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counting across the desert The instructions say to have both routes run by the 7th of July. Since you can only run one route a day, and I have two to do, things were getting close. Plan was to run the first one on Sunday. The masked heeler woke me up a little before two in the morning. About an hour before my alarm was set to go off. She had to go out. Prednizone, you see. It was raining. Can't run breeding bird routes in the rain. Or on muddy roads, for that matter. I turned the alarm off when I went back to bed. And enjoyed a sleep-in Sunday morning. But that meant, failing weather cancellations again, I had to get out today. By four o'clock, I was miles from home. Listening to tape recordings of bird calls as I drove, alone on the dark highway. It was still dark when I arrived near my starting point, ten miles into the desert, and began looking for my big white rock... Venus was rising behind me as I watched the moon set in front of me. Waiting for my exact 05:02 starting time. The thermometer said it was all of 41 degrees (F). I was wise to sleep in yesterday. There were still puddles all along my route. Rare sources of water in this desert that drew in an unusual number of sage grouse. This year, I had 33 sage grouse on 8 of my 50 stops. Last year I had none. Otherwise, most birds I saw or heard were the standard five... sage sparrow, sage thrasher, horned lark, Brewer's sparrow or Vesper sparrow. A total of 25 species when I was all done. A typical year. Perhaps too late in the spring for some species. I finished in four hours and twelve minutes. A record time, I suspect. Amazing how much faster things go when you don't have heelers along. And how much more boring. I took a small detour on the way home, to check for frogs at an alkali lake in the desert. Finding none. Just some irate, nest-defending avocets. |
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