A trio of novelties

Today I got a slightly earlier start and succeeded in being out in the field during the much more productive early morning hours. I was rewarded for my lack of sleep and saw several species of more crepuscular (dawn and dusk) birds that I had not seen thus far during my time here. The first of these species was the Black Bittern, a species that is supposedly more common than both Cinnamon and Yellow Bitterns which, in total, I have seen on five occasions now! The reedbed on the outskirts of one of the villages I drive through had a whole host of terns, egrets, pond herons, cormorants, and jacanas swarming the small pond and among this swarm a pair of Black Bittern circled before dropping into the reeds shortly after I’d spotted them. I did get a couple poor photos of them flying, but they aren’t good enough for me to put on here. Continuing on I reached Karaivetti and flushed a Ruddy-breasted Crake from the shallow area where I’d seen baillon’s crake last week. This is the crake that I’d been expecting, although it is by no means common so I was glad to finally get at least a glimpse of it. The water level seems to have stabilized, thanks in part to the rain we received on three different days last week (very odd for the dry season here), but also due to the fact that one of the outlets of water has been closed since the rice is being harvested and the farmers do not need the water for irrigation any longer. So there is less outflow of the water. That channel is also very productive for waders and kingfishers right now as the receding water in the channel is leaving many fish without anywhere to go! I had parked my moped quietly and was sitting there taking some photos of a Common Kingfisher that was perched nice and close. I saw a White-breasted Waterhen climbing through the Acacia tangles about 10 yards down the dike and readied my camera for a photo of this very common, but extremely uncooperative species of rail that I still don’t have a single image of… As I was waiting with the camera pre-focused on the clearing where I thought the waterhen would appear, what walks out but two rails that are definitely not waterhens! As I saw them I knew what they weren’t (immature waterhen, ruddy-breasted crake, baillon’s crake, immature moorhen) and knew it had to be something good so I was fortunate enough to get two photos of one of the birds before they disappeared into the tangles that I was expecting the waterhen to come out of. They were shortly followed by a Grey Mongoose that didn’t pause long enough for me to take a pic. I was able to review the photos immediately and identify the rails as Slaty-breasted Rail (photo on right), another species that is not shown to regularly occur in Tamil Nadu (3 x’s signify some prior records), but in the text it is listed as a widespread resident. Either way, it was another new species for me as well as a new species for the Karaivetti list (#205 for those who are interested)! During my review of the photo I glanced up just in time to see the ever-elusive waterhen fly across the gap and evade me again… One of these days!

Upon reaching the observation tower where I officially start my counts, I wasn’t overly enamored to see the same local who speaks zero English come up and expect me to let him look through the scope and my binocs (I’ve not been allowing anyone to look through my bins as accident avoidance…I don’t want to have to use my backup bins that I brought!). It is becoming a little bit annoying to have the same people, everyday, come up and emphatically say things in Tamil that I have zero comprehension of, and expect me to make some progress on the language. Call me the stereotypical ugly American if you want, but I really don’t have much use for Tamil and after I leave here in 3.5 weeks I will probably never meet another person who speaks it! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about cultural expression and I need to work on my foreign languages, but for me that is Spanish, a language that I can use throughout 90% of central and south america not to mention Spain… Anyways, after I attempted the ignore him tact for about 10 minutes as I scanned the duck flocks (composed of species like these Spot-billed Ducks), I decided that I should just let him look through the scope (again) and hopefully he’d move on after that. I also hate to be rude to the local people who I’m seeing regularly who may end up helping me out if something happens… But yeah, I’d love to go one full morning out there without having to lower my scope for someone and wait the ten minutes it takes them to tire of it…

I waited longer than usual at this stop in an attempt to see and photograph the Greylag Goose again. The Bar-headed Goose flock arrived to roost later in the morning today (9:05AM) and they surprised me (again). I was scanning the distant acacias for raptors when I heard a honk and the geese were already half way across my field of view. I scanned the flock and relocated the Greylag and had better looks at it today, but by the time I got on the bird it was too distant for me to photograph.

The rest of the survey went well, and I’m enjoying playing with the zoom lens on this camera. Here’s a Blue-tailed Bee-eater that posed nicely for me this morning (on the left). Oddly enough, today was the first day since the start of the count that I didn’t record any of the migratory wagtails though (the resident White-browed were it).

I was the guest speaker this afternoon for grades 8-10 at the school. I threw together a little powerpoint with some pix of me and my family and gave them my background as they tried to absorb my accent. It went fairly well, many of the questions they had for me were a bit difficult to decipher though (Ex. How do you pick India? Or What Indian cultures you like?). I honestly just took the theme of most of the questions and did my own thing because getting the students to ask questions of the tall scary american man who talks funny was like pulling teeth!

Also, I had the not so fun experience of taking a dime-sized beetle up my left nostril this morning during my drive in to the sanctuary. Yes it barely fit, I’m just glad it wasn’t smaller or it wouldn’t have been stopped by my nose! Also had a near miss with a Blue-faced Malkoha (close relative of the old world cuckoos) this am…most have missed my face by an inch… The endemic bird is freaking awesome looking (best photo I’ve got on right), but I don’t think I would have enjoyed seeing one that close!

