I’ve been doing a butterfly survey at Thuma. I started by photographing the butterflies at the volunteer camp and got 22 in the first couple of days. Omega and I and a gun then went down to the spring a few hundred metres away where the camp gets its water and got another 20 plus some great spiders. Identifying them all was beyond me so I did an identification chart with some names and letters up to cc. We couldn’t print the charts so I photographed them with my phone and Fanitzo and I (no gun) set off a few days later to count the butterflies along 500m along the stream downstream of the spring. Three and a half hours and 18 new butterflies later we returned to camp.
Lynn then took me down to lake Malawi for a night to stay with Pierre and Joy who are trialing fish farming in the lake. They have drawers full of butterflies and heaps of books so Pierre identified my photos and picked my brains about fish farming. Lynn had the charts printed in Lilongwe and we then had 62 butterflies, 15 per page nicely laminated and ready to go.
Three days ago, Stanley and I did a 500m survey along a different stream. About half a km from the camp. Lina, a 19 year old volunteer from Germany came too so that she can take over when I go. It went like clockwork. Took 1 1/2hrs and no new butterflies. Stanley looked desperate every time I stumbled on the rocks and I think he saw himself carrying me home. My only slightly nervous moment came when a huge bright yellow and black spider rounded the brim of my hat. My head had destroyed her home ☹
Today Qmega, Lina, Enoch, I and a gun attempted a survey through a patch of bamboo near Abraham camp, 4 kms away. Omega is really good at spotting butterflies and good at rifling through the charts identifying them. Things were going splendidly and we’d done 150m when Enoch spotted an elephant about 20m away coming up to meet us. We didn’t wait to see how many it had counted but ran away slowly backwards