birds don't like rain clouds

After Julian netted one bird on Wednesday, Candice and I moved the nets to another site, seeing as we now had caught a bird in every patch of the current site. Which is good enough for us. We tied the poles to my roof rack, threw the everything else in the back, and set off down the gravel and dirt roads. I can't wait til I get my temporary license to drive the Forest Service trucks.

Setting up nets is a pain in the ass. No matter how neat and tidy you put them back in the bag, they will tie themselves in a knot somehow. Same with the strings on the stakes. Then you have to stand there in the hot sun and figure out what the hell is going on without dropping the net on the ground, because then it gets caught on every plant or stick within reach and it won't let go. On top of that, half the time you can't even get the pole in the ground. Either the dirt is just too damn hard, or it's all dry, loose sand and won't hold the weight up. Every now and then you hit a magic spot and the pole goes super deep. Did that sound dirty? Anyway you just gotta poke around til something gives. Aw yeah, that's how you do it.

We were supposed to put up 4 nets, but we were tired and it was thundering, so we left the 4th for the morning. Good thing, too, because the sky just went crazy. I love thunderstorms, but not when I'm in a trailer that wouldn't stand a chance against a tornado. The scary stuff stopped, but it was raining when I went to bed.

It was overcast and almost cold all the next day, with a bit of rain here and there. Candice and I decided birds don't like that, because they wouldn't come out of the matrix. They're stuck in this computer generated world, believing they're in 1999, when in reality, it's 2199 and machines control the world. Right. The matrix is just what we call the forest (mostly loblolly pine) between the patches, which are savanna-like. And the birds seemed content to hang out there and not venture out in the the patches much. Lazy birds.

They were still lazy Friday morning, as it was still overcast and cool. At about 10 or so, we decided to move some nets to other patches, and meanwhile a female finally flew into mine. She was not a happy camper. She struggled and made a lot more noise than any others so far. She also bit pretty hard, but luckily not enough to break the skin. We processed her and let her go, then called it a day because we thought Candice had safety training at 1. But she didn't so we went home. Did the usual routine with Skyping and all.

I think I'm going climbing in North Carolina tomorrow, so that'll be something a bit more exciting to write about. I realize the bird thing is getting a bit old, since it's essentially the same news most days. Maybe I'll include more personal thoughts and musings from now on, or anecdotes of past happenings. Whatever. I like to think of myself as entertaining (don't know if anyone agrees, though), so I'll attempt to make this blog reflect that. And add some pictures.

I worked 13 hours on Memorial Day

That should be, like, a federal crime or something. I figured, "Well it's not like I have anything else interesting to do on Monday, I'll just go in and work a half day to get a little head start, right?" Wrong. And what do I have to show for those 13 hours? One bird.

Julian and I went out to net, but we got a late start because nothing was really ready to go and we kept forgetting stuff. Probably because it was so damn early and we hadn't woken up yet. Anywho, we decided to start netting in the patches so we can pull 2 tail feathers out of the birds we catch, measure, and band them. Then when we catch them again, this time to collect blood, we'll have 2 new feathers to analyze and we'll know which ones they are. We caught a male pretty fast and processed it, but it became light too quickly, so the birds could see the net and avoid it. Frustrating. You find yourself whispering, "Yea, that's right bird, just fly into the net. You're so close. Come on, come on... son of a bitch!" This happened for a while.

Finally we decided to move some nets, maybe try again in the afternoon when there's more shade, and take a lunch break so Julian could run into town and pick up some stuff. I pretty much fell asleep in the office waiting for him. Back in the field we positioned some nets for the morning. Then we moved a few into some shade to make them hard to see and tried afternoon netting. Very unsuccessfully. Maybe we could net around 8 PM, but I'm not willing to stay that long. So we moved those nets for the morning.

I got home at 7:30 PM after leaving my house at 5:30 AM. I could barely shower, eat, and talk to my parents before falling asleep.

Tuesday involved learning more lessons about net position, but we caught 3 times more than Monday (3 birds, for those mathematically challenged). Even better, we've decided that now we know better what to do (position nets strategically, hang the birds up in pillowcases til we've caught them all, then process them), we can probably cover a whole site in 2 days. I hope our calculations are correct. (3 times 1 is 3, right?)

