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Swarms of Swifts

4/23/2018

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After several days of nest searching, Liz and I manage to catch all 15 swallows that we needed in one long and crazy night in the small fishing village of Bako. It involved significant amounts of mud. This meant that we were finished with Kuching and have since moved on to the city of Bintulu, about half way up the northern coast of Borneo.

​Bintulu is a town rarely frequented by tourists its main draw is a large palm oil mill and offshore drilling. People seem surprised to see us here. One of the first things you hear when you step into the town of Bintulu is birds. Loud trills, cries, and calls. The sky is filled with black shapes with pointed wings that are circling, whirling, and darting. These are not swallows, they are swifts. Swifts and swallows look a lot alike, but they are actually not closely related. Swifts and swallows are a great example of convergent evolution. Both eat flying insects on the wing and evolution has thus provided each of them with pointed wings, long flat bills, similar body shapes, short legs, and good eye sight. In fact, the closest evolutionary relatives to swifts are actually hummingbirds. 


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Pacific Swallow
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Asian Glossy Swiftlet
We think these birds might be close competitors with swallows. They eat similar types of foods and sometimes nest in similar locations. We have also noticed, anecdotally, that where there are lots of swifts there seem to be fewer swallows. This means that finding all these swifts in Bintulu is not the best news for us, though it is pretty cool to see and hear so many at once. We will have to head out of the city if we are going to find many pacific swallows. 
 
But why are there so many swifts in Bintulu? Liz and I identified several different species of swifts here. Some of these build mud cup nests, similar to swallows, and like to nest under the balconies of the tall buildings and in parking garages and bridges near the river. Bintulu just happens to be a good place for them. But some of the swifts are here because people have made a huge effort to lure and keep them here. They are farming the wild swifts, not for meat, eggs, or feathers, but for their nests. 

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These small swifts, which are called swiftlets, build their nests not from mud, but from saliva. Male swiftlets produce long threads of stringy spit that hardens when it dries and they use it to build a small translucent cup nest. These nests are prized as a deliciously in many parts of Asia, but particularly in China and are used to make the famed bird-nest soup. These nests are cleaned, soaked, and then made into a soup that is referred to as the caviar of the East. They dissolve and give the soup a gelatinous texture that can be made either savory or sweet. Descriptions of the taste vary from bland to heavenly and exquisite. The nests are supposedly  very nutritious and eating them is said to promote good health, particularly of the skin. As with many things, it is also said to be an aphrodisiac. Swiftlet nests are big business for Malaysia. It currently produces 380 tons of swiftlet nests a year, and the price is around $2000 US dollars for 1kg of nests. 
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Edible nest swiftlets would normally nest in caves, of which there are many in Malaysia. A large cave complex not far from Bintulu was historically home to a population in the millions of swiftlets. This has dropped significantly in recent years and heavy nest harvesting has led to sharp declines. Malaysia now lists all swifts as protected because of this. Harvesting swiftlet nests from caves can no longer meet demands and is quite dangerous. It requires people to climb up and balance on narrow bamboo platforms and many have fallen to their deaths. Instead, people use all sorts of tricks to get the swiftlets to nest in buildings. They convert top floor apartments into swift farms and build special swift houses by the river. Dark with small openings they resemble caves. In new houses, they even cart in buckets of bird guano to get the smell just right. Speakers, called “tweeters” blast the sounds of a swift colony at high volume to lure birds in. In parts of Bintulu it is so loud it hurts our ears to walk past. Can’t imagine the neighbors are very happy.
 
Liz and I have yet to try any birds nest soup, but we probably should before we leave Malaysia. I will report back on what it tastes like.
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Swift House
Swift farming on the top of an apartment building in Bintulu. The speakers are blasting the sound of a swift colony. 
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Taste of Malaysia

4/17/2018

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The food in Malaysia has been wonderful (and so cheap). Spicy noodle dishes, fried rice with meat and sambal, satay, fresh sea food, river prawns, jungle ferns, curries, hot stir fries with rice, roti dipped in dahl, fried bananas, and wild vegetable pickles. Depending on what quarter of a city you go to, you can get Chinese, Indian, Malay, or even Dayak food (one of the indigenous tribes), or interesting fusions and combinations of these different cuisines. Liz and I happen to both love food, so this works out well for everyone. 
Given its strategic location for both land and sea, Malaysia has been a center for trade and a crossroads for many different cultures throughout history. Immigration of Chinese and Indian traders and later workers during the time of colonization and mining helped to establish communities and most large towns/cities have a Chinese and Indian quarter as well as Malaysian parts of town. Walking through the city you can find mosques, churches, and Taoist, Hindu, Buddhist, and folk temples. While the official language of the country is Bahasa Malaysia, you can hear a variety of languages and dialects. The statistics are impressive, as a country, Malaysia contains speakers of 137 different living languages, with over 10 different dialects of the Malay language itself. There are 30 different indigenous groups, each with their own language. 
All of this results in a wonderful variety of food, flavors, styles, and spices. Food from street stalls, stands, markets, or cafes is affordable, fresh, and extremely fast. A few of my favorites include:

