We flew today.

It was a perfect morning: no wind, no clouds. Couldn't have been better.

The sun rose shortly after we took off. I haven't yet figured out why sunrises are more beautiful from the air, but they are. Had an 11-minute commute to our starting point, which was great for sight-seeing. Flying over broken rimrock country at sunrise, with row after row of red hills and black shadows. Definitely a good way to start the day.

By the time the sun was fully up, we were over the flatter prairies east of the Haystack Mountains. The pilot and I first flew a count of this area together in 1980, and we agreed this morning: we have never seen it so green!

Pretty uneventful flight. Lots of antelope in most places, so we didn't lose as many as we feared during the winter. Some places, however, were nearly devoid of pronghorn. The area with 11 "test" wells for coalbed methane had damn few antelope. This is the last time we will see this country so pure. By the time I fly it again in three years' time, this country will probably be full of wells, roads and pipelines. Ruined, like the gas patch to the west.

Heaven forbid we should try to "conserve" energy.

Did find two sage grouse cocks still out there strutting. Guess they are unwilling to accept that the breeding season is over.

Also five coyotes. Surprised one pair early in the flight, glowing pink in the new light, out hunting side by side.

Lots of pelicans. Used to be they were rare enough that we would and could count and map every one we saw. No longer. Just about every stretch of river and reservoir had some, with my best guess being about 146 seen.

Being mainly in desert country, I have had only one pair of bald eagles nest in my area, and that only in the past five years or so. And last year their nest on an island in the river was found collapsed, with no eagles in sight. But this morning we found their new nest site, about 13 miles downstream. So I still have one bald eagle nest.

Best yet... no vomitting. Notice I didn't say "no air sickness." That would be a lie. Even had the bag out and to my mouth on two occasions, but I managed to keep things where they belonged. Sorry, Badsnake. (There wouldn't have been any chunks anyway... I never eat or drink anything for at least eight hours before flying. Good dieting regimen when we end up flying mornings and evenings.)

Helped that, because of a bend in the river, half the transects had stretches of several miles where we crossed the water and I didn't have to count. Just ride along like a tourist, enjoy the scenery and settle the stomach. Pilot took these opportunities to talk to his mechanic on the radio, arranging repairs on the starters for the 210 and the 180.

Wait a minute... we're in the 180!

Yup, and the starter's been acting up again. Needs to be stripped out and sent in to be rebuilt. First thing, when we land.

Oh, joy.

Good thing they have us checking in with dispatch every 20 minutes. At least they'll have a rough idea where to look for the pieces. Actually, not. Our transects at this point were ~24 miles long, so our check-in points were all quite close, but we covered a lot of ground in between.

We radio our locations in latilongs. But on one count a few years back our check-in times happened to coincide with where we turned around at the Interstate. So we dove down to read the milepost markers on the highway, and reported our locations by mile marker. Dispatch's voice never flinched. Is it common to have aircraft report in by highway mileposts like the Patrol?

Anyway, a good flight. Hope to do it again on Monday.

Spent most of the rest of the morning sitting on the porch, sipping cafe mocha and reading a sage grouse research report. Which allowed the masked heeler to spend a couple hours outside harassing squirrels.

Did I mention that I came home to find an open and empty package of beef jerky on the floor? Seems the wife's godson left two packages here last night, and did not put them up out of reach. Happy heelers. Only the little maskless heeler had jerky breath, but I know her sister is the one who climbs up on tables to snitch stuff (we set up the video cam once when we left the house, and caught her on tape. She could not understand how we knew who to scold!).