8 
Bulletin of the EANHS 28(2) 
• Community groups and individuals. When the 
project started Kipepeo worked directly with 
individuals. Subsequently, to ease operations, and 
under donor pressure, the farmers were assisted to 
set up Self-Help community groups. These have 
not been successful, partly because they were 
artificial but also because the officials abused their 
positions. This experience has raised unresolved 
questions as to which approach is best. Should 
donor thinking on this issue be re-examined, or 
did we do it wrong? 
• The power of novel ideas. If Kipepeo had been a 
conventional project such as bee-keeping or tree 
planting, it would never have attracted the attention 
that it has received, even if the financial benefits 
to the local community had been far greater. It is a 
reality that we live an age of image and sound bite, 
and we need to make this reality work for the public 
good The idea of using butterflies to alleviate 
poverty and to save trees has considerable public 
appeal, and it has been enormously rewarding in 
raising awareness of the plight of Kenya’s coastal 
forests and of the human settlements on their 
margins. The Dubai Best Practices Award has lifted 
this process into a new order of magnitude and we 
are all deeply grateful for the honour. 
Kipepeo Project owes a very large vote of thanks to 
the late Minnie Gitahi for its nomination as a Best 
Practice. 
Dr I.J. Gordon 
Manager, Kipepeo Project, P.O. Box 58, Gede-Malindi, 
Kenya. 
EARTHWATCH 
THE EUROPEAN SONG BIRD PROJECT IN 
HUNGARY (19 JULY-31 JULY 1998) 
INTRODUCTION 
The EARTHWATCH fellowship to participate in the 
European Song Bird project in Hungary came to me at 
the right time. For a long time I had wished I could get 
a chance to go to Europe. The nomination fulfilled my 
dream and I will live to remember the good time I had 
in Hungary. I left Kenya on the 19 July 1998 at 11.00 
p.m. and arrived at Budapest on the 20 July 1998 at 
11.30 a.m. I traveled together with another Kenyan 
EARTHWATCH fellow, Muok who was very happy to 
be on a plane for the first time in his life. We were later 
joined at the airport by Jeffrey, Karren, Jane and Patricia, 
all from United Kingdom. At 3.00 p.m. we were met 
and taken to the Osca bird ringing camp. At the camp 
we met Dr Tirbo (principal investigator) who gave us a 
warm welcome and introduced us to the Hungarian 
volunteers in the project. At 4.00 p.m. we joined the 
rest of the team in the project activities. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK CARRIED OUT 
The project 
The European Songbird Project in Hungary has been 
going on for 14 years. It aims to mist-net and ring 
migratory birds. These are birds which spend their 
winter in Africa and then migrate to spend their summer 
in Europe, The activities of this project provide 
information on bird migration and hence lead to a deeper 
understanding of how birds work, where they go and 
which habitats should be conserved for their long-term 
survival. 
Project design 
There were six 120 m net lines. Each net line was 
composed of ten 12 m nets. The distribution of the net 
lines was by habitat. The habitats were as follows; wet 
reed, dam, dry reed, dead wood with scattered trees, 
reed edge and forest. This was necessary in order to 
capture birds in the different habitats. The net lines 
were at least 50 m apart. 
Controlling nets 
This was the main activity in Hungary. It started at 
6.00 a.m and progressed the whole day up to 9.00 
p.m. In the first week of the fellowship we were guided 
by the Hungarian volunteers. The activity involved 
visiting nets at intervals of 30 minutes and extracting 
birds from the nets. We put the caught birds in bags and 
carried them to the ringing table at the camp. In the 
second week of the fellowship we had learned how to 
extract birds from the nets and therefore controlled the 
nets without any supervision. 
Bird processing 
This was mainly done by the Hungarian licensed ringers. 
They demonstrated how to put a ring on the leg of a 
bird, the different ring types for birds of different sizes, 
determining fat content and grading it into different 
codes. Moult, wing length, tail length, beak length (for 
some species), toque spots (for some species), weight 
and other biometrics were also determined. Processed 
birds were released back to the wild at the ringing table. 
Young birds were taken back to sites where they had 
been trapped. Birds processed after 9,00 p.m, were 
not released until the following morning. 
Ringing Sand Martins 
Dr Tirbo organized a trip to ring Sand Martins at a salt 
mining dam. Sand Martins leave their roosts very early 
in the morning (4,00 a.m.) to start feeding. We erected 
our nets at 4.30 a.m. and caught 28 Sand Martins. By 
9.00 a m. the activity was low and there was little chance 
that we would get any more birds. We closed the nets 
and went back to the camp. At 10.00 a.m. we joined 
the rest of the group in controlling nets. 
