OiKASSiZOOrS 
Nature 
East Africa 
Volume 34 1, 2004 
This issue, which comes to you with this 
newsletter, is a special issue focussing on 
the Nature Kenya's conservation work, 
involving networking and monitoring 
among Site Support Groups. 
2 Introduction 
4 The Mustard Seed Story by Dan Omoio 
7 Yala Swamp by Nickson Otieno 
13 Wool-Spinning promotes Grassland 
conservation by Anthony Kiragu 
15 Securing the Future for Sharpe's 
Longclaw by Solomon Mwangi 
18 Local People Contributing to 
Science by Simon Musila 
19 Important Bird Areas Monitoring 
Form 
24 'Mass Killings' of Birds! Friends of 
Kinangop cry foul by Dan Omoio 
25 Blue Swallows ...by Paul Kariuki 
Ndang'ang'a 
27 Creek and Forest Guiding by Jacqui 
Kaye 
28 Highlights from the Chairman's 
report 
32 Conserving the home of the 
critically endangered Taita Thrush by 
John Musina 
34 Driving Forces at Sites: Francis 
Muigai, John Chege, David Kuria and David 
Ngala 
39 Important Bird Areas Map 
//'•/ y- 4 
* ■ \ // 
SKY 
June Sky, 
from The 
Safari Star 
Guide by 
Alex and 
Joy 
MacKay 
By Ian MacKay and Fleur Ng'weno 
June Stars 
Ursa Major, also called the Plough or the 
Big Dipper, is a large constellation in the 
north. Four stars form the corners of a 
box, and three stars in a line stretch away 
from the box. 
Higher in the northern sky is the brilliant 
orange star Arcturus. Higher still, the 
blue-white star Spica is directly 
overhead. (The bright planet Jupiter is 
also overheod, a little to the west.) 
The Southern Cross is upright in the 
south. Two very bright stars in the 
constellation Centaur seem to point to the 
Southern Cross. The constellation 
Scorpius is rising in the east; look for its 
fiery eye, the reddish star Antares. 
Planets, June 04 
Saturn is only visible in the early evening, 
setting in the west soon after the sun. 
Mars is above Saturn in the western sky, 
less bright than Safurn. Jupiter can be 
seen throughout the evening, setting much 
later at around midnight. 
There will be a transit of Venus on June 
8"’. The orbit of Venus around the sun 
passes between the sun and the orbit of 
the Earth. And on June 8"’, the planet 
will pass directly between the sun and us 
for a few hours. Astronomers viewing it 
through protective equipment will see it 
as a small black disk crawling very slowly 
across the brilliant face of the sun. 
The most recent transits of Venus 
occurred in 1874 and 1882, the next ones 
will be in 2012, and after a longer interval. 
2117. There are some interesting stories 
surrounding past transits: A French 
astronomer called Lengentil journeyed to 
the Far East to see the transit of 1761, 
however the expedition was delayed by 
wars, and he was forced to watch it from 
the deck of a ship, and was therefore 
unable to record any useful information. 
Not to be daunted, he stayed abroad for 
8 more years to catch the next one in 
1769, but as it often seems to be when 
people try to watch such important 
celestial events, the weather was cloudy 
so he saw nothing! Meanwhile, the first 
epic voyage of the explorer Captain Cook 
had taken him and his astronomical 
observers to Tahiti in the South Pacific, 
where' they made exact measurements 
with more success. 
Moon 
June 3rd Full Moon: June 9th Last 
quarter: June 17th New Moon: June 25th 
First quarter. 
And, using the moon to find the stars and 
planets: June 3rd - Antares just south 
of the moon; June 19th - Saturn south 
of moon; June 20th - Mars a little south 
of moon, June 24th - Jupiter south of 
moon. 
Sun 
On June 21st the Sun is as far north as it 
gets. This marks the winter solstice for 
us south of the equator. 
An American Indian religious leader, Arvol 
Looking Horse, is calling on people 
everywhere to gather at sacred sites on 
the solstice, 21 June, as a day of peace 
and prayer. 
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