BCM Study Tour, part 1

This is LONG overdue. Apologies to all. I can't promise much better in the next couple of weeks either, but i'll try.

We embarked two weeks ago on a trip around Holland. Two minibuses, 25 students, one lecturer, and an unwitting PhD student (dragged into driving the second bus). We drove, from Oxford, to Nijmegen, Holland, on Monday. It was a long day. We picked up Brit Nick at the ferry dock in Dover. White cliffs (left)! We drove through France, Belgium and Holland, and thanks to our intrepid drivers, plus a few amazing strokes of grace from Caroline, Laura, Matt and others - we made it to our small town just 3 km from the German border. It was a fun drive through the countryside, and the roads seemed just as confusing to me as in England. No one had to worry about lack of cheer (below) thanks to Antoniya.
The town we stayed in was Beek, just outside Nijmegen. It was right on a river, which i found out was a fork of the Rhine - a strange fork. This was when it was really impressed upon me that Holland IS a delta. The river splits upstream of Nijmegen, and doesn't rejoin itself - its the opposite of what we normally think of as a "fork" in the river. It was an anti-confluence. The whole country is essentially one large delta, and as the rivers get close to the ocean outlet, they split and splinter into many riverlets and streams. Thus, the flooding, the incredible feats of engineering, the fertile sedimentary soils. The Netherlands is famous for being a country almost entirely below sea level. They've engineered their way out of submersion, into what we now now as Holland. In this incredibly structured, manipulated environment was where we were to engage on a massive study tour of conservation. And it was one of the best places we could have done this, in the end. It reminded me of the predicament of New Orleans, except Holland has had extensive draining, dredging and diking for much longer. However, the problems remain that this is a place which WANTS to be underwater, and it is only through feats of human ingenuity that we've managed to make it inhabitable. Next destination: Dutch nature reserves.

Naomi n Abi Minibus style

Naomi n Abi Minibus style
Originally uploaded by myblackboxrocks.

Riding back to Oxford next to Abi and Sam. Many more posts to come about Holland...stay tuned.

Here, here, pretty bird

More pheasants: saw three male pheasants perched and preening today. Grey morning, mild temperature, slight occasional precipitation. In Christchurch Meadow - they were positioned in triangular format, at opposite corners of the meadow, each one atop the highest thing around. Were they searching for mates, forming a trifecta, or just coincidentally simultaneously ascending a summit in their corner of the world? I vote mating, since i've never seen a pheasant in the Meadows before.

Still life with woodpeckers

I'm not sure if i've just started looking, or if maybe the woodpeckers know i'm looking for them. I saw two more today, outside my window. These were not Greens, but the more common Great Spotted Woodpeckers. Still gorgeous. And either they have sensed that i WANT to see them, or its just spring and the birds are all out in full color.

And on that note, i also saw three pheasant two days ago on my way into town. My usual path into town takes me by a marshy field, where the reeds are clumpy and high enough for a respectable duck or large bird to sit in and not be seen. As i rode by on my bike, i saw a family stopped looking and pointing. This is always a good cue to stop (binoculars are another dead giveaway) and as i slowed, two pheasants flushed about 20 feet from me. Nice, because i've only ever seen male pheasant in the area. Could be a mating pair? Not seconds later, i saw another male flying out of the field on the other side of the path.

Then, as i was cycling home last night, another cue to slow down, get off the bike. A group of three people was stopped, fanned out across the path, then walking slowly. Stopped again. Repeat. As i approached this curious behavior pattern, and had to slow down anyway just to pass them, i saw what they were looking at: frogs. "We're just trying to get them off the path", they explained cheerfully. The frog hopped off into the dirt just off the path and burrowed himself under a couple of strands of grass. I watched for a few minutes, since i haven't seen any small slimy animals on the path since last autumn when the snails were out. As i watched the wrinkly frog breathing heavy after its encouther with The Path, i spotted a snail resting on a broad leaf of grass.

More signs of spring! Animals out in full fury, mating and creeping out in the bright mild day from the wet and dark depths of winter. The world transforms right in front of us, as long as we're paying attention.

Eyes wide open

Its spring. Sunny (with bouts of rain and cloud), mild temperature. Yesterday i looked up to find a Green Woodpecker cruising the tree outside my window. Then i saw a little deer, tiny new horns (must be a yearling). The days are longer, and the flowers are sprouting. Amongst the glory, there is still furious work. Writing, researching, discussing, contemplating. Ultimately this question re-surfaces again - what is conservation about? We can't prove, scientifically, that we should or need to preserve biodiversity. We have ideas about it, but it seems like all we know is that we have economic and aesthetic/cultural arguments that are the bottom line. So - can scientists be conservationists? Can scientists still be credible, while defending conservation measures on economic or aesthetic arguments?

Back to the sun and flowers.

Evabella and Kellia Perkins

kissing

proud

Been a long time

Welcome to this post - last month in review.

End of term - visit Colorado - get sick - niece born - return to UK - work on academic madness.

Visit to Colorado checklist:

• run out of time to pay for carbon offsets
• fall ill just about immediately
• watch movies with Evabella
• bear witness to the birth of Kellia
• ski once
• visit an eighth of the people i intend to; those i did visit for an eighth the frequency intended
• spend ridiculous amounts of money on things i sort of need
• pack more heavy stuff to bring to UK
• bask in the sunshine

return to UK checklist:

• try to speak German on the plane
• try to sleep on the plane
• hope that the waitstaff at all UK establishments have been faking this whole time and really DO want to take my order
• sleep for days
• try to reorient self to local time zone
• smell the flowers
• watch The Boat Race, scare locals because of loud cheering
• slowly realize that time seems to be speeding up, large scary assignment deadline looms
• attempt to organize self; give up and go have coffee

Photo illustration to come soon. Again - my apologies to all of you i didn't get to spend (more) time with in Colorado. I hope posting will become more regular again on this site now that i'm sort of functional again.