And even more betterer is that I got to go home around 2! Yay! So I did a bit of shopping, then began my (hopefully) usual afternoon routine: shower, Skype, check crap online, make/eat dinner, etc, til bedtime around 9 PM. Yes, 9 PM, just like I'm in elementary school again. Beck did always tell me I'm 5 years old...

I got a roomie

Friday was another early morning, 6 AM. Candice, Julian, and I drove out to a clear cut area (buntings like open, brushy habitats) and unfurled the nets we set up the previous afternoon. We caught a male and Julian showed us some more techniques, weighing and measuring and such. He poked the brachial vein and demonstrated how to hold and wiggle the capillary tube so it sucks up the blood. We sprinkled a bit of quick stop powder to make sure he clotted, then let him go. By then, Julian had to go on watering duty, so we drove back to station and Candice and I hopped in my car to drive back out and catch some more birds. We set up the Ipod at the other of the 2 nets and caught a male. We were having serious issues getting his wings untangled, so we had to snip the net a bit. I tried my hand at bleeding, and got a full capillary tube on the first try! Yay me! However, he wouldn't stop bleeding afterward, so we used the quick stop powder, which did the trick.

We headed back over to the first net with the Ipod, but decided the bunting that wouldn't quite fly into the net was the one we caught before and he got smart. So we played the prairie warbler song instead, since those might also be of interest, and we got one. He was a somewhat smaller and a little easier to remove, but quite feisty. Candice's turn to bleed, but when I was getting the needle out for her I bled myself instead. Oops. Fortunately it was before we stuck the bird, so I won't get bird AIDS or something. With a new needle, Candice wasn't terribly successful at the bleeding, probably for several reasons. The warbler was smaller, she didn't poke deep enough, and she held the capillary tube so the blood flowed right back out onto the bird. She'll learn, I hope.

Meanwhile, we were constantly hearing guns go off, since we were right next to an area where they test weapons. I sure hope they don't miscalculate their ranges. We returned to station, Candice drove home to GA to figure out car stuff, I hung around in the office a bit, went to the grocery store, then went home. Talked to Beck, and then who knows what I did until Matt arrived around 11. I was super tired so I went to bed instead of helping or socializing.

Woke up, made pancakes, and read or something til Matt woke up, then we had a more formal introduction. We talked awhile and I think we'll get along just fine this summer. A lot of the same interests, hobbies, etc. His personality is a bit more adventurous than mine, and sometimes the things he plans to do seem totally random to me. I almost feel boring. I probably am.

Anyway, he went on a run and I Skyped, then we went out shopping. We stopped at Goodwill, then searched for what we thought was going to be an organic grocery store, which part of it was, but it also had a bunch of random crap and a book section. Figures, with a name like "The Curiosity Shop." Highlight of the day: finding a can labeled "Spotted Dick." Not joking. It appeared to be some kind of sponge pudding?... right. We stopped at Kroeger, then went home.

I Skyped with Beck some more after he had watched Anchorman for the first time. And once again, I have no recollection of what I did besides dinner until I went to bed.

Sunday was kinda crappy. Matt went to check out the climbing gym in Columbia, but I didn't because I needed to work on a presentation of my project to show the other people on the Corridor Project. Think I got anything done? Not a thing. I did email I few people I needed to and checked out airfare to the Netherlands. Then I proceeded to Skype with Beck for roughly 4 hours. Half of that was us paying more attention to something online and making an occasional comment. We need to get better at this.

It was nearing ultimate frisbee time at 6, so I said goodbye and got ready. To find no one there. I somehow missed the memo that nobody was playing this weekend? Because I forgot to write about it like I said I would, last Sunday was fun. Only 3 on 3, but I layed out twice and felt pretty good about it all. This Sunday was totally lame. So I ran for about 15 minutes when I got home, just to get some negative energy out. Showered, blogged, ate gumbo (Matt likes to cook), and maybe I'll work on this presentation before I go to bed. Ha. I still got tomorrow...

I can catch birds!

