Always Be Flexible

13 July 2016

My last day to wake up at 4am!! (…at least until I start teaching at Pasadena next month, but at least that’s only 1 day a week.) I joined Mario & Luke for a half-day of mist netting; sadly, Tatiana’s knee was hurting her a lot & she decided to rest it for the day. Of course, we didn’t catch much, being the 3^rd day at this site, but it was nonetheless eventful. I followed a large brown snake along the path for a while. We finally had a brief respite of sun that I think even the snake was trying to take advantage of (I was surprised that having gone without sun for so long, hiking about 30 minutes in broad daylight already had my face slightly sun burned). Not sure what species it was; didn’t get a good look at the head, but don’t think it was venomous. I also had to disentangle a poor little streak-necked flycatcher (probably my favorite bird here because they’re so common; cute little guys that can’t tear your hands a part) that must have been struggling in pretty badly because when I finally got it out, I noticed that its neck was raw & bloody. Poor thing was quite entangled & must have been trying to wiggle its way out for a while, severely rubbing against the net. I felt so bad for it I wasn’t at all bothered when it frantically flew out of my hands once I had freed it from the net (Shh, don’t tell Mario). There’s nothing we could have done for it anyway – it would have just been kept it in captivity to be processed for even more time – so at least it got to fly away without being molested by humans any longer. Whether it lives or not, I have no idea, but it might heal on its own. Fingers crossed.

Blue-winged mountain tanager

Blue-winged mountain tanager

I kind of felt like the harbinger of death after that. Since I was going back to Cali today, Mario decided this would be a good time to collect some hummingbird species for the University of ICESI’s bird collection. So after we captured 3 hummingbirds of a particular species that the museum was lacking, Mario didn’t release them: he just left them hanging on a tree in a bag so they would slowly freeze & starve to death (hummingbirds have a very high, demanding metabolism to keeps their bodies really warm). I realize museums have been collecting live species like this for centuries & it’s all in the name of science, but it still felt bad to “kill” them (i.e. let their body temp drop until they slowly fall asleep & never wake up). Harbinger of death.

Female Collared Inca hummingbird (already falling into death sleep)

Female Collared Inca hummingbird

She'll make a very pretty museum specimen

When we closed up shop around midday & headed back to the station for lunch, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Tatiana had scored some chicken from the neighboring farmer. Real meat (not just canned tuna or defrosted hotdogs – something the farmer brought to us before under the guide of “salchichón”)! Sadly, however, the person coming to pick me up didn’t arrive as planned around midday (of course); she arrived at around 2pm with an Englishman who is now also joining the group. Just my luck that now that I’m leaving, when I’m feeling more comfortable & really confident in the work, we get more foreigners that I can talk to! Part of me is regretting leaving early but arrangements have been made & either way, the timing works out better for me & Nick anyway; so what’s done is done.

Mountain cacique

Mountain cacique

So as the Colombians went for a (2 hour!) stroll around the place to catch up with old friends, Luke & I sat around & got to know the English guy (who, I was surprised to learn knows even less Spanish than I do – thank goodness he’s got Luke going into this!) & I got caught up on a first-hand account of Britain leaving the E.U. When the Colombians finally came back to the station, I was informed that we still wouldn’t be able to leave until after 7pm now because the woman picking me up has a specific license plate number that isn’t allowed to enter Cali between the weekday hours of 5-8pm (I guess Cali has some regulations to try & control traffic congestion). And since it takes an hour to get into Cali from here, we would have to wait. Brilliant. Thanks.

Feeding aqua de panela to (non-specimen) hummingbird

Speckled hummingbird

So everyone but me & Tatiana went off into the forest for another 2.5 hours to help Mario track his bird nests. We stayed to process some data & just hang out. There was no real reason for me to get back to Cali early, other than to have some time to relax & check email, reconnect to the outside world (i.e. call my mom so she doesn’t keep worrying unnecessarily), but I have to laugh at the idea of “best laid plans…”. Just like previous field work, everything has to be flexible; schedules, I’ve learned, are really a nebulous thing in the field.

Flavescent flycatcher (so tiny & cute!!)

I finally got back to Cali around 9pm. It was kind of a sad goodbye at the station. Mario & Tatiana seemed generally sad to see me go, which was nice to think I had contributed something positive even if for such a short time. (I also made a gift of my 1^st aid kit to Mario with the liquid bandage & alcohol swabs – he thought that was funny.) And I too was a little reluctant to be leaving early, as mentioned before. I think, too, Tatiana was not looking forward to now being the only girl in the group. ;) Although we did get a nice treat when the English guy just dropped trou (underwear still one but enjoyable nonetheless) to change his pants in the middle of the common room. So maybe there’ll be perks, after all ;)

Spotted barbtail

I was exhausted upon arriving back at the hostel, having been up since 4am, & was surprised to receive such a warm, familiar welcome from the hostel staff. Very nice guys. There’s a lot more people at the hostel right now (mostly, of course, young 20-something Europeans who quit their jobs to travel in South American for a year or so), so I joined them when they ordered some take out from a local BBQ place (eating a bunch of ribs after nearly a month of vegetarianism did not turn out to be such a good digestive decision) & got to hear about their travels. I don’t know if it was my sheltered upbringing, my ignorance of the world at that age, or just the insular culture of the U.S. (or a combination thereof), but it never occurred to me that I had the ability to just leave everything behind & travel around the world for a year as a single 20 year-old female with no agenda, no plan & very little money, just willingness & a passport. My nearly 40 cranky old self is definitely envious of their youth & cajones.