Remembering 2015: Migration to Montana and Summer Work and Play

I was busy with friends and with doing lots of birding, during the early spring and throughout April. But I was getting more and more excited about getting back to Montana. I'm always torn between wanting to go back to a place where I've had a really good time and feel I've made a difference, and with seeing new places. My 2014 volunteer job was so fun and everyone I worked with was so nice and all the research was so interesting, that I decided I wanted to go back there. 

The first thing I do is to map routes to my destinations. When I saw it only took an extra hour to travel through Utah, I was hooked. I had missed Island in the Sky so wanted to visit it. And I knew of a cheap BLM campground, very near it, which would only cost me half price, so I planned to spend a couple of days in the area. 

Dark blue line marks my travel route

I drove to Utah, without my usual stops along the way, taking only a little time to sleep at a Motel in northwest Texas. Soon I was happily back at the same campground I'd stayed at the year before on the way home from Montana. I got to go an a wonderful hike on the Grand View Overlook Trail in the Island in the Sky part of Canyonlands.

(Click on each picture to access the blog from which it came.)

View along trail in Islands in the Sky

I also had time for the auto tour and a hike to Mesa Arch.  But I wasn't able to get there at the best time, just at sunrise, when the arch is lit from underneath.

Mesa Arch with a few of the many tourists

I left the area a day early due to a forecast of rain and snow.  I went on up to Salt Lake City, following a snow plow for part of the way, then spent the night at a motel. I realized I could visit Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, if I got up early and then finished my trip in the afternoon.

The play of light, clouds and water on Salt Lake was remarkable. It was too cold to even think about floating in the water. I was amazed at the hundreds of eared grebes there.

View of the Great Salt Lake from Antelope Island State Park

I finally managed to tear myself away from the ever changing views and finish my trip to Red Rock Lakes.  There, even before I finished unpacking and fitting myself into my trailer,  I started my bluebird survey by repairing all the boxes that needed it and gathering data on the birds that were already nesting.  We had a little snow fall not long after I arrived in mid May.  I ended up helping a fellow volunteer tend our arctic grayling fish eggs in the snow, then had to stop and repair a bird house, after ravens tore the top off, pulled the nest out, and ate the eggs. (We arrived while they were still digesting their breakfast.)

Me pipetting out the fungus-infected eggs

Then stopping to repair a box damaged by ravens

When I had time off, I had lots of adventures and some misadventures. My first little misadventure was getting stuck in a place where I couldn't rescue myself and then, after I figured I had cell phone service, a rarity up there, I spent a lot of time lost to the Indian guy who was trying to locate me, and then to the wrecker who finally pulled me out.  But the rest of the day was wonderful as well as was the following day's hike.

Oops! One of the times I wished for a high-riding truck and four-wheel drive

A waterfall on a wonderful hike

The landscapes I pass while doing my jobs are amazing.  I sometimes have to devote whole blogs to them.

Upper Lake with a rain squall coming to stop my bluebird survey

Even cleaning bathrooms is but an excuse to wallow in the scenery

My very favorite job is to get to help with the scaup roundup.  This year I got to help several days during the roundups in August and September. We drive the flightless adults and young into nets, then capture them and take them back to shore to measure, weigh, band and otherwise mark them, then release them back on the water.

The controlled chaos that takes place after we trap the birds. They are dipped out of the trap and packed into boxes while also being sorted into the same sized birds in each box. 

I was really lucky in that eleven friends came to see me.  I met most of them in either Yellowstone or Glacier, although two of them also spent time on the refuge with me.  A few highlights were the rainbow that rewarded me for first forgetting my billfold, then not being able to get a campsite, then having a flat on a Sunday, when no repair shops were open.

One of the many pictures I took of a double rainbow and its reflection

Each set of friends had a different agenda while at Yellowstone: to look at the geological features, to hike, to find wildlife, or to take great photographs. Oh yes, and to bask in the hot springs.  I had all that on my bucket list so we all had lots of fun.  And at Glacier, one friend wanted to both paddle and hike, while the others came for hiking and to do driving tours.

There are pictures in every direction

The Boiling River soaking spot

Paddle with Julie on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River

Lunch on the shores of Iceberg Lake

I had one other really fun, albeit frustrating job at Red Rock Lakes NWR. It was to survey our three breeding pairs of eagles. I turned out to be much harder than I anticipated and I never found one eagle pair's nest, although I'm sure they had at least one live chick because they screamed at me the whole time I was looking. This job went on for several weeks and I finally reported one chick that I actually saw, at least one chick I didn't see, and one pair that didn't have chicks, although the adults stayed by the nest.