As I will likely being doing often, I woke up before the sun, around 4:50 AM. I met Julian and Dr. Levey at 6 and we set out with our mist netting equipment. We was gonna get us a bird. We put the net up in a clear cut area, set up the Ipod, and before we got 10 feet away, we already had a male indigo bunting. Dr. Levey showed me how to safely remove a bird from the net, without damaging either entity. We plucked a tail feather so another one would grow, and the new one can be analyzed because it will reflect what the bird ate while it's here, not while it was migrating. Then Julian showed me how to collect blood, by poking a needle in the brachial vein beneath the wing. When we have capillary tubes, they'll just suck that blood right up as it comes out.

We let the little guy go, but we had left the Ipod on, so when we checked the net again we had snared his mate. She's not the beautiful deep turquoise blue like him, just tan, with a wee bit of blue on her wings. And I took her out of the net. I did! Me! My first bird! It was a special moment. We went through the motions again, Julian practicing bleeding on one wing, and me on the other. We also checked for a brood patch, when all the feathers fall off her breast so she can incubate eggs better. And she had one, which means she's nesting. So we let her go.

But disaster struck! She didn't fly away like her mate, she kinda hopped away, then just stood and wobbled. I was so scared I injured her and felt really bad, but we caught and checked her and everything looked good. Dr. Levey hypothesized that since it was early, her blood sugar might be low, and we'd just stressed her out. Normally, we should carry glucose solution for times like this, which are rare, but we didn't have any. BUT, I remembered I had a fruit cup in my lunch, which I left in the truck. I ran to get it, and Dr. Levey began to put drops of the juice on her beak so she could drink it. This went on for a while, and when her eyes opened a bit more (she shut them halfway, a sign of stress), we put her down. She continued to wobble a bit, but then she hopped on a branch and flapped, and a few minutes later she was flying. Hooray!
I saved a bird! Me! I sacrificed part of my lunch for her! I'm a hero!

After that ordeal, we just watched birds for a while while our binoculars, learning to identify them. Dr. Levey pointed out a Yellow-breasted Chat, which has a bright yellow breast (duh) and a wide range of songs. It's interesting because no one knows how to classify it. It's a warbler, but it's hardly like a warbler at all, way too big. Anyway, we decided to catch it, which was successful. No bleeding and stuff, but fun anyway.

After that, we looked for cuckoos and headed back to station. We hung out, then went to meet someone in the field, to talk, eat, and check for birds. Returned to station, Dr. Levey left, and Julian took Candice and I out to set up nets for the next morning. We can keep them twisted up over night, then spread them out in the morning without having to set up the poles again. Candice hadn't handled birds yet, so we caught a male bunting in one of the nets. We had a little trouble with an unsteady pole falling down, but I dealt with that while Julian taught her stuff. She called the bird "Bundt Cake." Cute.

It was later than I'd hoped, so I left pretty fast when we got to station. Skyped as usual, kept Beck up too long. Showered, made pasta, wrote blog, got tired, went bed, wake when no sun, Matt come tomorrow, need clean, birds. Ug.

First days on the job

After a weekend of getting settled in, I was ready to start work on Monday. However, as two of the people who are very important to my project were not yet here, I couldn’t start collecting data. So far Julian and others have been showing me the ropes, but I need Candice, the other REU student I’ll be working with, and I need Dr. Levey to tell us what exactly we’re doing.

So, I got recruited to water plants. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Wrong.

I soon discovered that this task entailed lugging around a 2-gallon watering can in each hand, walking through thorns and other nasty brush, trying to locate the 16 plant plots in each patch, trying to find the plants within the plot (some are dead, some are weedy, etc), and deciding how much water to give to said plants. I set out around 9 AM with Melissa and Caleb and we proceeded to get lost on our way to the first patch. With an 8^th of a tank of gas. Lars said we’d be fine with that much. Ha.

Anyway, I was given a basic run down of which plants to water, how many plots were in each transect, and how much water I should use per transect. I had no clue at this point, however, that the plots were oriented in a manner that would have made them much easier for me to find. I’m pretty sure I missed one in the first patch. Oops. Once I figured this out, developed a pattern, and stopped overwatering, we actually began to make good time. But it still took hours and hours (with a leisurely lunch break) in the hot sun, since each of the 4 sites we watered has 5 patches with 16 plots each. Now kids, if we do the math, that gives us 320 plots, and technically each one of us would have watered 106.667. Caleb, however, is a beast who runs with watering cans, so he probably did twice as many as Melissa and I.

