The final week of my Romanian expedition. Back in a familiar landscape in the town of Criț, just over the hill from Mesendorf.
20th July - Day 23
Final Transfer Day.
The usual palaver of taking down tents and packing up the bus was followed by the now customary visit to Kaufland, which involved the obligatory restocking of snacks and sampling of the baked goods aisle. They have some great pastries in Kaufland, and if there's one thing I'm a sucker for, it's sweet pastries. The drive to Criț (pronounced Critz) was uneventful, and the big tent pitch-up went about as well as usual. Most people have no idea how to put up a tent, and the large OpWal four-person tents are not the most intuitive to erect. Time will tell if the spot I chose for my tent was any good. I've pitched up under an apple tree for the shade, flat ground, and distance from snorers that the location provided. The trade-off, however, is that apples seem to be falling relatively regularly from the canopy, some of which are bouncing off of my tent. I'm willing to risk it, but will move tomorrow if needs be.
One of the students somehow managed to get heatstroke on the bus journey. They do seem to be particularly prone to the heat and we think that they just got unlucky in their seat choice and had the sun blaring through the window for the whole drive. They're being cared for in the barn, the coolest place we have access to.
After lunch (soup), I went out with Erica and Bobo on a private entomology trip. We were also on the hunt for scarce large blues again as this was where they had been recorded in a previous season. Unfortunately, the meadow where they'd been seen in 2019 had already been cut. This was a little depressing, but I still had a great time, and this short excursion was one of the highlights of the trip. Bobo has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Romanian wildlife and Erica is a world expert in flies. It was a privilege to see the environment through their well-trained eyes. Where the meadows had been left uncut were spectacular. As well as a high diversity and abundance of butterfly species to keep me and Bobo interested, Erica found a soldier fly typically associated with damp, boggy habitats, none of which were nearby where we were.
Back at camp, I found my first attached tick of the trip. Three weeks is pretty good going to get away without one, but still very annoying. I'm still unsure as to how it got me as I take all the anti-tick precautions when out and about and for this one to get to my calf it had to have got through multiple pairs of socks that my trousers were tucked into as well as tolerated the liberally applied smidge insect repellant. My guess is that this was a camp tick, a not uncommon occurrence throughout the trip for many people, taking advantage of my bare legs when I wear shorts during my downtime. Afterwards, I took my first solar-heated shower. What I mean by this is that the showers are wooden huts, with a large black plastic tank on top filled with water. The tanks are heated by the sun and gravity powers the water out of the shower nozzle. Heated is perhaps too strong a word. The sun warms the water to just below tepid, which frankly is ideal when it's 30°C.
After dinner, Erica gave me a crash course in insect pinning using the samples we'd collected on today's walk. She left halfway through to go on an adventure time and returned two hours later absolutely buzzing having had an amazing 4x4 ride and bear sighting. She also brought with her one of the largest horseflies I've ever seen. All of the species collected by Erica and the students this week, as well as the ones we collected today, will go into the Natural History Museum collection, so something I've collected and pinned will be forever stored in the NHM! I can now say I've contributed to one of the greatest natural history collections on earth.
21st July - Day 24
I took the heatstroke group from last week up to the meadow I visited yesterday. As we walked along a muddy path, we came across hundreds of butterflies mud-puddling, where they use their proboscis to suck salts and nutrients from the damp ground. We then did the two survey points that were located there and then I just let them explore the habitat for half an hour. I was hoping to have a little chase through the meadow and see what I could find myself, but in the end, I just sat in the shade while a conveyor belt of students kept bringing me samples to ID. This turned out to be a highly effective strategy. I got to see all the species but stayed cool in the shade. It's a good life.
We headed back to camp to refill water bottles (predictably they hadn't brought enough for the full survey) and then headed back out. One of the students stayed behind as they were already beginning to flag. It was half past eleven. We brought back with us a couple of flies for Erica, who was packed up and ready to head back to England after her brief stint here in Transylvania. One of the flies (another marsh specialist from a marsh-less habitat) was deemed sufficiently interesting enough for Erica to unpack her suitcase and pin it properly. When we headed back out on the transect it was a long hot slog up a gravel track to survey points that were okay, but not as good as the morning.
After my post-survey shower, I sat in the swing chair that hangs from the apple tree my tent is under. This was very relaxing, but as the sun moved through the sky I slowly swung from the shade into the sun and began to overheat. I moved when I realised, but it was slightly too late and I've felt a bit rough since then. Tired and a slight headache, nothing too bad.
