First Stake

This image is the starting point of this one. The first of 20 stakes set along the baseline of the Village Management Area (VMA) at Shinlonga (see Holding the Rope and Shortwing Camp). Each stake 100 m apart, carefully laid out, and cleared, with slope corrections and paint and flagging. Monumental effort. [NOTE: Judging from the background in the photo, it looks like we had to cut through a rattan thicket to set this stake].

Movies From Myanmar IV

Always try to start the new year off with a post that features a smile (see 1.1.11 and Sharing a Ride). This little Kachin boy in Shinlnga (see Shinlonga) is blissfully happy with his stick and wheel. And especially so given the visiting scientist with the camera that wanted to film him playing. Happy 2012 to everyone.

Holding the Rope

Naw Sein (see Naw Sein) casually holds the rope at the plot stake - and has a smoke - during the inventory of the Village Management Area outside of Shinlonga (see The Last Stake) in northern Kachin State, Myanmar. [NOTE: All of the palms in the background are spiny rattans, which suggests that this was probably a pretty horrible plot].

Naw Aung

Naw Aung (see Naw Aung and His Sagawa and Tool Repair) is a villager from Shinlonga (see Shinlonga) who has helped out during all phases of the community forestry work (see Hukaung Logs) in the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve. He's amazing in the field. Here he is taking a smoke break during the inventory of the Village Management Area (see Last Stake). [NOTE: All fieldwork in northern Kachin State has been temporarily suspended due to fighting between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army. More details here].

The Guys

Field crew from the 2009 work in Kachin State, Myanmar (see Shinlonga and Crossing the Taron). Diverse mix of wonderful people.  That's U Saw Htun, WCS coordinator of the Northern Forest Complex, on the far left in the back, and Rob Tizard, wildlife biologist, community development worker, accomplished photographer and amazing ornithologist, standing on the far right (with the leech socks and binoculars). In between, there's U Sein Aung Mein, my liason/counterpart from the Myanmar Forest Department, our two Kachin assistants, NawAung and Naw Sein (see Kachin Guides), the local police and army escorts, and the fantastic WCS Hukaung Wildlife Sanctuary folks. [NOTE: Can't believe I never posted this photo. What a great bunch of people.]

The Back Row

A few women from the Kachin village of Shinlonga (see Shinlonga and Stick and Wheel) would always attend the community meetings where we explained what we were doing (see The Last Stake and Naw Aung and His Sagawa). And they always sat together in the back row. And never said anything. But were extremely photogenic. [NOTE: Image from the December 2009 trip to the Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary].  

Kachin Kids

One of the joys of doing fieldwork with rural communities in the tropics is that you are inevitably joined by a gaggle of kids that want to get a look at the strange, new guy in town (see Miao Kids, Dayak Kids, and Dayak Kids II). Image above shows Kachin children in the village of Shinlonga (see Shinlonga and Morning Mist) watching me eat breakfast. It was still early, and several of them came in their pajamas. [NOTE: The kid in the middle with the Game Boy seems decidedly disinterested in the whole thing.] 

Loading the Tolagyi

Good job for a slow Sunday morning in the village of Shinlonga (see Shinlonga and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer).  Finally load the broken tolagyi (see Tolagyi Tour of Tanai) into the dump truck and take it to the shop in Tanai to be fixed (maybe). Took 16 people about an hour of pushing and lifting and head scratching and opining - but they got it into the back of the truck.  No word, yet, if it has been fixed. [NOTE: The "HTR" painted on the bed of the tolagyi stands for Hukaung Tiger Reserve]. 

Shortwing Camp

Rather than walking back to Shinlonga every night, we decided to make a basecamp (see Room With a View) on the bank of the Mawning River near the village management area (see The Last Stake).  We called it "Shortwing Camp" in honor of the Rusty-bellied Shortwing (Brachypteryx hyperythra), a somewhat rare little bird that Rob Tizzard had been hearing constantly for several days but had been unable to photograph. [NOTE: Rob finally got a picture of it].

Room with a View

As 2009 draws to a close, I reflect on the view that I was provided every morning as I crawled out of my tent to start another day of forest inventories in the Shinlonga management area (see The Last Stake). Doesn't get much better than this. [NOTE: We set up our base camp on the bank of Mawning River.  The field crews and I hiked in 2 hours from the village, while the tents, food, and bags were brought up by boat].