Gotchereyeson?

Whether you're hunting mushrooms, glassing for elk on a hillside or trying to look through water to see the fish, it's all about pattern recognition and what we call, "getting your eyes on." After that first or second sighting of something you're having to pick out of a challenging background, your brain seems to relax and you start seeing the shape you're looking for much more easily.

Same thing happens when we're looking for waterbirds to count. At our refuge we count waterfowl, shore & marsh birds, and raptors twice a month. Sometimes it's about trying to tell cranes from geese in the first light of dawn, or picking out different duck species in a flock of hundreds; sometimes it's just seeing them where they are. Last week provided some of the most interesting -- and rewarding -- exercises in pattern recognition we've had in a while.

Because I was recording sightings for four avid birders my POV was from the middle of the back seat. While everyone else was glassing the sky and nearby telephone poles and trees, my view was kind of like this.

Hey look! That's a...

Killdeer on a clutch of four eggs.

Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) are fairly common down here but I had never seen a nest before. Had the bird not been on them, I'm not sure we would have noticed the eggs.

Later on we saw this:

Oh look! What's that?!?! Oh yeah...

Green Heron on a nest.

The nest was typical for the Butorides virescens, a basket of small sticks on a branch over the water. Next week we'll be checking for little gray downy chicks; if there's an average clutch of 2-6 green eggs in that nest we are hoping for least a few hatchlings.

Alas, we don't have any nest cams on the refuge (yet) and after a brief look around the web the Green Heron doesn't seem to rate one. If you're interested, you can see young GBHEs at the  Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Great Blue Heron Cam, along with all sorts of other nest cams.

During that same bird survey we also saw a Black-necked Stilt on a nest. We have already seen Snowy Plover chicks and owlets so for the next survey we'll be on the lookout for all manner of fluffy balls o' bird on the ground and in nests. If they're mobile, the chicks should be a little easier to pick out, although as I recall, those SNPL chicks looked like dirty cottonballs drifting across the salt-encrusted grass and beige sands of the lake edge where they nest. Better be gettin' my eyes on...

Since last we met...

Thousands of cranes, waterfowl, marsh birds, and raptors counted.

Great Horned Owlet looks like a fluffy cat on the limb.

Hundreds of ducks banded. Ducks hunted, with a few in the gumbo pot to share with friends.

B'Dawg fetches a male Northern Pintail.

Dove hunted...

 then prepped as appetizers for future visitors.

Dove breasts stuffed with cheese and jalapenos, wrapped in bacon

 

Packed for the freezer.

 Deer and turkey scouted and hunted. Alas, no tidy vacuum-sealed packages for the freezer.

 On private land; how did they know the season started?

Traveled to Seattle, WA and Washington, DC for work; to NorCal wine country to celebrate birthdays... 

A cure for palate fatigue: fresh oysters, cold beer, Goat Rock Beach.

and to southwestern Florida for fun while MDMNM was in class all day.*

These birds were regulars on the beach outside our hotel. We see the Snowy Egrets at our refuge fairly often; 
in a rare sighting a few weeks ago we saw a lone Little Blue Heron there, too.

Good friends were hosted. Spring sprung.

And we lost the eldest in our clowder...

You might remember him from this post.

so here we are. Next time we're together, let's go for a walk in the garden.

*Yes, Intrepid Reader, we did manage to get in a half-day of fishing without missing a single CLE credit.

Livin' the Wildlife

While we live here my employment opportunities are limited. Although I have data to crunch and publish, a big garden to take care of, boxes to unpack, and lots of other house-y things to do, lately I find myself 'goin' tharn' when I raise my eyes above the computer monitor or view finder. I've failed to conjure my inner Martha Stewart for more than an afternoon at a time and even my inner Alice Waters is unusually quiet.

Then it came to me:  I'm most happy when actively engaged with caring people doing something that is intellectually challenging, fun, and makes a difference in the world. For almost 20 years, working as research scientist in an academic environment fulfilled most of that for me. Now I'm an over-educated female interloper in a tight-knit, conservative, agriculture and oil & gas dominated small city...so what's a girl to do? 

Yep, volunteer to help someone else. In this case, it's something else; here's what's keeping me connected, challenged, and busy these days:

The new 'work' site;

part of the office, July 2011

Some of the residents at my new gig;

Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets

Checkered Whiptail Lizard

 Why did the Scaled Quail cross the road?

Western Meadowlark

Maybe s/he didn't like the view on the other side.

You might have guessed already;

the new 'boss'

There's an entire system of these across the US; I feel lucky to have been accepted to be a volunteer at one nearby. Already I've helped net and band birds, recorded for the bi-weekly bird count, and met some incredibly thoughtful, bright and enthusiastic folks. Talk about a learning curve... until a few days ago I didn't know a stilt from a plover or a Western Kingbird from a Brown-headed Cowbird. Five more days to the next banding; six before the next count: I better hit the books (Peterson's Western Birds for now; maybe there's a Sibley in my future).

That's right: caring people, an intellectual challenge, fun, and it does make a difference. I am happier, now if only those boxes would unpack themselves...

(No, I didn't get that academic administrative position that had me in a transdisciplinary cloud. Thanks for asking, though.)