One of a pair of eagles that screamed at me for most of a morning

In mid-September,  I went back to Texas and Louisiana to visit friends and doctors, then started up to North Carolina for the winter, stopping only to visit my friend Laurel, in South Carolina.  I'll not look back on my time during the fall with a blog, so the past four will be the only look-back ones.

I'm having slow adventures here, because most days off are rainy, and I always work in one or another Visitor Center, put hopefully the weather will soon improve and I'll have new adventures to share with you.

Have a very Happy New Year and plan to spend more time outside in your gardens and wild places.

Yes, I'm Working.... Check out my shirt.

If I have an assignment to rove or lead a tour , I have a hard time remembering to stop working. Mostly, I feel like I'm playing and gathering up new friends as I move around, or as I get involved in  interesting conversations. And  before and after my scheduled work hours, or on my days off, I'm doing the same thing.  So the only way to tell if I'm working, is to check my shirt. If I'm in my official shirt, I must have had to work eight hours during that day.

The red maple seeds look especially beautiful against the Spanish moss

These plants have been blooming a few weeks

Right now the refuge is changing each day.  New trees are leafing out, and new wildflowers and blooming shrubs are appearing.   I need to find all this new vegetation and then help visitors find it. Winter avian visitors are leaving while migrants are stopping by.  Gotta keep tabs. Resident birds are nesting or raising young. I even saw a pair of fledgling owls on my last boat tour. (It is also part of my duty to take frequent boat tours so I can advise visitors of what they will see by boat - and I can't wear my shirt, so you'll have to take my word for it - It's WORK.)

One of the palm warblers that were still here early this week

On one of the tour boats reaching Chesser's prairie

I worked hard to get this sunset from the sunset tour boat

This past week, I went out with another volunteer to rove.  We assigned ourselves the task of finding every blooming species of plant, picking the best sites for each species and then learning the location so we can describe both the flower, and the area in which to find it.

Willow blooms - pollinators love them

Volunteer Barb and I found several Osceola's Plume, Zigadenus dengus

Osceola's Plume Close Up

Orange milkwort, Polygala lutea - one local name is Swamp cheetos

Barb found these newly emerged Pink Sundew, Drosera capillaris, but now I can locate them too

On another work day, as I was getting ready to count birds on the Cane Pole Trail,  I met a visitor I've met a few times before - she and her husband are wintering her and come by often.  She was interested in both birds and plants.  We started off by counting all the bird species we could find on the Cane Pole Trail. She was able to get some gorgeous pictures of a Prairie Warbler.  That just may be the most cooperative warbler we have.  It forages low and slow so you get lots of clear looks at it. We didn't find a Palm warblers but I had found them while "working" a day or so earlier.

Palm warblers are heading north

Mary was kind enough to send me a picture of the prairie warbler we found.  Thanks Mary

After that we went on down the auto tour, stopping to look at all the flowers I'd discovered and also looking for the just-up sundews.  We ended up spending about three hours together and found six parrot pitcher plants trying to regrow, two with flower buds on them. Then we had her husband take our picture on both our cameras.

 Me with my new friend, Mary, after finding six parrot pitcher plants,  Note the shirt, and the truck - a sure sign I'm working.

I also had to wander around the boardwalk by myself, between visitors, but got to enjoy our blonde raccoon that forages near the beginning of the boardwalk.  It is being seen often enough that we tell early and late visitors to watch for it.  On one day, I spent about ten minutes taking pictures of it.

Blonde racoon foraging

I also find lots of puzzling things.  One of them appeared to be a bundle of male longleaf pine cones.   If you know what this is all about, please share.

Mysterious bundle

Friday I grabbed my clothes out of the dryer in the community trailer during my lunch break and then noticed some big greenish-white blooms nearby. They were pawpaw blooms. So I went around looking for more as part of my afternoon job.

Pawpaw plants among the saw palmetto

They just get prettier, the closer I got to them

Intricate blooms start off green and then turn white

Saturday, I was supposed to lead a boardwalk tour but no one showed up.  I just roved down the  boardwalk,  and was able to share alligators, turtles, birds and the first magnolia bloom with visitors, including a German couple.  Earlier, I also found a red-shouldered hawk nest that is just past the canoe launch site. The nest is mostly invisible but I watched the male red-tailed hawk come screaming in with a large lizard.  Then I heard the female talking to the babies.

