill, you pass the offices, sports fields, and dining hall. Toward the top of the hill is the school, which looks far out over the village into other hills, some wetlands, and a lake (Lake Mugesera- see Hike to the Lake). Behind the school and up the hill a little bit more are several acres of abandoned farm land which has been mostly overtaken by grasses, a few trees, and bushes. The birding is pretty good from top to bottom, although the top seems so far to have the most potential for viewing unusual birds.

Michele searching the top of the hill area

On 18 of the days I have been here, I have gone bird watching at ASYV. Most of the time, I start at around 5:40 am to catch the sunrise and conclude before starting my job at 8 am. I have gone out midday, in the afternoon, and before sunset as well. I take binoculars, sometimes a camera, and sometimes my spotting scope. I always take notes, usually just recoding bird names, but I will describe any species that I cannot immediately identify and make notes about behaviors, hot spots, or other meaningful observations. My walks cover the property starting from bottom to top, but I am never able to explore the whole property all at once, so I alternate routes. Michele joins me for most of the trips, but there are days when she prefers sleep (and she has missed a few birds- tough trade-offs!). So far, I have spent 42 and a half hours bird watching on the property.

Yellow-backed Weaver (Ploceus melanocephalus)

We have found and identified 74 species on the property. I expect this number to go up as seasons change and birds migrate. There are around 5 more species that we could not positively identify yet, and they are not included in this analysis. Birds from 28 families are represented, with Ploceidae, the weavers, having the most species present (11 species). In fact, two of the weavers, Yellow-backed Weaver and the Baglafecht Weaver, are among the most commonly seen birds. Of the 74 bird species, all but 11 have repeat sightings. Twenty-six of the birds have been spotted on more than 50% of the days.

Southern Red Bishop (Euplectes orix)

We have birds that are red, yellow, blue, brown, black, white, striped, spotted, and all sorts of mixes in between. Several of the more common birds are spectacular, including the Southern Red Bishop and the Variable Sunbird. We have recorded some amazing visiting birds just once and look forward to seeing them again, including Ross’s Turaco, Long-crested Eagle, Double-toothed Barbet, and Black-chested Snake Eagle.

Variable Sunbird (Cinnyrus venusta)

Long-crested Eagle (Lophaetus occipitalis)

One species in particular that gave us great trouble was the Red-necked Spurfowl. This species is a francolin, which to all the non-birdwatchers, is similar to a quail or even a small turkey. This species is reportedly very shy, and I can attest to that. Michele and I had spotted a pair in the same spot near the bottom of the village on 5 occasions before finally getting the field mark we wanted for a positive ID. We could easily see that the birds had bright red legs and feet, a red bill, and a red face patch over its eye. Furthermore, it had the size and shape of a francolin, was not striped, and was fairly dull brown all over. That narrowed our choices down to just about 2-3 species. We could assume, but when you see a new bird and want to add it to your list, you want to be absolutely sure of the identification. Most of the time we tried to get a closer look, however, the birds became aware of our presence (even at a distance) and flew or scurried into the bush. This week, we set up before dark on three days to scope them from a distance. Unfortunately, fog hampered our efforts on two days; one day the fog moved in after we got there! Today, we stayed with the birds for around 40 minutes, and finally got to see its red neck. The field guide shows the bird, subspecies cranchii, in sort of an upright position, displaying a small red neck patch. The birds in the field were often with their heads pointed to the ground to feed, thus obscuring their neck. As the saying goes, patience is bitter, but the fruits of patience are sweet. Indeed they are, as we finally saw the red neck patch on each bird. With all of the details matching and all the other possibilities ruled out, we had our bird.

Red-necked Spurfowl (Pternistis afer)

In addition to writing about sustainability and life in Rwanda, I plan to feature a bird family every so often by displaying photographs and discussing their roles in the ecosystem. This country is rich in birds, and I cannot wait to share their beauty with all of you. Umwaka mushya (oom-nwaka mu-tcha) (Happy New Year)!