Badger

5/29/07

So I'm sitting in the cabin at Badger mountain, listening to jazz coming from an ipod & speakers smelling the scents of my other coworkers cooking dinner. Today, after Aaron and I went to do point counts, Matt, Justin, and I drove out here to Badger to hang out for the evening before more pt. counts tomorrow. I met Patty, Tamara, Alex, "Berti", and the other Aaron, who goes by "Viddy." There's definately a more laid back atmosphere her at badger. It reminds me of the outing club my freshman and sophomore year. Everyone here plays an instrument and/ or sings, so I'm sure there will be some jam sessions. We've got a few guitars, a banjo, and a mandolin. I'm sleeping out on the lawn in the one person tent that I'm borrowing from Aaron (my boss) for the summer.
Tomorrow I do a point count with Aaron... I can't believe it's been a week aready. The time really flies out here.

~me

Life at Little Sheldon

5/28/2007

Today was a good day. Woke up at 4:50, walked out of the door of the house (Sheldon) at around 5:30, and was doing point counts at 5:50 after a short hike in. I got most of the birds, I just need to not get too overwhelmed by the cacophony, focus in, and remember to keep on scanning.
After the count I came back, ate some lunch, then hung around for a while in the sun. I think I may have sunburned my face. I decided to go on a little solo hike this afternoon to see the sights, and reinforce my bird song learning.
I found a really cool spot about a 20 minutes hike behind the house. There’s this great rock outcrop with a really gnarly (oh boy, I’m picking up slang) juniper tree on top. I decided to call the spot lizard rock because that’s the first thing I saw there. I snuck up on him and got a few good pictures. I also got some even better ones later on at another outcrop in the same area. I also saw a gray flycatcher, and a male and female mountain bluebird. They must have been breeding/ had a nest in the area. I think those are my favorite birds here. They’re this really bright blue, almost like the color of a blue raspberry freezer pop. I couldn’t find their nest, if they had one, but on the hike in I found a brewer’s sparrow nest with a nestling in it and three still unhatched eggs. I also found a Northern flicker nest in another juniper tree. I knew there were hatched chicks in there because I found eggshells on the ground around the tree and saw downy feathers clinging to the bark of the tree. The mother was NOT happy that I was peeking into her nest hole. A few times I thought that she was going to attack my head, flapping around and calling like crazy. I tried to get a picture of the chicks, but the hole was too deep and at a funny angle, so I couldn’t get the camera angle right. I decided I was done stressing the mother out and left.
A little while after I got back to the house Jason spotted a Chestnut Sided Warbler in a tree in our yard, which was crazy since he/ she was about 5 states out of range. It was like I had a little piece of home coming to visit me.
It’s about 8:00 here and I’m getting sleepy. I’m definitely adjusting to this new schedule of early to bed and early to rise. I think I’ll hit the hay in a few.

~me

Catnip Trip #1

5/25/2007

So I’m out camping for 2 days/ nights at Catnip Mountain with Justin and Matt. We start point counts tomorrow. I’ll be tagging along with one of them each day to get some more practice. Then Monday it’s back to Little Sheldon and Bald Mountain for a few more practice runs with Aaron. I should hopefully be comfortable enough to go out on my own on Thursday.
On the drive out here we saw a bobcat which was pretty sweet. He ran parallel to the road for a while we drove behind, then he ducked into a drainage tunnel. We stopped, Matt hopped out, and got some video of him. I couldn’t get any good pictures though… stuck in the backseat of the truck.
Anyways, I’m exhausted. It’s 8:30 & I took an hour nap from 5-6. But tomorrow’s gonna be early… aka, out at the first point by 5:45. Which means getting up at 4:45ish. Yikes. Wish me luck…

~me

5/26/2007

Today was the first day out at Catnip. Went out with Matt this morning and did point counts. Finished up and made it back to our camp at around 9 am. Hung out for a bit, then had to go out and get a few more pictures and site registrations done. Waited for Justin to return, then drove off to our second camp. The drive over was entertaining. Picture an F150 4x4 truck in first gear bumbling along a dirt/ rock/ grass track while the occupants inside listen to “Frank and Friends,” a Frank Sinatra hour on AM radio… quite the juxtaposition.
So the dirt here is pretty much useless and I hope it holds my tent stakes. If not, I’ll be sleeping in the back of the truck.
Anyways, I’m out to dream of wild horses, a hot shower, and a warm meal… until tomorrow…

~me

Day one...