We finished our day around 4:30, I went home, took a shower, Beck called, I made tacos, then I was going to go to MacDonald’s to use their wifi (seriously, some Mickey D’s chains have it now), but I ended up reading a book and finding I was sooo freaking exhausted (dehydrated) that I went to bed at 9 PM.

That was a good time to go to bed, though, because I woke up at 5:15 Tuesday morning to go look for buntings with Julian. We set up the mist net in a clear-cut area and caught... nothing. But I know how to set up nets now.

I had safety training at 9 AM, which, given the amount of info it encompassed, probably should have taken an hour. It took three. The guy, Ed, who’s in charge of lots of stuff, seems to get distracted really easily: “So, when you’re out in the field, watch out for venomous snakes. What does your T-shirt say about swimming?” He apparently noticed the word “swimming” on my T-shirt and we spent 5 minutes discussing the 100 butterfly before moving to the next safety topic. This happened numerous times.

After training I ate lunch and waiting for CPR certification at 1 PM. I’d say there were about 30 people in the room, waiting for the instructor to show up. He doesn’t. So Ed calls and we find out the class is cancelled. After all these people took off work for it.

So I get recruited to collect seed traps from an old project and put them in the “bone yard.” Just as we start unloading the trailer, it starts storming. So we finish up fast and get back to the office. Then it starts hailing. At this point I’m talking to Beck and describing dime sized hail. It keeps getting bigger until it’s golf ball sized. And I’m not exaggerating. Luckily my Trailblazer is pretty sturdy, so it didn’t sustain any damage as far as I can tell, but I know some other vehicles did.

Anywho, by now, Doug and Candice were in town, so we decided to all meet up at Moe’s and discuss things, and also just have a bit of fun. I really like the people I’ve met so far in the crew, so hopefully we can hang out pretty often.

We (the bunting people) decide to meet early Wednesday morning and scout for birds in some patches. Candice, Julian, and Doug go to get Candice a badge at 6:30, so I come a little later and hang out in the office, thinking they'll be there by 7:30. More like 8:15. They couldn't find the right people to approve it or something.

We head to one of the sites and begin to search, using our bird song Ipod, which plays classics like "Rockin Robin" and "Free Bird." Har har har. Actually, it's an Ipod you can buy loaded with bird calls, which is pretty sweet, I think. I'm a nerd. Anyway, we play the indigo bunting song on the Ipod to get a response from other buntings. The males are the only ones who sing back, though females might chirp a bit. At this point, though, most females haven't even arrived yet because they come later than the males. So the males respond to and look for the call from the Ipod, trying to defend the territory it's claiming. Essentially, we're pissing them off.

Anyway, the first site is successful, and we get to the second one a bit too late in the day (11-ish) to see/hear much. So I head home at 12:30 so I can meet the guy that's coming to install my internet. I read a book til he comes at 4. Oh well, at least I have interwebs now. Soon after, Beck calls, so I can finally Skype with him. There were some strange issues at times, we couldn't figure out who's computer was causing them, but cameras kept freezing and we sounded like robots sometimes. Hopefully that'll work itself out...

After 2 hours of Skype, I got a call that everyone was going to a Thai restaurant, so I joined them. I had a tofu curry dish and it was delicious. We'll have to go there again. I came home, typed this, and now it's time for bed. Except I need a shower still. But I didn't really sweat today, and I'll just get gross tomorrow... I'm thinking just straight to bed, since I'll be up before 5 AM tomorrow. Such is the life of a bird researcher.

Getting settled

So this blog includes a bit of the past 3 days. I suppose most blogs will include multiple days, because I’m not enough of a loser to update every day. ...Or am I? We shall see.

Anyway, Friday morning I drove to the trailer park to sign the lease and move in. And the landlady wasn’t there. So I wandered around Target and Walmart, looking for a frying pan. I got a baking sheet. And who do I see there? The landlady. Now she’s a nice old southern lady, but I really wish I could figure out her hours. She kinda works on her own time I guess. And she’s obsessed with yardwork. Anyway, as she was shopping, she told me she wouldn’t be home for a few hours.

