We woke up late (relatively) for a 7:30 breakfast where we welcomed our latest arrival, Debra. Due to the crazy Chicago weather, she was delayed and didn't arrive until after most of us had gone to sleep. Our final two members, Ed Jr. and Eric, will arrive tonight.
The day was basically a "dry run" of our field research. Our first priority was to build up our gear bags. Although we had packing lists and had brought all the things we thought we needed, we have quickly discovered there are a lot of items we still needed. Luckily, the Teton Science School has a whole gear shop where we could go "shopping" this morning. We picked up better backpacks, water bottles, and rain pants (rain is in the forecast for early next week).
We also got into pairs as we learned how to use our official research gear, the gear that we will need to locate nests and collect data. In the field, we will always be working in pairs -- to help us stay safe and to help us collect quality data. Each pair received a field guide, a data collection sheet, a GPS unit, an expendable mirror (for looking into nests), push pins (for marking nests), and more. After learning a little about the four bird species we will be studying, we headed out into the play field.
Our first challenge was to orient ourselves along the satellite map so that we can learn to navigate successfully through the research locations. Even those of us who claimed to have a good sense of direction were challenged to figure out our position with few man-made
landmarks. We headed through the brush in pairs to get a chance to investigate the area and practice using walkie-talkies.
We then headed down to the shaded area near Ditch Creek to eat our packed lunches (we made sandwiches for ourselves this morning). Jen gave us an overview of how to complete a vegetation search as well a behavioral search (two different methods for locating birds and their nests) through a plot of land. We were lucky enough to spot a moose from a somewhat safe distance and he wandered away from us rather than getting too close before we headed back to camp.
Back in the lab, we had the opportunity to learn more about the species we will be studying -- the American Robin, the Yellow Warbler, the Black-headed Grosbeak and the Song Sparrow. In addition to their distinctive coloring, they have distinctive calls (which Jen played for us) and make distinctive nests.
When we find a nest, we will need to mark its location using hand-held GPS. To practice using the devices, we marked a few waypoints in the lab before heading out in search of a mystery bird. We were like kids on a treasure hunt as we attempted to find the "blue-winged funny bird" using only the nest coordinates. Although it wasn't a live bird, it was a great way for us to practice our identification skills.
We followed it up by checking out the funny bird's nest and using the mirror to look for eggs since the nest was above eye level (photo of egg investigation coming soon). By this time, all of us realized that looking for nests was going to be challenging work. Birds place their nests in places where they can be somewhat protected in an effort to ensure "nest success." For more practice, we hid fake nests for our partners and then described their location so that a future researcher could check the progress.
By this time, it was about 4 o'clock and we were exhausted. We got time for a short break before dinner and then a group of us headed down the road for a nice walk. You would think that after a long day on our feet we would be tired but we had spent so much time listening and learning, it was nice to have the time to just walk and observe.
Tomorrow, we head out to our first field site. Today was just a dry run and tomorrow will be the real thing. We are all hoping to find a nest but at the same time, feeling a little overwhelmed at all the information we have to keep track of.
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