It was a little while back now that this happened as we’ve been having difficulty getting information to Colin who’s got the internet access for posting blogs, but I wanted to tell you about one of our typical surveys we do in the forest. It was one of our regular surveys in the Arabuko Sokoke forest; actually it was very cold that morning as we drove our motorbike to our designated transect. Our target was doing a common bird point count survey for the first two and a half of the morning hours and then doing forest disturbances as it was to be hot for the birds.

Albert Baya, an A Rocha Kenya Field technician, who has been with me for almost 14 years doing the research and monitoring of the Arabuko-Sokoke forest and the surrounding, stopped counting the birds and pointed out some cut stems which were almost 2 metres from the transect, trying to look more further away, it was bad to see the most vulnerable trees were cut.

In a distance of 5 km we were able to count 46 cut stems, for wood and carving, 4 active campsites and 2 old
camps which we thought they moved two or three months ago.

Whilst our forest is being managed by an active Forest Management Team, we are actually frustrated to see all these activities still happening.

We have several vulnerable and endangered bird, plant, butterfly, lizard species in the forest, but on the day of this survey we saw Clarke’s Weavers about 25 in one group of which we used to see 50+, and we were not able to see any male actively feeding on a Brachystegia tree. The Clarke’s Weaver breeding ground is not yet known and now the feeding grounds are being destroyed, we need to have a support to help stop this distraction otherwise we will lose our heritage. The picture here is one that was taken by Steve Garvie who is a birder and photographer who I took into the forest last year to see the specialities. These are the best photos I have seen of Clarke’s Weaver and we like to say “asante sana” to Steve for letting us use them.

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Well… it has been a loooong time since we were on the net and blogging. David has been “running all over” using his motorbike to do surveys for snares & cut stumps, visiting the elders and other villagers to encourage them to stand up for protecting the forest as well as being involved in bird monitoring surveys and helping with other research projects in and around the forest.

In April David was called to Naivasha - a lake in the Great Rift Valley where the birding is awesome - for a week of training on bird guiding with about 20 other Kenyan bird guides. For this they had input on planning itineraries, marketing as well as further practice in bird identification which took them on a safari down to Tsavo West National Park and to Lake Jipe on the Tanzanian border. One of the typical birds of Tsavo is the Rosy-patched Shrike (pictured here by Simon Thomsett)

Otherwise most of the birding practise was done around the grounds of the Elsamere Field Study Centre where the course was taking place. This was Joy Adamson’s (of “Born Free” fame - the story of her lioness Elsa which became world famous in the 1970s I believe it was) old home. The old house is now a lodge / hotel but in the grounds a field study centre has been built that does a great job providing facilities for courses such as this one for the guides as well as a lot of environmental education with local school groups. Another bird seen regularly along the lake front of Elsamere is the world’s largest kingfisher - the Giant Kingfisher - pictured here in a shot borrowed from NatureKenya.

David has been working actively with Francis Kagema (the FoASF Secretary and David’s direct line manager) to fight against some of the quite serious corruption that has been going on in the forest especially with regard to illegal logging. Only a week or so ago a lorry loaded with illegally cut logs was caught leaving the forest and taken to the Police station in Watamu. One such lorry I remember that was impounded with illegal logs a few years ago was grounded and stayed put in the forest station for almost two years before the case was finally completed… This lorry (truck) was released within 24 hours…!! Also the guys who managed to escape when it was stopped were not followed, apparently on orders from “on high”. This sort of frustration is what we are facing almost daily though we were thrilled to hear of the Gede Forester being transferred to another forest as there have been a LOT of implications as to him being deeply involved with much of the illegal activity going on (why these guys can’t just be sacked mystifies us…!). Anyway, he’s gone which is great news - though we fear for where he’s gone…

We’re in the process of taking on a manager for Friends of ASF who will be able help David get his blogs posted on a regular basis which will be great news. Meanwhile, we’ll do what we can to get a bit more news of David’s activities up on the blog…

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One morning recently, I travelled for about 30 kilometres around the edge of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest with fellow forest guide Albert Baya. When we reached a place called Chumani, I got the feeling that we should stop and study the forest there more closely.

We went into the forest which at that point is what we call “Mixed Forest” as it isn’t dominated by any one type of tree. Only about 40 metres in we found many trees that had been freshly cut for timber and removed. I counted a total of about 39 new stumps (see picture).

This is me recording details of one of the cut trees.

Another of the cut trees we found - one of these trees would have taken probably 100 years to get to this size… and only 20 mins to cut down.

After we had finished the survey and after Albert had gone (with the camera), I was near the elephant fence on the edge of the forest and I saw a Green Mamba - a long, bright green, and deadly poisonous snake - which had recently swallowed a Golden-rumped Elephant Shrew. All I could see of the elephant-shrew was the tail sticking out of the snake’s mouth! Pole sana fugu! (”Very sorry, elephant-shrew!”)

I was really upset about the cut tree situation. When I returned to the Forest Station at Gede after my survey, I reported the cut trees to the Assistant Warden, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) for the forest. About three days later he sent me back to the site with Sergeant Musa to show him the cut trees. Apparently they had also just caught a tree poacher the day before in the forest.

We urgently need to do more patrolling in the forest and to support KWS and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) in protecting it. Since that day I have found further cut trees but have not been able to take photos as Friends of ASF doesn’t have a digital camera for me to use - the pictures above were with a borrowed one. If anyone would like to contribute to purchasing a camera, it would make a huge difference as we need photographic evidence to support the reports we do.

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