I am going to ease into these theme of grassland bird posts with a little homework for you. I received an email today from Trevor Herriot in Regina, Saskatchewan informing me that a radio show that he produced with Stuart Houston on grassland birds called "Pastures Unsung" is going to air again on CBC radio. The two part series originally aired last June on the show "Ideas" and will air again on CBC Radio 1 on April 11th and 12th at 9:00 at night (check your local listings - I am not sure what time that translates to with changes in daylight savings time or no daylight savings time in Saskatchewan). If you are too far away from a CBC station you can listen online.
I really enjoyed this broadcast last year but then again I am a bit biased as I was one of the people Trevor interviewed for this project. CBC has a website for the show here. Trevor does a good job of explaining the current status of grassland birds and the threats facing these birds.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Steve and Libby and 10 Books to Take to Antarctica
Recently Steve Bodio posted a photo of his desk. Also, Dr. Hypercube, a fellow blogger, has posted a photo of one wall of Steve's library here, which led me to this post by Odious of Odious and Peculiar concerning Steve's library here.
One of the quotes from Odious is "Following Mr. Bodio in his obsession means following him in his literary wanderings, too--any reader can easily come away with a list of twenty books or so that they now must read."
All of these posts, and in particular the quote from Peculiar above, reminded me of the following blog post I have had stashed away in my mind.
A number of years ago just before I was to return to Antarctica for my first 6 month stint of research, I asked Steve for a list of the 10 books I should take to read. Steve not only provided me with a list of those books, he bought copies of all ten for me! That generosity, both in the time Steve took to compose a very thoughtful list and the purchase of those books, has stuck with me. All were wonderful reads.
The list, as best I can remember and in no particular order is:
1. Patrick Leigh Fermor – Between the Woods and the Water
2. Thomas McGuane – Nobody’s Angle
3. T.H. White- Once and Future King
4. Patrick O’Brian – The Far Side of the World (I think this was the title. I liked them so much I have bought at least one or two of the next in the series every time I have returned to Antarctica)
5. Eric Hansen – Motoring with Mohammed (This is one I no longer have. Probably gave it to someone in Antarctica to read).
6. A.S. Byatt – Possession
7. Lois de Berneires - Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
8. Cormac McCarthy – The Crossing
9. Peter Hoeg – Smilla’s Sense of Snow
10. Actually this one is in order. I can not remember what other book I received from Steve. I think that it may have been George R.R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings but I am not sure. I know that Steve recommended this one but I am unsure if it was on this list or not. Steve?
Although it has been many years since I saw Steve's currently library, I certainly remember spending many hours visiting with Steve in the Bozeman version. To me it was much more grand than a Merlin's cave. In my mind it was a cross between a Victorian naturalists lair and Charlie Russell's studio; a place to wander away from the drudgery and pain of a dysfunctional graduate program with real conversation and mental stimulation. Not to mention my first exposure to good red wine, cooking excellent and different food at home, Steve's wonderful friends and family, and his menagerie. I learned about falconry and pigeons and literature and guns and....you get the picture. I particularly miss our conversations on art and artists as well as being able to join in conversations when Steve's artist friends visited.
Steve's library is the model of the library I hope to have some day. I have these plans of moving this old one-room school I know of, left in the middle of the prairie by the departure of the homesteaders, into my backyard and restoring it into a studio for sculpting and painting and a library. With a big leather chair to read in surrounded by my books, collected artwork, my art, and the artifacts found by a traveling biologist...but that is probably a whole other post.
I spent a lot of time with Steve, Libby and Jackson at their Bozeman house and the place changed a lot when they left. I really miss being close to them and would love to be able to spend a few days hanging out in Magdalena in the library with Steve as well as in the garden with Libby. They gave a lot to me, as they do to all their friends, and I can never repay them for what they gave. A heartfelt thanks and this post will have to do for now.
One of the quotes from Odious is "Following Mr. Bodio in his obsession means following him in his literary wanderings, too--any reader can easily come away with a list of twenty books or so that they now must read."
All of these posts, and in particular the quote from Peculiar above, reminded me of the following blog post I have had stashed away in my mind.
