Side trip and troublesome birdies

Lately I've been having a lot of trouble recording. The trouble is that the traffic along Academia Rd, where most of our swallow nests are, becomes deafeningly loud, with tour buses, huge dump trucks, and a phalanx of noisy scooters rumbling by, at around 6am. This has led to the barn swallows shifting their dawn song to about 1 1/2 hours before the sunrise. As one of my primary goals is to get songs for known individuals we have captured in order to match up morphological measures with song characteristics, this is quite difficult when you can's see color bands in the dim, predawn light. As of today I have a good sample of around 10 songs for 5 known males, which is not bad, but not what I was hoping for. The work continues...

The main drag in Luodong

Me, at the Luodong night market

Collecting a beetle trap

In other news, yesterday I took a side trip to some mountains south of Taipei, along with Shih-Fan and three others working in Sheng-Feng's lab. We hopped in a university vehicle in the morning and took the highway out of town, alternately passing dense city centers, thick forest, and wide, dry river basins sprinkled with watermelon and cabbage fields. When we got to an area called Cilan forest, we began a 3000 foot climb along the windiest road I have ever been on, causing me to feel carsick for only the second time in my life. Near the top, we stopped at a small rest area and tucked into a bucket of the Coronel's chicken (yes, KFC is everywhere!). At that point we turned around and the crew started to work, collecting beetle traps that had been baited with rotten meat. These traps are part of a study on competition between different burrowing beetle species as a function of temperature and elevation, in relation with climate change. It's pretty cool, and I admit a little jealousy for this field work, which involves setting 45 traps along a roadside, and then driving up and collecting them some time later. But did I mention they're baited with meat? Uhhhh! Once, someone forgot to put the screwcap on the trap before loading it back in the car---QUITE nasty smelling.

But I did get to see some gorgeous countryside and managed to get out and walk along the road with Shih-Fan while the others collected traps for a bit. We heard lots of birds, and saw a few--it's quite difficult to spot most of these guys in the thick growth of the forest. And even more tricky to snag a photo, but I managed a few that are recognizable. All in all it was a really nice day and a pleasant change of pace from pointing a microphone at birds for hours.

Which reminds me, I've got to be hittin' the hay for a couple hours before going out to try some more recording. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Matt