Preparing to describe a new site
As you guys may have noticed, there were several significant records from a site “Oebaha”. A recent collection by a friend yielded many species, which include Camacinia gigantea (first record of the species in Oe-Cusse), Anax guttatus, Tramea stenoloba, Zyxomma obtusum and a very interesting Gynacantha.
Most of the times I do the collection myself when I cannot photograph them in the wild, but lately I have been given specimens collected by friend and family that check some of the pictures I post on Facebook. Few people know and/or realize the work required in preparing a visit to a new site. My steps tend to be always the same, first find a good local informant, nothing beat local knowledge. I have found that most of the times either children or >60 year old informants are the best. Children are great for Damselflies and >60 for anything crepuscular.
After having a good key informant I try to understand beforehand what kind of vegetation I’ll encounter, try to estimating travel times (by motorbike/car or by foot), prepare the main camera body (with macro lens), prepare backup camera body with a telephoto and some extension tubes, take GPS, take my “point and shoot” camera with built in GPS and GLONASS. Then comes preparing the first aid kit, which is followed by preparing what I’ll end up using as a Kill Jar, some sample jars, the nets.
Having a Key informant is crucial as a lot of the sites with water are under specific traditional natural resource management practices, with a range of taboos put in place. Thus far I have not been denied access to a single site after explaining what my nets where for. There are many restrictions when it comes to harvest of freshwater prawns here. Because my Meto is fairly poor, and most people here do not speak Tetun no Portuguese, I rely on the first pictures in my SD card (of different Dragonflies) to show what I’m after to photograph.
But before all of that and after preparing what will eventually become my kill jars I have a look at different military maps (Indonesian, Portuguese, Australian) to check contour lines and set treks and/or quadrats depending on what I hope to photograph and document, this is followed by looking at some of the aerial photography and high resolution satellite imagery of the area, by the time this is done, I’m exhausted and usually sleep less than 7 hours before traveling.
For the Oebaha site I’m blessed with having a good friend (Custódio Bobo) whom I’ve worked with in Fisheries Management issues, he has retired and moved back to be with his wife and tend after the gardens and his paddy rice fields, he is an expert in Anax and has an amazing knowledge of habitats and behavior. His son in law, Jeffrey, whom I work with, is fairly interested in odanating and is always keen to join and help me out. He is particularly good as posing dead specimens in the most natural of ways. Borju a young man whom I have recently met, although a trained accountant has not managed to find a job but is very keen to join and learn he is particularly good at netting and has the eyes of a falcon and is as proficient in the use of a net.
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