Update from the field

I've been in the field for about a week and a half now, and have just returned to town for an evening to get more fuel for the boat and take a much needed shower. Work at the Jago river delta camp has been going well. There are four of us in camp, and we've been spending our days sampling the mudflat for the invertebrates that shorebirds feed on, conducting surveys of shorebirds on the mudflat every three days, and trying to catch a few select species of shorebirds to test them for avian influenza. The weather has been wonderful, for the most part. Or perhaps I should say that it's been cold and windy, but people who've spent a lot of time up here say that this is far better than normal! We had a bonfire on one of the barrier islands a few evenings ago after work, and searched for polar bear tracks, but didn't find any. In fact we haven't seen any polar bears at all so far, which is unusual. Yesterday it was very foggy on the mudflat, and it was a bit frightening spending the day slogging across the mud in the gloom, seaching the white landscape for a white bear-shape that might pop out of it. We did see a grizzly bear a few days ago close to camp, but it ran like the wind when we got close to it.