Weds
5/11/11
Had a bonfire after work two days ago. Used some of the wood that was already there by the lake. I played my geet. Good times.
Next day drove to Ft. Knox with James to pick up gear at the old sites and at storage. It was a fun ride over. James went to the hospital the day before because of a kidney stone, so I had to drive his car for him. He puked out the car door because of the pain and later on peed out the stone into the sieve that the doctor gave him. Ft. Knox is huge! It's like 20 miles across. We went to 3 sites to find 10 sets of poles each. They were well marked for the most part, but they were buried under 2 years of detritus. I got sweaty, dirty, wet, tired, and covered with ticks. srs like 20 or more. Fuuuuck! We rewarded ourselves with BBQ, thanks to a recommendation from a gas station attendant. We each got a sandwich that had 1 lb of pork in it. I saved most of it for later. I had a good time and had fun going to KY. Bubblegoose from the Chef Aid CD. I haven't heard that in a while. We got back from our trip at 1030 pm. That's late nowadays.
The next morning i was covcered with mosuito bireds. Lack o f sleem from phantom ticks and ants. Caught a new, rare warbler today, the Blackburnian Warbler. It was even an ASY male. Very handsome. I made some bomb pasghetti carbonara with Mel. Joe bird lecture, itchy bites. CAW CAW! Bonnaroo?
5/12/11
It had bad day untangling birds. That's why I have so few bands. Sad dog.
TOTAL BIRDS BANDED DURING TRAINING: 30
Sun
5/15/11
Yesterday and today we hacked a bunch of shit on CRAN. We're setting up all the sites. It's been fun work with the machetes, hatchets, and loppers.
On Friday we went to Kentucky again to see the horse races at Churchill Downs. Catharine is a good horse race bettor. Or whatever that's called. Point is she makes money at the track and that's pretty cool to see and learn about. While she watched the last 4 or 5 races, Mel, Kaitlin, and I looked for some fried chicken because we were in Kentucky, yknow? We ended up getting wings at the Hooters across the Ohio ricer in Indiana. Close enough.
Indiana, a counting game for the car:
Church - 1 point
Big iron star on a house - 1 point
Bird, cowboy, stagecoach, camel (camel?) sillouette - 1 point
Hair salon - 1 point
Anti abortion sign/billboard - 2 points
"Pregnant and scared?" billboard - 1 point (it's less in your face that the others)
Wagon wheels on driveway entrance - 1 point each
There were over 35 churches on the way to Kentucky (120 something miles)
5/19/11
Been setting up sites for the last 6 days or so. We get 1 to 2 done per day. Lotsof hacking and whackinig. Trudging, lots of that. I've done got learned in GPS navigation by James, which is useful. Our completely new sites (not the ones that are re-set up from last year; these be brand-spankin-new) are grids of 3x4 with each point on the grid about 100m apart. That fits 10 lanes and a banding station, and a little wiggle room in case of geographical difficulty. Easy, right? Not when the GPS changes its mind every ten steps. 2m away with 6m accuracy becomes 50m away, still with 6m accuracy. ORLY?
Fuckin tired. Each whole site takes from 3-5 hours. My hands are cut, bruise, and blistered from rose thorns and machete wielding. At least I get to destroy some rosebushes and tulip saplings (the latter being totally satisfying to fell in one swipe). I guess I shouldn't enjoy destroying nature, but A) it's really fun and B) fuck rose bushes and their fucking thorns.
We met up with another IBP group based in Bloomington the other day. They're studying Wood Thrushes. They're nest searching and target netting. They're funding allows us to band here =). We went to get pizza with them. They were about 12 people deep. We learned that as a college town, Bloomington is pretty cool. Lots of natural food stores, good restaurants (Indian, Thai, Tibetan, etc), and hippy shit.
Today I signed up to volunteer at Bonnaroo! Yay! And Paco chilled with me today. Yelling "ANDREW!" every 5 seconds until I let him out. He does this weird squeak when I sing around him.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Teh Birdhouse
Fri
5/6/11
I swear there was another one. Went out for Cinco de Drinko yesterday. We went to a Mexican Restaurant called El Ranchito. I had left my ID in my jacket, so I had to order a water, drink it, and pour myself some margarita from the pitcher. I got a huge burrito mojado. Leftovers made good breakfast.
