It's been a while...

I suppose not much has happened, but I figure I should update. Um, netting birds has still been pretty slow, not many blood samples to show for the past couple of weeks. I think we might have about 6 by now, definitely not enough. We would have one more, if that stupid bird from patch B in 52 hadn't wigged out. I swear, he wouldn't bleed! We poked any vein we could find, but could hardly get a drop before the flow stopped. I think we poked him a bit too much, though, because he started closing his eyes. So we busted out the sugar water. We heard on the radio that Julian had come to the patch for his own project, so we called him over to help. He suggested poking veins on the leg, but still no blood from those either. And the bird was looking worse. So Julian proceeded to practically drown him in sugar water, and we put him back in the pillowcase to chill out for a while. It came time to leave the patch, and zombie bird wasn't much better, so Candace and I took turns with him while the other took down nets. Eventually he seemed pretty revived, but he wouldn't flap his wings. Figuring we'd poked him too much, and following Julian's suggestion, we took him back to station and put him in the cage there. (I made it all nice and comfy for him.) We decided he could get the soreness out of his wings overnight and we could release him in the morning... And then he wasn't there in the morning. Most likely Julian took him home, but we never did ask. Maybe the solution to this mystery will appear in a later blog.

Anyway, most other days weren't so exciting. Nest searches still suck, though we're now doing them in the morning once we set Ipods at nets, which makes them suck less. Usually they don't yield much, just old or questionable nests. A couple times, however, they've actually rewarded us with a mommy bunting, so I guess we'll keep doing them. Also, now that we've learned how soon the babies fledge once they've hatched, we know to keep a better eye on them. (We missed our opportunity to collect feathers at one site.)

We've also had another tragic death, but not a bunting. And it wasn't from any negligence on our part. The warbler just hung itself in the net. Got caught in one layer, stuck its head through another layer or two and twisted itself around. We tried to cut the net before it was too late... I called him P. Deaddy (P for pine warbler). Candice liked Deaddy P better. We stuck him in the cooler because maybe a museum would want him or something. Then we left him in the office for Julian to maybe practice taxidermy on...

And that pretty much sums up bird stuff. In other parts of my life, I had a wee bit too much fun at the 4th of July party. Spent Saturday recovering. Wanted to play ultimate on Sunday but there was a crazy storm. There's probably been another Sunday since I last updated, and it was probably a decent game. Though I think I remember getting annoyed at some people for being obnoxious and making bad decisions. Oh well.

As usual I've been talking to Beck almost every day. I'm getting really excited for my trip to the Netherlands! We've made reservations at hotels and started writing out a rough itinerary. Only a month left! It's gonna be the bestest trip everrrrr!