The second week of my OpWal adventure took me to the town of Richiș. Where I was met with a lack of sleep, an abundance of butterflies, and some less-than-friendly sheepdogs.
6th July - Day 9
Transfer day. I'm under instructions not to help too much today with loading and unloading the minibus. After six days in the sun, I'm happy to oblige. Also, after six days of blazing sun, the weather has taken a turn and we've had downpours and heavy rain showers all day. Just the weather you need for packing down and pitching tents. As my alarm went off at 7:30 am I could hear a few drops hitting the outside of the tent. I assumed this was just a passing shower but I was rapidly proved incorrect as moments later a large thunderclap rolled over camp and the heavens opened. A tent is not the place you want to discover that you have left your waterproof in the main building fifty meters away up the hill. I sat up in my sleeping bag and packed all my things around me until a break in the rain allowed me to make a dash for breakfast. Afterwards, I packed down my tent, moved my kit under shelter and waited with everyone else for our transport to arrive.
Two minibuses with small trailers pulled up and just as we started loading them another band of torrential rain passed over us. I stayed under cover whilst all this happened, watching from the dry. We left Meșendorf around 11:00 am and drove the 50 minutes to Sigi, where we were given half an hour in Kaufland – a huge shop that sells everything – think Aldi on steroids. I stocked up on crisps, sweets and chocolate, like a healthy responsible adult.
After another 50 minutes on the bus, we arrived in Richiș, a site with indoor bathrooms, lounges, hot showers, and even beds for the students. As staff, we're still in tents which we had to put up in the pissing rain. That said, the AplKit Tetri is rapidly becoming one of the best purchases I've ever made, five starts, would recommend - I'm not sponsored by Alpkit, but I wish I was.
The rest of the day was very relaxed, with only a staff meeting after dinner on the agenda. I got a special mention for the first week of butterfly surveys, with only good feedback so far. Hopefully it stays that way. I may have to silence any dissenters should this change.
7th July - Day 10
I had a solid night's sleep for the first time this trip. No waking up in the night because I've slid down the hill. No grasshoppers chirping and dogs barking all through the night. Lovely flat ground, with my big bag inside the main hall instead of next to me in the tent, meaning I have lots of space. As perfect as sleeping in a tent can be when you know there are comfy beds nearby.
A lazy morning, spent catching up with some work and following the news back home as a continuous stream of MP resignations led to the eventual resignation of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. Pretty top morning.
The large mammal, small mammal, and botany teams all got lost on their transects today. They all made it back safe and sound, but were a bit grumpy when they returned - staff and students. I took two groups out in the afternoon. We visited three sites, the last of which had very few individuals. Tomorrow will be a longer day but it's just me and a field assistant, so we should get around pretty quickly.
8th July - Day 11
I didn't sleep at all well last night. A combination of indigestion and roughly half of the other campers being prolific snorers. The staff who are up at 4:00 am every morning for the bird point counts describe it as the dawn chorus of snoring.
I didn't have any students today, so Zuni drove me and Edina to the start of the transect. The hire car took an absolute battering on the track and as a result, Zuni decided that he won't be taking that route again.
The first three survey sites were heavily cropped by sheep and were suitably rubbish as a result. The last one, however, was a nice meadow full of yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor). It only took us three hours to do all six points on the transect. The highlight was a small flock of Bee-eaters flying above the transect. I've been dying to see one of these since I arrived - worth a mention at the very least.
There was a relaxed atmosphere around camp in the afternoon. A couple of stray dogs and a puppy have wandered in and made friends with the staff and RAs – much to the annoyance of our hosts. I gave a talk on butterfly monitoring, why we do it, what we can learn from it etc. which went down pretty well. It was shorter than planned, but people appreciated it. I've got students again in the morning, so the route will take longer than three hours.
9th July - Day 12
No new butterfly species on the survey today, which makes a change. I was supposed to take a group out today, but it started raining at 8:45 am, so the group went on a botany survey instead, where it doesn't matter if they get wet. The plants don't mind even if the students do. The weather turned out to be fine in the end and Lucy (PhD student), Eric (Field Assistant) and I went out and had a decent walk where we came across a very docile Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) that was yet to warm up. It was very obliging for a photoshoot.
At this point, the survey took a turn, quite literally, as I made a navigation error that resulted in us deviating from the path that would have taken us around the forest edge to avoid the spur of a hill. Instead, we ended up going straight up and over a huge ridge. This did not go down with Eric and Lucy. Particularly because I hadn't listened to Lucy saying she was on large mammals the other day who had also made a similar mistake. It ended up being a long day in the field with mostly just Ringlets (Aphantopus hyperantus) as a poultry reward.
Back at camp, I went with Nick (master's student) to explore the orchard in the grounds around camp. This turned out to be a surprisingly long stretch of meadow that went up quite a steep hill. This also turned out to be better than the actual surveys for butterfly biodiversity, with a good number of species including Large Copper (Lycaena dispar) and a few Common Gliders (Neptis sappho).
After dinner, I joined the bird ringing group again. They were hoping for Bee-eaters, which were about in the air but didn't fly close to the nets. The highlight was a Collared Flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis). I'll pop my head into the bat survey before I turn in for bed.
10th July - Day 13
I took two groups out today over the easier transect. It was a bit cool and cloudy and that, combined with the heavy sheep grazing, meant that on one survey we saw zero butterflies. I may have slightly hustled a student. Having been on the transect two days before I knew it was naff. The student was more optimistic and bet me a pack of biscuits that we'd see at least ten butterflies. Easiest win I've ever had.