The relative nature of rarities…

Today I almost messed up. No, I didn’t almost fall in the lake again, or drive over more thorns, or…you get the point. I almost missed a pretty rare bird due to me lapsing into the familiar swing of the survey. I had reached the first transect point (a little late due to some gastro-intestinal issues that have arisen…) and I had sat down on the concrete wall by the tower to eat my breakfast of bread, butter, jam, and a banana that Carolyn had kindly packed for me (as she does everyday). I was feeling a little out of it to begin with, and then the local workers (I call them this despite me seeing them do much work ever…) approached me wanting to look through my scope (as usual). I obligingly lowered it for them and they chattered in Tamil about the birds (at least I think that’s what they were talking about…) while I sat there drinking water and waiting for them to move off so I could actually count the birds that were there. As I was sitting there, I heard the distinctive low-pitch, almost nasal honking of approaching Bar-headed Geese. I turned to count the flock and immediately noticed that it was the largest single flock of Bar-headeds that I had seen yet and I got out the new camera that Relton had loaned me (for the remainder of my stay!) to test out the 12x optical zoom and get some nice shots of the geese in flight. After I took a couple of shots the birds were getting too far away and I went back to counting them through my bincos. It was only at this point in time that I realized that there was a different species of goose in the flock! Now, I got excited because I knew that none of the other goose species that occur in India are supposed to be here besides Bar-headeds and I quickly brushed aside the local who was on my scope and got the scope on the bird just long enough to tell that it was a Greylag Goose (the most likely of the brown-backed geese to occur here as it makes it as far south as Mumbai regularly – about 700 miles to the northwest) before the flock disappeared behind the rookery and landed out of sight. At this point I thought I may have inadvertently captured the Greylag in my earlier photos of the whole flock, and I checked on the camera only to find the first shot too blurry and the second shot I wasn’t able to pick it out on the small screen. Upon returning to Pullambadi and uploading the photos onto my laptop I was able to see that I did actually catch the Greylag but the quality is quite low due to the distance and the amount of cropping I had to do… Here is the original photo of the flock and followed by the cropped version (fourth bird from the front, with darker brown back and wings…tough to tell, I know). I got to thinking about how I immediately got excited about the fact that the bird was unusual here despite the fact that I have seen hundreds if not thousands of this very same species in the UK just last March (I actually have two photos of one from London on my blog here - 1, 2). A recent blog post by a birding friend of mine back in Wisconsin talked about this issue and I think he’s right on the money. It’s the unfamiliarity of a species in that area or to a person that makes it all the more noteworthy. Whether it’s someone who visits a new continent and everything that is seen is literally new to them, or someone who birds an area frequently but has never seen a certain species there, that same feeling of excitement occurs during both situations. So yeah, that’s just some of my musings from here in Pullambadi this afternoon…

Other interesting birds seen today included a lonely looking male Tufted Duck (remarkably my first of the survey…thousands were here last January), 12 Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Yellow Bitterns in reedbeds on the outskirts of a nearby village, my first sighting of a Common Woodshrike this year, and a couple of different plumages of Yellow Wagtail (very sharp looking birds…the camera batteries died as I tried to photograph one that was close…I’ll keep trying). And here’s a nice shot of a male Pied Bushchat that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the 12x optical zoom on Relton’s camera!

A glimpse into the life of a Tamil 3rd year Zoology student…

Today I woke up at 3:30AM and gathered two days worth of clothes and my equipment and headed out the door of the Relton’s to meet the zoology students and the 25 passenger bus that was going to be taking us all up to the Western Ghats. We had gathered in the bus by 4AM and departed on time and the students were all very excited about going. I could understand this; trips like this aren’t the norm at Indian colleges so this was a treat for all the students involved. After about 15 minutes of unabated excitement and talking, I began to wonder when they would all quiet down and try to get back to sleep, like I had been attempting to do… Luckily, I had thought ahead and had fully recharged my iPod the night before, and I escaped into the familiarity of some of my favorite playlists. I was almost asleep when I was jarred awake by the sudden blaring of the radio. The boys had apparently convinced the driver that this was the ideal time to listen to the latest Tamil pop songs and to even sing along on some of the apparently more popular songs… Now I’m very open-minded about music, and honestly like almost every type of genre to some degree or other with the notable exception of heavy metal (my brother has even gotten me to like a couple of Hindi songs). This music I absolutely have no love for, and my best attempt at a description would have to be a three-way cross between bad rap (ie no skill whatsoever), low-grade pop music, and the third element being what I can only relate to the Islamic call to prayer (that type of wailing sound). It was about as sleep-inducing as…actually I can’t think of a single thing that approaches the antithesis of rest as this was… Anyway, luckily my brother had given me new ear-buds for my iPod for Christmas and they actually fit into the ear better and act almost like earplugs. This, coupled with me turning up the volume on my iPod to the point that it was actually hurting me ears enabled me to tune out some (not all…) of the racket that was the bus for the next 6 hours it took us to reach Topslip.

The birding was decent, but the constraints on birding there are high. You are not allowed to walk any of the trails without a local forest-service guide accompanying you. There actually is a fairly high danger of being mauled by a Gaur (Water Buffalo), a smaller chance of being bitten by a venomous snake, and a miniscule chance that a Tiger may attack you. So yeah, good reasons for having a guide accompany you, but rather annoying when I can’t get into the habitat that is home to so many endemic birds. I did manage to see quite a few birds during the trip, including 11 new species for me (lifers). Not bad, considering I was with a group of very loud Tamil Zoology students who were on (believe it or not) their first ever trip into the jungle to look for wildlife… The best birds of the trip were definitely the nocturnal species that I saw while we were out at night with spotlights driving around looking for mammals. A Spot-bellied Eagle Owl was by far the highlight. This species is rare and not nearly as active at dawn and dusk as many of the other owl species. Relton said that he has seen a grand total of two in his 20+ years of birding, so I definitely feel extremely fortunate to have seen this species. Other nocturnal species I added included the Brown Fish Owl, Jungle Owlet, and Indian Nightjar. The other species I want to mention was the Brown-backed Needletail, an enormous swift that is literally the size of a nighthawk that I saw twice as it swooped in low over the canopy. I’ve seen the White-rumped Needletail before which is about the same size as most of the swallows and swifts, but this species was so huge that I was very impressed by it. I wasn’t able to get many photos of birds up in the Ghats due to the light conditions or the speed in which the birds were gone… Relton had loaned me his brand new Sony Cyber-Shot camera that is quite nice (and has a very respectable 12x optical zoom) for the weekend and I was excited to try it out on some of the birds up in the Ghats. I managed to get photos of a few interesting species as well as a nice shot of a male Indian Peafowl that was perched on a post near the Kerala border (photo above). The only endemic bird I managed a shot of was a Malabar Parakeet that was feeding a young bird in the top of some Bamboo (photo on right). Very striking birds, the black beak on the young birds is diagnostic for separating it from the similar Plum-headed and Rose-ringed Parakeets. We also saw a Grey-headed Fish Eagle at a reservoir up at elevation in Kerala (photo on left). This species is extremely local in the Western Ghats and there are probably just a few pairs that are present in the entire mountain range (they are more common in NE India and they range into SE Asia as well).

I also enjoyed bumping into a few Australians and a group of five Polish birders who had just arrived in the Ghats. It was fun for me to talk birds with some hardcore people and give them a few suggestions for their next few days.

