The Nevada Bird Count is Winding Down, Part 1

It’s hard to believe that it’s the middle of July already.  Most of my crew has finished up their season this afternoon, and flown off.   I have a stack of data several feet high staring at me in the eye, blowing a raspberry.  I’m giving it the side-eye today, hoping that it will magically enter and proof itself.  Tomorrow I will accept reality, and begin that less-than-exciting phase between the joys of collecting the data and the interesting analyses to figure out what all that data means.  But this evening, magic sounds like a stellar plan.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird; copyright & courtesy of Bill Schmoker

It really was a wonderful field season, and I continue to be so incredibly lucky in my field crew!  They were troopers, every one.  This year was rather tougher than usual, with some impressive topography, some (even more?) impressive (ly bad) roads, and the occasional backpacking stint, and they dealt with it all with great attitudes, strong legs, and a can-do spirit.  I asked them last night to write up a couple of notes on their field season and what stuck out to them, now that it was over.  Personally, I had a lot of wonderful moments, particularly watching territories on Warm Springs Natural Area, progressing from courtship to nest-building to incubation to keeping those darn nestlings fed!, to riding herd on a group of fledglings spreading their wings.  I think the most memorable happening though was as I was hiking up a canyon, and a gorgeous Broad-tailed Hummingbird male came by to check me out.  I paused, and he came closer. And came closer.  Closer.  Pretty soon, all I can focus on is that bright gorget.  And then came closer … whereupon he stuck his beak up my nose!  I know my face gets red when I hike, but that’s a little ridiculous! 

Sam's Zone-tailed Hawk

Sam: “Some of my favorite moments of the season were, maybe surprisingly, in the Virgin Mountains.  The Gold Butte transect where we saw the Zone-tailed Hawk pair had particularly terrible topography, but it just stands to show how you have to get out into the middle of nowhere, climb over some boulders, and get away from the highway to see the cool stuff.  Some of the most scenic parts of Nevada are only accessible by foot, and it was pretty great to get to see them…. Also, I got really good at changing flat tires this season!  The transect near Lake Mojave was great – a cool swim after a hot Mojave Scrub transect is pretty luxurious.”

Kelly:  “After a transect that required hiking 23 kilometers, we realized the road leading to the following day’s transect didn’t exist.  Feeling defeated when having to admit a 4 kilo backpacking trip wasn’t doable, it was nice being told “Relax, put your feet up, and eat some ice cream." ... There were so many days when a road didn’t exist, a hike was extremely difficult, it took 4 hours to get between transects, or you’ve had two flat tires, and you just have to laugh at the absurdity of the day. Then you get to your camping spot, it is absolutely gorgeous, and you realize you are probably one of the only people that will ever get to see that spot. When you also remember you have two Capriotti’s subs in your bag, it really feels like the happiest moment in the world.”

Sue: “My favorite memory is hard to pin down, but off the top of my head MR-Smith was a wonderland of birds, veg, and just pure enjoyment in nature … and getting paid for it!  I could say the same for a lot of other transects where I wanted the point counts to be 30 minutes long!  But one hilarious but should-have-been-terrible experience was camping next to railroad tracks, to wake up and walk to do DS-BradyCtrl.  Only ~40m max from the tracks, I could hear a train coming way off … Amtrak … An hour later – cargo train, ~98 cars.  Then, about 11 pm, I’m sort of asleep, a train is coming, the train light illuminated my tent, and the ground begins to shake, I mean really shake, “My Cousin Vinny” shaking!  It goes by, I go back to sleep.  Same thing 12 midnight, 1:30 am, 2:30 am, and about three more.  By the third passing, I just laid there and laughed out loud a hysterical, funny though, happy laugh, at the ridiculous of the situation – and actually it is a fond memory!”

To be continued …

-- Jen