I'm getting the hang of aging birds. Mold sequence still does not roll off the tongue. The Tanager felt like a present for my patience. Fuckin had to move all the nets today on account of the poor capture rate at our old site. Just for the record, there are usually 2 loops of 5 net lanes, each net is 3m by 12m. Moved up the road a bit. It's a fun drive to get there. The old location had tall trees spaced far apart. The birds were probably in the treetops and not flying low enough to be caught i our nets. The new lanes are in dense, dry vegetation. Very thorny and sharp. And lots of poison ivy. My first encounter with it. As we mentioned today "Leaves of 3, let it be. Leaves of 4, eat some more!" And ticks! Errr. Ticks. I've been well defended, but it got hot and before I knew it I was macheting thorns, trees, and grass in a tshirt in what I tried not to imagine as a constant waterfall of ticks. Great fun though, setting nets up. I like the smell of the rope.
Played catch with sam, which I assume is short for samantha or something. I brought my mitt to Indiana in good faith that I would use it sure enough it came through! She's got quite an arm.
5/8/11
Yesterday we got rained out of birds early, so we spent the rest of the day doing whatever. I read a bit more of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, had a few beers and a smoke. Made fish tacos with yummy guac. Mel was my cooking partner. Closed out the night with some music and Kings cup. Nothing serious (except for Victor), but it was a good bonding experience.
Early up as usual the next day. Victor didn't feel so well. As you can see, the nets rang off the hook! We caught 11 different species of warbler and 4 spp. of Catharsus thrushes. James said it was due to thunderstorms last night. Migrating birds who would normally cruise over had to hunker down for the night. Good day. Lots of practice, and lots of practice to come. Two ticks today. Tweezered out and chopped in half.
sam is making a bat from a fallen branch. Its looking really good. The barrel is neat, the handle is coming along well. There are carpenter bees all around the house. They're going at each other persistently. They'll challenge one another and force the loser into the grass and the winner of the confrontation will hover there and say "You dont want to get up, pikey" Had a lecture on bird injuries and euthanasia. Heavy stuff. We learned how to amputate a leg. Holy crap dude.
Paco. He's our parrot. Haven't gotten him to say Pacos Tacos yet, but i have all smmer to befriend him. This is going to be a good summer. As long as I dont have to pop a bird spinal cord (to euthanize it) There I go again with the bad notes.
5/6/11
I swear there was another one. Went out for Cinco de Drinko yesterday. We went to a Mexican Restaurant called El Ranchito. I had left my ID in my jacket, so I had to order a water, drink it, and pour myself some margarita from the pitcher. I got a huge burrito mojado. Leftovers made good breakfast.
I'm getting the hang of aging birds. Mold sequence still does not roll off the tongue. The Tanager felt like a present for my patience. Fuckin had to move all the nets today on account of the poor capture rate at our old site. Just for the record, there are usually 2 loops of 5 net lanes, each net is 3m by 12m. Moved up the road a bit. It's a fun drive to get there. The old location had tall trees spaced far apart. The birds were probably in the treetops and not flying low enough to be caught i our nets. The new lanes are in dense, dry vegetation. Very thorny and sharp. And lots of poison ivy. My first encounter with it. As we mentioned today "Leaves of 3, let it be. Leaves of 4, eat some more!" And ticks! Errr. Ticks. I've been well defended, but it got hot and before I knew it I was macheting thorns, trees, and grass in a tshirt in what I tried not to imagine as a constant waterfall of ticks. Great fun though, setting nets up. I like the smell of the rope.
Played catch with sam, which I assume is short for samantha or something. I brought my mitt to Indiana in good faith that I would use it sure enough it came through! She's got quite an arm.
5/8/11
Yesterday we got rained out of birds early, so we spent the rest of the day doing whatever. I read a bit more of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, had a few beers and a smoke. Made fish tacos with yummy guac. Mel was my cooking partner. Closed out the night with some music and Kings cup. Nothing serious (except for Victor), but it was a good bonding experience.