By the way, India beat Australia in Cricket at Canberra for the first time in twenty-some years on Sunday! I was watching the game with Relton, Daisy, and Alan (their son) and their excitement rubbed off on me a little! Australia is the reigning world champion in cricket, so an enormous upset…

All for now, I’ll leave you with a view of the reservoir (that the previously mentioned fish eagle was at) in Kerala at dawn on Tuesday…oh yeah it was nice and cool up in the mountains too!

Two rarities; a weather event and my first crake!

So this morning started normally but it wasn’t long after I’d arrived out at Karaivetti that I noticed that the clouds in the distance looked rather ominous. Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later the wind picked up and I experience my first rain here in India. I was under the impression that we were entering the dry season here…but rarely a squall will spring up and provide a brief respite from the ever climbing temps here. Luckily I was still by the covered observation tower (where I start my count) when the rain began. I shared the shelter of the observation tower with a couple of local fisherman who were also looking to stay dry. During my slightly longer than normal wait in the tower I was pleased to see a Cinnamon Bittern pop up out of the reeds and fly a short distance to a rice paddy before disappearing from sight again (here is a view of that reedbed from the tower during the rain). There are three species of bittern here; Yellow, Cinnamon, and Black and the view I had is about the only way you ever see them. With enough time spent here I should see Black Bittern eventually (the only one I have yet to see here). After a second rain shower had passed I thought it was safe to continue along the dike to my next stop…wrong! About halfway between the two points another squall sprung up and I got pelted with rain until I reached the relative shelter of a few acacia trees at my next stop. I waited out the rain here and noticed that much of the dry habitat that I had been finding things like Ashy-crowned Sparrow Larks in had transformed into mud. Several of the typical shorebirds were present like Wood Sandpiper and Red-wattled Lapwing. As I was watching a small group of “peeps” (birders nickname for a group of small, similar-looking shorebirds) fly in and briefly land before spooking as a Pallid Harrier flew overhead. I didn’t have a chance to get my scope on them, but they showed all the characteristics of Little Stints and this is by far the most common (and expected) peep found at this inland location. A little further along the dike I saw several species of bushlarks in a loose flock. In this group were many of the ubiquitous Singing Bushlark, 2 Indian Bushlarks, as well as a single Rufous-winged Bushlark! The Rufous-winged Bushlark is a new species for Karaivetti although it is one that Relton told me to keep an eye out for as it should be in the area. Continuing along I paused at my last stop by this lake and noticed that the receding water had left much of the area as very nice looking mudflats. There were already shorebirds utilizing this habitat and among them was a lone Kentish Plover. Just yesterday I was mentioning that both Little Stint and Kentish Plover should be found shortly as the habitat becomes more suitable for them. I didn’t realize how soon I would fulfill that prediction! Several Black-headed Ibis also foraged in the mud and shallows (photo on left). As I was photographing the ibis I heard a White-breasted Waterhen (a type of large rail here) calling from the opposite side of a small channel that enters the lake. This is a fairly common bird here, but it is really shy and I’ve yet to get close enough to one to get a decent photo… I moved myself down the dike and trained my scope on the spot I thought the bird would appear from the vegetation and prefocused my scope and camera on the spot. As I’m looking through the camera I see a small rail land on the bank right where I was expecting the waterhen to appear! This is even better because there is only one small rail that has been recorded here (Ruddy-breasted Crake) and it is rare here! As I’m taking photos of this bird I know that it isn’t a Ruddy-breasted Crake because it is far too light colored. The bird is quite small (Sora sized) and has an all yellow-green beak much like a Sora. I know that my best bet for identifying this bird is going to be through the photos that I’m taking. Sure enough, three photos is all I managed before the White-breasted Waterhen that I knew was close popped out and chased the smaller rail away. The Waterhen of course promptly disappeared before I could get a shot of it, but I was more preoccupied with identifying the small rail now. As soon as I got the guide open I knew it was one of two, either Baillon’s Crake or Little Crake. I initially misidentified it as a Little Crake but once I got the photos up on my laptop and was able to look up how to separate the two species in the reference volume of Birds of India that Relton loaned to me, I was able to see that the all green beak made it a Baillon’s Crake. According to the range maps (which are far from accurate on many species - so to be taken with a grain of salt) there are no records of this species from the province of Tamil Nadu. It is only regularly found in the far northwestern part of India although its distribution across the rest of India isn’t well known. The probable reasons for why its wintering range is not well known are twofold; the lack of coverage by birdwatchers (they are few and far between in this country) and even in areas that receive some coverage, it’s inconspicuous and secretive by nature making detection even by birders low. Here is the range map that I took a digital of…x’s represent rare records.
So, in summary, it is definitely a very noteworthy record, but if indeed it is the first provincial record for Tamil Nadu (which is possible), that doesn’t have quite the same punch that first state record’s have in America where coverage has been extensive for decades… Nonetheless it was my first crake species and definitely made my day more exciting!
The rain today actually cleared up the sky and for the first time since my arrival I was able to see the foothills of the Western Ghats in the distance today (photo). I will be spending this weekend up in the ghats on my days off! This is the other lake I survey on the way back to Pullambadi (where the Glossy Ibis were yesterday).
I’m actually posting this from the Relton’s blazing internet (all things relative of course) in Trichy. I’m using the opportunity of this internet and unimpeded power supply to not only get caught up with my blog (photos from yesterday) but also to search for my airline tickets to Bangkok as I now know I will be flying out of Trichy in early March. As I was leaving the school, the hostel boys (boys that actually live at the school so they are able to focus more on their studies) asked me if I was leaving for America. I laughed and told them that they couldn’t get rid of me that easily and that I’d be back Tuesday night. Alright sorry this post was dominated by birds…I got excited about the crake!

Glossy Ibis…finally!