Next I called Julian and told him I couldn’t move in til the afternoon, and he said he could show me around the sites at SRS. So I drove down there, showed them my shiny new badge, met Julian at the office, got a radio number (13Mike), and we set off. I soon learned the protocol for radioing in every time I changed grid locations. This place is anal like that. We got to the first of 8 patch sites, walked around to each patch, (A,B,C,D, and E, arranged in a set way) and listened for buntings. We did this for the next 4 sites, and I hopefully marked the right dirt road to each one on the SRS map. By then it was about 3 PM, and to give me enough time to move in, we just drove to the other sites, but didn’t get out to look.

So I drove back to the trailer park, found the landlady, gave her all my money, got the keys, and moved all my stuff inside. Meanwhile, Beck (my boyfriend if I haven’t mentioned him yet) called to let me know he made it to the Netherlands. He’s doing genetic/microbiologic research there for 8 months. It’s really hard being away from him, since I got used to practically living with him for the past 8 months. But thanks to the interwebs, I can Skype with him. Yay!

After Beck called, hunger was stronger than the need for organization, so I went to Atlanta Bread Co., as I had no groceries yet. I got a sandwich and signed up to get internet installed in my trailer. It’ll be nice to not have to go to a restaurant for internet, I think the people there might start recognizing me soon. Anywho, next I went grocery shopping and spent over $100. And I got a frying pan.

Then I just had a bad night because I had a headache and felt really lonely and starting crying. I would’ve given anything to be with Beck right then, but I just had to go to sleep instead.

I woke up the next morning still feeling ucky, went back to sleep, woke up again, ate breakfast, and finished unpacking. Then I read some papers for my project, trying to get a better idea of what I’m expected to do but what no one will tell me exactly.

And then Beck called! And I cried a little more, but happy tears this time. I drove to Atlanta Bread Co. (which I will now call ABC) to Skype with him so we could use our webcams. I got a drink and picked a table at the back of the restaurant so I wouldn’t bother anyone. But apparently everyone wanted to be bothered. Out of all the tables in the place, the next 3 groups of people in the restaurant chose to sit at the 3 tables surrounding me. I know at least one was clearly aware that I was talking to Beck, because I saw him in my webcam window, looking over my shoulder. He was creepy. So I moved away from the eavesdroppers, where I could talk more freely. I kept Beck up til about 11 PM on his time, 6 hours ahead of mine. So I let him go to bed, and I left feeling a lot better. I cooked some couscous and veggies, got a call from the parentals, did some random crap and went to bed.

I woke up and felt adventurous! Not really, I just thought (and my parents told me) I should explore Aiken, figure out where stuff is. First stop: Aiken County library. It doesn't open til 2 on Sundays. Next stop: downtown shops. All except a few were closed on Sundays. Next stop: Aiken Mall. Closed on Sundays when I got there (noonish), maybe open later? So, finding my expedition mostly fruitless, I began to drive home. And then Beck called! So I turned around and drove back to ABC to freeload on their interwebs, because I don't get mine installed til Wednesday. Skyping was nice as usual.

Anyway, as I am just an internet parasite, that means I can't say anything about ultimate frisbee tonight until the next time I post. So I'll leave you guessing until then...

I live in a trailer!

So I just drove down to South Carolina yesterday, knowing hardly anything and not even having a place to live yet. Great start to the summer! Luckily Julian, a grad student from UF, offered to put me up for a couple nights til I found a place. And I found that place today! Hooray!

But first, I had to go to General Employee Training for SRS. That entailed sitting in a room for 2 hours and being told at least 6 times that cell phones are not allowed in restricted areas. I will never be in restricted areas. I did, however, learn that I am a "remote worker" and I get a walkie-talkie. After GET, I waited for another 2 hours for the people at the badge office to come back from lunch break. Apparently they need 2 hours to eat lunch. Anyways, now I have a super cool official badge!

In the meantime, I called about half the classified ads in the Aiken Standard (local paper), slowly advancing toward desperation and despair. And then I called a trailer park. And it was a miracle! I went to check it out, and it's nicely furnished, well kept, quiet, and a great deal. I asked the landlady to hold it for me, and I'll sign the lease and move in tomorrow. It's further away than I'd hoped, but it's probably the best deal I could find. And my roommate, Matt, will move in next week and everything will be happy. Yay!

Now I'm gonna leave Atlanta Bread Co. and get an early bedtime so I can move in tomorrow morning and drive around SRS to see the corridor sites.