Things I’ve learned on Rota

Below is a short list of life truths that have been reinforced during my time on Rota.

1.)    Convertible pants are an extremely versatile invention

First of all, they convert between pants, shorts, and even capris, which just oozes practicality. Also, the zip off portion (between pants and shorts) proves very good for removing large, biting ants from your pants without needlessly exposing yourself to co-workers

2.)    GPS units do not lie, nor do they fully tell the truth

This is fairly self-explanatory – while these (and maps in general) do not outright lie, they often tend to withhold vital bits of information concerning your location

3.)    Your first instinct about a bird’s location is either going to be spot-on, or it will be so horribly wrong that you will be embarrassed to admit it to anyone else

Soooo many examples of this – today, I heard a bird and estimated it’s location to within 5 meters (wow!). The other day, I heard a bird, confidently strode off in the appropriate direction, only to realize that I walked 180^o in the wrong direction. Sigh.

4.)    A surprisingly large number of trees are capable of sounding like crows

Reading this, it sounds like I have a severe auditory issue. But seriously, trees creaking in the wind/rubbing branches can sound like crow. Especially when you’ve been looking for 1 bird for FOUR days and haven’t seen/heard a single peep.

5.)    Boony bees show no mercy

This is the colloquial name for the local wasps – they are extremely aggressive and will sting you repeatedly if you move the branch they are on. Supposedly you should stay still, since movement pisses them off. I’ve also heard that you should run like hell. Mike really epitomized this one the other day, coming home with 19 stings L

6.)    When you have a flat tire, you should stop and fix it immediately. Also, your car owner’s manual is full of wise words of wisdom.

 Now I don’t know a lot about cars, but I can change a tire, and have done so on many previous occasions. Today, I was driving and heard a strange noise that sounded like something in the muffler – like I had hit a rock, which knocked a small hole in the exhaust system.

I kept driving (20 mph on a dirt road) about a min later, I noticed the car was pulling to the right, hmmmm

 Ok, definitely a flat tire – look! The car park I was heading toward anyways!

This is a photo of my tire after this thought process.

In total, I drove 100 m (MAYBE 150 m, tops) during this thought process. By the time it dawned on me that I had an actual flat, I drove maybe 30m to the flat, shaded car park, which I thought was a great spot for tire changing. Obviously (judging by the poor tire), this was a very poor decision. As I was looking at the owner’s manual to figure out how to lower the spare, there was a warning that if a flat occurs, you should pull over immediately, or you risk damaging your tire beyond repair. I have indeed confirmed that this is the case.

2 month Rota-versary!

First off – let me sincerely apologize for the lack of updates. I did vow to try and keep everyone updated on my life, and in that regard I’ve been slacking thus far. Allow me to try and summarize the past two months in this one post.

Let me begin by saying that these past months have been a bit of a roller coaster – with a lot more downs than ups. By about week 3 or 4, we were seriously considering leaving and finding another position. Here we are, a month later, and I’m still here. What was so bad? Why have I chosen to stay?

I suppose my main issue was with the project itself; it’s a long term study, and I approached it thinking that there were active conservation measures in place (or at least plans for them). Coming from NZ, I think I’ve become a bit jaded, but we’re dealing with a population of less than 100

breeding pairs, and there are no plans for captive breeding, relocations, or any other ‘drastic’ measures. Hell, we can’t even put more radio-tags on current birds! So I began this project wondering ‘what the hell am I doing here? Are we just supposed to monitor these birds as they slowly go extinct?’ All we can do (since the batteries in our last two tagged birds died) is 1.) look for active nests (which is great, but the nesting season is winding down, so we’re not finding much) and 2.) resight banded birds (which helps with the survivorship estimates; important, yes, but it’s usually opportunistic, and a bit hard to get psyched about in the morning).

Exacerbating this, we’ve been really struggling with our superiors (in the government) who are supposed to do things like release the funds we’ve been allocated (more on this later), and keep our banding permits up to date (which they don’t do). Following a disastrous meeting where they asked us ‘aren’t we done yet?’ it turns out that no one on-island is on the banding permit, because they are refusing to put anyone but “permanent staff” on the permit, notwithstanding the fact that there are no permanent staff with this project. Due to this (and now that the permit has expired, which also prevents us from doing our surveys…) we’ve missed the opportunity to band 4, potentially 6 fledglings. Here I should say that the only way we’ve found to catch the birds and band them, is when they are fledglings. For a population of ~100, this is extremely frustrating, especially considering that 1^st year survival is exceptionally low, and since this year is the first year for cat control, 1^st year survival would be really really important to look at (but we can only do this if birds are banded).

This highlights the first two issues – problems higher up, and lack of project direction. Snowballing all of this together into a lovely ball would be the extremely awkward social situation, and the lack of communication/unification. Because they haven’t had a postdoc here for a while, it’s been a series of part time people, staying 6-9 months and running the show. Consequently, it’s been a game of Chinese whispers – everyone is just conveying what they heard, and nothing is written down. Our direct bosses at UW are really good about answering questions, but for day-to-day field protocol, it’s not feasible to email about every question. As Mike and I got trained at the same time, we’re realizing now that we were told different things, which are slight variations as to the ‘standard protocol’ anyways. Gah!! So frustrating! Just to add insult to injury, there were some people (who have since left) here that were not helping – no communication, not answering questions, lying (? Still trying to work that out), and making us feel very unwelcome.

 Ok. So that’s my bitch section. Now it’s time for the good part.

I sat down and wrote out a list – pros and cons – about staying, going, other opportunities, money, etc. And the surprising thing I found is that I didn’t really want to leave, not really anyways. Despite all the bullshit, I was (am) determined that while I am here, I’ll do the best job I can. And there is a lot to do. We cleaned 7 years of crap out of the house. We bought a mop and cleaning supplies. Started up a ‘Sunday brunch’. Started re-writing protocol. Began organizing 20 year old datasets. Spent time clearing/flagging tracks. Made track/area descriptions for crow territories. Getting the flat tire fixed (after 2 months without a spare). Buying first aid kits for the trucks (because they didn’t have any!!). Little things that all add up. Our direct boss is super supportive which has been a real asset, and has encouraged Mike and myself to start up our own research initiative with estimating rat abundance (cool!).

The mojo was starting to come back. Sure, we may not be organizing predator eradications or translocations to other islands, but we are doing what we can, with what we have.

That was the attitude as of last week, when we got the email saying we may not have funding, and the entire project could be shut down by the end of April. Hmmm. We started spending our days scrambling for jobs, realizing that between flights and visas, it was going to cost money to accept a position. Mike and I were debating taking up a position in Mass that we were offered, when our boss got back to us, saying that funding was sorted for the next year.

So down, then up, then waaay down, only to try and drag ourselves up again. This is why I haven’t been writing – too much drama and angst. This will be my only bitchy post – if nothing else, I’ve learned heaps about attitude and exactly how to make the best of any situation. When life gives you lemons……..