Category Archives: field work

Bycatch

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When you’re target netting, as we are, you use just a few nets and play the song of the bird species you want to catch to lure them into the nets. Even so, sometimes you accidentally catch other things.

The bycatch we dreaded was the stinging insects: we caught two bees and three wasps last week. We did get all of them freed, but it was very time-consuming, and was more time spent closer to these stinging guys than I really ever wanted. Lots of disentangling one body part and then flinching back, disentangling another and flinching back…

It’s hard not to like avian bycatch, though. We extract them from nets and simply release them—I don’t have a permit to do anything with any species besides juncos—but still it’s fun to handle other bird species, and to see them up close. Continue reading →

We caught juncos

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The first field expedition was a success! Almost exclusively thanks to the ingenuity, good mist netting sense, and all around awesomeness of my three field assistants. Over three sites we banded a total of 18 juncos. And there are many, many juncos still to go!

Since I’m on field time – wake up at 5:30, go to bed at 9:00 – I’m ready to crash, so I’ll leave you with some photos for now, with more info to come in the future.

SSOA, the first junco we banded

ELEA, unintentionally recaptured

Extracting ELEA from the net

OGAG

Ready or not, here we come

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Now that I have my permit and (almost) all my gear, it’s time to get out there and start catching juncos! With my three awesome field assistants I hope to find, band, and monitor lots of juncos.

There won’t be any new posts until I get back, since I’ve been so busy preparing that I haven’t had time to write any in advance. Sorry!

Four people need a lot of food to live for a week, and apparently I need a lot of gear to study juncos… This was my living room/staging area last night:

My roommate is being patient with this because in a few weeks she’ll be filling our living room with her own field gear. I love living with a fellow field biologist!

Back with news in a week. In the meantime, wish Q good luck on his quals!

Legal! And scrambling

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I got my state permit! I am now legally allowed to catch and band juncos in my low elevation sites. (My high elevation sites have an additional permit I’m still waiting on.) Yay!

I could band him

I could band her

Less awesomely, some equipment that I expected to have by now is backordered, so I’m going to have to improvise a little. But I’m fortunate that it’s nothing I can’t improvise. I’ve spent the last few days scrambling to get things that I really couldn’t do without, and it seems like all of that has been successful, so I’m happy.

Where were the juncos?

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The total junco count for my field site scouting last week was… one. Where were the juncos?

I suspect that they weren’t yet there. Juncos seem to winter at low elevations, then migrate to higher elevations as the weather improves enough to permit breeding. I wasn’t sure exactly when this would happen—that’s why I was scouting. Given that there was frost on the ground, leaves were just emerging from buds, and the bluebirds were collecting nesting material, it doesn’t surprise me that the junco breeding season was not yet in full swing.

This is actually great for me. My field assistants are undergraduates and don’t get out of school for another few weeks. If the juncos haven’t yet arrived, then it looks like by the time they start defending territories, attracting mates, and generally doing interesting things, my field assistants will be free and I’ll be at full researchy strength.

I’m here now and I have awesome spotted legs and sticky toes, research me!

Scouting Sierra—or not

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I had planned to visit Sierra National Forest as well as Stanislaus; but it turned out that Sierra was more closed (due to snow) than I expected. The few campgrounds open were in a very heavily built-up area, lots of gated estates and resorts. I was torn: I wanted to scout Sierra, but this was clearly not the part of Sierra I would be working in.

On the other hand, the first Stanislaus campground I had visited seemed like a likely site for future field work, and I had seen a junco there. Just one; but I knew he was there. If I went back I could try to resight him, observe him, and try to figure out what breeding stage he was at. In the end I decided to do that, so I headed back for Stanislaus.

On the drive I saw another pair of Western Bluebirds and a jackrabbit.

Please don't pull over to look at me

I also saw some non-wild fauna.

The ovine breeding stage scientifically known as the "adorable" stage