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……..