May Field Notes: The team comes back

May is the month of return. The long rains taper through the first half, and by the third week the airstrips are drying, the roads are firming, and the team is heading back into camp. The river is still high but starting to recede; the first sandbars surface again. Out in the bush, somewhere we cannot yet reach, an alpha female wild dog is choosing an aardvark burrow to den in. Her gestation is roughly seventy-two days, her litter usually six to fourteen — and her timing means the year is, quietly, beginning.

The river: Still high but starting to drop; the first sandbars emerging; oxbow lakes still connected to the main channel.

The bush: Grass beginning to seed and dry at the tips; miombo still fully leafed; wild fruiting — tamarind, ziziphus, figs.

On four legs: Wild dog denning often begins late May; buffalo bulls re-establishing dominance; elephant herds drifting back towards permanent water.

On the wing: A quiet transition — migrants gone, residents post-breeding; some intra-African breeders (woodland kingfisher) leaving north.