Southbound

Across the globe millions of birds are coming to rest. They have just completed journeys of a gargantuan scale. At this time of year there seems to be an overwhelming consensus in the bird world that north is best. The long days of the northern hemisphere provide the perfect conditions to forage and rear young and attract many species familial to us, such as ruby throated humming birds (Archilochus colubris) in the USA and barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) and cuckoos (Cuculus canorus)of Europe.  Some birds however, will not come to us. 

                It is because of this that I must undertake my own migration. I am an ornithologist based, for the time being, at the University of Leeds. For the next year I will be working with various conservation organisations to gain experience in the conservations of birds. This current, personal migration takes me south, against the northward grain of the birds, south to Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles off the coast of Venezuela.  Here, for the next three months, I will be working with the Echo Bonaire project under the umbrella of the World Parrot Trust.  

                Echo Bonaire works to protect a subpopulation of Amazon parrot, the yellow shouldered Amazon (Amazona barbadensis).  It works in a number of ways; rescue and rehab of birds from the illegal pet trade, native forest regeneration, public interaction and scientific study. Over the next 3 months I will learn much more about Echo Bonaire, the parrots and Bonaire as a whole, first hand.

                The point of this blog is to share that learning experience and the learning experiences throughout the coming year. To share the trials and tribulations faced by a conservation biologist and to help me remember what I have done when I come to write reports upon my return to University.  To avoid insult any names of people will be changed and due to the rarity of some of the species that will play lead roles in the coming stories locations will, at times, be quite vague. I will be trying to post on here once a week, and whilst I cannot guarantee it will all be great literature, or the most well referenced scientific articles, I hope there will be some entertainment and at the very least there will be brilliant photographs.

                But for now, I know as much, or as little as you. To tell you more I must take to metal wings and fly south.