Hey everyone, a little update from my end.
As some of you may have known, I initially had some big plans for 2023 with an expected return to Europe for a third zoo tour. One which I had planned to be even more grandiose than my prior two, encompassing many new collections as well as some of those previously visited across a total of 8 countries. I had planned for this to be my last
big trip to Europe for some time so I could switch my focus on other continents and regions of the world.
This all changed in the Fall of last year, when a professor of mine offered me an opportunity to join her on a research trip this upcoming summer. What was expected to last a few weeks in a select couple of areas on a brand new continent, quickly grew into a much more fitting contender for my biggest adventure yet as I researched more opportunities and became more confident in my wildlife watching abilities over the course of this year.
I am now very excited to be able to finally announce that, in just under 2 weeks, I will be traveling to Africa for the very first time and spending roughly 5 weeks traveling around Kenya! The bulk of this time will be spent assisting with field research in either the Brackenhurst Forest or the Masai Mara itself, however the final two weeks will be spent on safari to various key locations across the eastern and central portions of the country.
I was hoping to hit 250 birds for my U.S. total before embarking on my trip, but with how busy I've been with preparations the past couple of weeks and expect to be these upcoming weeks, I don't expect that's realistic. That said, 7 birds shy ain't too shabby, especially considering my previous record total for a whole year (2018) was 208 birds.
While I'm out there, I'll do my best to keep my totals updated in real time as I will have computer access for at least the first three weeks of this journey. After that, I hit the ground running and will be covering a lot of regions within a relatively short period of time so those updates may need to wait until I'm home. Either way, I am immensely exciting for this experience and look forward to sharing my adventures here on the forum (not decided whether I'll do a whole dedicated trip thread or not; I'm not great with keeping up with long-term write-ups of my travels...).
With some luck, maybe I'll even be able to share a new species or two for the forum's photographic guides or Childonias' ZC mammal count! At least, I hope to be able to share some advice on visiting some new locales in Kenya for anyone looking to visit in the future. I
think some of my targeted destinations will be first visits for a ZooChatter (at least out of those I know who have been). For now, I'll keep you guessing on where those are
~Thylo
