Krystof runs his field work on birds at several study sites in Czechia and Austria this year, for a project which was supported financially by the Grant Agency of University of South Bohemia. He focuses his work on elevational differnces in specific species birds – thier microbiome, physiology and other things. On of his study site, which we established in kind collaboration with Konrad Lorenz Institute of the University of Viena is at Kasberg in Austria. This is where we found him this week.

The work starts early in the morning …. in a rather cold conditions

It includes intense watching of all nets and fast “runs” for birds, so they can be sampled, measured, ringed and released.

For the work, we need to turn the car into a “hotel room” (the seasts) as well as into the “lab” in the boot.

Finally, we store the samples in the liquid nitrogen, save them well and we get a time to relax with tea at the top of the mountains.

Along with the work on birds, we run here also a collaborative experiment for our colleague Elena Zvereva, during which we surveyed predation of real bites.