I think Egypt is trying to kill us. No, not violently! I think the Egyptians are trying to exhaust us to death. Yesterday started at 7:45am, when we were woken up after 6 hours of sleep by Basma calling to tell us that someone had a bunch of barn swallows in a bucket and we had to go get them immediately. The day ended at midnight, after we finished climbing around a shed and dodging an angry cow to catch a pair of birds, while a crowd of 50 or so chanting children waited outside. We’ve been here for 4 days, we’ve caught 15 birds, and we are so, so tired. |
Our first day in Damietta began after a fitful night of sleep. We have not yet been able to confirm that Egyptian people actually sleep- outside our hotel window, happy noise and chatter from the coffee shops cut through our jetlagged dreams until well past 2am, and a earth-shaking call to prayer from the neighboring mosque started at 4:15am. We finally fell back asleep until late morning, and Basma picked us up in the afternoon so we could check out a fish farm where she had previously done lots of mist netting for her research on avian flu.
The farm had reed beds that, at many times of the year, are full of roosting barn swallows. Unfortunately, now most swallows are feeding nestlings, so while they forage over the reeds they don’t often swoop low enough to be caught in nets. We decided to give the reed bed a try anyway- Basma had caught swallows there at this time before, and the man who worked there was really nice and let us use his cabin as a delightful, shady banding station. After another night of terrible, interrupted sleep (2 hours for me, 4 for Amanda), we got up at 5:30 to set up nets in the reed bed. After a few hours we had caught a graceful prinia and a migrating sedge warbler, but no swallows. We returned in the evening for another try, but again had no luck- it was very windy and the swallows just weren’t interested in flying into our nets. Basma and Mamdouh were determined to find us birds, and began calling their friends to ask about swallow nests. They also talked to the fish farm guy about our project, and he said that there were swallows in his village. We decided that we would try looking for nests there the next afternoon, or maybe go to a place in Cairo that Basma knew about.
That evening, Basma and Mamdouh had us over for am amazing home-cooked dinner. Basma made a traditional Egyptian meal of tagine, eggplant and tomatoes, soup, vegetables, rice, and salads. Everything was delicious, and she promised to give us the recipes. We spent some time after dinner drinking tea, talking science, and examining books about Egyptian birds in Basma and Mamdouh’s lovely library (filled with world-famous Damietta furniture!) Dinner is typically late in Egypt, and it was nearly 11pm before Amanda and I were back at the hotel. I decided that, since we weren’t banding in the morning, I would take 2 AdvilPM, sleep for 12 hours, and finally kick my jet lag. I was in a happy, drug-induced sleep by 12:45.
The phone rang at 7:45, waking us both out of deep, deep sleep. “Hello Liz!” said Basma. “A man has barn swallows for us! We will pick you up in 15 minutes.” We scrambled around in confusion and were downstairs just as Basma and Mamdouh rolled up. They both looked tired as well. “Umm, what’s going on?” we asked as we climbed in the car. It turned out the nice man from the fish farm had taken it upon himself to grab a bunch of swallows while they were sleeping on their nests. We arrived at the farm and he happily presented us with plastic bucket with holes punched in the top and six very cranky barn swallows inside. We started processing the birds as fast as we could- we weren’t sure how long they had been in the bucket, and wanted to get them flying around and feeding as quick as possible (they were all fine- barn swallows are hardy). Despite the fuzziness in my head from the AdvilPM and the craziness of the situation, it was exciting- we finally had our first savignii! They looked different from the other subspecies we’d caught- even darker-colored than the Siberian tytleri, with an almost blackish-brown to their bellies and intermediate- length tail streamers. The females had old brood patches, meaning they’re probably on their second clutch of chicks this season.
We finished measuring the birds and thanked (and paid) the fish farm man for his extremely generous efforts. He promised to find more nests in his village for us- we could visit the next day. Two of Basma and Mamdouh’s friends had also called that morning, and knew of nests that we could catch that evening.
We arrived in a village outside Damietta around 7pm, and were immediately surrounded by a crowd of exuberant children. Damietta is not a tourist town, and it seemed likely these kids had never seen foreigners before. Basma and Mamdouh’s friend led us to his store, which indeed had a nest inside. They barred the door while we went in to catch the birds, but we could hear the crowd gathering outside as we worked.
We emerged to chaos- dozens and dozens of clamoring people, all staring at us. A man in the crowd announced that he, too, had barn swallow nests, so we trooped down the block, Basma clutching our backpacks and steering us from behind as the throng of people surged around us. We could make out shouts of “Foreigner! Foreigner!” and “Hello!” among the Arabic.
We arrived in a village outside Damietta around 7pm, and were immediately surrounded by a crowd of exuberant children. Damietta is not a tourist town, and it seemed likely these kids had never seen foreigners before. Basma and Mamdouh’s friend led us to his store, which indeed had a nest inside. They barred the door while we went in to catch the birds, but we could hear the crowd gathering outside as we worked.
We emerged to chaos- dozens and dozens of clamoring people, all staring at us. A man in the crowd announced that he, too, had barn swallow nests, so we trooped down the block, Basma clutching our backpacks and steering us from behind as the throng of people surged around us. We could make out shouts of “Foreigner! Foreigner!” and “Hello!” among the Arabic.
The second site was a shed with 3 nests inside- as well as several sheep, two calves, and one large cow that was obviously displeased by the commotion. We blocked off the exit with a net, and used a second, smaller net to start catching birds at the nests. The activity woke up the birds, so we had to climb around the animals and chase them down as they flew around the ceiling. All the while, the mob chanted outside and children stealthily crept in through the door to watch. Finally, after Amanda and Mamdouh climbed onto piles of hay and manure and scooped the net up over the angry and terrified cow, we had five birds, bringing our total for the village to seven. By this point the crowd was too boisterous and Basma and Mamdouh were obviously worried about making a big scene, so we dashed back to the car and drove off to a quiet shop, where we processed the birds (again, working as fast as we could).
We ended the night by catching a pair of swallows in a stairwell at Mamdouh’s friend’s apartment, and were back at the hotel at midnight, covered in cow manure but super happy. We left again this morning and found a bunch more nests in the fish farmer’s village, which we can hopefully catch tomorrow. And so here we are: yesterday started with no swallows and a benadryl-induced haze, and ended with 15 birds. We have more nests waiting for us. We are very well fed. We have amazing colleagues here. And tonight, we hope, we get to sleep.
-Liz
-Liz