Early up as usual the next day. Victor didn't feel so well. As you can see, the nets rang off the hook! We caught 11 different species of warbler and 4 spp. of Catharsus thrushes. James said it was due to thunderstorms last night. Migrating birds who would normally cruise over had to hunker down for the night. Good day. Lots of practice, and lots of practice to come. Two ticks today. Tweezered out and chopped in half.
sam is making a bat from a fallen branch. Its looking really good. The barrel is neat, the handle is coming along well. There are carpenter bees all around the house. They're going at each other persistently. They'll challenge one another and force the loser into the grass and the winner of the confrontation will hover there and say "You dont want to get up, pikey" Had a lecture on bird injuries and euthanasia. Heavy stuff. We learned how to amputate a leg. Holy crap dude.
Paco. He's our parrot. Haven't gotten him to say Pacos Tacos yet, but i have all smmer to befriend him. This is going to be a good summer. As long as I dont have to pop a bird spinal cord (to euthanize it) There I go again with the bad notes.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Going to Indianer
Late April
4/25/11 - I made sure to post something I thought was clever as my facebook status. Ynitsed Tsefinam. After seeing Wiz & JK one last time at teh park, I redid my iPod playlists and hit the sack. I woke up when I wanted to, but it was still later than I should have. Whatever. Last minute packing, breakfast, and I was out the door. with my new car radio and it's useful USB port. I was ready for the long haul.
Got to Reno without a hitch. I HAD to get a last meal at Innout because I won't be seeing it for a long time. I called the Basterd, put on my cheap, gas station sunglasses and went in. As I was making my traditional Innout Arnold Palmer, a sqaut, greyhaired lady said "Crazy, huh?"
"No. Not really," I said. Long drive? Busy joint? Good burgers? Apparenlty the last two.
"Are you from around here?" She continued. I said no. I'm from San Francisco.
"So you don't ahve any of these there?" We have lots in California. "Oh, we're from Oklahoma. We got hooked on these when we visited Vegas." Yes. Vegas, very good.
"It's the tomatoes you know," I ventured. "They're fresher because they're grown nearby. She internalized the information and went and ate. I was surprised. Only in Reno and the people are already acting differently that what I'm used to. I usually try to avoid people at Innout.
U.S. Route 50, the Loneliest Road in America. It was very pretty. Bristlecones and desert and mountains and snow and space and dust. My face turned red from the 5 Hour Energy drink I got when I filled up in Reno. Niacin reaction. On an unrelated note, I downloaded an audiobook for the car ride. World War Z, an Oral History of the Zombie War. Max Brooks strikes again! I didn't want to hear it all on the first day. I'm saving it for Kansas. The drive won't be as pretty as it was today. 550 miles today. Not too shabby. Ely, NV. Kinda shabby. Naw jk. I'm getting a burger and a beer now, then I'm passing the FUCK OUT.
Note: Went to a Mexican restaurant instead. Forgot the leftovers on the roof of the car..
4/28/11 - Wow the driving. It is alot. But surprisingly bearable with thta new radio. Drive thru Utah was WINDY. That whole state is nothing but wind if you ask me. The rock formations were gorgeous. Green River was disappointing. Once in Grand Junction I went to Brad and Torri Junge's place to deliver condolences about Cherri. I found Brad outside playing with his dog. We chatted for a bit, I gave him the two cards and he invided me in for dinner with his family. I met Torri and the kids, all very sweet. The kids go to a Spanish immersion school and Torri teaches the "English dominat" side of the same school. Awesome! The kids didn't even have accents. AND they have a field trip to Limon, CR in the summer. Radical. Brad had actually read WWZ and is into zombies. Surprising, but great! Nice to know that I'm not a crazy. They fed me and gave me food and beer for the road. I stayed in a hotel that night. Begin time zone confusion.
Next day drove to Boulder, CO up highway 70. Holy crap. There was snow and sleet and that made my windshield really dirty. Freakin scary. Boulder - isolated, pretty, happy. Lotsa barefooters. Went with Leah Merony to a pizza/beer place. The waitress was cute, she skipped in and out of the kitchen. Thankfully not with my pizza. Leah had an extra ticket to see Rodrigo y Gabriela. FUCKIN AWESOME! Turns out the learned English in Ireland, so they said "fookin terrible" all the time. Rodrigo assumed a metal powerstance while playing his classical guitar while Gabriela jumped and skipped. Lotsa WAH! Afterwards I jammed on geetar with Leah and here "heterosexual life partner" (roommate, former Bruin, labmate, sing together, jam together. Leah played played the geet too while Danielle (?) played the uke. Great singers the both of them.
