We reached Harbin, the last stop on our Chinese odyssey, about 10 days after arriving in Qinghuangdao. Our northern transect was substantially easier than our trip through the western desert, although still not without its challenges. In Shenyang we scoured the city for hours and hours but only turned up 15 nests. That would ordinarily be enough- we try to catch 20-30 birds per site, and 15 nests would give us 30 birds since both males and females sleep on or near the nest. Unfortunately, when we returned at night we were banned from two of the houses that had previously granted us permission, robbing us of 3 nests. The other nests we had identified were on the outside of buildings around a market, but it was so windy that netting was difficult and several birds escaped our nets. Two nights of work left us with 14 banded birds and no ideas for where to find more nests, plus rain in the forecast for the next day, so we cut our losses and headed north to Changchun.
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