I joined another herp rescue mission after dinner. The large water storage tank that had been known as the pool of life in 2019 due to the abundance of herps that had been found in it, had turned into a pit of death. Apparently, three years ago the water had been clear, plants grew in it and whilst herps found their way in and got stuck it was an ok place for them to temporarily be. This time however, at least one sheep had either fallen in or been thrown in (an easy way to dispose of a dead sheep), turning the water into a green, writhing mass of maggots. Any herps that had found their way in there were in desperate need of rescuing. Using a large net and holding our breath from the smell, Paul and some of the students rescued a smooth snake, some agile frogs, a large handful of great crested newts and the highlight for me, a yellow-bellied toad. This looks like a normal toad you might find in the UK from the top but has a beautiful yellow and black swirling patterned belly.
As we returned from a successful rescue mission the bat team were surveying outside of camp. I popped my head in to see if they'd had any luck. It would have been rude not to.
22nd July - Day 25
A very good day. I had the four weekers on survey with me, which was more fun as they are familiar with both the methods and the common species. An added bonus is that they knew each other well by now and talked to each other and to me a lot more, so we had some good conversations. We only had three survey points to cover, so I promised them the same free time in the same meadow as I'd done with the two-week group. Unfortunately, the promised meadow had been cut the previous day. There were still a good number of species around the margins though. It was ok, but still a bit of a shame, particularly as this may be the last survey I do with the four-weekers. We did find a Pallas' Fritillary (Argynnis laodice) which I'd been keen to show them as we hadn't seen them at Meșendorf, Richiș or Angofa. They were suitably impressed, so we ended on a high.
The forecast for tomorrow is for horrendous heat, possibly reaching 39°C. We're not sure if it will be safe to head out butterflying, but Paul offered to see how much of the route to the transect could be driven. That way if we do go, we can reduce actual sun time as much as possible. We got about halfway to the transect and stopped as the track deteriorated. As we wandered around, Paul spotted a hole in the hillside. The hole turned out to be a nest and Paul asked if I wanted to ring a bee-eater. Obviously, I said yes and, under Paul's expert tutelage, I ringed the only chick in the nest, any others having already fledged. After ringing, Paul suggested I just open my hands and see if it would fly. It took off without being prompted on its first flight directly from my hands. To hold a bird that special is a true privilege, and one I'll be eternally grateful to Paul for.
We had a staff meeting after dinner about the weather tomorrow. One of the points that was decided was that it would be irresponsible for the butterfly surveys to go ahead. This was a huge relief as I was worried about how I would manage chasing butterflies in the heat, let alone keeping all the students safe as well.
A couple of hours later, just after the sun had set, we chained together four extension cables, using a range of UK to European and vice versa plug adaptors, wrapped in bin bags to protect from the dew, to set up the moth trap as far from camp as we could reach. It was another cool, cloudless night so the species list was relatively small. That might be it for moth trapping this trip.
23rd July - Day 26
It is hot today. Too hot.
With no butterfly surveys because of the heat I had the day to myself. I woke up at 5:15 a.m and joined the bird ringing group. As we had moth trapping last night I've had about four hours of sleep in total, and I'm feeling it today. The hope for bird ringing was a smorgasbord of woodpeckers, as they'd had a whole range of them the day before. In the end, we didn't catch any woodpeckers, but did have a Chiffchaff, a Blackcap, several Red-backed Shrikes and flocks of Sparrows and Great Tits.
We came back before 11 a.m and other than catching up with data entry, I've done very little since then. Lunch was a delicious tomato soup. I'm usually out in the field over lunch and have missed all of the various soups that have been served other than those on transfer days. In the absence of anything else to write about today, I will describe Criț (see below).
The rest of today has been a constant battle to stay cool and to stay awake. There's nowhere good to nap and I'm not much of a nap person anyway. At least I'll sleep well tonight. What I've discovered is that there's not a great deal to do in camp. Whilst I'm glad not to be surveying today in the heat, I'm still quite bored and not used to the routine of relaxing during the day. The only excitement of the afternoon was when Rich showed everyone the camera trap footage from last week. For whatever reason, Angofa had been less productive than Meșendorf and Richiș, with no bears recorded for the first time this trip. After the camera trap videos, I went through some Zoology/Taxonomy basics with one of the students who was keen to learn more about animal phylogenies, particularly arthropods.
I'm heading for an early night tonight. I'm going ringing again in the morning and am already sleep deprived. It's the last few days though, I can sleep when I get home.
