Our goal in Egypt was to catch 30 barn swallows. We finished with 36 birds, caught over 10 wild days in the villages around Damietta. Each and every bird had a story attached to its capture- the bucket incident, the bat incident, and, now, the prisoner incident.
After the night we accidentally caught the bats (plus 13 barn swallows), we only had 2 birds to go. However, we suspected some of our birds were juveniles, so we were hoping for 6 or so additional birds. Juveniles may not be fully-grown and have paler plumage than adults, so we didn’t want those birds skewing our data. I was feeling particularly awful- two days after extracting bats from the nets I had gotten sick, and spent 30 hours a little afraid I had rabies (I didn’t, just a bad cold). I may not have been dying, but I was still exhausted and felt miserable.
After the night we accidentally caught the bats (plus 13 barn swallows), we only had 2 birds to go. However, we suspected some of our birds were juveniles, so we were hoping for 6 or so additional birds. Juveniles may not be fully-grown and have paler plumage than adults, so we didn’t want those birds skewing our data. I was feeling particularly awful- two days after extracting bats from the nets I had gotten sick, and spent 30 hours a little afraid I had rabies (I didn’t, just a bad cold). I may not have been dying, but I was still exhausted and felt miserable.