Headstarting is a collaborative effort between WWT, BirdsRussia and the RSPB, and occurs as part of the International Arctic Expedition mounted each year by BirdsRussia under the leadership of Dr. Evgeny Syroechkovskiy.

Visa problems take valuable time 15 July 2011

It was another day building of coops, the aviary and looking after chicks. In the afternoon Nige and I have to go to an office at the airport where the military and customs reps await with a translator. We are asked to apologise for our crime…..it turns out that our visas are tourist and we have been observed working on the coops. We are officially questioned and then cautioned. We are let off but have to sign various statements to admit our guilt. We lose four hours of valuable building time, it is a race to get the chicks outside they need to go out.

Nige fell asleep whilst the report was being typed up, even the officials could afford a grin at that, they allowed us a coffee break to wake up and continue with the caution and let us open the door to cool down.

In the taxi on the way back Nige picks up the newspaper, opens it up….and there is a picture of me at the school with an incubator and a story of the SBS project is featured.

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