Travels in the Southwest

In the last two weeks we have passed the 100 banded adult mark and then eked into a doldrum week without catching anything, despite our best efforts. With swallows you really have one or two chances to catch them on first arrival to a site. After that, even the most human-acclimated birds will alarm call at you and refuse to go back to their nest. And thereafter you will be a marked man--barn swallows seem to be able to recognize and discriminate between individuals and even between cars. It's a very irritating trait. (For me, the hated biologist.)

The Duden Waterfalls

But the arrival of my girlfriend, Amy, on the 2nd seemed to change our luck. In recent days we've banded a number of key males, added two whole families (adults and nestlings) to our study, and I got some excellent recordings. Amy and I also managed to see a bit of the region within easy driving distance of the study area. I say easy distance, but not easy driving. I tend to agree with Amy's suggestion that Turkish drivers don't seem to have received the "defensive driving" training common in the US, but rather a form of "ninjitsu-kamikaze driving." But, I managed to get around and miraculously avoid getting permanently lost or colliding with vehicles or people that seemed to genuinely want me to hit them.

Happiest boat in the harbor

Among the more interesting stops: the Duden waterfalls north of Antalya, the ruins of Aspendos (including an amphitheater dating back to the 4th Century), the ancient cliff city of Myra, near the modern day city of Demre and location of the Church of St. Nicholas. (Like myself, you may be surprised to learn that St. Nicholas died in 346AD, was Turkish, and rather than deliver presents to children all over the world, was known for putting coins in people's shoes and is also the patron saint of mariners.) The church, like many of the Old World historical sites I have visited, was very small. But still, it's pretty incredible to know that you're in a structure that dates back over 1.5 thousand years. It would have been more incredible if there were not 200 or so Russian tourists crammed with Amy and myself in the tiny church. We had a similar experience at the "Chimera," near Olympos, to the West of Antalya. This is a place where eternal fires burn on the hillside from natural gas vents leaking from a chamber below. The site was the inspiration for the Greek legend of the chimera, a fire-breathing monster with the body of a lion, a tail ending in a snake head, and with a goat head inexplicably coming out of its back. Although no doubt cool, the fires were not as big or numerous as the crowds of rude Russian tourists gathered around them.

Sea view near Olympos

In any case, it has been really amazing to have Amy visit for a time (and change our luck with banding), and to see a little of southwestern Turkey. I've been totally oblivious to most of the country, isolated as I am in a tiny rural town. But today Amy is making her long way back to Colorado and I am waiting for my flight to Istanbul, Bucharest, and then to Cluj, Romania, where I'll be trying to band and record some known H. r. rusticas for my study and for a larger study involving barn swallow populations all over the world. As the historical capital of Transylvania, my trip to Cluj should be interesting and I can only hope the forecast days of thunderstorms won't prevent me from recording and seeing a vampire museum or two. Well, that's all for now.
Pax,

Matt