Welcome to the Swamp

After two weeks of navigating the streets of Santa Fe, Argentina, I think I can say I've settled in. When I first arrived my field crew, Maya Wilson and Becky Windsor, was living with a local girl, Pia, and her family. However, a few days after I arrived we were forced to find a new place to stay so Pia's brother could move back in. After looking around, we decided to move into the only apartment we could find: a 3 bedroom place on San Lorenzo. Becky and Maya were worried at first, "We just found all the stores we need! Verduraria, supermercado, farmaceutico; now we have to find all new shops!" This turned out to be no problem, as our new place is in a bustling part of town, within sight of the stadium for the town's favorite soccer team, Union. Our house of six has dwindled to four.  Ariel, a Santa Fe native, defended his thesis last Monday and immediately moved out, and our good friend and wonderful biologist Becky left for Peru yesterday morning, where she will present at the Neotropical Ornithological Conference in Cuzco. Left are Maya and myself, Julie, a French study abroad student studying at the Argentine history local university, and Justin of Colorado, who is trying his hand at becoming a writer.

Maya, David, Becky = Stylin

Our field site is absolutely beautiful, adjacent to a large river that has flooded around our boxes. We have to wear waders to access most of the boxes, which actually provides us much needed relief form the heat. Whoa momma, it's getting hot up in here! January is supposed to be the hottest month in Argentina, in which case I am glad to be leaving in early December. The heat's going up like a D-Wade to Lebron OOOP!! (hope someone catches that). The site is full of all kinds of birds. Tons of water birds, such as herons, ducks, and ibises, monk parakeets, great kiskadees, and an abundance of snail kites. I never thought I could get sick of watching a raptor, but we easily see a dozen snail kites a day. Apple snail (their favorite food) shells litter the ground like leaves in autumn. There are a few other fun critters, like swamp rodents that often make their way into the boxes, chorus-like frogs, and plenty of insects. The mosquitoes have been terrible lately, but there seems to have been a massive hatching of dragonflies, who seem to be keeping the mosquito population in check.

It's a little wet out there.

Our study species is the White-rumped Swallow (Tachycineta leucorrhoa). They look a lot like the North American Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) that I worked with in British Columbia except for their white rumps and eyebrows. A couple of days before I arrived Maya and Becky experienced a high amount of chick mortality. A few days of bad weather (hmmm sounds like Canada) and nest predation eliminated most of our nests. I wish I could say that I brought good fortune with me, but the mortality didn't stop. We continued to find feeble chicks with no chance of survival. Long periods of rain suppress the insect populations, which is bad news bears for insectivores (and the eagles) (hope you got that one too). We have had good weather for the past few days, and a number of pairs are rebuilding and attempting second clutches. More bad weather is sure to come at some point, but it will all be about timing. If heavy rains come while we have eggs, there is a greater chance the clutches will survive than if they come while we have chicks. Unfortunately there is another villain to the story: the heat. If the temperature rises faster than the chicks can develop, we will lose chicks due to excessive heat in their boxes. We often found this to be the case in Davidson, where Dr. Stanback (shout out!) has been working with Tree Swallows. Many broods that were still developing in late July and August wound up overheating. Fingers crossed that won't be the case here!

White-rumped Swallow