Its so very difficult to describe an average week and condense it down into a journal entry but i thought it's about time i tried.
During the weekends we all chill at the weekend house, lie on the beach, watch the sunset, shop at the local markets, go snorkelling, visit the more touristy attractions like the insect park and go out partying on saturday night.
The week is entirely different which is lovely and helps keep you sane. I live up in the Black River Gorges National Park in the only remaining 2% of native forest left in mauritius. Im surrounded by echo parakeets, pink pigeons, cuckoo shrikes, mauritius bulbuls and its fantastic. The forest is just magical and everyday you see somehting different.
I start everyday at 6am which took a bit of getting used too. Everyday i set my predator traps for cats, mongooses, rats etc, feed the pigeons (wheat grains) and identify the birds that are coming into feed. I also check all my current nests to make sure they're all okay. Ive become quite an accomplished predator killer (although i did accidentally let a mongoose escape). I have to keep reminding myself that these animals shouldnt be here and that in order to protect the endangered endemic pink pigeon they have to go.
I work at the fieldstation with the largest population of pink pigeons, 121 birds in total, so its a lot of . So far this month we've had 4 new fledglings but unfortunately we've also lost too squabs due to the disease trich. I monitor the pigeons at the hoppers to try and determine which pairs are on a nest. If the male comes into feed in the morning (between 6.30am and 10am) and in the evening between (4pm and dusk) and his female comes into feed over lunchtime then that pair are probably incubating eggs on a nest. Its my job to then search their territory to find and monitor the nests. In a couple of weeks im going to have learnt how to tape trees (climb them) so i can ring squabs on the nest and we can collect better genetic data. Sometimes we find nests and we dont know the parents so i have to watch them and identify them during the change over. I also determine new territories and try to watch the behaviour of juvenille pigeons to work out if they are male or female.
Feeding walks are another part of my job walking through areas of the forest to record which pigeons are feeding on what plants and for how long. Im now able to identify 26 different native trees and shrubs.
Other tasks have included handling and ringing new birds, radio-tracking, and learning how to carry out avian post mortems etc. etc.
Im no really beginning to feel settled in mauritius now and have even master driving over here, i even have a mauritius driving licence now!!
Anyway i have loads more to write but i dont want to over all you lovely people. So i'll write again soon.
Much love and hugs Jen x x
P.s I found a white-tailed tropic bird on the ground the other week. They cant launch themselves from the ground and this splendid bird was stuck. We picked it up and launched it into the air to watch it fly off under a rainbow over the native forest down to the waterfalls in the gorges.
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