Oh How the Wind Doth Blow!

We’ve been here nearly 3 weeks and only have about 3 to go. It’s a shortened season at this site, but come Dec. 18th, we’re headed to north central Argentina to a place called Jujuy (said Who-Whoee and put some zing into it when you say it). John and Eileen and my labmate, Rachel, went there last May to check out another report of a social tuco. You may recall that we checked out one last year in Tierra del Fuego, but as it turned out, the tuco was a solitary one, though still quite cute (which goes a long way in my book). However, the one in Jujuy IS social and we are headed there to do some serious radio telemetry to better understand group size and composition.

Here, though, we have a lot of work to do in a little time… and the weather is not cooperating. It’s been raining quite a bit and the wind… well, I’ve written plenty in past years about the Patagonian wind. It’s like no other. On top of that, it’s downright freezing. I know I was spoiled last year with warmer than usual weather but really, does it have to be this cold??? Still, I am enjoying the open spaces and the relative quiet.

We’ve caught animals in 4 colonies so far. I even noosed an adult female… thinking it was a large pup! Oh well… she survived my ignorance, though not too happy about it. There have been some cool “Attenborough” moments this past week. We have a pair of American Kestrels nesting in one of the trees in our camp. There´s a hole entering into the cavity about ½ meter from the ground… seems low for a kestrel but they are taking turns flying in and out of it with dead mice and lizards. Fun to watch. Can´t wait until I see baby Kestrel fledglings! Also, the annual mating “fly-off “ of a local ant species happened when I was suppose to be standing very still watching for tucos. I noticed one of the senecio bushes “moving” and saw hundreds of ants crawling their way to the top. There were wingless ants, small winged male ants with their “gifts” to be given to the large winged reproductive females. As soon as the females reached the top of a stem, off they flew and before I knew it, there was a whirlwind of flying ants all around and above me. It´s rather spectacular! There are many more, which I hope to write on next week.

Today I am posting a rather shakey clip of walking back to camp after a long day in the field... to give you an idea of how it feels. Eileen and John are ahead of me and when I stop and turn to take a panoramic view, you can see the Andes, across the "highway" toward the field site, and back toward our camp. Thanks for the emails and comments. Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

First Week

Well, we’ve had our first full week in Argentina and I’ve already had female tucos calling at me, pups showing me their furry little faces, tero teros (southern lapwings) squawking at me when I cross the malline (meadow), hares running from me, beetles crawling around me, lizards scurrying past me, rain spitting at me, and you guessed it, wind blowing like only a Patagonian wind can do. I’ve even been to an asado, which, for those of you who have been following my adventures know, is one of my favorite Argentina experiences. It’s wonderful. I’ve traded bleary-eyed 5 am commutes for a ½ mile walk through the steppe to the population site. I’ve traded an alarm waking me up for the songs of birds and bubbling sounds of the stream that flows past my tent. Sure my room is small and I have to dress stretched out on my sleeping bag. Ok, there’s no bathroom; just a bush that I hide behind after jumping the stream. No, no showers either but we’ve a sun heated water bag that will do when it’s not too cold out. I do use the stream to wash my hair but have to watch out for head freezes. I am out of doors from sun up to sun down and I feel the stress melting away. My kids, my wranglers, and my labmates know what a crazy week I was having just before I left, but now I am in a different world and the lovely Patagonian wind is blowing all the craziness away.

This week, I’ve posted a clip of the first pup I saw in a colony we call mid-malline. We’re pretty sure there are at least two females and perhaps a male. We’ve now found pups at 3 other colonies. The place is hopping and ready to be caught and poops collected. I’ll be in about once a week to town and will update as I can. Sending my love from the bottom of the world… Julie

Never say Never

I know. I know. I intimated that last year was my last year doing field work in Argentina but I take it all back and will never say never again.

We arrived in Bariloche, Argentina, on Monday morning, Nov. 9, the wind blowing and the mountains shining with the previous night’s snowfall. It is spring and freezing… and was not hard to justify staying in a hosteria for our first night! There was much to do, supplies to pick up which had been stored at our friend’s, Gustavo, house, and a trip to Centro Atomico to fill our liquid nitrogen tanks (the better to freeze the poops with!). By mid-day, Wednesday, we had made our way to the camp and began setting up the tents. It is strange to be here with out John, but he will soon join us and our team will be complete. This first week will be spent scouting the site, assessing which colonies are occupied, collaring select females with radio transmitters for colonies in which we cannot determine boundaries, and finishing writing a grant. Why is it that, at the start of every field season, I am working on a grant?! This one, however, is a big NSF grant that will seek funding to continue looking at the relationship between the social environment, stress hormones (glucocorticoids), and behavior… and who knows? If funded, I may be coming back for a long time yet.

Day 1 on the field and I saw a tuco immediately. Day 2 and I saw pups. It should be a very good year. I have attached a picture of my Argentina bedroom, much different than the one I have at home in Sebastopol. This first post is short but more to come later. I will say that it is good to be back in my southern hemisphere home!

Packing to Leave

It is nearly 10 pm and I am still packing my stuff! I've posted a picture of what my room looked like just a couple of hours ago. Now nearly all that stuff is in a trunk and a backpack. Tomorrow I leave my little town of Sebastopol and take the airporter to SFO, fly to Dallas-Fort Worth and then on to Buenos Aires, arriving around 9 am their time on Sunday morning. Eileen, my advisor and good friend, will be with me. We will meet our dear friend, Ana Paula, from Mar del Plata, for a quick hello and lunch and then we grab a bus to Bariloche, which is southwest of Buenos Aires and in the region known as Patagonia. When I tell people that our bus ride is 19+ hours long, they feel sorry for me, but really, the buses in Argentina are amazing! The seats are huge and lie nearly completely back. They give blankets and pillows, feed you, and play movies. I actually catch up on my rest during the bus trip!

Anyway, stay in touch! Email me or make comments here. As much as I love going, I do get homesick and like to hear a word or two from all my friends and family. The next time I write will be from the southern hemisphere!