Preguntas de la noche

I won't share everything here, but I thought some of you might be interested in the kind of things we talk about here to keep camp lively.

The stupidest thing we've ever done. Strangely, most did not involve alcohol.

The biggest challenge we have (or are trying to overcome). For me, it is/was my speech impediment.

Highlight of the day (done various times). Yesterday, on our trip to the conservation center, for me was seeing a squirrel monkey. I never saw them in Costa Rica.

Bravest thing we have ever done. For me, I felt it was taking the solo backpack trip through Yellowstone this past year. Though I have backpacked alone before, that was the first time I had to be VERY aware of my surroundings.

When we stopped believing in Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy, that sort of thing.

So, yeah, we have lots of fun conversations.

Most definitely not in Kansas anymore!

Well, gee, where to begin? With the 12 hours of plane rides? BORING. With the craziness that is Iquitos? BORING. How about the birding and work? Sure, that sounds good!

I am in Peru, safe and (generally) sound. As I had written in my journal (and later put on here), I could not have predicted at all what it would be like down here. It is an el nino year, which means we are seeing much less rain than is normal. As in, nearly none. So, though I am in a rainforest, I have hardly seen much rain. We had a pretty ferocious storm about a week ago. And the rivers are s l o w l y beginning to rise again (they about 4-5 meters below normal height). Everyone is trying to manage down here, both the Peruvians and the tourists and researchers.

So, some quick facts about where I am. Duh, I'm in Peru (in South America, on planet Earth, in the Milky Way Galaxy). The town we are based out of is Iquitos, the largest city in the world (400.000) that you cannot drive to! The only access is by river, or by plane. It is near the junctions of the Nanay and Maranon, which form the Amazon river. Peru is shaped like a backwards facing block letter 'L', and we are in the top of the L. And for some more geography: the Amazon river has the equivalent water volume of the 5 largest rivers in the world COMBINED: Congo, Nile, Yang-tze, Ganges, and Mississippi. I haven't seen the actual Amazon yet, but I will.

My work down here involves examining the species composition of bird communities on white sand forest patches. These white sand patches appear in various areas in the 'jungle'. They are never flooded (terra firme) and have their own unique plant species that grow on them. And as a result, some of the birds are unique to these patches. The trees don't grow much higher than 15-25 meters, while in the clay forests, the trees grow upwards of 35-45 meters tall, or higher.

Our job involves setting up mist nets and banding the birds in the region. A good day will have us catch around 35 to 45 individuals, of various species. Above is a picture of me holding a chestnut woodpecker. We take blood samples of all the birds we can for population genetics, so that our boss can evaluate gene flow between the forest patches.

It's lots of fun! The crew will shift in size here and there (and we already lost one technician for personal reasons), but right now there are two Peruvians, one Argentinian, and four Americans. Plus our boss. So yes, my spanish, for the first time, is noticeably improving.

So it is hard to say what I love best about the job. I love that we have group meals every night and sit down 'family style' to eat dinner. Every night we have a 'pregunta de la noche', or question of the night, to help with conversation and learn more about each other. Right now, we all work together, all day, every day. We catch a wide variety of birds, many of which I have never seen before (so it makes for a great way to learn these new species, for when I see them free flying later). And of course, the rain forest being the rain forest, there are so many different and wonderful things to see, especially in the invertebrate (insects, spiders, etc) realm.

Of course, all this comes with a flip side, which I am dealing quite well with. We live in tents (though sheltered ones) in the field. No running water. No electricity. Egad, no internet! But of course I am used to all these things, so it's not that hard on me. I do miss the running water, or a decent stream to bathe in. I keep going back and forth on what place was hotter, Australia or here. I think here, if only because it's humid, and because the air does not really cool down at night (it drops to around 25 C at night, or high 70s) while in Australia I had much cooler nights.

