So, Tuesday was a VERY exciting day!
Well… actually…. It was really boring quite a bit of the time… but I guess you can form your own opinion.
On Tuesday, we had our first TWELVE HOUR waterhole count! YAY! They happen once on the 31st of every month. During this waterhole count, eight people divide into pairs of two and sit in a “hide” for twelve hours straight and count each animal that comes in and out of their specific site. We include approximate age (calf, adolescent, adult) and sex and species.
So. We all got up at 4:30 AM in order to get to our site by 6 AM (the count goes from 6-6). We’ve usually been getting up at 6:30 each morning, so two hours early was REALLY early. I ended up forgetting my camera in the rush! (Don’t worry though! My hide-mate, Jill, had a spiffy camera that I ended up commandeering!) It was FREEZING at 4:30 AM, frost on the ground and all. But we were troopers and we trooped down to the hotspot for breakfast (starbucks VIA FTW!) and then got into the cars. We still really didn’t know what to expect…
My site was called Hog’s Haven. It consisted of a large open space and man-made watering hole (the watering holes are at Bellabino farm and are enclosed. There are no natural ones). About 20-30 meters from the water stood our hide! It was an (about) 5-7ft brick room with a tin roof and a foot wide slit in the side to observe. And we had to stay in there… for 12 hours straight. Mind you, Jill is an Earthwatch volunteer, not an intern, and MUCH older than me… and I had met her for the first time the night before… and I had never spoken to her before…. Yeah, so I really didn’t know what to expect.
But it turned out to be really cool! The first three hours went REALLY fast and an Oryx showed up within the first half hour. We saw a lot of really cool animals and animal behavior throughout the day! (I’m pretty sure we recorded the most out of all the groups). There were a TON of warthogs, obviously. (Warthogs are no longer exciting for us. We see them every morning. But they do this really cute thing where they touch snouts in a little kiss motion). Also, there were ten Oryx that hung out PRACTICALLY ALL DAY! They were just hanging out by the salt lick and being really territorial over it. (They would back off for giraffe, but would chase off any other would-be salt lickers). I kept imagining that they were talking like the two moose in Brother Bear. They’re so funny. We also saw three giraffe. And let me tell you. Giraffe are HILARIOUS when they’re trying to drink from the water hole. They have to kind of contortion themselves down and then drink. One just bypassed the pool and went for the giant green water tank that feeds water into the waterhole, lol! We also saw several Jackal and one red hartebeest! (Which we were told NOT to expect to see). We also saw a bunch of Eland which are HUGE! Also, if you ever see a group of eland, it’s REALLY amusing to watch their ears and tails twitch constantly. I had never really seen them that close because they are REALLY car-shy. There were also THREE separate heard of Zebra. It’s really hard to count zebra, actually. They all stand in a group and then just look like one of those mind bender posters. (Like Liz had in the room). But the babies were ADORABLE!
Well, the hide was freezing all day and we were very cramped and I REALLY didn’t want to have to pee in the bushes again, but we made it. And the car was very warm on the way home. Oh, and we saw a leopard on the way as well. XD I’ll put pics up on Facebook as soon as I can get them from Jill.
On a totally separate note; Laurie finally got back Tuesday evening! XD We were all really excited to meet her (re-meet her in my case), and it was amusing to hear Brittany call her “Dr. Marker” when I always just call her Laurie. Today we had a meeting with her and she could only consistently remember Casey and my names because she had known both of us for a very long time. (Casey is an intern that has been here two months already. She is from Oregon. Goes to SOU, actually!) We were talking about overarching responsibilities here, projects, ideas, and our general skills. She seemed very interested in my ability to “be handy” due to theater. (I already built a frame to stand a cabinet on in her office… yeah. Go me… couldn’t really figure out a centimeter measuring tape though…)
Anyways, I had a great couple of days! Miss you all already
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