The Gardens

The Gardens

              The Botanical Gardens located behind my building (the Zoology one), is unbelievable. Talk about a secret garden! In order to access it, one needs to have permission on your student card. My student card lets me get into the buildings after hours. As soon as Lindy took me to the gardens, I knew I wanted to have access there.
              

             There are Dr. Seuss trees, hidden paths, secret benches, multiple bridges, a stream, a pond, gazebo, grassland, and lots and lots of plants! Most of the plants are labeled, and there is a plant and tree guide. There is also a bird list, and I have started my checklist. I plan to go every morning. There is one Helmeted Guineafowl in the gardens, the rest were eaten by mongoose. I know how it feels bud to be the only one! 
              

             The best part of the gardens is that I can walk to them. It is about a 15 minute walk to campus from where I am staying.  I would like to explore more, but I don’t have a car. I am learning to drive the university SUV. It is a stick shift and they drive on the other side of the road! I am so glad I learned about clutch while getting my motorcycle license, it helped a lot! I still have a long way to go. Thinking about driving school maybe? I don’t want to wreck a university vehicle! 



Dr. Seuss Tree



The Zen Birder

Little Sparrowhawk

               My first Saturday in South Africa, and I was lucky enough to go bird ringing with my professor. One of her long-time students was doing the ringing. They caught so many birds! I decided to sit near the tent and watch the birds get processed. I took pictures and wrote notes.
              

               I call myself a Zen Birder. I am not going to tick off every bird I see on these trips, because I probably would not be able to identify it myself. Just because someone tells me that such and such is a certain bird, does not mean that I will write it down. I want to study the bird, and figure it out for myself. This might set me back a bit in the life list, but I want to quiz myself. 

            

               It paid off when I saw the Africa Purple Swamphen or Gallinule. I walked away from the tent with two birders. We stopped at a small pond on The Stinks (it is a sewage treatment plant). There were ducks, plovers, lapwings, geese, and songbirds. Then among the reeds I saw a blue and green bird with a red bill. Hard to miss I would say! I asked the one birder, but he did not see it. It had slipped back into the reeds. I am certain of what I saw, a bird defiantly of a different color!!

The Stinks, South Africa

The Outdoor Shower

South Africa 2010

                American in the attic? How about American in the private bungalow out back with its own bath? Did I mention the outdoor shower? Oh and you can hear the fruit bats that are flying around the avocado tee. Avocados grow on trees? Haha!

                This is my first night at the professors house. My first night in South African I stayed with Lindy, who picked me up at the airport. She is a lovely tour guide, as well as friend, it helps that we both love animals!

                Tonight we went out to dinner: Ladies night out with about nine South African women. I was reminded that as an American we dine out more compared to the world. This was the first time some of these women had been out to eat in months!

                In regards to my studies, I have been busy with paperwork. Registering as a student and getting a student card that allows me to enter the buildings on campus. I have also been applying for two bursaries, which are due today. The graduate students are all gathering today to go over a paper, excited to give my perspective!

I'm on my Way

One of my bags

Well Pittsburgh, why do you have to be so warm when I leave? It is going to get up to 70 here today, when I land in Durban, South Africa it will be around 80. Now I can't rub it in that I am going to a warmer place. Oh well, I'm still going to Africa!

I will be traveling for a total of one day. I am ready for the traveling part, it is the saying goodbye part that is not fun.

It has been almost a year since I graduated from Penn State, and it has been a great year! Now it is time to move on and go to graduate school. Probably get by butt kicked by statistics but hopefully bring some of my training to the table.

Thanks to all my friends and family for your support. This means so much to me!

See you on the other side of the world.

South Africa, 2010

A week : Just Kidding!

Killdeer

 My original flight was to leave Pittsburgh today, but I'm still here! My visa is still not here yet, so I had to change my flight to next week. Kind of frustrating, but it gives me more time to hang out with family and friends. And go birding!

I think I am starting to get the hang of this fancy camera. The Killdeer picture was taken from about 25 feet away, but I used a software program to zoom in and add sharpness. Not bad at all! Then the picture below is of Oakland, and just by playing with the hue I made this artsy fartsy photo.

I think I'm going to sell them for $25,000 each. Any takers?

Artsy Oakland