Field work or Field work, terrestrially

Hello everyone!

So fun things have been happening in the past few days! On Sunday and Monday I got a taste of life as a terrestrial biologist. My roommate Erika studies an invasive tree species in French Polynesia and its pollinators, a couple of species of birds. She was heading to a new field site, and she invited me along.

Before we headed to the site, we went up to the Belvedere, a lookout point in Moorea, where Erika had left some poles. As we got there, it started pouring, and we had to hike into the woods in the pouring rain. I was expecting to be sweating, so this was almost refreshing. Plus, as I told Erika, I'm a marine biologist, why would I mind being wet? When we got to the Belvedere, we looked on the side of the mountain, and we saw nine waterfalls cascading down the side of it. It was pretty awesome. There is usually only one, but the pouring rain (the most I've seen since I've been here) created eight more.

We then went to the site, on the south side of Moorea, about an hour away. It's called Le Maison de la Nature, and it's primarily used as an educational center for schoolkids. We camped on Sunday night there, and got up early on Monday to catch birds.

She sets up large mist nets, about 40 feet by 10 feet, which are made of very delicate, nylon nets. When you set up these nets against dense vegetation, you can barely see them. Birds fly into them, and you retrieve them to collect fecal samples, band their feet with small metal bands, and collect data on whether they are moulting, incubating, etc.

Most birds are active in the morning, so after a night of camping, we woke up at 5:30to set up the nets. Within ten minutes, we had caught five birds. We then had to delicately untangle them from the nets. This is a lot harder than it looks, as they struggle quite a bit, and get themselves really tangled up. The birds that we were primarily collecting are silvereyes, small with silver rings around their eyes. They are pretty small, only about 10 grams. They were super cute, but got pretty upset being stuck in the nets. Some bit me as I was trying to free them, though it really didn't hurt that much.

The previous record of birds caught in one day by Erika was 25, but we caught 53 and had to set 10 free because we ran out of supplies! She was really excited. It seems that I am good field work luck.

So I realized a few truths about being a terrestrial biologist versus a marine biologist. For one thing, terrestrial biologists get far too dirty and sweaty for my liking. There is still mud on everything I own. There are also bug bites all over my legs. On the plus side, you don't have to worry about running out of air while you're doing your work, or worry about buoyancy. Erika also made a wise distinction between marine and terrestrial biologists that I think is interesting to share, "You Marine Biologists come in from field work, wind swept, sunkissed, tan, in your bikinis, we come in dirty, sweaty, in utilitarian clothes." I think Marine Biologists just want to be more glamorous, and that's why they like going in the ocean. Not to mention that peeing in the woods is not fun or glamorous in any sense of the word.

Anyways, asides for the bugs, I had a great time with Erika! Holding birds and setting them free is lots of fun, especially because they're so cute. And terrestrial Moorea is just as beautiful as marine Moorea.

Lots of love,
Emily