Laksa: a spicy noodle soup that is very popular. Each region has its own version and they like to argue with each other over which one is better. Here in Sarawak, the broth is made of coconut milk, shrimp paste, and chilies. It is rich and spicy and the soup includes shrimp, chicken, or fish, or all three and of course noodles. 
Roti cani: an Indian influenced flat bread often served with dahl or curry. Fillings come in a variety of flavors from sweet to savory. My favorite breakfast.
Nasi Lamak: considered the national dish of Malaysia and a typical breakfast. Rice cooking in fresh coconut water served with chicken, beef, or fish, with spicy sambal on the side and topped with roasted peanuts and dried anchovies. Often wrapped up in a pandan leaf for easy transport.
Noodles (Mee Gorang): stir fried noodles in a spicy chili sauce with eggs, greens, and chicken. These come in many different flavors and styles.
​Midin: wild jungle ferns, fresh and green, sautéed with garlic, or lightly pickled and served as a salad.
TomYum: Spicy sea food soup full of chilies and ginger. Will make you sweat if you are not already.
Fresh Sea Food: So fresh and so good. Often you pick out your fish before they grill it for you.
Morning Glory Greens:  lightly stir fried, delicious and fresh. 

The ingredients for all this delicious food can be found in colorful market. Liz and I have enjoyed just walking through them to savor the sights and smells. The fish markets are our favorites. 
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Searching for Swallows

4/17/2018

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Flying into Borneo was like waking up in some childhood dream. Having spent so many hours as a kid watching nature documentaries about this jungle island filled with strange endemic creatures, it was hard to believe I was actually going there. What better place to be as a biologist? Looking over the winding rivers and dense forest on our flight into Kuching was surreal. Seeing the torn up edges and many oil palm plantations also made me sad.
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​The primary goal of this project is to sample pacific swallows at many different places across their geographic range. In Borneo we plan to sample birds at four to five location spread out over the two states of Sarawak and Sabah. Upon arriving to a new research location, we first need to find the swallows before we can catch them. Sometimes this is a challenge. As I mentioned earlier, swallows are almost impossible to catch unless you know where their nests are, and to find their nests, we have to be able to think like a swallow. Similar to barn swallows, pacific swallows build mud cup nests that they attach to human structures like bridges, culverts, jetties, overhangs, or porches. Liz and I have both studied barn swallows for years, and are pretty good at figuring out where they like to nest, but it has taken us a bit to dial in the exact preferences of the pacific swallow. The structure can’t be too high, too low, too much cover, not enough cover, too enclosed, too open, too hot, too far from water, too new, too anything. I love these little birds, but I must say, I do not always agree with their taste for housing. Liz and I have found so many beautiful places where it would be lovely to build a nest, with absolutely no swallows. Instead, these birds seem to gravitate towards trash, mud, broken glass, rats, spiders, crumbling walls, loose chickens, and stray dogs. They like the rundown, forgotten or even abandoned parts of town. 
Nest searching is not easy work. Liz and I spend hours scrutinizing google maps trying to figure out where to look. We find rivers, the old parts of town, fishing villages, bridges. Even when we have narrowed it down to certain areas we put in long days, often walking 10 and even 15 miles in a day searching. It is near 90° with high humidity, the tropical sun intense. We walk with our binoculars looking for swallows swooping. We crawl and climb under bridges, and into culverts, we put on big rubber boots and wade through the mud along river banks to look under jetties and docks, we climb up old stair wells with open windows, and casually check under people’s porches and in parking garages. We joke that we are going to release a book entitled, the definitive guide to the bridges of Borneo.
Working in Borneo comes with its own set of hazards. We have had close encounters with scorpions, sudden downpours, mosquitos, and angry guard dogs. But don't worry, so far we are both safe and healthy! 
Eventually we do find them. Usually just when we have gotten sufficiently worried and frustrated, convinced that we are in the wrong place, dirty, tired, and with cobwebs in our hair-  there they are. Our goal is to catch 15-20 swallows per research location, which means we need at least 8 active nests that we can reach with the nets, and it is certainly not a guarantee that we are going to successfully catch swallows at these nests- so more is better. It is best if we find an area with several nests where we can catch multiple swallows at the same place, but we can also string together single nests here and there. This means long nights catching birds one nest at a time. When we finally catch our first swallow, usually after days of searching, we both breathe a sigh of relief. Being a field biologist is certainly not always glamorous, and it has its ups and downs, but I still feel so lucky that I get to do this as my job. 
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The King of Fruit