Woke up, headed to Lincoln, NE. Lotsa sky. Lotsa sky. Had a smoke break in front of a correctional facility. I got through a lot of artists on my trip. Lotta songs that had Midwest towns for titles. Maybe I'll make one about Bloomfield when I get there. I met up with my cousin Devin and his HUGE mutt, Taft. He's like a giant, yet mellow, Charlie. Devin took me out to Five Guys burgers and then for ice cream. He showed me around town and the campus of UNL. They have a HUGE MASTADON STATUE in front of their museum.
Fri
4/29/11
Easy day. Woke up and hit the dog park with Devin and Taft. Then we went to the natural history museum on campus. Lots of mammoth bones. Poor farmers, finding that shit in their yards and probably thinking that monsters lived around their homes. Devin let me borrow his bike so I took it down this apparently endless (60 miles?) bike path. That was cool, but it was super windy. I guess I'm surprised that Lincoln has a bike path, especially one so well maintained. I saw two people fucking on a park bench. Chick in a neon green shirt with really torn jeans around her ankles. She was sitting on his lap. It took me a second to process this, then I gave the dude the "rock on" horns. The girl responded by pulling up her pants. Hey, it's not my fault they were on the bike path.
I got some food at Grateful Bred. Hippeh. We saw Source Code later that night. It was like a lamer Inception. Taco tent! One of the chicks tending it wav a dude. Maybe there's a little SF in every city..
Sun
5/1 - Left Devins and didn't go back for the sandwiches and salsa I left in his refrigerator. I spent most of the ride to Greenup, IL listening to World War Z. Brilliant. Brooks covered probably everything I've thought about zombies plus a little extra. He really outdid himself by covering the geopolitical consequences of a zombie breakout. I passed through Kansas City as Mr. Brooks was discussing the regrouping west of the Rockies as told by a guy who sounded like Hawkeye from MASH. Looked cool. I saw a billboard for the Qizards. Passed thru St. Louis too. I even jumped out of the car for a bit to check out the Arch. It was like 4 blocks from the freeway. It was pretty... pretty.. ah. pretty big!. And right on the Mississippi, no less. Didn't ahve time to wait in line to go up top. Too many baby cheerleaders. Gross. My daughter will not be allowed to be a cheerleader. Especially when she's seven. Who the fuck would she be cheering for? Dora the Explora?
I stopped at a Comfort Value inn for hella cheap. Right next to a Dairy Queen! I got a spice DQ number and watched the latest South Park, The Human Centipad. Poor Kyle. Cuttlefish and asparagus.
Next Morning I took off at an easy pace for Indiana, not knowing about the time change 30 miles away from where I was. srs? Eastern Time, IN? srs? So I ended up arriving on time instead of an hour early.
The trailer is, well, standing, but spacious and heavily furnished! Even has a big TV and internet. I get my own small room too! Good thing I packed light. I'll apparently be living with 3 girls. I guess that's cool. They all have boyfriends too, so it should be easy going. The rest of the chicks in the Midwest are, uh, beat.
Lotsa birds though. Lotsa birds. Some unlucky mouse went for the peanutbutter in the trap. Destoryed his snout. Terrible. Fookin terrible.. that was a bad note to end on.
Tues
5/3 - Just looking back at that, yea that was a horrible note to end on. You can start an entry on a horrible note, to grasp the readers attention you see. You can say something like "the dead rat is still outside below the porch where I dropped him and now I have a true sense of the phrase 'looks like a drowned rat'." Oh. That actually happened.
We set nets up today. I learned some knots.
Here come the field notes! The number is the amount we caught that day. Each @ represents a bird that I personally banded. R is for recapture and is included in the total for the day. U is a bird that did not receive a band.
Early up tomorrow. Sleep now.
