I like having a pair of binoculars slung around my shoulder (and using them). It makes me feel purposeful, curious and ready. I have always loved the original Dr. Dolittle books by Hugh Lofting (although the racist messaging in them is gratuitous. I wrote an essay analyzing this for 10th grade history class — that’s […]
What I learned from 10 weeks of bird surveys Read More »
Playful soft thunder directly overhead. I’m sitting in a cave at — well, I don’t know the exact elevation because my GPS isn’t working, I’m in a cave. Somewhere far above where you’re supposed to be during a thunder storm. The nearest trees are a dark smudge in the basin below the basin below me.
Weminuche Wilderness Read More »
The other day I came upon a roadside kiosk with brochures made by local people about the history of Colorado’s West End. One about petroglyphs ended up on my dashboard. This morning I left the confluence, followed the road by the puddles that remain of the Dolores, and found my way to a deserted gallery
Petroglyphs on the West End Read More »
A couple days ago I finally moved on from Carbondale. I’m higher now, on the forested Uncompahgre Plateau in southwest Colorado. On Google Earth it’s the huge dark washboard south of Grand Junction and the interstate, west of Montrose and the Rockies, north of the San Juan range, and east of the Utah border. The
Stopping by woods on a summer morning Read More »
6/11 – 6/13 Every survey has an instruction sheet with information like driving directions to the access point, a topographic relief map showing the 16 survey points, and a name for the survey bestowed by a past technician. The instructions also tell if the survey is a “backpacker” — far enough from the nearest road
Nightmares and treasures in the hills Read More »
Pet store on Main Street, Cañon City. Dim in there. Is that how the animals like it? I went in, curious. A scarlet macaw eyed me from a big cage with gray metal bars and newspaper on the floor, unmoving but for the occasional scream. I couldn’t help noticing the cage was narrower than the
Pet store on Main Street Read More »
This evening in rolling pinyon parkland above the little town of Gardner. Quiet and silvery. I was roving at sunset, trying to familiarize myself with the birds. Shy pinyon jays keeping their distance and a lanky common nighthawk whirring overhead. Otherwise no one. The beauty radiating through me, stopped near a hill crest and looked
Gardner, CO (evening June 9th) Read More »
I went on a walk to look for the boot insoles I’ve been missing — just 20 minutes, from the car to the main road and back. The plains are windy and 90% overcast, but the clouds lack the uniformity that can make days like this ominous. Western meadowlarks and horned larks are singing, it feels
They’re letting me do it. Well, Frank is — even after he corrected my final Bird Quiz and scored it 25/40. I mistook Say’s phoebe singing for killdeer. We’ve heard Say’s phoebe a lot during training. Frank was easygoing about it. In our last conversation he showed me a GPS “trail of breadcrumbs” he made
It’s a windy sunny evening at Lake Pueblo, where this summer’s field techs have gathered for training. Several days of rain are on the way. Country music bounces over from the next campsite: “Your love is moooney, your love is moooney! Your love can make a man feel rich on minimum wage!” In my head
I got a summer job as an avian field technician in Colorado! I’ll be doing “point counts” — waking up before 5AM to stand at a series of spots for six minutes each and record every bird I see or hear. The data are used to generate maps of how many birds are in an
May – July 2021: I become a bird surveyor (and other adventures in Colorado) Read More »