4/10/2018

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I must do a short post about one of the strangest fruits I have ever met. Durian is beloved by Malaysians and is referred to as the king of fruit. On the outside the fruit is hard, round, and slightly smaller than a volleyball, covered with sharp spikes. Inside there are several compartments where soft cream to yellow colored fruit covers several large seeds.
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The first thing you experience with durian is its unique smell. Wikipedia describes it well: “The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine,  and raw sewage. Or as described by travel and food writer Richard Sterling: “its odor is best described as pig excrement, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock.” Ripe fruit can be detected by animals in the forest over a mile away and the smell is so strong that the fruit is banned in many hotels and public buses and trains across Asia. The smell has caused evacuations in  office buildings, hospitals, and shopping malls. I will confirm that you can pick up the sweet animal smell of durian rounding a street corner, or entering a market or a house.
 
The flavor of Durian is also like no other fruit I have encountered. In the US, our fruits are simple, with flavors that are little bit sour with a straightforward sweetness and a consistent juicy or crunchy texture. Durian is complex and hits so many taste buds at once, it can be confusing. The texture is stringy and at the same time, soft and mushy. It has a strong flavor that is sweet and sour and creamy that also tastes a bit like a strong overripe soft cheese with some raw garlic. The taste is certainly lingering. It has been described as: subtle hints of chives mixed with powdered sugar. It’s supposed to taste like diced garlic and caramel poured into whipped cream. There are also hundreds of varieties of durian (like our varieties of apples) with flavors that are said to range from peanut butter pound cake to chocolate liquor to caramelized onion omelets to vanilla frosting.

Our collaborator, Dr. Farah brought some fresh durian from her parent's village and I got to try it when she had us over to her house for dinner. It was an interesting experience, and I can confirm that I like the fruit more than Liz, though I can’t say I am quite as crazy about it as most Malaysians. Given the smell, I will not be bringing any home for you to try. 


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Jungle River

4/8/2018

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I have been in Malaysia for three days and have jumped in with both feet. It is a beautiful country with wonderful people. Truly tropical, it never gets much below 85 degrees and is very humid. It seems that the people are just barely holding back the jungle from creeping over the city. Everything is vividly green and alive, so very different from the snowstorm that was raging when I left from the Minneapolis airport. 

Liz arrived in Kuala Lumpur a few days before I did and had already met up with our collaborator in western Malaysia, Dr. Farah Mohd-Taib from the biology department at the National University of Malaysia. We had the pleasure of working with three of her students Wardah, Asmalia, Nabila to find and catch pacific swallows. It was so fun to get to know these students and work with them in the field. They were amazing and we could not have done it without them. With their help, Liz had successfully found an area with several pacific swallow nests about an hours drive from the city. My first day in Malaysia we went to try and catch them.
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Pausing for a fieldwork selfie with Liz, Wardah, Asmalia, and Nabila
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Liz and I with Dr. Farah Mohd-Taib
Catching swallows is a bit different from catching other birds. Because swallows eat only flying insects (aerial insectivores), they have excellent eyesight and incredible maneuverability in the air. They are the trick pilots of the bird world. This means that we can’t just put out a mist net during the day and hope they fly into it, like we can with other birds. We have to be sneaky. Nearly invincible during the day, the swallows weakness is their nest. Swallows sleep on their nests at night and while their eyesight is superb when it is light, it is lacking in the dark. 
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Once we locate active swallow nests, we can return under the cover of darkness and catch them by surprise (think bird ninja). Rather unglamorous compared to the long tidy lines of mist nets most ornithologists set up in the early morning in a forest or wetland and wait patiently for the birds to fly in. Instead, we use short nets that we can position in front of swallow nests built on buildings, under bridges, and in culverts. Even less dignified, we use a long stick to poke the birds awake so they fly into the net. All of this is done with red lights, which are harder for the birds to see and don't affect our night vision. This is often accompanied by much hand waving and flailing with a short butterfly net to make sure the birds actually end up in the net. Don’t worry- the birds are not harmed because mist nets are specially designed to have rows of folded pockets or bails to gently hold small birds. 
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Liz removing a starling from a mist net during the day.
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Capturing swallows at night
This is exactly what we were doing for my first night of fieldwork in Malaysia. Except this time, instead of catching birds in barns, as I have down with barn swallows all over the world, I was on the banks of a jungle river. The river was brown and mysterious, its banks crowded with jungle plants and over hanging vines. Fisherman were catching prawns and fish from small boats and there were signs warning of crocodiles. The night was alive with the sounds of frogs, insects, and swifts and we saw at least one snake slither past our feet. The swallows had nested under bridges and docks and on near by buildings. Once, we nearly slide into the river because of the mud. ​
Besides our muddy shoes and clothes, the night was a great success! We caught 15 swallows (our goal for this location). And established a rhythm for how to take all the measurements, samples, and photos that we need from each bird and release them in a short time. We finished around 2 am and did not get to sleep till after 3. We finally woke up at 1pm the next day and ate one large meal around 4, not sure if it counted as breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Liz termed our state as reverse jetlag- adjusting to a new time zone and then ruining it by staying up all night catching birds. 