One of the pig frogs I help visitors find and identify

Another way I can tell if I'm working or not is by the sunset.  If I'm looking at one, I'm NOT working because the refuge closes before sunset and I have no work to do.  (At least that's true unless I'm on the sunset tour boat.)

Relaxing after yet another hard days work

 On the personal front, I'm down to just two more adventures and 8 days of work before I'll be packing and leaving April 15.  Tomorrow I'm off to paddle the Altamaha River for two days with Julie DeVore who was my guest blogger recently. This will be our first real meeting but I feel I know her well after lots of chats via e-mail and phone.  Next weekend, I'm going to visit another new friend that I met while WORKING here. We'll be paddling and birding ..... stay tuned for the details. Probably lots of hard play will be involved.

Big Backyard Bird Count at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

We took part in the Big Backyard Bird Count today.  I managed to get started in time to catch a last glimpse of the full moon, before it was buried in clouds. And I was sooo happy to find turkeys right beside the boardwalk restroom grounds. No one showed up for our 7:00 A.M. start so I left a note and went down the boardwalk.  A group of ibis flew over soon after I started.  They turned out to be the only ibis seen today.

Setting moon

The only turkey that would give me a side view

This was one of my early birds and first of several Carolina wrens

The day was beautiful and quite warm, and I was just in a sweater and a hat.   But the little fifteen minute rain shower we had at five o'clock was the edge of a little cold front, and the day got windier and cloudier. I had to add a windbreaker for a few hours.  Finally the sun prevailed and we got clear skies before noon. The high winds helped to keep the birds down out of sight. I found some sandhill cranes and great egrets hiding in the grass.

The light was beautiful until the clouds filled the sky

One of a few sandhill cranes I found trying to stay out of the wind

I got accidental help form the Jacksonville Audubon Club who had scheduled a field trip here. A few other people also counted at different times during the day. One family gave me the only great blue herons we saw, and several other people supplied new species.

I got real excited in the afternoon when I had to go cover the visitor center and started looking at my pictures.  One of the little birds I had taken turned out to be a Palm Warbler.  And the storm knocked down some branches and cones and had some kind of food that the chipping sparrows, yellow-rumped warblers, and pine warblers were eating right on the road.  So I was able to get lots of pictures of them quite easily.

We had scores of yellow-rumped warblers

My most exciting little bird - a palm warbler

The usual high up feeding pine warblers were mostly found on the ground today

Chipping sparrow - the first I've seen here

Had to take this sign of spring I found while walking the woodland trails around Chesser Homestead

We had numerous red-bellied woodpeckers

This very cooperative bluebird came to the restroom while I was sitting beside it

Here's what we saw:

Species

48 speciesN total

6	Wood Duck
1	Ring-necked Duck
8	Wild Turkey
1	Pied-billed Grebe
1	Double-crested Cormorant
3	Anhinga
1	American Bittern
2	Great Blue Heron
12	Great Egret
1	Little Blue Heron
7	White Ibis
22	Turkey Vulture
1	Northern Harrier
1	Cooper's Hawk
2	Bald Eagle
2	Red-shouldered Hawk
10	Sandhill Crane
1	Mourning Dove
7	Common Ground-Dove Smaller, fatter dove than mourning dove. Always seen on the ground and runs into taller grass when flushed. Usually see three in this location. Second observer found 7 later in the day at the same location, the grass behind the boardwalk restroom.
1	Belted Kingfisher
15	Red-bellied Woodpecker
1	Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
3	Downy Woodpecker
1	Northern Flicker
3	Eastern Phoebe
1	Blue Jay
1	Purple Martin
7	Tree Swallow
1	Carolina Chickadee
1	Tufted Titmouse
3	Brown-headed Nuthatch
14	Carolina Wren
2	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
2	Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3	Eastern Bluebird
1	Hermit Thrush
250	American Robin
12	Gray Catbird
4	Northern Mockingbird
3	Orange-crowned Warbler
5	Common Yellowthroat
3	Palm Warbler
25	Pine Warbler
1	Eastern Towhee
10	Chipping Sparrow
1	Red-winged Blackbird
3	Rusty Blackbird
3	Common Grackle

This great blue heron was just outside the count - we counted two

Now I'm late getting to bed.  I have to get up at 3:45 AM so I can meet, my friend, Cindy and drive with her to Jekyll Island, GA.  We are going to count birds, take lots of pictures, eat out, and then play with taking night pictures.  Monday I have to leave at 6:30 A.M. to go to Jacksonville to get a broken window fixed on my car.  I'm already starting to look forward to having to work Tuesday.  Perhaps I'll get a little rest during work.