A description of Criț
Criț is near to Meșendorf - just a valley over the hill – and is very similar, but much larger. A Saxon church once again dominates the skyline and can be seen from camp. It is very impressive when lit up at night. The main road to Sighișuara runs nearby the village so there is a constant background road noise if you listen carefully from camp. This is in contrast to Meșendorf where the majority of the noise you could hear came from the crickets. Our camp is, once again, entered through a large entrance gate similar to both Meșendorf and Richiș. To the immediate left and right of the entrance are sets of single story buildings in which our hosts live and cook. The dining hall follows on the right hand side and an outdoor kitchen is on the left. Beyond the dining hall are two kennels containing a pair of the hosts hunting dogs. We've been told, do not look at the dogs, do not touch the dogs, just ignore the dogs. If OpWal ask, these dogs to not exist. Continuing up the path you walk through the barn. With the exception of the indoor toilets and indoor dining space, this is the coolest place in camp and is where the heatstroke casualties are treated (here's a bucker, here's a lot of water, stay in the shade). Through the barn and out beyond there is a chicken coup on the right and the showers on the left. A poorly tessellating crazy paving takes over from this point and is flanked by green houses and allotments on both sides. The produce grown makes up a large part of our meals, the green house in particular is filled with delicious looking tomatoes, whilst the plots contain an abundance of beans, potatoes and peppers. Wherever we've stayed our hosts have provided us with a pepper spread called Zacusca. I've become slightly obsessed with this over the past month and have made and taken into the field every day a sandwich made up of soft white crusty bread, a couple of slices of cheese and a thick layer of Zacusca. I can't recommend it highly enough. Unless you don't like roasted peppers. I've distracted myself.
Continuing along, the path slopes uphill into an orchard. Just before the trees are three long drop toilets which smell exactly as bad as you would expect when it's hot. It's always hot. The path levels out onto a large flat area where the majority of the tents are pitched. There's also a large, roofed but wall-less building with a concrete floor and a couple of trestle tables. This is where all of the kit is stored and where the best shade can be found. At the top of the level patch are a couple of glamping huts that mark the end property. There's no-one staying in them at the moment and I'm sitting in the shade behind one of them at the moment writing this. I've found not many people explore beyond the huts themselves so I can usually find a bit of quiet to myself here. From here, the orchard ends and crops and pasture take over with fields stretching about 100 meters away up to a tree line at the top of the hill. Beyond this is more pasture which continues to a ridge with beautiful views of the Transylvania landscape.
24th July - Day 27
It has, once again, been a busy couple of days so I am behind on diary entries. It's the 26th as I write this.
I started the day with bird ringing. A relatively quiet session, but we did catch a Thrush Nightingale (Luscinia luscinia), which is an excellent bird. The butterfly survey was fairly rubbish, with a 6km walk up a hill to three cut meadows. We shifted the survey points to the nearest uncut areas we could find and the students seemed happy.
The plan for the evening was to set up the moth trap again, but at dinner, Zuni told me, Mark, Nick, Sharina, Rich and Laura to get ready for adventure time. There had been multiple bear sightings on student adventure times this week, so we were very hopeful. The drive to the spot was an experience. We were taken there by our hosts who have a pair of well-used 4x4s and know how to use them. We were in the one with higher suspension, and it was clear that our driver took us on some routes just for fun that the other vehicle couldn't follow. It was great.
We parked up in a field, with a good view of the other side of the valley. It didn't take long before we had a glimpse of a female with two cubs. It then rained slightly, and they disappeared. Whilst we waited for her to re-emerge a second female was spotted further along the valley, this one with three cubs. They moved from the woodland edge out into the open where we had a great view of them. They were a few hundred meters away, well out of camera range, but what an experience.
Our guides then insisted that we should move on, much to our surprise. Reluctantly, we left the bears that were still in view, got back into the cars and moved to a new location, where there were no bears in view. Instead, there were two carts being driven quite loudly along a track in the valley, so we assumed that we'd seen our last bears. We were wrong. As the light faded, we saw five huge, dark lumps emerge from the gloom and cross one of the fields below. Mother with four large cubs. Four is unusual, but not uncommon. Our guides said they were wild boar. We all disagreed, the most vocal being Rich, the large mammal expert. In his thick Yorkshire accent "Bollocks, boar do not move like that, they were bears". By the time we got back to camp our guides had received a call that a mother and four cubs were in the area. Twelve bears in total. Twelve.
Mothing was in full swing behind the veg patch when we got back. I joined that until it finished at midnight.
25th July - Day 28
Some of the students have taken to calling me The Terminator. I should stress that this is in no way related to my physical attributes, but because I wear my sunglasses pretty much constantly and have a habit of standing or sitting still and staring at nothing when I'm tired – low power mode. Sometimes after a couple of minutes of me spaced out like this - without a single thought in my head - I'd snap out of it and see what was going on. This was referred to me as powering up.
