Snowshoes

So we FINALLY got snowshoes on Tuesday. We went out to one of our non-snowy sites on Monday. We've already been there, but we couldn't get protocol. We finally got protocol there, but the bird never hooted so we couldn't tell for sure if it was male or female.

Tuesday, we headed off with our new snowshoes to one of our sites completely covered with 5 feet of snow! We had to cross a streambed (which was loads of fun) and stomp around the area where the birds should be, but nothing. Actually the only spotted owls we've found all week was the bird we found on Monday.

Wednesday and part of Thursday we got to "play" with our new telemetry gear. Once we have the birds set up with transmitters we'll be triangulating their locations. We did a little triangulating those days. We put a transmitter out on a tree and went around taking bearings off the receivers from various locations. All I have to say is that we need LOTS more practice. I was pretty on for the majority of my bearings, but I always had one WAY off that totally screwed up my location for the "bird". At least we know we need more practice before going out and locating the real thing!!

Otherwise, nothing too exciting from here. I do have limited internet access now, so please email me!!

Saturday April 15th, 2006

I am finally at a wi-fi spot. I just posted a blog entry I made earlier in the week. I moved into our new “home” yesterday. I REALLY miss the other place!!! The new place is quite run down and not cozy at all. BUT, I will have limited and very slow internet access however. I guess it’s a trade off. I’ll try to get pics of the place later.

I have new pics of another owl. We had to shimmy over a fallen log that was “bridging” the ravine to a creek completely covered in bramble (blackberry bushes) to get to this bird, but she posed well for us! :)

This other location we’ve gone to so far has NOT been so nice. We went to this location earlier in the week and got skunked. We trudged around in the snow for a quite a while looking for a pair of birds that should be nesting in the area. We found one nest tree they’ve used before, but couldn’t for the life of us find the other nest tree. We ended our survey after a while and headed back.
Two days later we went back out to that site to try once more to find the birds/nest tree. We found our old snow tracks, hooted a lot and still no sign of the birds or nest tree. We decided to head in the opposite direction of the way we went before to survey for the owls. We got back up on the snow packed road and walked on it for a while. We FINALLY heard a male owl call that came from the area we were already at! We booked it down there looking for the owl. That’s when we just happened to walk by our nest tree that was marked. A little while later we found the male owl and ended up chasing him (or attempting to) around the forest a little to see if he was nesting yet. Need I tell you how hard it is to follow a bird at night in the snow? Needless to say, it didn’t work well. I fell in hip/waist deep SO many times!! We will have to go back out there later to see if he’s nesting. This bird kicked my butt!! I hope we don’t go back ‘til the snow is gone, but there’s so much I’m starting to think it will NEVER be gone.

Tuesday April 11th, 2006

Hey everyone. It’s been absolutely crazy the last couple or so weeks, with packing, moving, a funeral, then a plane to catch the next day. But I finally made it to Sacramento on Sunday April 2nd. I ended up having to wait at the airport for my ride to Georgetown for about 7 hours (it could be more, but I stopped paying attention- I didn’t want to know)!

I met my boss (Sheila) at the airport and we headed to a hotel to meet Vince (the demography crew leader) where we stayed the night. The next day we went out to Blodgett. The area is absolutely gorgeous! We arrived to find out, however, that our barracks is still under snow! (There’s about 4 feet of snow on the ground) We ended up moving into another building for the time being. Our temporary housing is supposed to be a lot better than the barracks, but there isn’t a phone line that works in the building. No internet for me:( Sometime this week we’re supposed to move into the barracks though!

There isn’t any cell phone service on the Blodgett grounds. I do have a little patch reception at the end of the road to Blodgett near the gate. My cell phone reception seems to be really patchy throughout the area, but go ahead and try your luck!! :)

The first half of our week was pretty boring. There was too much snow to go out and it either rained or snowed for most of it, so we couldn’t go out anyway. (Cold/wet eggs= dead eggs). Our first day was spent shoveling paths to our doors and to our woodpiles then moving in. The next day we woke up to see about 7 more inches on the ground. We shoveled again, made an awesome snow Spotted Owl and did a little training and map work.
Wednesday was more “office work” because of weather conditions. We made tethers for the mice and worked some more on some maps. Our other group members went and got more trucks from Enterprise. Yes, we are using rentals for our work vehicles... SCARY!!!

Thursday was the day we were all excited for. We were going out for owls! We split up the crew to go to these two different nest sites that we can actually get to. Our road still wasn’t plowed, so we hoofed it about a mile up the road and then cut into the forest. The nest tree was only about 50 meters off the road but it took us FOREVER to get there! I didn’t even bother to keep track of how many times I fell hip deep into the snow. It was so deep in some areas. Someone goes in, so you try to help them and you end up going in hip deep too!! :) We finally found the female of our owl pair, learned our protocol for mousing, and identifying the bands. By the time we were done, it was dark and we headed back to our road. More falling knee and hip deep in the snow filled fun. It was hilarious! I laughed so many times, I was crying! I did snap a few pics of the cutie spotted owl for everyone to see though!
Friday was a “free day” we handed in our paperwork and left Blodgett on a fun filled road trip. My crewmembers decided to visit Point Reyes on the coast. Gorgeous! We had two vehicles on the trip and we were following Daniel (our real bird nerd of the group). I get such a kick out of watching/following a real bird nerd. They stop and (maybe) pull over without any notice and point and something. Sometimes we knew what he was pointing at and sometimes we didn’t! :)
Today is Tuesday. We didn’t go out at all yesterday, ‘cause it was raining, then sleeting, then snowing all day. We did a bunch more map work (drawing UTM lines on some new COLORED maps) and that was basically it. I don’t know what’s in store for today. It’s raining again (supposed to all week). We might take out the trucks and do some recognizance on the roads and see how far we can get since the rain is melting a lot of the snow.