5/4 - May the fourth be with you =)
We were out the door at 6am. New setup was quick. lots of loops past the net lanes. It was fun. I'm slowly learning about molting and feather development. Today was pretty indicative of our summer. Great! When we got back, we spent some time in our extensive backyard. We have two rowboats and a pedal boat and possibly a party boat at our disposal on our quaint little pond. There are some Bobwhites around, but I haven't gotten a clear view of them yet.
Walmart gave us a million bags for a small amount of groceries. Why do I need to put a bag of chips in its own bag? BTW Walmart is hella hitech. TVs in the aisles, a bagging machine (explains the bags), but they still have a greeter!
4/25/11 - I made sure to post something I thought was clever as my facebook status. Ynitsed Tsefinam. After seeing Wiz & JK one last time at teh park, I redid my iPod playlists and hit the sack. I woke up when I wanted to, but it was still later than I should have. Whatever. Last minute packing, breakfast, and I was out the door. with my new car radio and it's useful USB port. I was ready for the long haul.
Got to Reno without a hitch. I HAD to get a last meal at Innout because I won't be seeing it for a long time. I called the Basterd, put on my cheap, gas station sunglasses and went in. As I was making my traditional Innout Arnold Palmer, a sqaut, greyhaired lady said "Crazy, huh?"
"No. Not really," I said. Long drive? Busy joint? Good burgers? Apparenlty the last two.
"Are you from around here?" She continued. I said no. I'm from San Francisco.
"So you don't ahve any of these there?" We have lots in California. "Oh, we're from Oklahoma. We got hooked on these when we visited Vegas." Yes. Vegas, very good.
"It's the tomatoes you know," I ventured. "They're fresher because they're grown nearby. She internalized the information and went and ate. I was surprised. Only in Reno and the people are already acting differently that what I'm used to. I usually try to avoid people at Innout.
U.S. Route 50, the Loneliest Road in America. It was very pretty. Bristlecones and desert and mountains and snow and space and dust. My face turned red from the 5 Hour Energy drink I got when I filled up in Reno. Niacin reaction. On an unrelated note, I downloaded an audiobook for the car ride. World War Z, an Oral History of the Zombie War. Max Brooks strikes again! I didn't want to hear it all on the first day. I'm saving it for Kansas. The drive won't be as pretty as it was today. 550 miles today. Not too shabby. Ely, NV. Kinda shabby. Naw jk. I'm getting a burger and a beer now, then I'm passing the FUCK OUT.
Note: Went to a Mexican restaurant instead. Forgot the leftovers on the roof of the car..
4/28/11 - Wow the driving. It is alot. But surprisingly bearable with thta new radio. Drive thru Utah was WINDY. That whole state is nothing but wind if you ask me. The rock formations were gorgeous. Green River was disappointing. Once in Grand Junction I went to Brad and Torri Junge's place to deliver condolences about Cherri. I found Brad outside playing with his dog. We chatted for a bit, I gave him the two cards and he invided me in for dinner with his family. I met Torri and the kids, all very sweet. The kids go to a Spanish immersion school and Torri teaches the "English dominat" side of the same school. Awesome! The kids didn't even have accents. AND they have a field trip to Limon, CR in the summer. Radical. Brad had actually read WWZ and is into zombies. Surprising, but great! Nice to know that I'm not a crazy. They fed me and gave me food and beer for the road. I stayed in a hotel that night. Begin time zone confusion.
Next day drove to Boulder, CO up highway 70. Holy crap. There was snow and sleet and that made my windshield really dirty. Freakin scary. Boulder - isolated, pretty, happy. Lotsa barefooters. Went with Leah Merony to a pizza/beer place. The waitress was cute, she skipped in and out of the kitchen. Thankfully not with my pizza. Leah had an extra ticket to see Rodrigo y Gabriela. FUCKIN AWESOME! Turns out the learned English in Ireland, so they said "fookin terrible" all the time. Rodrigo assumed a metal powerstance while playing his classical guitar while Gabriela jumped and skipped. Lotsa WAH! Afterwards I jammed on geetar with Leah and here "heterosexual life partner" (roommate, former Bruin, labmate, sing together, jam together. Leah played played the geet too while Danielle (?) played the uke. Great singers the both of them.
