As drive up to field sites hear a few stories from the previous evening from the field assistants, including dissuading hyenas from stealing chickens in the village (=everyone getting up at midnight and chasing them off) and killing a seven foot cobra in the river camp tents (=finding it in a tent and beating it to death). Spend all morning putting mesh bags on very thorny acacia trees. Not bad at first but once I got hot, bitten by ants and pricked by a thorn for the millionth time I start to lose my patience. Talk with another researcher and he recommends that if I don’t find any this time around it might be best to wait for the rain. In the afternoon we rearrange and organize the office to accommodate incoming collaborators. Chat about some null model analyses with Alison and go for a little run.