End of point counts: a commemorative set of haikus

I'll preface this by saying I recently submitted a challenge to my parents to immortalize their adventures and observations as haikus, starting with their going to home games of the Marauder's baseball team in Florida. Receiving their excellent and elegantly phrased poems and having come to the end of my field season bird point counts, I thought I would attempt a reply, albeit one with awful writing and a Monty Python reference. For those with brave hearts and terrible poetic taste, read on!

 

Two walk a long time

Listen for the birds singing

But where are the birds?

 

Breeding season gone

Birds a-flocking, taking flight

Ten minute silence
 

Bored out of our skulls

Think of something, just anything,

Bring the coconuts!

The long walk between point counts...

South Texas birding highlights

The problem with on-the-job birding is that you see a lot of cool birds (and also a ton of mockingbirds) but never have a chance to actually get pictures of them. Anyway, because I happen to like pictures, here are some of my favorites and new additions to my birding life list, all of which I saw in the wee hours of mornings May through July here in south Texas.

 

For those playing at home the birds in reading order are: Audubon's oriole, Bullock's oriole, groove-billed ani, greater roadrunner, painted bunting, orchard oriole,  blue grosbeak, pyrrhuloxia, dickcissel, hooded oriole, green jay, northern beardless-tyrannulet, varied bunting, yellow-billed cuckoo, and long-billed thrasher. (Photo credits in photos or from wikipedia.org)

Heading into thick catclaw scrub ...

"El Sauz and Back Again: A Birder's Tale" by yours truly

     Updates (from the person who cannot pass up a semi-obscure Lord of the Rings reference)...I went to El Sauz two weeks ago and did some birding. I've probably said this before, but it's a pretty cool place, but it's definitely some hard work just getting around. The marshes are slightly drier, but it still was hairy in some places driving the work truck. This might go without saying, but driving a little Toyota Tacoma on a muddy road-less-traveled at pitch-black 5am is not exactly ideal. But I also got have a change in scene, some new bird species, time with the herp crew, and some delicious BBQ.
     Back at the main ranch point counts proceed per usual. The summer heat is starting to dial up, sometimes getting up to highs of 99 degrees, and we're getting less in the way of rain. In between bird surveys, we now are setting up and checking bat detectors. The equipment itself is pretty nondescript, consisting of a black box recorder the size of a DVD player, a microphone, cord, and a toolbox to stow the black box out of the rain. At certain points, we secure the microphone to the top of a painter's pole and then lash the pole to a tree. After formatting the storage card, replacing batteries, and some fiddling with the recording settings, the whole apparatus is up and running, ready to record anything in the bat sound register during the night hours.
     The bunkhouses nowadays seem full of people, which as can be imagined causes occaisonal friction and drama. With our fearless crew leader with the herpers at the other ranch, issues are bound to come up. Questions like: is it worth it to call someone out because they used your shampoo without asking? What about if they leave all their dirty dishes in the sink for days on end? Why is it nobody thinks to get firewood? The hazards of living in close quarters I guess. Still, it means I have plenty of people to talk to and hang out with on the weekends.
     Anyway, probably closing in on the last month here in Hebbronville. Birding surveys are slated to wrap up by the end of July, although admittedly they originally were supposed to be done by now. Currently searching for new jobs and looking forward to a little time off to explore and visit home. New and exciting things are sure to come!

Abandoned car at main ranch

Open grasslands at the main ranch

Possibly: skeleton plant (Lygodesmia texana)

Mexican burrowing toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis). Why are they awesome?

 

"The only species, within the only genus of the family Rhinophrynidae, and with over 190 million years of independent evolution, the Mexican burrowing toad is the most evolutionarily distinct amphibian species on Earth today; a fruit bat, polar bear, killer whale, kangaroo and human are all more similar to one another than this species is to any other amphibian."

http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=1355



 

 

New species:
-Northern beardless-tyrannulet (Camptostoma imberbe)
-Gull-billed tern (Gelochelidon nilotica)
-Black-tailed gnatcatcher (Polioptila melanura)
-Mexican burrowing toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis)

Ordering at a restaurant after a week of field work...

Let the proofing begin

(Dated from June 12)
     Spent a mind-numbing week doing computer work at the bunkhouse. Now that we have only five birders and have to do surveys in pairs, it unfortunately leaves one person a week as the odd person out. There's always something to do, that's certainly not the problem. The problem is that the priority is proofing data.
     The activity sounds innocent enough. For those not in the know, handling data goes through a process. You collect it during a survey, writing everything down in a notebook or datasheet. Then everything is transcribed into an electronic copy for the computer, which is "entering" it. The last step before actually analyzing it is a necessary and arduous process called "proofing." Going back and forth between the field notebook and the computer, you make sure every in the computer file, every keystroke, every observation, is legible, consistent, and makes sense. Checking back and forth is mind-numbing, it requires listening to background music and some caffiene to get through it with sanity intact.
     Standard proofing for the mammal data had been done. But now it needed to be checked again, focusing on the color codes for the recaptured mice. The task was to make sure that no two mice had the same color codes, that certain mice that had died did not mysteriously reanimate the next day, and to be sure that the mice did not spontaneously change species, sex, age, or reproductive condition. If they did (and they certainly did), I had to figure out what the faded colors on the mouse could have been and then change the code to the code that made the most sense.
     And that's what I spent my week doing. Now to El Sauz...