Ever since starting this survey I’ve been bothered by the checklist that has abundance designation codes by each species name. There have been several species that are listed as common that I’ve been unable to locate. Specifically, these birds are; Glossy Ibis, Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Kentish (aka Snowy) Plover, Little Stint, Rock Pigeon, Barn Owl, Spotted Owlet, Indian Nightjar, Rosy Starling, House Sparrow, Red Avadavat, and White-rumped Munia. Now the two diving duck species I saw when I was here last year and I’m of the opinion that they have already migrated north. I may get a tardy individual among a flock of wigeon or something but I haven’t been too concerned about them. The two small shorebirds are due in the coming weeks as more suitable habitat becomes available to them. I’m already seeing small numbers of the larger waders beginning to come through (a flock of 24 Common Greenshank were seen today). The Barn Owl, owlet, and nightjar are all more nocturnal species so I have not expected to locate them as readily. I’ve quite frankly been enjoying the absence of Rock Pigeons and House Sparrows here! Even though House Sparrows are declining here, it is difficult for me to get excited about this species due to the myriad of problems it has caused native cavity nesters in North America. The avadavat and white-rumped munia are both species that are associated with reedbeds and they are easy to miss, so I’m sure I will turn them up sooner or later. This leaves two species of bird, the Rosy Starling and Glossy Ibis that I’m not able to explain away why I’ve not found them yet. Well, today I finally did see a flock of 34 Glossy Ibis at the other lake I survey near Karaivetti (pictured in flight above), so hopefully I will be seeing them regularly now. The Rosy Starlings I’m not sure about. I’ve actually been seeing the (supposedly) rarer Chestnut-tailed Starling at multiple locations four out of the last five days. Rosy Starlings absence is a mystery to me, I’m definitely checking all the Brahminy Starling flocks (photo from last year…really stunning plumage on these guys) but thus far without success.

I managed a few decent photos with Devadass’s camera (Nikon Coolpix 4800) today. One is of a pair of Purple Swamphens that are foraging on recently exposed vegetation. The other is of a Little and Intermediate Egrets lined up along the dam at the east end of the lake. This photo is actually rather deceiving because it makes the Intermediate Egret look much larger than the Little Egret. This is definitely not the case and I would say that the Intermediate is actually only slightly larger, but in the photo the Intermediate is stretched out and the Little is hunched down. The best way to separate Intermediate from Great Egret is by its stockier, black-tipped beak, the gape line doesn’t extend beyond its eye either, and by the shorter neck. From a distance it can be more difficult to separate the two though.

Oh yeah, best bird of the day was actually a new species for the sanctuary, a Lesser Whitethroat. Not unexpected, this bird is found in scrub habitat and is a Sylvia warbler. It’s one of those species that Relton expected me to turn up with regular coverage as infrequent surveys are much less likely to turn up inconspicuous species such as this.

I’ve enjoyed reading the newspapers here as they have a very different slant on world events than I’m accustomed to hearing in the US. “Super Tuesday’s” results were actually front page news here yesterday. It was very difficult to explain the intricacies of the electoral system that is our political system to my hosts… The newspaper’s coverage and description of events did an excellent job of describing the significance of everything and each candidate’s relative position now. Much of the international news is syndicated from The Guardian though which explains the slightly British twist on some of the stories.

Yesterday evening we discussed “developing” vs. “developed” countries and I was asked how long it would be before India would be considered developed. I laughed and said that as long as open sewers are the norm, rolling brown outs are expected instead of being exceptions, and it takes 8 hours by car or ten hours by train to travel the 330 km between cities like Chennai and Trichy here in Tamil Nadu, they will have a hard sell of billing themselves as developed to the rest of the world. He did state that they are making a large improvement and are in the midst of constructing four lanes between those two cities! They couldn’t believe that ten lanes are not uncommon in some large cities in America. I will admit that it is challenging for me to explain why striving for that kind of infrastructure and affluence isn’t necessarily a good thing. It’s hard to extol the virtues of conserving resources and cleaning up their pollution when America is using more of the world’s resources per capita than anyone else in the world. They are just trying to follow America’s example… Alright, sorry to steer into the realm of the political; it’s tea time.

Premature elation…

Unfortunately, when I wrote last night that my camera was functional, I was incorrect. Everything appears fine on the lcd screen but when I take photos it records the photo but it appears extremely overexposed and white. I tried changing aperture and shutter speed without any effect. So that’s the bad news… The good news is that the video function of the camera works fine. So I can take videos and upload them onto my computer without issue. The quality of the image is not as good and even if I capture a still from the video it will not appear nearly as good as an image taken as a still… So it looks like I will need to get a new camera if I want anything more than a small video camcorder… Due to my internet connection here I will not be able to upload any of the videos I take even though blogspot does have the capability of hosting videos.
I guess I will continue bringing Mr. Devadass’s digital camera which isn’t nearly as suited for digiscoping, but can at least document things. I played with his camera a little bit the last three days and had some okay results (the Common Kingfisher, Indian Pond Heron, and Black Drongo are with his camera). It is much more difficult to take photos of birds that are more active and that are farther away. I’m restricted from using the optical zoom on the camera because the vignetting (the black circle of the scope – see example) is too prevalent making it impossible to salvage those shots. Oh well, I have to make do with what I have.
The survey was not nearly as exciting bird-wise today. Most of the waders from yesterday weren’t present today. I’m not sure where these birds go, I suspect that there are many areas back behind the rookery trees that contain good shallow water right now and many of the birds are back in those inaccessible spots during my survey. The best birds of today were probably a Greater Painted Snipe that I saw at the same muddy pond that I had many of the snipe at yesterday. Painted Snipe are one of the very few species in which the female has the brighter plumage and the male is dull and broods the nest and raises the young (Phalaropes and Dotterel are two other types of shorebirds that are polyandrous, the term for these characteristics). I have one photo (right) from last year of a male (the dull one…sorry) Greater Painted Snipe. Other than that it was pretty quiet. I observed another subadult Watercock at a different location this time. The overall diversity was a bit lower today but three of my last four visits I’ve seen over 100 species of birds there, so when I say diversity is lower that’s very relative. Especially considering there are only a couple of spots in the US where you could see over 100 species at one location in 4 hours at this time of the year… Two more days of surveys and I will then be accompanying a Bishop Heber College zoology class trip up into the Western Ghats for two days. I’m looking forward to another chance to see many of the birds there. I only had a couple of days up there last year and that is the most endemic-rich (species that have a very restricted geographic range) area in southern India, so I’m looking forward to experiencing it again.
Every night as I spend the hour+ it takes for me to just check my email and post this blog on the dial-up connection my host’s sit in the room next and watch TV. I can’t help but overhear much of what is on the TV. The music that is selected for airplay I find rather humorous. I’ve heard everything from 50 Cent (Window Shopper), to Britney Spears (Toxic), to Shakira (Hips Don’t Lie). I asked them if they understand any of what is being sung about, and they honestly have no clue what is being said! They just like the beat and watching the videos…
Tomorrow morning I’m going to get up earlier as it is taking me a little over an hour to get there since I stop and check several of the ponds (that have been producing good birds). Hopefully this will yield me more time at the sanctuary during the more “birdy” portion of the morning.

