July webflash

The second storm-petrel of the year – which carried a Spanish ring.

4,000 Storm-petrels ringed by A Rocha

The European Storm-petrel Hydrobates pelagicus is Europe’s smallest seabird. At just 25g, they are the same size as a sparrow, yet they spend almost all their time at sea and can live for more than 30 years. The A Rocha team in Portugal have been studying ‘stormies’ since 1990, catching the birds as they move northwards along the Algarve coast in May and June and on the night of 12/13 June, with the help of Earthwatch volunteers, they ringed their 4,000th. This year they have handled 518 birds, of which 18 already carried rings put on in the UK, Norway, Spain or Italy. The Italian bird was a surprise: the first definite record of the Mediterranean subspecies Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis in Atlantic waters! The bird was ringed in Marettimo, Italy, as a chick in the nest on 16 July 2004. More news “Sponsor a stormie”

75,000 bottles recycled

In June the A Rocha USA team led the new recycling programme at Ichthus, a major Christian music festival in Wilmore, Kentucky. A dozen student volunteers from Asbury College helped A Rocha to man three tables, collecting bottles and cans and shuttling recyclables for proper disposal. On 19 June they wrote, “We were up to our elbows in ketchup, fishing bottles from the trash, but it gave us great opportunities to share the need to care for God's creation with the 20,000 attendees! Matthew is delivering the last of 75,000 plastic bottles right now to the recycling center.”

236 Kenyan youngsters helped by a tree!

On 21 June Ambassador Hussein Dado, Under Secretary for Cultural Heritage for the Kenya Government, cut a ribbon at the new ASSETS tree platform which is perched 14m up in a 400-year old Baobab tree in Gede Ruins National Monument, near Watamu. This marked the latest in A Rocha Kenya's new eco-tourism facilities designed to thrill the kids and wow the birders. The Gede Ruins platform will reap additional income for ASSETS from the many tourists who visit the ancient Arab city. The National Museums of Kenya laid on local dance groups and children’s choirs for the occasion and this was followed by a meal for over eighty people at A Rocha’s field study centre in Watamu. Through ASSETS, 236 children have now received bursaries enabling them to have a secondary school education and eight local primary schools are involved. The Gede platform was built by local workmen, with funds from Geneva Global, Tourism Cares for Tomorrow, WWF Netherlands, ICCO Netherlands and local businesses.