I hope our good luck continues and that we are successful catching swallows as we move across Malaysia. Tomorrow we are off to the town of Kuching in the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. 
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The Pacific Swallow Project

4/4/2018

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After a several year hiatus from international fieldwork, it is time once again to pack my bags and I could not be more excited! I will be joining one of my favorite field biologists and adventure buddies – Dr. Liz Scordato (you may remember her from my work in Egypt). We will see how many of our clothes match this time around. It is important to note here that Liz needs to get all the credit for dreaming up this project, planning it, and funding it. I am just happy that I get the opportunity to go along and add some of my own parasite research into the mix. We are off to South East Asia to study the Pacific Swallow. A charismatic little bird that is related to the Barn Swallows I studied during my PhD. I think they look very different from Barn Swallows, but my family and friends seem to think otherwise. 

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So what is so interesting about the Pacific Swallows (other than the fact that it lives in a beautiful part of the world with incredible food)? Like Barn Swallows, Pacific Swallows are human commensals, meaning they prefer to nest on man-made structures and live close to people. These birds are found across the South East Asia, but populations look quite different depending on where they are found. The Pacific Swallow is sometimes referred to as 1 species, 3 species, or divided into as many as 14 subspecies based on visual differences. We have very little understanding of how closely these different types of pacific swallows are related to each other, when they became separate, why they look different, or if they are still interbreeding today.
            Because of their close association with humans, Pacific Swallows offer an interesting window into how human-mediated ecological change impacts animals on both short term and long term scales. By looking at the physical characteristics of different populations of Pacific Swallows and analyzing their DNA to piece together detailed information about their genomes, we can reconstruct both their recent and past history.
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My particular part of this research will be to add information about parasites. I will be counting, collecting, and identifying parasites from adults and nests. I also plan to analyze DNA from these parasite to look into their genomes and reconstruct their past, like we are doing with the swallows. This will allow me to ask if parasites share a similar or different history compared to their hosts. I am excited to see what we can find. 
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Barn swallow with fly parasite and wing feathers with feather mites. We expect to find similar parasites with the Pacific Swallows
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To make these big field projects happen requires months of planning and logistics. The success of international fieldwork really depends on establish good contacts with local collaborators. Working with and getting to know these collaborators is one of my favorite parts of doing this work. While there can be interesting experiencing translating culture and language, these relationships can often result in long-term collaborations, projects, and friendships. We have worked to establish contacts in all the different states we will be working in with scientists and people from the forestry service. After contacting collaborators and securing permits, which we usually do up to a year in advance of the project, we next have to think about equipment and packing. The goal is to travel as light as possible while also having everything we need. This means we never skimp on the research equipment that we need to bring, but often limit our personal items to make everything fit. 
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 Fieldwork is one of the main reasons that I became a scientist, and I think this is true for many biologists. There is the allure of adventure and travel, seeing and trying new things, and the thrill of uncertainty and unplanned turns and bumps in the road that contrasts nicely with my life typically filled with to-do lists and carefully planned calendars. A good field biologist needs to be adaptable, creative, and ready for anything. But it is also the chance to be outside, in nature, closely observing animals and asking interesting questions. More than anything, it is my curiosity and love of discovery, and the opportunity to figure out a little piece of how nature works that kindles my love of fieldwork. It is privilege to be able to do this work and in particular to have the opportunity to be part of this project. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you along the way. 

Liz will also be blogging during our trip, and you can follow us on twitter at #pacswallowproject
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