Oregon Update : )

Hello All!

Well, my first week with KBO started with leading some talks at a week-long Bird Banding Workshop. I lectured on Feather Form and Function, the intro to Molt Limits, and Bird First Aid and Safety. I was nervous and a little underprepared since I had very little down time between jobs! But, it went pretty well and I had some of the workshop participants personally thank me for being patient with them and being a good teacher. That made me feel pretty good : ) I definitely have to get more confident as a teacher and just keep practicing, knowing that in the process I’m bound to make mistakes and learn from them.  I felt like I had trouble explaining things again, providing really only half the explanation needed for something to be done properly. So, practice is definitely in the cards for me! I am working towards getting certified as a trainer at the end of the season and hope that all goes according to plan!

I am working on some research ideas too that are getting more and more solidified in my mind as the season wears on. These research topics are getting me very excited actually and I’m starting to do some background research on a couple of them : ) I might even start talking to some professors this winter (finally!) about graduate school. Still might wait until next year though….because I want to retake the GRE. ::Shrugs:: We’ll see.

The numbers up here in OR have been low all season, the way they were in Yosemite. No 100+ bird days, haven’t even broken 90 yet. This last week was particularly slow and even our high volume sites brought us 19-42 birds only! BUT, one of those few birds was a Northern Waterthrush that I found in the net and got to band!! It was so cool! Such a beautiful rare bird!! It was a hatch year as well : ) Fun times : )

I’m chugging along here and waiting for my Saipan bird guides (AKA Bird Guide for Hawaii and East Asia) to arrive in the mail, so I can start practicing with some tropical endemic identification! I’m really excited about Saipan and am looking forward to it more and more each day!

I miss my man, but will be able to see him in November between jobs : ) Woo hoo!!

I’ve made some great new friends here as well and will now have friends to visit in places like Peru, Costa Rica, Colombia, Trinidad, and Samoa. Not bad, eh?

Maybe a trip is in store for 2012? Yes?

I hope is well in all of your lives!!

Big hugs!