A number of years ago just before I was to return to Antarctica for my first 6 month stint of research, I asked Steve for a list of the 10 books I should take to read. Steve not only provided me with a list of those books, he bought copies of all ten for me! That generosity, both in the time Steve took to compose a very thoughtful list and the purchase of those books, has stuck with me. All were wonderful reads.
The list, as best I can remember and in no particular order is:
1. Patrick Leigh Fermor – Between the Woods and the Water
2. Thomas McGuane – Nobody’s Angle
3. T.H. White- Once and Future King
4. Patrick O’Brian – The Far Side of the World (I think this was the title. I liked them so much I have bought at least one or two of the next in the series every time I have returned to Antarctica)
5. Eric Hansen – Motoring with Mohammed (This is one I no longer have. Probably gave it to someone in Antarctica to read).
6. A.S. Byatt – Possession
7. Lois de Berneires - Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
8. Cormac McCarthy – The Crossing
9. Peter Hoeg – Smilla’s Sense of Snow
10. Actually this one is in order. I can not remember what other book I received from Steve. I think that it may have been George R.R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings but I am not sure. I know that Steve recommended this one but I am unsure if it was on this list or not. Steve?
Although it has been many years since I saw Steve's currently library, I certainly remember spending many hours visiting with Steve in the Bozeman version. To me it was much more grand than a Merlin's cave. In my mind it was a cross between a Victorian naturalists lair and Charlie Russell's studio; a place to wander away from the drudgery and pain of a dysfunctional graduate program with real conversation and mental stimulation. Not to mention my first exposure to good red wine, cooking excellent and different food at home, Steve's wonderful friends and family, and his menagerie. I learned about falconry and pigeons and literature and guns and....you get the picture. I particularly miss our conversations on art and artists as well as being able to join in conversations when Steve's artist friends visited.
Steve's library is the model of the library I hope to have some day. I have these plans of moving this old one-room school I know of, left in the middle of the prairie by the departure of the homesteaders, into my backyard and restoring it into a studio for sculpting and painting and a library. With a big leather chair to read in surrounded by my books, collected artwork, my art, and the artifacts found by a traveling biologist...but that is probably a whole other post.
I spent a lot of time with Steve, Libby and Jackson at their Bozeman house and the place changed a lot when they left. I really miss being close to them and would love to be able to spend a few days hanging out in Magdalena in the library with Steve as well as in the garden with Libby. They gave a lot to me, as they do to all their friends, and I can never repay them for what they gave. A heartfelt thanks and this post will have to do for now.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Dancing in the Moonlight
Another early morning of lek surveys. We received a little less than an inch of snow last night and everything was white this morning. Better yet, the 3/4 moon was just setting as the sun came up. This lek had 34 males with about 10 females wandering through the lek. The stock ponds were pretty much frozen this morning and what patches were open had an assortment of waterfowl on them. At one small pond near the lek there was also a pair of Killdeer huddled in the snow at the ice edge looking very cold.
The number of males on the leks we are surveying appear to be up slightly from last year. We have been recovering from a heavy winter 3 years ago that appeared to be pretty hard on our Greater Sage-grouse populations and the number of males on the leks has been increasing since then.
The avifauna in the sagebrush grasslands hasn't increased in species diversity much yet this spring. I looked for McCown's Longspurs as they should be showing up any day as well as Mountain Plovers but it was pretty much Western Meadowlarks and Horned Larks this morning. Also one flock of Sandhill Cranes in the distance heading north.
The number of males on the leks we are surveying appear to be up slightly from last year. We have been recovering from a heavy winter 3 years ago that appeared to be pretty hard on our Greater Sage-grouse populations and the number of males on the leks has been increasing since then.
The avifauna in the sagebrush grasslands hasn't increased in species diversity much yet this spring. I looked for McCown's Longspurs as they should be showing up any day as well as Mountain Plovers but it was pretty much Western Meadowlarks and Horned Larks this morning. Also one flock of Sandhill Cranes in the distance heading north.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Neruda birds
One thing that I have tried to do during the last two trips I led in Chile is read Pablo Neruda poems to my guests from this great illustrated book of Neruda bird poems from Lynx Edicions. I have tried to read poems that are pertinent to the birds we see on our trip but I haven't been very good about getting many poems in. One that I always manage to read is one that I have pretty much memorized, not only because it is short but because it is so evocative of the bird he writes about.