5/24/2007

Today I woke up at 6, made some eggs and then waited for Aaron to get some things together before heading out for the day. Matt, Justin, Aaron and I went out in one of the trucks to scope out the roads, if you can call them that, around Catnip Mountain. Imagine a 4 wheel drive truck in first gear bumbling along all day. All our insides were scrambled after that outing. The only radio stations that we could get were 2 AM stations. The first playing “Songs of your life” oldies, the kind of stuff I frequently hear when I walk into Memere and Pepere’s house. Which isn’t bad, because I enjoy that kind of music. The other station was some crazy conservative talk radio channel. So we listened to Rush Limbaugh a bit and snorted and laughed quite a bit, as well as downright enjoying his references to “wacko environmentalists” and “crazy liberals.”
Saw quite a bit of wildlife besides birds. I’m beginning to keep a list of everything I see, not just birds. The highlights of the day were the infamous wild (or feral, more accurately) horses, and a young, probably 4 day old, pronghorn antelope hiding under a mountain big sagebrush. Aaron spotted it and I lent him my camera. Got a few sweet pictures. The pronghorn are pretty funny. Apparently they’re the only species of antelope in the US. When they startle the take off either galloping, or doing that funny hop/ run that only antelope can do; their white butts bouncing along, warning others.
Tomorrow we continue training. I’ve still got a ton of bird song to learn and field marks to be able to visually identify them. Also, I’ve got to learn the vegetation, which shouldn’t be too hard, as the landscape is pretty homogenous.
I’m off to look at my bird guide… serenaded by the sounds of Matt on guitar.
~me

I arrive!

5/23/2007

The flight from Chicago was interesting. I was stuck in the back of the plane in the center seat between a man who was probably in his thirties that must have consumed an entire bag of lifesavers during the flight (he just kept on popping them into his mouth, finishing them off with a crunch), and an older man who was trying to finish reading Rob Roy but fell asleep every two paragraphs and would wake up when he began snoring violently. So I passed the four hours listening to my iPod, while watching the video from the movie being shown, Bridge to Terebithia, doing a crossword (I hate sudoku.) and attempting to sleep. I arrived in Portland, than ran around like a crazy person, claming my bags, then rechecking them for my small turbo prop flight to Klamath Falls.
I arrived in Klamath falls at about 10:00, local time… 1 am in Boston. So I was tired. But my ride was there, Kent, so we took off. Stopped in some national forest, I don’t remember the name of, and slept on cots under the stars. It was a cold night. We woke up early, then took off for Lakeview so I could get groceries.
I just have to say that the people here are definitely different. Everyone is warm and welcoming, always asking you questions about how you’re doing, if you need help, etc. I found that in the airport in Portland, on the flight (from 2 random people who offered to give me rides/ take me out to lunch when I was in town), Klamath Falls, and then in the grocery store. It was kind of confusing. I guess I know why people think that East coasters are a bit cold now. Everyone is always super friendly, and frankly, it kind of freaks me out at times.
After the Lakeview trip we kept on, stopping in the town of Adel Oregon, which consisted of a gas station, a post office, a few trailers and small homes, and a general store/ restaurant that serves only one entrée per day. All located on about 1 acre of land. The center of town. Insane. We waited around for the postmaster Robyn to arrive. When she did she invited us into her office while we waited for the packages to arrive and proceeded to show us her calendar of naked middle aged men. Mr. May stood under an oak and held a strategically placed box of nuts. The caption read “Nuts for you…”

So here’s my mailing address: PO box 93
Adel OR, 97620

I arrived a few hours later at Little Sheldon, the stone house located behind Bald Mountain in Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. After unpacking a bit I set out to exploring and found an awesome rock outcrop located about 1500 feet from the house. I pulled out my climbing shoes and did some bouldering. I knew I brought them for a reason. I met my other coworkers, Matt, Justin, Monica, and Jason. Then took some time to sit out on the front steps in the sun and watch the Beldings Ground squirrels run around. My boss Aaron arrived later in the evening. Tomorrow the work starts.

~me

En Route

5/22/07
5:18 pm according to my computer clock… really about 4:18 pm here in Chicago. I’m sitting in waiting area of Gate C27. I’ve got about an hour and a half to kill before my longest flight, 4 hours, to Portland OR. It would have been longer but my flight out of Boston was late, so then it was late out of Philadelphia. I’ve lost track of time and I’ve only gone through an hour change.
There’s wireless internet here (yay!), but you have to pay for it (boo.), 6.95 to just use it once. I’m still a cheap college student even though I’ve graduated. And I thought it would be fun to freak Andrew out with a random IM.
I got a phone message from Jan while I was in flight at some point, again, not sure of what time it really was, wishing me a good trip.
I made a friend in Boston and we chatted while waiting to board. Talked about birds and hiking the AT… which if I’m still bumming around home in March I may just consider.
I also made friends with the security people when I was a silly novice traveler and left my laptop in my bag.
"Who left the laptop in their bag???" yelled out the defeated and exasperated sounding X-ray machine watcher.
"Me…" I raised my hand and promptly became the black sheep of the group trying to get through security. Go me, and Dad told me they would want to see it. I guess I just didn’t know when. Right. Won’t make that mistake again.
Anyways, I’m gonna go see if I can rustle me up some grub. It smells like Chicago deep dish in here…
~me

silly wireless card.

So I had tons and tons of entries all typed up for you all on my computer. And then I got here to the library and my wireless card/ card drive. I'm not sure, decided not to work, and I don't have my thumbdrive with me to transfer things. So I guess I'll/ you'll just have to wait another week to read and see what I've been up to. For now, here's a list of the wildlife I've seen so far... (besides birds, there's far too many of those to list.)

Pronghorn antelope (male, female, and baby)
mule deer
fence lizard
beldings ground squirrel
least chipmunk
bobcat
wild (or feral) horses

and maybe I'll see a mountain lion soon. Apparantly they're around.

I'll be in town again next Thursday, so look for updates that evening, or Friday.

~me