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The Island (Days 5-9 omg)
Aug. 24th, 2012 04:22 pmDay 5: I am now obliged to crochet little birds for the girls, in exchange for not having to knit underwear. I'm not really sure how this happened. XD Elanore requested an Indigo Bunting, and Alessia wants a Yellow-breasted Chat. I am to finish them by next Fall, and I plan to embroider their names on them as well. These girls are so sweet. In fact, I just realized that Elanore's mom works at my college! I may deliver them sooner than the Fall after all. :D
Quiet, quiet day, despite a good tailwind starting around midnight. The most exciting bird was a Yellow-breasted Chat, which is a very large warbler, and the most exciting event was when some sea kayakers stopped on the island and one of them somehow got past all the signs saying "PATH CLOSED FOR BIRD BANDING, KEEP OUT" and ended up in the net lane, a foot away from a netted bird, wondering where the cemetary was. Not. Cool. Stay the fuck out of our net lanes. You're putting unnecessary stress on the captured birds and scaring off the uncaptured ones.
I'm finding that I really, truly adore working with the general public. I like teaching them what we do and putting a bird in their hands for the first time. I'm pretty good at multitasking with recording data and explaining what we're doing. I really, really like it. I think I need to work on my ID of various wildlife and plants and see if I can get a job as a naturalist. At the very least, this volunteer work will be really fabulous on my resume.
Today is SO QUIET. We got some nuthatches and some yellowthroats and that's about it. Not even catbirds.
Day 6: If yesterday was quiet, today is SILENT. Luckily the day has gone by quite quickly. The morning was full of uncontrollable giggles, with Lauren keeping us company until she departed, along with all the students and faculty. It's just island staff and us, now. They're altering mealtimes and doing away with hot breakfasts altogether. Sorrow. I miss having eggs. OH THE IRONY??? Reportedly we get another bander tomorrow. Which is excellent, since the weather tonight will be absolutely perfect for a migratory flight. We should be inundated with birds.
Day 7: No birds. No bander. I am laughing so hard.
Day 8: David the bander arrived! He missed the boat yesterday due to shenanigans, but at least got some rest. I finally got the chance to go soak my feet in the ocean, and it helped a great deal. I also found a HUGE piece of smoky quartz that I may smuggle back home for my aquarium to go with the giant rose quartz. Naps were had. I burned the back of my leg and got a spider bite on my arm somehow. Ow.
Day 9: Lindsay leaves today. :C She's awesome and I'll miss her. I sat down to talk to her about how I'm doing, how I can improve, and got some excellent pointers. I am apparently right about in the middle of the intermediate skill level, which is fantastic for someone who only started extracting birds last Fall with no practice in between. I need to work on more severely tangled birds and tongued birds - the latter I had to hand off to Lindsay even when I could see how easy it would be, because we both forgot that there are little plastic picks in the banding box that I could use. Oops. Some VIPs are apparently on island - I tried putting on a nice shirt, but it's too damn hot. Tank top it is. Apparently late tonight the director's son will be here, who is a very tall young man who is the combative kind of special needs. His diagnosis is the same as my brother's, so it might not be that bad now that he's a bit older. We'll see, I suppose!
Pictures later, probably in a "day 10/11" post. Whew.
Quiet, quiet day, despite a good tailwind starting around midnight. The most exciting bird was a Yellow-breasted Chat, which is a very large warbler, and the most exciting event was when some sea kayakers stopped on the island and one of them somehow got past all the signs saying "PATH CLOSED FOR BIRD BANDING, KEEP OUT" and ended up in the net lane, a foot away from a netted bird, wondering where the cemetary was. Not. Cool. Stay the fuck out of our net lanes. You're putting unnecessary stress on the captured birds and scaring off the uncaptured ones.
I'm finding that I really, truly adore working with the general public. I like teaching them what we do and putting a bird in their hands for the first time. I'm pretty good at multitasking with recording data and explaining what we're doing. I really, really like it. I think I need to work on my ID of various wildlife and plants and see if I can get a job as a naturalist. At the very least, this volunteer work will be really fabulous on my resume.
Today is SO QUIET. We got some nuthatches and some yellowthroats and that's about it. Not even catbirds.
Day 6: If yesterday was quiet, today is SILENT. Luckily the day has gone by quite quickly. The morning was full of uncontrollable giggles, with Lauren keeping us company until she departed, along with all the students and faculty. It's just island staff and us, now. They're altering mealtimes and doing away with hot breakfasts altogether. Sorrow. I miss having eggs. OH THE IRONY??? Reportedly we get another bander tomorrow. Which is excellent, since the weather tonight will be absolutely perfect for a migratory flight. We should be inundated with birds.
Day 7: No birds. No bander. I am laughing so hard.
Day 8: David the bander arrived! He missed the boat yesterday due to shenanigans, but at least got some rest. I finally got the chance to go soak my feet in the ocean, and it helped a great deal. I also found a HUGE piece of smoky quartz that I may smuggle back home for my aquarium to go with the giant rose quartz. Naps were had. I burned the back of my leg and got a spider bite on my arm somehow. Ow.
Day 9: Lindsay leaves today. :C She's awesome and I'll miss her. I sat down to talk to her about how I'm doing, how I can improve, and got some excellent pointers. I am apparently right about in the middle of the intermediate skill level, which is fantastic for someone who only started extracting birds last Fall with no practice in between. I need to work on more severely tangled birds and tongued birds - the latter I had to hand off to Lindsay even when I could see how easy it would be, because we both forgot that there are little plastic picks in the banding box that I could use. Oops. Some VIPs are apparently on island - I tried putting on a nice shirt, but it's too damn hot. Tank top it is. Apparently late tonight the director's son will be here, who is a very tall young man who is the combative kind of special needs. His diagnosis is the same as my brother's, so it might not be that bad now that he's a bit older. We'll see, I suppose!
Pictures later, probably in a "day 10/11" post. Whew.