Cisne
Sobre la nieve natatoria
una larga pregunta negra
Swan
Above the swimming snow
a long black question
Thanks to David Ringer at Search and Serendipity for prompting this post with the short Neruda quote in his blog header. This quote is from another of my favorite Neruda bird poems titled "The poet says good-bye to the birds"
The last stanza reads in full:
A people's poet
provincial and birder,
I've wandered the world in search of life:
bird by bird I've come to know the earth:
discovered where the fire flames aloft:
the expenditure of energy
and my disinterestedness were rewarded,
even though no one paid me for it,
because I received those wings in my soul
and immobility never held me down.
Sage-grouse lek viewing
So if you happen to be anywhere near Glasgow, Montana at 0515 this coming Saturday, April 7th you can join us for our second somewhat annual lek viewing trip.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bureau of Land Management in Glasgow will be coordinating a trip to a local lek for interested people. We did this two years ago and had a pretty good turnout. Looks like the weather might even come around for us this year.
We will be leaving from the FWP office by 0515.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bureau of Land Management in Glasgow will be coordinating a trip to a local lek for interested people. We did this two years ago and had a pretty good turnout. Looks like the weather might even come around for us this year.
We will be leaving from the FWP office by 0515.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Flying Flatcoat and other tidbits
On Saturday I took Addie, our Flatcoated Retriever, to the river for a little dummy training. I love watching this dog go into the water.
This morning we surveyed 4 leks before the snow started to fly. All had increases in the number of displaying males from the last couple of years. This is one of the last best places for Greater Sage-grouse in the world and we are busy doing lek surveys for much of April.
For those of you who happened to watch 60 Minutes on Sunday night and caught the segment on the affects of global warming in Antarctica, you saw one of my favorite places in Antarctica. I worked for one field season at the location where Wayne and Sue Trivelpiece were interviewed and Wayne was my graduate advisor. It was really nice to see images of my "home" for a few wonderful months one year. Despite being back to Antarctica a number of times since working at Copacabana on King George Island, I haven't had the pleasure of going back. I would really like to visit again one of these days just to see how things have changed. If you missed the show you can visit the website here
Grousin'
Up early again this morning for another morning of lek surveys. I was able to get out on Friday morning to look for the reported new Greater Sage-grouse lek. The new lek wound up being an known lek and it had 17 male sage-grouse and about 7 hens on it. It was a rare morning with no wind and I was able to hear the birds displaying from about a mile away. I sat and watched them for a while as the sun slowly emerged and then was swallowed by clouds. Then back to the office for a day of meetings.
Sunday morning Benton and I went to check out the lek closest to town on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. This lek is small I was wouldn't have been surprised if I found no birds this year but instead it had one more displaying male then last year's five. Unfortunately, this lek is quite a ways from the road and required a spotting scope to count. I had forgotten how difficult looking through a scope can be when you are first learning and Benton was unable to figure the deal out. He either had both eyes closed and couldn't see anything of course or with both eyes open, was unable to focus on the image in the eyepiece. We'll keep practicing. We both got to see Mule Deer, Pronghorn, Western Meadowlarks, and a nesting Great Horned Owl. The best part was that Benton told me he had a good time and would do it again despite getting up at 5:30 in the morning.
This morning my intern Susan Hult and I are heading out again for another round of lek surveys. I will try to post some photos from the last few days along with a post on our surveys later this evening.
Sunday morning Benton and I went to check out the lek closest to town on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. This lek is small I was wouldn't have been surprised if I found no birds this year but instead it had one more displaying male then last year's five. Unfortunately, this lek is quite a ways from the road and required a spotting scope to count. I had forgotten how difficult looking through a scope can be when you are first learning and Benton was unable to figure the deal out. He either had both eyes closed and couldn't see anything of course or with both eyes open, was unable to focus on the image in the eyepiece. We'll keep practicing. We both got to see Mule Deer, Pronghorn, Western Meadowlarks, and a nesting Great Horned Owl. The best part was that Benton told me he had a good time and would do it again despite getting up at 5:30 in the morning.
This morning my intern Susan Hult and I are heading out again for another round of lek surveys. I will try to post some photos from the last few days along with a post on our surveys later this evening.
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