Waders galore!

As the water levels here continue to go down the birding is getting even better. Today saw many more shorebirds and waders arrive. Due to my changed routing (because my shortcut had too much water) I have been driving past a rice paddy that has been harvested and all the rice plants turned over making it into very nice shorebird habitat. This morning there were quite a few snipe present, 4 of which were Pintail Snipe and there was also a single Jack Snipe present (new for Karaivetti and quite a bit smaller than the Pintail Snipe). Little Ringed Plovers, Green, Wood, and Common Sandpipers were also present in the same muddy area. An additional new species showed up in the form of a Laggar Falcon that I saw in the dry scrub habitat that I drive through on the way to Karaivetti (maybe 2 km away from the actual lake). Many more dabbling ducks appeared at the lake today. They are dominated by Eurasian Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Cotton Pygmy-Goose, and Garganey. Small numbers of Pintail, Common Teal, and a new species for me, Comb Duck were also present today. The Comb Duck is pretty distinctive being all white with dark wings. The bird actually looks like a male Cotton Pygmy Goose on ‘roids as it is very large. The wader numbers are increasing as the water levels are going down. Today I saw a White Stork feeding in the shallows with a group of Eurasian Spoonbills and Black-headed Ibis. Small islands are appearing among many of the trees where the rookery is. These muddy islands are beginning to attract Black-winged Stilts (on the left) and Red-wattled Lapwings. Unfortunately, they are so far away that these are the only species I’m really able to identify (both are large and have very distinctive plumages…thus I can identify those two). I have observed other shorebirds moving around out there, but aside from a single Marsh Sandpiper that flew past me on its way over to those islands this morning, I’ve been unable to identify any of the other species present there.
There must have been a very large concentration of fish under an algae mat on the side of the lake because the mixed wader, cormorant, and tern flock it attracted was really pretty impressive. The birds were so fixated upon the fish that they allowed for much closer approach than usual. The waders present included Great, Intermediate, Little Egrets, Indian Pond, Grey, Purple Herons, Indian, Little Cormorants (on right), Whiskered, Common, Black-bellied, and River Terns, as well as a fair number of Pheasant-tailed Jacanas. So yeah, today was a very good day of birding (114 species with many raptors not seen), hence my longer than usual description of birds (sorry to the non-birders who just skipped over all that…).
Over the past week (yes today marks my seventh day of traveling out to Karaivetti) I have learned several things about driving here in India. I’ve had to reprogram many of the things I’m accustomed to doing when I drive in America. Take for instance, the horn. I may use the horn on occasion in the US (usually if someone just endangered either themselves or me by their stupidity), I typically would associate using the horn as only a last-ditch thing that some may consider rude. Here it is not only considered courteous, but also advisable to use your horn to let other drivers and pedestrians now you are passing or that you are coming (like being forced to the far left by oncoming buses and trucks). The proper position for my hands are for my right hand to be on the throttle with two fingers over the brake and for my left hand to have three fingers on the brake, one for steering and the thumb sitting over the button for the horn. I’ve also made it quite the practice to breathe through my nose and squint as I drive. The amount of dust and exhaust that is kicked up by buses and trucks is enough to give anyone with asthma serious problems (luckily I don’t have asthma so it’s just a nuisance).
During my survey this morning I realized that I hadn’t mentioned any of the other wildlife that I’ve seen besides the birds. So far I’ve seen very few snakes, only two water snakes of some sort, and a roadkilled something today. King Cobras are fairly widespread here so I’m a bit surprised I haven’t seen one yet. I also saw a pretty sweet looking reptile that I think is a type of Monitor lizard, fairly large (3+ feet long) and grey, smooth-skinned and it fled into the water after being harassed by two Red-wattled Lapwings. Bonnet Macaques (monkeys) are present along the road and Grey Mongoose I’ve seen every morning either crossing the road or along the dike that surrounds the lake. Here is a photo from last year that I was able to get of a Grey Mongoose eating some sort of snake it had just killed, also at Karaivetti!
AND – after two and a half days of being roasted by the sun, I got up my courage and I’m extremely pleased to say that my camera is somehow working just fine! The cell phone freezes up, but functions to some extent. The camera I was much more concerned about and I honestly cannot believe it is working! I’ll now be able to take some more photos as my stock of decent images was running down after three days without it!

A gratifyingly uneventful day

Everything went according to plan today, which was refreshing. The birding was a little slow, with the best bird probably being several Streak-throated Swallows among many Barn Swallows and House Swifts. I also saw (and heard) not only one but two different individual Citrine Wagtails today. One I think was the same bird as on Sunday (probably a 2^nd year male). The other bird looked very similar but had a darker auricular patch on the otherwise yellow face with dark edging coming up the nape with a dark back. I think this may be either a female or 1^st year bird. An Alpine Swift was seen again today, possibly the same individual as two days ago. I also had my first good opportunity to compare Baya and Streaked Weavers today. An okay photo of a female Streaked is all I can offer from my “bank” of photos I had stored up prior to my camera getting wet. The female Baya is a much plainer faced and paler color than the more heavily streaked female Streaked Weaver. The males are easier to tell apart as the Baya has extensive yellow both on the crown as well as below the dark mask or bib. The male Streaked Weaver only has yellow above the dark mask and has heavy streaking on the breast. They both occupy reedbeds and tall grasses in wet areas, but the Streaked Weaver is much more common at Karaivetti. The water levels are definitely going down rapidly. Relton tells me that by the beginning of March congregations of the large waders like storks and spoonbills will be extremely high due to the shallow water and trapped fish. Large flocks of northbound shorebirds stop in during that time too.

This afternoon I spoke to the teachers at the K-12 “Standard” (instead of grade) school that I’m staying at. Mr. Devadass had originally asked me to speak briefly to the older students for one day so they could hear how odd my English sounds compared to what they have learned and heard. He later expounded on the expectation by saying that I should have something prepared to talk for 30-45 minutes! Apparently in India the definition of “briefly” differs from the meaning of the word in America! Today as I gathered some dollars, coins, airline boarding passes, and my drivers license to show the students I went down and asked him if it would be acceptable for me to do that. He said, oh well maybe that would be better for next time, and he stated his intention of making this into a sort of series of talks I will give as I’m here for another month! Changing expectations, and I actually find it kind of amusing to see their reactions to my pronunciation of many of the words (for example it took me over a minute to figure out that they were saying Ambassador as in the British type of car that is common on the streets here…). They pronounce Algae the way it looks instead of al-gee. So a long story short, I will be the guest speaker for grades 6-10 for the next month in a series I’m entitling, The Rise and Fall of Imperialism in Western Culture…ok just kidding but I’m not sure what I’m going to talk about for this many sessions… The talk with the teachers went well. I then demonstrated how to use my scope in the yard later and teachers and students alike lined up for looks at Indian Roller and a flock of Barn and Red-rumped Swallows on distant wires. I also got to catch the second half of the Manchester United football match this afternoon. Nice to hear English that I could follow easily! 120 rupees a month ($3.15) for the complete cable package here…wow.

