North with the birds

I'm back in civilization again after a nine grid spree. After having fixed my tires and gotten things straightened out in St. George, I hit the road. Started out with a challenge, the first one I needed to backpack into. Although there were roads to get close, after awhile they deteriorated into tracks only a hard-core ATV or something could handle. Anyway I packed up everything I needed and hiked into the site the evening before. Not all that far, but two miles uphill wasn't exactly what I wanted to do at 3am in the dark. Set up with my bivouac bag and sleeping bag, and with the weather cooperating everything turned out fine.
     After that I started heading north, working in some hilly country outside of Kanarraville and Cedar City. The one in Cedar City had some crazy steep canyons, but on the plus side I could hang out in the library with all the other weird vagabonds. After that I headed out to Parowan Gap, remnants of an old waterway that became a library of petroglyphs. Lots of beautiful views and rolling sagebrush.

Petroglyphs at Parowan Gap

View of the Parowan Gap from one of my points

     I've been getting better at navigating hillsides, but it helps that I also ran into some good luck in grids. Parowan Gap, Lund Desert, and Desert Rat Grasslands all have been pretty flat and open, plenty of sweet sage.

Sunrise over the sage at Desert Rat Grasslands

My farthest ranging trip was out toward the Nevada border, not so far from Great Basin National Park. The drive to the Needles took me past old mining town, mountain ranges, and open country. Once in the Needles, I got back into pinyon-juniper slopes.

Pinyon-juniper slopes way out in the Needles

A species of buckwheat out by the Needles

     After a couple more near Beaver, which I got to name after fictional planets from an obscure science-fiction TV series (Ral Parthea and Tarn Vedra anyone?), now I'm relaxing in St. George. I've got four days off and plan to explore Zion, so more pictures should be forthcoming!

Weirdly, how I feel after changing a flat tire

The field technician's credo...

The Dark Side of the Shrub

As the title suggests, the first few surveys have been kind of rough. I swear I haven't been walking under ladders or whatever, but I've got a feeling I'm followed by a hundred little missteps.
     My first grid of the season is such a curse exemplified. I unwisely chose to attack the most remote of my sites first. I've driven my shared of forest service roads, but these tracks were perhaps the steepest, rockiest, and downright scariest bits I've ever driven. Couple that with sketchy maps and directions, and by the time I got to the site my nerves were fried. Normally I also ease into isolation, but this time it jumped me, so built up a little more anxiety. The next morning was a mixture of shrubby bits and steep hillsides, which led to a less-than-spectacular start. I did the survey well enough, didn't have any mystery birds or problems with the protocols. Driving to the next site I got another dose, ripped up a tire. Changed it in record time though.

From the cliffside of a shrubby grid, pretty if exhausting

     Since then it really hasn't been so bad. Still, definitely dominated by thick, stabby shrubs and steep hillsides. Stabby in that it easily through jeans and longjohns, leaving behind lots of little angry red scratches and pinpoints. My third grid was a decent walk-in before sunrise battling shrubs, and the rest of the grid was dogged by sulky weather and a few 45-degree scrabbles. As a brand new grid, I have the honor of naming it, but still debating their titles. "Dark Side of the Shrub," comes to mind, among "Shrub Wars: No Hope", "Return of the Shrub", "Attack of the Shrubs", "The Stabby Menace", "Revenge of the Shrub", "The Shrub Strikes Back", or "The Shrub Awakens". Looking forward to naming something "The Last Shrub". Hey, other people named their "Aspen Canyon of Hell" and "Thickets" (both of which I'm going to survey!). All our supervisors require is that is has no bird names or expletives.
     OK, I said it hasn't been so bad, and that's true. My most recent grid was a delight, after I boulder-hopped a stream and climbed out of a small canyon to get there. Mostly flat at the site and gloriously free of my unholy nemesis: desert holly.

Peter's Leap, the canyon at my nice grid

     I'm feeling sanguine again, owing to the two days I took off in St. George. Nice to be able to pick my own time off, even if we have a due date to get everything finished. Went into town to get new front tires, but also took the opportunity to research the rest of my grids, get some backcountry maps,  finish my paperwork, surf the internet, eat delicious food, sleep in a bed, take hot showers, and actually catch "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" in theaters. Saw the sights, or rather the sight, of St. George, the St. George Temple. Had a Mormon guy try to convert me, no juice. Pretty building though.

St. George Temple flocking with wedding-guests

This evening I drive into the site I put off, now that I'm rearmed with my spare tire and fresh groceries. I'm pretty sure it'll get easier (right?). To paraphrase Professor Challenger in a cheesy Lost World movie, "Science awaits! Unsheath the sword of intellect! Maybe bring a machete?"

Training with a new protocol...

When the experienced technician does it...

And we follow...

A new day, a new field season

It's May again, which means the bright new beginning of another field season. This year I've traveled to the majestic land of Utah, working for the Intermountain Bird Observatory (IBO), which collaborates on the larger project Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR). If you wanted another bit of confusion, I'm actually hired by Boise State University, which is the home of IBO. Who or what I'm working for aside, the task is to travel southwestern and central Utah looking and listening for birds. Whatever I find can then help the project understand trends in bird diversity across public and private lands in Utah and ultimately the western United States.
     Exactly a week ago I arrived in Ephraim (locally pronounced EE-frem), to camp and begin IMBCR training. Besides myself there were the other two IBO techs, our two supervisors/coordinators, and about a dozen other birders from different organizations to learn the IMBCR protocols. The training went on through Saturday, so it's been a busy week. Mornings we visited different habitats and practiced point counts (bird surveys) and vegetation surveys. After a hodgepodge lunch, we'd head over to an obliging library for presentations explaining IMBCR goals, protocols, equipment, landowner communication, and potential field hazards.
     So now I've driven across the state to St. George, taking a day of rest before setting out to my first survey grids. Not entirely a vacation, since after this missive I'll be back to researching my sites. They're giving me a little anxiety, seeing as four out of five of them have never been visited. Which means I've got to figure out the best way to get there, where to camp, how long a walk to the site it'll be, if there's a giant cliff in the middle, where we don't have permission to go, where's the nearest gas, etc. Burning questions that won't really be answered until I get there. Just to be safe I think I'll survey the known site first, but in the mean time I'm going to get as much information from Google Earth and Google Maps as I can. Hope all goes well!

Sandstone formations near Dewey Bridge, northeast of Moab

Fellow birders trekking back to camp after morning practice

Me on the drive to Moab, with Colorado River to the right and the La Sal range in the distance

Moab landscape with sage, juniper, and pinyon pine

Side-blotched lizard caught near Moab by someone way better at "herping" than myself

A very patient eastern collared lizard caught by a lot of people herding it to and fro

Moonrise at dispersed campsite near the confluence of Dolores and Colorado Rivers

NEW SPECIES: Horned Lark, Indigo Bunting, Gadwall, Virginia's Warbler

Close Encounter: Golden Eagle on a fence post