Kenyan migrations

Kenya has been much in the news lately, but life at Mwamba, our field study centre on the coast, continues as normal.  There are lots of guests coming and going, with a group arriving this month for the first ever summer field course: an opportunity for Kenyan and overseas students to get fieldwork experience, visit the local study sites and engage with biblical teaching on care for creation.

A recent ten-day course for bird ringers attracted trainees from Kenya and Ethiopia. With Afro-tropical migrants now beginning to return, they were able to handle some of the most brightly plumaged species, such as Northern Carmine Bee-eater Merops nubicus and African Pygmy Kingfisher Ispidina picta.

Work to protect Dakatcha Woodlands rapidly gathers pace. Subsistence farmers from five adjacent villages are learning how to ‘Farm God’s Way’, a programme which enables them to improve their yield and also reduces forest degradation, as less land needs to be cleared for agriculture.

As ever, the team is focused on helping local communities to thrive, and to care for the forests and wetlands on which their well-being depends.

Small image: African Pygmy Kingfisher about to be released after ringing (Colin Jackson)