And I am keeping to my resolution, of writing in my journal every night, and writing the highlight of the day for each day. And depending on the question of the night, I often write about that too, if only for some introspective. So, the highlights so far:

-I have added 38 new birds to my life list for the world (though I have seen more species, that just aren't new for the world). I do NOT count birds in the hand. I have others helping me find more now. I gave them the incentive of beer that I would buy when I get to 1.300 (31 birds away now), as well as beer when I get to 1.400. It is going kind of slow with the new birds, but I have yet to see a good mixed flock of birds, or find an army ant swarm with birds around it.

-My favorite new bird species so far? It's kind of hard, but I love all the different antbirds. Perhaps the Scale-breasted Woodpecker, or the White-tailed Trogon.

-We took a river trip up the Nanay River yesterday, to visit a conservation center. The work they do there (breeding certain butterfly species, and rehabbing and sheltering confiscated animals) is incredible. She had both an ocelot and a Jaguar that she was keeping. The Jaguar was stunted, because it was kept in a box when the person was trying to sell it. So, though it was about 100 kilos and 'full grown', it was still about 50 kilos smaller than it would have been! And seeing the animal, you realize how massive and strong it is. Oh, we were able to get much closer than you would in any zoo (and she had a nice large enclosure for it). Plus these animals should never be released in the wild anyway, for they have lost their fear of humans.

-walking through the Amazon rainforest.

-the wide variety of insects and other invertebrates.

-getting better (slowly but surely) at understanding spanish

So we leave for the field in another day or two, we expect. For photos of some of the things I have seen, please see the flickr link on the blog, and go to the Peru photo album.

I miss all of you, and though I am so glad I'm down here, I look forward to seeing and talking to many of you when I eventually get back stateside.

Thoughts entering Peru

I have arrived in Peru safe and sound. I have a welcome couple of days off with the crew, while our boss takes care off different paperwork things for the project. We go back into the forest (Selva) tomorrow (well, back for the crew, first time for me). Iquitos is definitely a frontier type town. It will take some getting used to when I am here.

Anyway, I thought I would post (most) of my journal entry that I wrote on the plane on the way here.

6-7 September 2010.

Somewhere over the Atlantic/Gulf regions. On the way to Peru!

I feel much more relaxed about this than I expected. Perhaps I haven't had time to get jittery. Perhaps it is because this is the 4th time I've entered (well, 5th with the Aussie reentry) a foreign country in the past 16 months. Or maybe I'm too excited. Or because it sounds like my future boss helped put the entry at ease.

Whatever the reason, I have mixed feelings now about many things. I wonder how warm/hot it will really feel like. I am in disbelief I will be in the Amazon - the Amazon! - in about 12 hours. And my mind still hasn't wrapped itself around the fact I'll be seeing oodles of new birds soon. The goal is 1.400 world total before I leave - a "mere" 169 birds away.

I rarely have problems with coworkers, but I wonder what the crew will be like. I expect I'll be the oldest - but that no longer bothers me. I attribute that to having worked with Ryan twice - it is nothing to be ashamed of doing something you love. And my recent past employers have like my maturity.

I am glad for how off the grid we will be, save for one aspect. I spend far entirely too much time online when I have it - and this trip wreally will force long breaks. As always, I will be glad for no T.V. It really does seem to be too much of a distraction.

As much as I try to imagine what this job will be like - I can't. I have spent time in rainforests in Ecuador, in Costa Rica, in Australia. I look forward to my first view of the river. To the wildlife. To the heat, even. To just the experience.

I finally feel my typical writing skills are back. Maybe I need to stop being "photo heavy" in my blog. This is what the flickr site is for.

(next section deleted)

So, what birds and other wildlife do I expect? Well, I'm sure I'll see a new species of monkey. Some kind of toucan. Lots of antbirds and mannakins. A few hummers - not many, being the rainforest. Hopefully a new raptor or two. I would love a sungrebe or sunbittern.

So, lots of excitement to come. I will try very hard to be diligent, and write every day. Also to shoot a little video every week.

Wild Wyoming!