Woke up, headed to Lincoln, NE. Lotsa sky. Lotsa sky. Had a smoke break in front of a correctional facility. I got through a lot of artists on my trip. Lotta songs that had Midwest towns for titles. Maybe I'll make one about Bloomfield when I get there. I met up with my cousin Devin and his HUGE mutt, Taft. He's like a giant, yet mellow, Charlie. Devin took me out to Five Guys burgers and then for ice cream. He showed me around town and the campus of UNL. They have a HUGE MASTADON STATUE in front of their museum.
Fri
4/29/11
Easy day. Woke up and hit the dog park with Devin and Taft. Then we went to the natural history museum on campus. Lots of mammoth bones. Poor farmers, finding that shit in their yards and probably thinking that monsters lived around their homes. Devin let me borrow his bike so I took it down this apparently endless (60 miles?) bike path. That was cool, but it was super windy. I guess I'm surprised that Lincoln has a bike path, especially one so well maintained. I saw two people fucking on a park bench. Chick in a neon green shirt with really torn jeans around her ankles. She was sitting on his lap. It took me a second to process this, then I gave the dude the "rock on" horns. The girl responded by pulling up her pants. Hey, it's not my fault they were on the bike path.
I got some food at Grateful Bred. Hippeh. We saw Source Code later that night. It was like a lamer Inception. Taco tent! One of the chicks tending it wav a dude. Maybe there's a little SF in every city..
Sun
5/1 - Left Devins and didn't go back for the sandwiches and salsa I left in his refrigerator. I spent most of the ride to Greenup, IL listening to World War Z. Brilliant. Brooks covered probably everything I've thought about zombies plus a little extra. He really outdid himself by covering the geopolitical consequences of a zombie breakout. I passed through Kansas City as Mr. Brooks was discussing the regrouping west of the Rockies as told by a guy who sounded like Hawkeye from MASH. Looked cool. I saw a billboard for the Qizards. Passed thru St. Louis too. I even jumped out of the car for a bit to check out the Arch. It was like 4 blocks from the freeway. It was pretty... pretty.. ah. pretty big!. And right on the Mississippi, no less. Didn't ahve time to wait in line to go up top. Too many baby cheerleaders. Gross. My daughter will not be allowed to be a cheerleader. Especially when she's seven. Who the fuck would she be cheering for? Dora the Explora?
I stopped at a Comfort Value inn for hella cheap. Right next to a Dairy Queen! I got a spice DQ number and watched the latest South Park, The Human Centipad. Poor Kyle. Cuttlefish and asparagus.
Next Morning I took off at an easy pace for Indiana, not knowing about the time change 30 miles away from where I was. srs? Eastern Time, IN? srs? So I ended up arriving on time instead of an hour early.
The trailer is, well, standing, but spacious and heavily furnished! Even has a big TV and internet. I get my own small room too! Good thing I packed light. I'll apparently be living with 3 girls. I guess that's cool. They all have boyfriends too, so it should be easy going. The rest of the chicks in the Midwest are, uh, beat.
Lotsa birds though. Lotsa birds. Some unlucky mouse went for the peanutbutter in the trap. Destoryed his snout. Terrible. Fookin terrible.. that was a bad note to end on.
Tues
5/3 - Just looking back at that, yea that was a horrible note to end on. You can start an entry on a horrible note, to grasp the readers attention you see. You can say something like "the dead rat is still outside below the porch where I dropped him and now I have a true sense of the phrase 'looks like a drowned rat'." Oh. That actually happened.
We set nets up today. I learned some knots.
Here come the field notes! The number is the amount we caught that day. Each @ represents a bird that I personally banded. R is for recapture and is included in the total for the day. U is a bird that did not receive a band.
Early up tomorrow. Sleep now.
5/4 - May the fourth be with you =)
We were out the door at 6am. New setup was quick. lots of loops past the net lanes. It was fun. I'm slowly learning about molting and feather development. Today was pretty indicative of our summer. Great! When we got back, we spent some time in our extensive backyard. We have two rowboats and a pedal boat and possibly a party boat at our disposal on our quaint little pond. There are some Bobwhites around, but I haven't gotten a clear view of them yet.
Walmart gave us a million bags for a small amount of groceries. Why do I need to put a bag of chips in its own bag? BTW Walmart is hella hitech. TVs in the aisles, a bagging machine (explains the bags), but they still have a greeter!
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