Alright, I’m holding off attempting to turn my camera on for another day of roasting in the sun on the roof. The cell phone still has visible condensation inside the screen, and while the camera doesn’t have any condensation visible any longer, if the cell does, I’m thinking that there could be some residual moisture deeper inside the camera. No since rushing it if it has a better chance by waiting an extra day…

Déjà vu and an expensive swim…

Today was one of those days that you look back at and think to yourself…”What was I thinking!?” It began innocuously enough with the morning coffee and 13k commute in to Karaivetti. As I got half way around the lake I felt the steering start to get mushy, and sure enough, the front tire was losing air this time around (and for those who think I’m just negligent about checking the pressure, both tires were filled yesterday at the gas station). Ah well, I know the drill now, I’ll park the bike in the shade, use the morning hours to bird and then walk it into the nearby town where the two men who helped me last time had taken the tire to. I walked the other half of the lake since covering it on foot yields higher counts of many of the songbirds that I don’t notice as I ride between stops. The walk was going well; my constant checking of every bushlark yielded a new species for the sanctuary, Indian Bushlark (198), among the many Singing Bushlarks (Singing Bushlark on left) that perch along the gravel dike around the lake. Relton also called me and told me that the photo that I had emailed him last night of the wagtail I was unsure of was indeed the Citrine Wagtail I had hoped it was, another new species for both me and the sanctuary (199 - on the right). Today I saw a few noteworthy waders flying around out by the rookery of all the grey herons, storks (mostly Asian Openbill - left), and cormorants; Black-crowned Night-heron, a species that is regular here that I had somehow not seen yet, and a single Wooly-necked Stork, less common but not unexpected considering the congregation of waders here. I crossed the stream on the far side of the observation tower and the tree on the far side of the streambed contained a flock of 12 Chestnut-tailed Starlings, very unusual here – more common in the hills. I continued down the road and saw a Little Heron (aka Striated Heron) along one of the ditches, uncommon at this inland location as it is typically a mangrove-specific species. It was beginning to heat up at this time (10:30AM) so I turned back towards the moped so I could go get the tire fixed and return to Pullambadi. On the way back I saw one of the locks that diverts water from the lake into channels that irrigate the rice paddies in the area. There were a series of concrete steps down to the water and then the cement continue out in the water with maybe 3 inches of water over the cement. I had the great idea that it would feel really nice to cool my feet off by stepping out on the cement ledge. So yeah, tropical lake, probably fairly warm water, a large amount of algae is probably a good bet = highly slippery. I took my sandals off and stepped out with all my gear still around my neck, scope/tripod on my shoulder, backpack on, etc and realized too late that I had no traction and was going down. My damage control kicked in and I had the sense to grab my brand new binoculars from my neck and hold them over my head and tip my tripod so that the scope was above me as well as I entered the five foot deep water next to the cement… Even as I was saving my binoculars and scope I instantly thought of my brand new Nikon Coolpix P5100 that I had in the cargo pocket of my shorts that were now two feet under water. You’ve never seen anyone get out of water faster and I instantly had my camera battery, memory card out and on rocks in the sun and wind drying out. I also realized that my cell phone for here in India was in my other pocket as well as my wallet and passport in my opposite cargo pocket (in case I’m hassled by police as I don’t have the international drivers license that is technically required to be doing what I’m doing…). I had all my gear out and drying and I decided to wait as long as possible before moving on in an attempt to save my camera. After two hours, I decided that they were as dry as they were going to get without a prolonged baking in the sun (which I was maxing out from the amount of sun I was getting…sun screen was applied but I didn’t have the water reserves required to sit out in the sun all afternoon. I packed up everything and kept the cell and camera out so they continued to get sun as I walked back to the moped. My troubles weren’t done of course as the front tire hadn’t fixed itself during the ensuing 3 hours since I had left it. It took me about 30 minutes to walk the bike to the shop which was on the far side of the nearest town (of course). My entry into the town was rather humorous to see I’m sure. The children from the village came out in droves to see the strange tall white man walking his moped through town. I think I know how the pied piper felt… In this rural village, the most English any of the kids knew (none of the adults knew any) was “Come on”, “puncture”, and “How is your name?”. The tire was mended and at this point I tried to see if the cell phone would work even though there was still condensation on the inside of the screen…no dice. I ended up returning to my host’s home at 2:45PM, 2.5 hours past when I’m supposed to be back. They were gratifyingly worried about what had happened and why my cell phone was turned off. Good to know that if, by some, one-uping, sadistic twist of fate, I were to not only have a flat, take an inadvertent swim (rendering my cell useless), and then as I’m drying off be bitten by a King Cobra, that someone would know I was in trouble! Today truly felt like a comedy of errors…I have not attempted to turn my camera on yet, I have it on the roof of the building pointed towards the sun baking. I could really use a miracle as I’ve owned this camera for less than two weeks. Ah, I hope to God that I will not have as an eventful day to write about for the rest of my stay here…

Long-billed Pipit…197

Today was a very enjoyable day to be out in the field. The morning was nice and cool (~70F) and as the day progressed a large number of clouds rolled in moderating the heat that normally really takes off around 10AM. The presence of these clouds allowed me to spend more time finishing the survey which ended up being the best day of the count thus far (97 species). I saw several species that are rare at the sanctuary including a sharp looking male Pallid Harrier (last record 2000), a lone Alpine Swift high up with a large group of Asian Palm Swifts, Barn and Red-rumped Swallows (also last recorded in 2000), 3 White-browed Bulbuls, and a single flyby Common Redshank (uncommon at this site due to a lack of suitable mudflat habitat). I also recorded a new species for the sanctuary (its 197^th), a Long-billed Pipit. I was unable to get any photos of it, but it really isn’t too dramatic looking compared to many of the birds here… It is quite a bit larger and more heavily streaked than the much more common Paddyfield Pipit that I’ve been seeing regularly (photo from yesterday). I also saw a wagtail that I’m going to withhold identification on as I’m emailing some people in the know as to its identity (I have very little experience with wagtails and I’m fortunate to know people who do have experience with them!).

