This post is in some sense dual to the earlier one ‘goodbye to Berlin‘. To start with I can confirm that there is no shortage of Carrion Crows (and no Hooded Crows) in Mainz. When I arrived here and was waiting for my landlord to come and let me into my flat I saw some small and intensely green spots of colour in a row of trees in front of me. I knew the source of these – they were what I could see of Ring-Necked Parakeets. I have known for a long time that these birds live wild in England but it was only relatively recently, in the course of my activity looking for jobs, that I realised they were so common in parts of Germany. While in Heidelberg for an interview I observed a big number of them making a lot of noise in a small wood opposite the main railway station. I also saw some of them when I came to Mainz for the interview which eventually led to my present job. In my old institute in Golm I often used to see Red Kites out of my office window. It occurred to me that these might be replaced by Black Kites in Mainz. During my first weekend here I was walking across the campus of the university when I saw a large and unfamiliar bird of prey approaching me. When it came closer I realised that it was a Black Kite. I enjoyed the encounter. Since that I have also seen one from my office window. The Red Kite is a beautiful bird but for some reason I feel closer to its dark relative. It gives me a feeling of the south since the first place I saw these birds many years ago was in the Camargue.
Eva and I have been using Skype to maintain contact. I feel that this big change in our life has not been without benefits for our communication with each other and when I was home last weekend it was a richer experience than many weekends in the last few years. I appreciate the warm welcome I have had from my colleagues here in Mainz and my first days here, while sometimes a bit hectic, have been rewarding. Breaking the routine of years opens up new possibilities. I assured myself that I will not completely have to do without interesting biological talks here by going to a lecture by Alexander Steinkasserer on CD83. This taught me some more about dendritic cells for which this surface molecule is an important marker.
This is the first week of lectures here and yesterday brought the first concrete example of the new direction in my academic interests influencing my teaching, with the start of my seminar on ‘ordinary differential equations in biology and chemistry’. The first talk was on Lotka-Volterra equations. The subjects to be treated by other students in later lectures include ones a lot further from classical topics.
Hydrobates 