A road sign at the start of the route had warned us to beware of bears after sunset, but it wasn't bears that would be the problem for us today. On one survey we were interrupted by a flock of sheep, and where there are sheep, there are sheepdogs. We beat a hasty retreat and moved on to the next survey point. As we did this a pack of five dogs came running up and barked at us constantly. Our field assistant, Laura, reliably informed me that these were only little ones and not the proper sheepdogs we'd been told to worry about. This didn't reassure me much as they were plenty big enough for my liking. Fortunately for us, the sheep and the dogs were accompanied by a shepherd. One whistle from him and the dogs moved away, following the shepherd on a different route to ours.
Where we stopped for lunch turned out to be a perfect place to watch the Bee-eaters again. We also spotted a pair of Black Woodpeckers (Dryocopus martius) – woodpeckers that look like crows with sharper beaks and a red cap. Earlier in the day we'd also heard the distinctive cooing of a Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur) which was perched not too far away from our first survey point. All in all, not a bad bird day.
The rest of the survey went smoothly, and we were back by 2:30 pm. I joined the students in the hall as Rich went through the camera trap footage from Meșendorf. Among the many videos of Roe Deer, there were a couple of Foxes (Vulpes vulpes), a Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and three Bears (Ursus arctos arctos)! One of the videos showed a bear sniffing the camera and moving on. Amazingly, the next video, taken ten minutes later, was of the group coming to collect the camera. So close.
The washing machines in "camp" have been in near constant use, but I finally got my turn today. I've used my tent and the guide ropes as clotheslines - we'll see if any of my things dry before I actually need them.
We had a relaxed evening in camp, waiting around to set up the moth trap. Two groups were out birding, so it was fairly quiet. We set up at 9:00 pm and by 9:30 pm we had our first micros. At 9:35 pm the rain arrived and didn't stop all night. This put an end to mothing and soaked my half-dry laundry. Not ideal.
11th July - Day 14
After rolling out of my tent, I set about ringing all of the rainwater out of my laundry. Hopefully the rain holds off today and I can actually have clean, dry pyjamas later. Over breakfast, we found out that the water in the village had been shut off. We still had some in the 'top house' so filled up there. This either meant that there was some water left in the system in the top house, or, that the water we'd been drinking in the top house was actually from the local well and not the drinking water system. No one's had D & V yet, so I think we're fine.
We set out at 9:00 am and reached our first survey site at 9:30 am – a bit chilly and windy, but a few things were flying. The first half of the transect went well, but on the other side of the valley we encountered the same flock of sheep as yesterday. We detoured through a cornfield and managed to skirt around them but ended up calling it a day there as the group had started to have enough. Our route back took us down a slope covered in a beautiful meadow with bee-eaters flying above and some amazing invertebrates underneath including a Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi).
Time is going very quickly, we're already halfway through the trip. The two weekers leave tomorrow and we'll have a new group arrive. There was a goodbye quiz, run by Holly, and a BBQ/fire to say goodbye. That was the plan anyway. After dinner, our hosts started a fire with around 20 chairs set around it. We waited there for half an hour waiting for the quiz to start but unsure how it would work around the fire. Eventually, the pens and paper were handed out, just as it started to rain – heavily. We made a dash for the hall and the quiz went ahead there. We came mid-table, the team made up of proper adults -including three academics- won.
12th July - Day 15
I woke at 7:15 am, remembered I was in a tent and swore under my breath.
Rich and his group for the morning had had a bear encounter as they were collecting the camera traps. A mother and a cub, with the mother charging to within 30-40 meters of them. It was fortunate that this happened with Rich, as I think many of us would have panicked in that situation. Rich, calmly, followed the advice he'd previously told us and started making a lot of noise, getting the group together and backing away slowly. Prey run, so you have to behave in a way the bear does not expect. By making noise and backing away you're not behaving like prey. The mother bear just wanted space between the group and her cub. Once they'd backed off, she backed off. This was Rich's version of events, but by the end of the day the story from some of the students was that they had almost been savaged by a bear and were lucky to have made it out with all their limbs and lives.
After breakfast, my group said an emotional goodbye to the two-week students. We then headed out to the transect we'd had sheep issues on twice before. Fortunately, today went without a hitch and we were back by lunch.
I had time to do some work, some data entry and prepare for tomorrow's transfer to Angofa. After dinner, I went with Mark, Paul and Madelena on a Herps rescue mission. There are large water stores dotted all over the place – effectively, large concrete bunkers filled with water. These should have manhole covers over them, but often don't. As well as a substantial human hazard, these act as enormous pitfall traps catching, among other things, frogs, newts, toads and snakes. If the weather stays clear tonight there will be some bat surveys. It's going to be a quiet night with half of the students gone. I imagine tomorrow will be quite different.
Richiș has a very different feel to Meșendorf. For a start, it has a tarmac road running through it. Our base is attached to the Orthodox church which towers over the rest of the village. Over the road from us is the village shop, which has done a roaring trade in sweets, chocolate, ice cream and booze over the last week. Richiș feels more urban than Meșendorf - the population is larger and fewer of the houses are abandoned. The views are of steep hills on either side of the valley and some of these hills have been cut into terraces – a throwback to communist rule and the growing of wine on a large scale. There's still a vineyard about, which half of the students were able to visit during the week. The camp is more claustrophobic than at Meșendorf, with fewer places to sit alone and watch the world go by. It's certainly more comfortable as we have a lovely indoor space that's beautifully cool on a hot day, and yet, I preferred Meșendorf and am looking forward to moving to Angofa, which, by all accounts will be more basic and more wild.