This morning I took the shortcut again and I don’t really understand where this water is coming from as it is super dry here, but the crossing was even worse today. I stupidly decided I didn’t want to double back and drove through it, but I barely made it (here’s a pic I snapped after crossing…). On the return I went the long way and I don’t plan on taking the shortcut for the rest of the week (I’m hopeful it will dry up during that time). Oh, I also stopped at the Yellow-wattled Lapwing spot on the way back and got an okay photo of one since I promised an attempt in an earlier post. It was 11:30AM when I took that photo which is well past when the light is good. The bird (one of 21) was standing in the shade of an acacia tree…not a bad plan. You can tell that it is a bird of dry grassland and scrub by its coloration, not too much contrast with the dry grasses it’s standing in! Just for comparison’s sake, here is the much more common and extremely widespread Red-wattled Lapwing that is also here (the Indian version of the Killdeer).

The family I’m staying with here has my tastes pegged. The food I’ve been eating I not only can tolerate (pretty much best-case scenario meal for me last year when I was here) but I actually am really enjoying. The names of all the things they serve they tell me repeatedly, but I’ m afraid I just can’t keep them all straight (my mom would take this opportunity to point out to me that I can keep all the bird names straight, so why not food names?)! I guess it’s just not a high priority for me to remember them since I will never be cooking any of these things… We also have tea or coffee every morning at 6:30AM (before I leave) and again at 4:30PM. I don’t think I would have been so long averse to coffee if I had grown up in India, it’s literally maybe 40% coffee and 60% cream and sugar! Today I discovered that a large bag of trail mix that my parents had sent along with me as “survival rations” had been found by a colony of very small ants that are living in the wall by one of my windows. The bag was totally sealed but apparently there is a small hole in the bottom of the bag, because the ants definitely found it are thoroughly enjoying the exported American trail mix! I’m now experimenting with moving the bag to different places in my living quarters to see how long it takes them to re-find it…cheap entertainment and I’m a science major…I can’t help but test things like this! Alright…tea time!

The AAA Indian Experience

Today marked the first unforeseen event of my stay here. The rear tire on the moped began to lose air at a rapid rate as I was making my way around the edge of Karaivetti Lake on my way to the first stop. I got off the bike to avoid further damage to the tire and rim and walked it up to a shaded area where a small road intersected with the road around the lake. I called my host, Mr. Devadass to see what the best thing for me to do. Since it was totally flat, he decided to send two of the men who work for the school out on a motorcycle with tools so they could detach the wheel and take it to the nearest repair shop and bring it back so it could be ridden back to the school.
I then conducted as much of the count as I could on foot while I waited for help to arrive. I saw many more songbirds today since I was on foot in between the locations where I normally stop on the bike. Probably the best bird of the day though was a subadult Watercock that I flushed out of the edge of some rice paddies. The Watercock is closely related to both rails and gallinules and shares many of the attributes of both. It actually resembles the yellow rail that is in America in its subadult plumage, the adult is all dark with a red beak. Other than that, most of the birds that I saw today were fairly standard, I did see a small flock of Northern Pintail and Spot-billed Ducks, surprisingly this was the first time I’ve seen either of those species here this year (pintail are present in the thousands here earlier in the winter season). I took my opportunity of walking the dike around the lake by taking many more photos of birds here today.

When I am conducting the full count, I don’t really have time to spend taking too many photos, so I will meter my good photos from today out over the next several posts! Here is a quite obviously staged photo of me “on station” this morning.

Once help arrived, it took another 45 minutes for them to take the tire to a nearby village while I waited and did a little more photography of a small flock of the near-endemic Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark. The intensity of the sunlight here even at a fairly early hour of the morning (8AM) makes it very challenging to get truly good photos of these birds. I may leave a little bit earlier tomorrow to try to counter this and give me a little more chance at the “money” sun-angle the early morning provides.

Ah, dinner time – until tomorrow.

A Day of First’s

Today was my first day conducting the survey at Karaivetti on my own and it went quite well. In the morning, I drove the moped solo for the first time and I also was initiated to actually driving on the left side of the road! I’ve been a passenger many times in the UK and in India, but being the un-thinking spectator is a far cry from actually remembering that right turns are no longer the safer of the two directions to turn! Another thing that I learned today is that when you wear glasses and drive in the morning when there is light fog, it accumulates on your glasses! No wiper blades to help you out when you’re on a moped! I managed to remember the route to the wildlife sanctuary and didn’t take any wrong turns as I wound my way through four different villages. I took a shortcut that Relton and I had taken on the way back yesterday over a shallow ford of a river. Yesterday there was a very small pool of water (2 inches deep and 2 feet long) that we had to cross and since we are entering the dry season here, it is supposed to do nothing but evaporate here over the next couple of weeks. Imagine my surprise as I drove down the banks of the riverbed and saw at least three pools that were over 6 inches deep! I strategically drove across the shallowest areas and had enough momentum that I managed to not get stuck in any of the water! The photo below is of the far end of the lake where I start the count at, but this is a very similar type of ford as I cross on the way to Karaivetti Lake

