On my list of things to do before July ended was to send in the data for the two breeding bird survey routes I ran back in June. Which would mean my data would only be a couple weeks late. But the BBS folks say they'll take any good data, no matter how old.

Entered all the information through their website last week, and then started making copies so I could mail the original data sheets in. First half went well, then the printer went into one of its snits, and started locking up before the first page of each report was complete.

Printer says it's a paper jam, but in reality, what happens is the ink carriage jams and refuses to retract. Which requires a complete reboot of the computer to resolve. And from then on, each page has to be copied singly.

Pain in the you-know-what. Finally finished the copies this morning.

The other thing I wanted to do was write down some comments on their handy-dandy breeding bird survey route comment sheets. Basically bitching about them sending me lousy photocopies of the colour route maps we've been sending back and forth every year for close to 18 years. One of those maps was legal size, and the copy is only normal paper, so the last third or so of the route was completely missing.

On top of that, I recorded the UTM coordinates of each of the 50 stops on both routes back in 2002. Makes it all real simple. Just watch the numbers scroll up or down on your GPS and park the rig when the numbers match.

Unfortunately, whatever technician they had make their photocopies also failed to copy the backs of the GPS sheets, so again, no information on the last 28 stops of each route.

Good thing I've run the routes a few times. Got most of the stops memorized.

So, anyway. The comment sheets are still in the official government envelope, which is buried somewhere in the piles of papers, books, cds and folders on the couch next to the desk. A mixed pile of important stuff that probably goes back who knows how long.

I really need to sort it all and clear off the couch so the heelers have someplace to nap again, besides the floor around my chair wheels. (Yeah, the rest of the office floor is covered with boxes and piles of papers.)

So, late Friday I'm digging through the pile of papers, looking for the official envelope. All the while trying to compose in my mind the nasty comments I want to relay about them losing my colourful maps, after all the work I went to draft the things, and my lists of GPS coordinates.

Probably a half-hour later, near the bottom of the pile, what do I find?

Last year's data sheets.

Yup, they apparently never got sent in. Data made it alright, over the internet, but here lay the original data sheets for 2003.

Along with those wonderful colour maps I was talking about. And the papers with the UTM coordinates for each stop (both sides).

Oops.

So. I guess now we know why the feds never sent the fancy maps and lists back to me this spring, huh?

And am I ever so grateful that I found those papers before I sent off a nasty-gram about them losing my stuff.

One of the unusual things about my BBS routes this year was a sudden burst of abundance of these things:

Lark buntings.

More of a prairie bird, there are years when I don't see or hear a single one of these black and white birds on these two routes. Their courtship song is a bubbly, warbling tune emitted by the male as he flies up into the air, and then glides back down. A delight to hear, and hard to miss. (Hard to catch for a picture, too.)

This year they were on both routes, in any place where the sage tended to be a little thin, or low to the ground. Several stops where they outnumbered the horned larks, which is not an easy thing to do.

No idea why they suddenly burst into existence this year. A great hatch last year? A mild winter down south? Or were things so dry and miserable in much of their normal range that this desert looked good?

An annoying thing about running these route is the rare or unusual birds you see in between stops, and therefore cannot record.

Like the only bobolink I've ever seen in this country.

And this kingfisher this year:

In the canyon on the sand dune route. I'm sure I've seen less than a half dozen of these in the desert in all the years I've been here. But do you think this little fellow could hang around by one of my stops so's I could record him?

Nope.