Final butterfly survey of the trip today, but first, bird ringing. Half of my butterfly group also wanted to go bird ringing, so I had no choice but to go with them in order to bring them back in time for breakfast. Tough job. The highlight of the ringing this morning wasn't anything that actually flew into the net, although it's always nice to see things in the hand. No, the highlight was a Hobby (Falco Subbuteo) zipping back and forth down the road above us.
The butterfly surveys were better than yesterday. A slightly shorter walk uphill to slightly better sites. I was hoping for one final new species to add to my list, but no such luck. We did find a cool assassin bug though which looked formidable.
In the evening I joined the students and some of the staff on a trip to a local dairy farm. The owners have thirty cows and graze them in the communally owned pastures on the hill. We all got the opportunity to milk a cow if we wanted to. It was a strange, but enjoyable evening. After the cows, we walked slightly further up the road to see what the herp team had found. A few days ago we'd explored a large, abandoned building with deep pits built into the floor, possibly for storage. At the bottom of each of these pits were a number of enormous common toads. These are the same species we have in the UK, but they were absolute monsters. As well as several of the largest toads I've ever seen, the herp team also rescued a green lizard and one very confused and scared cat. There were enough toads for all the students to release their own toad into a stream not too far away.
Back at camp, as it was the students' final night, the usual 10 p.m curfew was lifted and people sat around and chatted until 11:30 p.m.
26th July - Day 29
The last day.
I woke up at 5:20 am for small mammals at 5:45 am. It took me a while to get out of the sleeping bag, but I made it to the meeting point on time. This is only the second time I've been on small mammals, partly because it clashes with bird ringing but mostly because they often aren't back before I have to head out on surveys at 8 am. We caught 11 small mammals - a record haul for the trip. Most were Striped Field Mice (Apodemus agrarius), but a couple of Field Voles (Microtus agrestis) and Wood Mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) had also found their way into the traps. At one site I spotted a Purple Hairstreak (Neozephyrus quercus) in a tree and a little later on we saw a male Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus) with either a female and three young, or four young.
Back at camp and after breakfast the students set about packing their bags. One of the students had drawn individual sketches of all of the staff members, which she handed to us with a parting message. This was such a thoughtful gift and all agreed that she'd captured each of our likenesses and behaviours remarkably well. After a debrief talk, lots of photos and lots of goodbyes they all crammed into a mini-bus and set off for the airport and for home. Camp is very quiet now. Some of the staff are quite upset. They were, for the most part, a good group and their departure is a blow. Oh well, time for lunch.
The afternoon passed with minimal excitement. It was still very hot, so the main activity of the day was going to the shop for ice cream. I'd already packed my bag by this point, which meant I had to make the short walk wearing my walking boots rather than my trainers. The rest of the afternoon was spent waiting for the evening and Zuni's return from Sighi with 16 pizzas. He'd had a stressful afternoon. Lufthanzer were going on strike, so half of the students' flights had been cancelled. This was a job for the OpWal team back in the UK though, Zuni's job was done, and the pizzas were good. It turns out that the San Marco's Pizzeria had done very well out of OpWal. As we ate the 16 pizzas in camp, the students were arriving at the restaurant where Zuni had booked them a table for 20.
We ate the pizzas in the orchard rather than inside and it was a really lovely final meal and evening together. After a month working together, shepherding students and making sure all the data was collected and processed correctly it was nice to fully relax with a group of people who have become good friends. We listened to music and chatted away the hours until my transfer arrived to take me to the airport at 12:30 p.m. Due to the cancellation of my original flight, I'd been booked onto the early morning flight back to the UK and was the only one leaving at this time. Everyone else had flights at more reasonable times. I said my goodbyes to the main group and Holly, Nick and Zuni saw me off at the gates of the camp.
I slept for most of the three-hour drive to Cluj. At the airport, it took just 15 minutes for me to go from the drop-off, through bag drop and security, to arriving at the departure gate. Cluj at 3 a.m. is considerably less busy than Luton at peak time. The plane was delayed by half an hour, but I landed back in the UK at 7:30 a.m. My Romania experience was over, for the time being. This month has been incredible. It's been hot and it's been hard at times, but I wouldn't change a thing. The ancient hay meadows of Transylvania are the best habitat I have ever experienced and the abundance of wildlife I have seen in a relatively short period of time is extraordinary. I can see why some of the staff come back year after year and I hope that one day I will return too.