The bird survey went well today and I saw 93 species in four hours of surveying just the wetland and its surrounding habitat. I saw two new species of birds that hadn’t been recorded in the sanctuary before. One was an Indian Peafowl (aka Peacock) that I flushed from along the same shortcut that I mentioned earlier. The habitat surrounding the wetland system is primarily an arid scrub and areas that are being cultivated using water pumped from the river. Indian Peafowl are much more common in more heavily wooded areas with less people (the larger you are means you would make a good meal for a family in one of the many villages in the area…). So, this sighting was noteworthy for this location and I doubt that I will see many more Peafowl in this area over the next month. The other new bird for the Karaivetti list was a Paddyfield Warbler, a very drab small songbird that spends most of its time in thick reedbeds and grassland areas. This is a fairly common species in wetlands throughout southern India and I suspect that it has been seen here before but was overlooked when the list was being compiled. Other highlights for the day included several flocks of Bar-headed Geese (that had been absent yesterday), more Spot-billed Pelicans, and Eurasian Spoonbills. Aside from the peafowl the best bird of the day was probably a Brown-headed Gull seen harassing a flock of Whiskered Terns. There is only one prior record of this species at the lake from 1997. I suspect it is more regular than that, but the coverage here just has not been high enough to note them many times. I also was able to relocate the Greater Spotted Eagle that Relton had told me was wintering in the area (an Aquila eagle closely related to the Golden Eagle. This is a species of conservation concern and it is very uncommon this far south in India at any time. This is the fourth or fifth year that it has been seen in the area though. At several of my stops there are Chestnut-shouldered Pretonias nesting in the metal poles. This species, which is closely related to the House Sparrow, is fairly common in arid scrub throughout the subcontinent (see left). During my return trip to Pullambadi, I was able to locate a large flock of Yellow-wattled Lapwings (21 in all), a fairly widespread species that had eluded me despite constant searching last year when I was here… It is a very sharp looking bird with a black Zorro mask and of course its yellow “wattle” that hangs from the base of its beak. I will attempt to get a photo of them when I get a chance as I can’t do the bird justice with a written description. Here's a pic of me at the third stop where I count from. Today I had some enthusiastic locals stop by who were eager to look through my scope (see below).

Since I played cricket yesterday, it is apparently now compulsory for me to play in the schoolyard at 515 every evening. More boys played this time and we actually had two teams of three (the yard isn’t too big, so it works out). I’m learning more of the nuances of the rules and all that practice fielding groundballs and catching fly balls for baseball during high school is actually of some assistance! Ah, the power just went out and along with it the fan that keeps my room tolerable. Rolling brown-outs are the norm here with at least four a day with various durations. Stuff you take for granted in the US…power.

Above is a sketch by Relton of the 13km route I take from Pullambadi to Karaivetti Lake every morning. Here they do not have the luxury of detailed maps of every dirt two-track in the country like we do in the US. Also, funny side-note; my hosts were amazed to find out that Sean Connery’s name is pronounced Sh-awn just like my name, apparently everyone in India calls him “Seen” Connery!

Karaivetti Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu, India

I just arrived in the thriving town of Pullambadi, about 13 km from the Karaivetti Wildlife Sanctuary where I am going to be conducting a six-week bird survey which will be fulfilling my internship requirement for Cornerstone University’s Environmental Biology undergraduate program. I visited southern India last January as part of an Au Sable class on the Ecology of the Indian Tropics. I had a great time and learned a lot but I was frustrated by the constraints of the class schedule which made it difficult for me to see many of the birds that were residents. At the end of the class last year, Dr. Relton invited me to return and conduct my internship here so I could spend more time really getting to know the local bird community. I would also be assisting them by conducting a survey of this wildlife sanctuary which has never been systematically surveyed for consecutive days (the most intensive survey it received was 5 years ago when it was visited every fifteen days during the winter season). 8,700 miles, 36 hours, and 3 airlines after departing from Chicago on January 27^th, I ended up in Trichy (~35 km from where I’m conducting the survey...and how apt of an airline to be flying on my way to birdwatch in India!). A day and a half of recuperation and adjustment to the time zone difference (11.5 hours ahead of CST) and Relton drove me out to Pullambadi to where I will be staying with Mr. Devadass (the administrator of a primary school) and his family for the next six weeks. The moped that I will be driving ~13 km back and forth every morning to the sanctuary along “metaled” (asphalt) roads was shown to me and Relton and I set out to do a test run and for him to show me the route (comprehensive maps of the road system that we are accustomed to in the States don’t exist here…part of the fun!). The tripod for my scope presented the largest problem and I ended up holding it across my lap as I sat on the back of the moped as he drove. Luckily, only 3 km of the trip is actually on a road that has regular traffic (buses, trucks, and cars). The remaining 10 km or so only have motorcycles, mopeds, and ox-carts and is very quiet.

It took us 40 minutes to reach the far end of the lake, where I will start each morning so the sun is at my back (facilitating much better views and counts of the waterbirds that are present). Relton went over the survey method which consists of splitting the ~285 hectare lake into four sections and spending approximately 30 minutes observing and recording the numbers of each species of bird in each section. There is another smaller lake that is on my way from Pullambadi to Karaivetti Wildlife Sanctuary that I will also be surveying.

After visiting these two lakes, Relton and I were both left asking; Where are all the ducks?

Today when Relton and I went to scout the area we were both surprised by the lack of ducks that were present. When I was here last January the lake was literally covered in ducks with a large number of them being diving ducks like Tufted Duck and Common Pochard. Today not only were there very few birds (~400) but there wasn’t a single diving duck present. Large numbers were present just three weeks ago when Relton was last here, so where all of these birds have disappeared to is a mystery. Perhaps they have already left headed north for their breeding grounds in Siberia and Eurasia. The water levels on the lake will steadily decrease as the river that feeds it dries up for the summer. Karaivetti is one of the deepest lakes in the area, and retains water the longest. As water levels drop many of the large waders (storks, ibis, spoonbills, and herons) as well as shorebirds concentrate here in much higher numbers. We didn’t spend too much time counting at each location as we had gotten a late start and it was heating up rapidly (there is little to no shade around the lake).

I spent the rest of the afternoon revising the old checklist for Karaivetti with new species names and checking for holes in the list (I found three regularly occurring species from the morning that weren’t even on the list for the site yet!). Around 5PM after the mid-afternoon tea, I played some cricket with some of the boys from the school. I must say that the pitch could be in better shape, but some of these kids are really pretty good! At about 6:15PM I decided to check out some local reedbeds and small ponds that Relton told me could harbor rails and bittern. I had quite the entourage by the time I got to the rice paddy bunt. My shoes and feet stayed mud free for a whole four minutes before the inevitable just couldn’t be put off anymore. Due to the size and noise created by my group of enthusiastic young friends, I saw almost nothing during the hour walk, but I know how to get to the ponds on my own now, so it served a good purpose. I also was able to see a few things despite the noise and saw Ashy Prinia, and my first ever Jack Snipe.

Today was the first day I didn't take a nap in the afternoon in an effort to force my body into total adjustment into the time zone here. That fact coupled with the early wake-up and abudance of sun today has me currently exhausted. Tomorrow is my first day of actual surveying and driving out there on my own in the morning. I'll try to get some more action pix too...

Sunset over the rice paddies with a few of my young friends on a bunt nearby.