I haven't written a post in longer than usual...not because nothing interesting has happened, but because I've been pretty busy finishing things up here and doing a few fun, last-minute excursions. Two nights ago the rains decided to come, after a couple weeks of building heat and humidity it was quite a relief to hear the sky pouring down on the roof. Not only did we get rain, but last night and the previous night we've had awesome thunderstorms. I'm thankful to have seen the rains here, as they are life-giving, and a couple other volunteers missed it by just a day. Yesterday, after the first night of rain, the driveway was filled with crabs and the kitchen with moths. Apparently, things respond to the rain very quickly.

We've also done a whole bunch of bird banding the last week, with one epic night of Crab Plovers and Whimbrels at Mida Creek and some very nice sunbirds and migrants here on the Nature Trail. I also spent an afternoon in Malindi at the museum, old Portuguese church, and Vasco da Gama pillar, and a day at Gede Ruins. I will write more about both of those later, but for now I have to sleep. Will be a long day of traveling starting tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the photos!

Lots of Crab Plovers on the recent Mida ringing.

Crab Plover city!

Me and a beautiful greater sandplover early in the morning (~7am)

Beautiful Red-fronted tinkerbird I ringed. Unfortunately, due to lack of vigilance at the nets a couple days later, this individual died of heat exhaustion. Lesson learned the hard way.

Olive Sunbird with a beautiful yellow patch under the wing. Andrew and Colin were nice enough to let me band any of the cool or new birds that we caught!

Mouse-colored sunbird with a patch of red under the wing.