Andorra: the European microstate where adventurers contribute to science
Next, we located black pines wrapped in a metal dendromic band, recorded their growth, and checked bird nest boxes before descending along a creek to rejoin the rest of the group on a grassy slope.
Marco, who is equipped with a special license to band birds, shows us how to set the mist nets. Then he presses play on a recording of birdsong, and we wait. But it didn’t take long. Soon we have the wren and two slightly larger songbirds: a chickadee and a blackcap.
As we watch, Marco puts on metal identification bands, inspects the feathers, and gets the body weight. He also blows on the belly of each bird to expose the skin so he can assess levels of fat and muscle. I write all the information down in a notebook, and then Harris, Hoffman, and I take turns releasing a bird. Every time one flutters to freedom, it feels like magic.
On a scientific adventure
Over the next few days, we alternate pairs, splitting up and regrouping as we deal with the remaining research sites. Walking, measuring, recording, we find a rhythm that makes us forget other concerns. Our whole world seems to be with these people in these mountains.
Every night, during dinner at the hotel (where we remove ourselves with local specialties such as trencha hash of potatoes, cabbage and pork, and the Catalan cream) we review the exploits of the day.
Harris and Marco tell us about their avian extravaganza, when they banded 20 birds in two hours. “Lots of birds showed up,” says Harris, “and then they kept coming even as we reconnoitered the ones we caught.” Claramunt-López and I described the mysterious whistling noise that stopped us in our tracks in the middle of measuring tree seedlings (an image of a pixie may cross my mind). We all laugh at the garden dormouse that appears every day in the same trap, curled up on the cotton bed.
And we marvel at how well Hoffman, still recovering from knee surgery, handles the tough terrain. He probably helps that scientists never seem to see impediments, only opportunities, and his enthusiasm is contagious.
(Related: tramontana in pictures)