The weather has been terrible! I think we’ve only had 3 days of temperatures of 60+ degrees. I never thought the heated seat feature in my car would be used in June in California! Thank you slightly ostentatious and seemingly unnecessary feature for spoiling my arse on cold mornings. Now my Canadian blood will never kick in to help me acclimate. More snow and rain have fallen, forcing us to find alternative indoor activities to keep us entertained and dry/warm. We’ve been using music as a tool, attending local concerts and music festivals, in addition to farmer’s markets, café’s, book sales, etc. We’ve seen The AfroFunk Experience and Tracorum live at the Evergreen, pre-gaming each night with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s on the most comfortable leather couch you can imagine, in front of a blazing fire. Best Saturday night ritual EVER. The concerts have been amazing and have given me an opportunity to dance for at least 3 hours in one night. Sweetness.
Team Bird Nerd, as we have been dubbed, brought the party at the last concert: us 3, plus 5 point-counters, and another 3 park rangers : ) we made up at least 1/3 of the dance floor. It was pretty spectacular to see so many bird people gyrating together uncontrollably to some fantastic tunes : )
With the help of a friend, Team Bird Nerd snuck into the Strawberry Music Festival for a day or two, depending on who you ask….which was so much fun! Saw some great performers (Carolyn Wonderland blew my mind), drank delicious wine, and danced our hearts out to some folksy jam band for hours at a time. If I’m here next year, I fully intend to purchase tickets and experience the full 4-day multi-generational jam session/concert/hippie circus of a show! We have also attended Sal’s Taco Night in El Portal, which provided us with scrumptious local brews and burritos/tacos, not to mention awesome company.
At this rate it sounds like we’re playing more than we’re working. That’s because we are. Other than net repair, with the weather and snow levels as they are, we can only work a 3-day workweek, followed by 7 days off. We’re hoping Crane Flat becomes accessible this period! Then we can set-up and band to cover Period 4, right before Period 5 starts. Then we'll be able to band a whopping 4 days in a row! Period 3 has to be thrown out for Crane Flat – we couldn’t access the site in time. Shame. SHAME California!!Amazingly enough, we seem to be having the best luck out of the other Pacific Northwest crews in terms of site accessibility. That just blows me away.
Interesting birds sighted: the Seasonal Biologist out here saw a Scott’s Oriole out in Hetch-Hetchy (vagrant!), and we’ve got some Townsend’s Solitaire’s hanging around our campsite. They’re not exactly common birds to see in the park in general, especially on the Hodgdon side at such a low elevation. They usually breed at higher elevations, but since it’s so snowy/cold, they’re hanging out at lower elevations…it will be interesting to see where they end up breeding this year! I hope we catch one :)
Species we’ve been banding: Song Sparrows, Lincoln’s Sparrows, Oregon Junco’s, Spotted Towhees, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Western Tanagers, American Robins, MacGillivray’s Warblers, Nashville Warblers, Yellow Warblers, Audubon’s Warblers, Wilson’s Warblers, Hermit Warblers, Red-breasted Sapsuckers, White-headed Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, Pine Siskins, Red-winged Blackbird and Olive-sided Flycatcher (1 each – so cool!), Western Wood-Pewee’s, Empids (Dusky and Hammonds) and Anna’s and Calliope Hummingbirds! It’s been a good start to the season, in terms of variety, given the circumstances : ) I’m really looking forward to seeing what else this season brings us!
That is all for now!
Team Bird Nerd, OUT.
