5AM in Karasuk was cold, with a beautiful sunrise (made more surreal by the similarly beautiful sunset only 7 hours before). Matt recorded songs while I watched to see if we could catch the 3 pairs of barn swallows nesting at the Karasuk research station. We were both stressed and worried- we had a day and a half to get at least 20 birds, and thus far we had found exactly one promising nest
It seems like a good time to briefly digress about how one actually catches barn swallows. There are several different methods, most of which rely on surprise. When you study forest species, like I did during my Ph.D., catching birds requires very little thought- you just string up a net in the trees and wait for birds to fly into it, since they can’t see the mesh against the foliage. But barn swallows live in open areas, and they have excellent eyesight. No barn swallow that has survived to adulthood is going to just accidentally fly into your net, which means that catching them often becomes a game of wits. Fortunately, swallows nest in enclosed spaces like barns and sheds. The trick, then, is to watch nest sites, wait for the birds to fly inside, then run over and hold a net over the exit before they fly back out. Alternatively, you can take a more ninja approach and wait inside the shed or barn, then hold up the net when the bird flies inside. Other tactics include hiding behind doors and slamming them shut when birds fly inside, and stringing up nets over barn doors of big colonies and then running around making a lot of noise so the birds panic and fly out the doors and into the nets. In all of these scenarios, you a) look pretty ridiculous, and b) spend a lot of time waiting around.
Lunch break near Karasuk
That morning in Karasuk was not promising- there were three pairs of birds singing and foraging, but not visiting their nests, which meant there was no way to catch them. After two hours we gave up, made breakfast, and by 8 were on the road to a little village, with plans to knock on doors and hope we could find birds.
The next ten hours were pretty epic, fieldwork-wise. We drove to one end of the one-road village of Troitska, where we found an abandoned house and an empty barn with three active barn swallow nests between them (meaning 6 birds- a male and female at each nest). First up was the abandoned house: the birds were building their nest, so they were flying in and out a single window. We strung up a net between our poles, stood about 10m away, and only had to wait five minutes for a bird fly in the window. We ran over and held up the net, and the female flew right into it. Olga and I began processing her- taking measurements, photos, etc- while Matt and Lena waited for the male of the pair to show up. Ten minutes later, they had him, and dropped him off with Olga and I while they took the net over to the barn. Our morning progressed that way for four or five hours, with Matt and Lena catching birds and Olga and I banding them. The people in this village were much more receptive than the ones we’d visited the previous night, and we had 7 birds by lunch. We started to feel a little optimistic.
Tea with the Turkey Lady The next ten hours were pretty epic, fieldwork-wise. We drove to one end of the one-road village of Troitska, where we found an abandoned house and an empty barn with three active barn swallow nests between them (meaning 6 birds- a male and female at each nest). First up was the abandoned house: the birds were building their nest, so they were flying in and out a single window. We strung up a net between our poles, stood about 10m away, and only had to wait five minutes for a bird fly in the window. We ran over and held up the net, and the female flew right into it. Olga and I began processing her- taking measurements, photos, etc- while Matt and Lena waited for the male of the pair to show up. Ten minutes later, they had him, and dropped him off with Olga and I while they took the net over to the barn. Our morning progressed that way for four or five hours, with Matt and Lena catching birds and Olga and I banding them. The people in this village were much more receptive than the ones we’d visited the previous night, and we had 7 birds by lunch. We started to feel a little optimistic.
We had a quick picnic of bread, cheese, and Pringles (no fancy 3-course meals in Karasuk!), then headed to the other end of the village. We had met one nice lady the previous evening with a pair of barn swallows in her shed. That she also had huge turkeys, fancy pigeons, chickens, and kittens in there was a nice bonus. When we showed up, the birds were already sitting the shed, just waiting for us. We put up the net and shooed them into it. The Turkey Lady (as we called her) insisted that we band the birds in her summer kitchen, and then brought us tea, coffee, homemade jam, and croissants.
After our tea break with the Turkey Lady, we carried on down the road, and managed to catch five more birds in between bouts of rain and even some hail (GPS point: “Hail No”). By 6:30, we had 14 birds and were fried. We named the final GPS point “Last Gasp.”
Angry great bustard After our tea break with the Turkey Lady, we carried on down the road, and managed to catch five more birds in between bouts of rain and even some hail (GPS point: “Hail No”). By 6:30, we had 14 birds and were fried. We named the final GPS point “Last Gasp.”
Back at the research station, Vladimir Alexandrovich was waiting to show us their experimental breeding facility. The Karasuk station has ties to the Novosibirsk Zoo (of which Vladimir Alexandrovich is also a director), so they breed rare and interesting species both for exhibition at the zoo and reintroduction into the wild. It is the only facility in Russia that has managed successful reintroductions of threatened Siberian grouse, and we saw pens of female grouse with their new-hatched chicks, ready to be released into the wild. There were other grouse species breeding there as well- Capricaillies (an important game bird), Altai grouse, and black grouse, plus golden eagles, white-headed ducks, and, coolest of all, two species of bustards. One of the female great bustards spent 15 minutes aggressively displaying at us- she had just laid and egg and didn’t want us anywhere near her cage.
Matt feeling good on the way back to Novosibirsk We finally managed to start cooking dinner around 8:30, and were almost ready to pass out at 10 when we realized that it would be a good time to try to catch the pairs nesting at the research station- even though they hadn’t been visiting their nests in the morning, they might be sleeping there at night. It’s hard to put in to words just how much we did not want to put our muddy boots back on and try to catch more birds, but we sucked it up, tromped over to a grungy shed in the half-dark, and promptly caught the most interesting pair of birds of the field season: a dark, rusty- colored male, and a huge female with super- long tail streamers. By 11pm, our count for the day was at 16 birds in 14 hours of work.
The next day was the same- we drove to another village, knocked on doors, banded birds. We worked as fast as we could, and the different pairs of birds blurred together, differentiated only by their GPS points- “lucky morning,” where we caught our first pair in 5 minutes; “ginger cat,” where a cat jumped on the net, causing Matt and Lena to lose a bird; “sharp tooth,” home of a particularly terrifying dog. By 1pm we’d caught another 11 birds and had to hit the road- it was 7 hours back to Novosibirsk. We ended up catching 27 birds in a day and a half of work- despite a rocky start, despair and disaster averted.
-Liz
The next day was the same- we drove to another village, knocked on doors, banded birds. We worked as fast as we could, and the different pairs of birds blurred together, differentiated only by their GPS points- “lucky morning,” where we caught our first pair in 5 minutes; “ginger cat,” where a cat jumped on the net, causing Matt and Lena to lose a bird; “sharp tooth,” home of a particularly terrifying dog. By 1pm we’d caught another 11 birds and had to hit the road- it was 7 hours back to Novosibirsk. We ended up catching 27 birds in a day and a half of work- despite a rocky start, despair and disaster averted.
-Liz