Well, August became quite the busy month after my bird project was finished in Wyoming. When I was hired for the bird project, I had also been hired for some vegetation work, in Lodgepole Pine stands, for the remainder of the summer. This work was a combination of American Lynx habitat work, required by the US Forest Service under the endangered species act, and to examine the extent of pine beetle kill in the southern Wyoming and northern Colorado Lodgepole Pine Forests.

So, I, in other words, wasn't doing bird work. Which was fine by me. A new kind of work meant I would learn new things. Which always makes life interesting.

It was fun work, in it's way. It was very nice to work with people again! As much as I enjoyed the bird work and all the time I had to myself...after a while, I realized I wanted company again. Corny jokes, shorter drives, and funny stories were the order of the day, to help pass the time on the project.

And then I did a switcheroo...
For various reasons, I switched projects from the lodgepole project to a wetland delineation one. This project would involve backpacking, getting our feet wet (literally), remote areas, grizzly country, and great scenery. All the plots were around the Grand Teton National Park area, and I got to work with my "roommate" from the summer (though we rarely were at home base at the same time). I loved it!

Our first plots involved a boat ride across Jackson Lake, to the Moran Bay area. The photos above were of our first plot there, a marsh. It was sometimes hard to get work done, with such a wonderful backdrop! We got our plots done a little faster than we expected, so even did a bonus plot on the last day for extra data. Very wet feet were involved the whole time, as well as some Great Horned Owls calling and flying around camp, Bald Eagles, Ospreys, and various songbirds as well.

After we were finished, the boat came back to pick us up at our pre-arranged time and location. The weather was very pleasant, and offered some unparalleled views of the Teton range. This first is a view of the moon setting behind the Tetons the night we listened to and watched the owls:
The following is a composite image of the first marsh:
And the view of the Tetons from the boat on the way out:
From these plots, we spent a much deserved day restocking our larder and resting in beds! A strange thing for my field partner, who could count on two hands the number of nights he wasn't camping during the summer. Then, it was off to our first actual backpack (well, for me) to some plots near Survey Peak, on the west side of Grand Teton National Park.

We were more worn out more than we thought...it took much longer to walk the 10 miles than we thought it would. But nevertheless, we got to our plots fine, with only about a half mile of off trail walking. We saw some signs of bears, but nothing that made us too concerned. We made plenty of noise to make sure they knew we were coming. The plots up in that area went smoothly...well, the first three anyway (a marsh [photo 1], a fen [photo 2], and a wet meadow).
Then, we walked down to our last plot for the area. And we thought, uh oh. Moose or bear danger. The shrubs were too tall to see over, and too dense to see through. But after a short time, we realized that it was so dense, a bear or moose wouldn't even walk in it (and we never saw any sign that they did), and they would hear us and all the noise we made without any problem.
Then we walked out the next day. As difficult as the shrubland was, it wasn't nearly as bad as Ken's brilliant idea of a shortcut to avoid a short climb up a mountain, and instead going across the contour straight across the slopes. Yeah, I'm being sarcastic - it took us just as long. The reward was great scenery though.
Once we got back on the trail, we made PLENTY of noise. We had done so on the way up too. The reason? Bear bait. Also known as huckleberries. Though we enjoyed plenty as well.
From here, it was off to a single, lone plot next to lost lake. And then some much needed rest and relaxation in a bed again, in Jackson Hole this time. And then some fun.

In the interest of saving space on this blog, please check out photos on my flickr page, link on the right. We took a couple of days of "rest" in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, checking out different sites in the parks. Then, it was the final push, for me. We had a few short days to get the "wildcat peak" plots done. This area is east of Teton National Park, and south of Yellowstone National Park, in the Teton Wilderness. This was prime grizzly country, and though we never saw one, we saw plenty of signs. This is Ken next to a clawed tree...with a worried expression (on Ken, not the tree):
We finished our plots, and walked out. And I was finally done with my summer in Wyoming. For this year, anyway.
And so, from here, I embark on the next great adventure. PERU! I'm starting...um, no, that's not right. I've been excited for this for months. I'm just getting more and more amped up for the trip. There will be lots of new birds to see, and lots of adventures to be had.