Field Notes

This experience so far has been great. The sights are breathtaking, the people involved are wonderful, and the project itself is inspiring.  The last 2 weeks in Shasta was great in the sense of being able to bond with the crew and learn the ins and outs of what is expected of us and what [...]

Funny thing happened about a week and half ago. Catherine, Ben and I had just arrived at a site for a morning hoot. Just before we got out of the car I was telling them that when I arrive early at a site, before hooting I like to sit and listen [...]

Everyone has been having crazy adventures in the field, which I hope they get to blog about soon. We had unprecedented success finding owls during our first two weeks of training. At this point we have ten sites with spotted owls detected, eight sites with scat and behavior collected, one site with a [...]

Jay made his much-anticipated arrival from North Carolina on Wednesday. The interns and Eric had been curious to meet him. Aimee, Jennifer and I were looking forward to a reunion. Jay started late this year in order to take the LEED test in North Carolina, which, incidentally, he passed. Now he can confer [...]

The first night hoot for the interns was a success as Lisa described in her First Owl blog. After hearing that beautiful 4-note I was ready to run, yet the sun had already set, it would have to wait for morning. Kate, Catherine, Laura, Steve and I were eager to come back [...]

Our first night we had a potluck dinner. All the interns made delicious dishes. Here’s a bunch enjoying the food and company:

Our first week involved a lot of training. Here’s Melissa, Michelle, Garrett, Ben and Ruben getting comfortable with maps:

The interns were eager to hike in the woods and find some owls. [...]

After the great work of all the groups finding owls and putting in time for observations and waiting for scat, we had a couple days off (Sunday and Monday) to reboot. Most of the interns decided to take a group trip out to the Lost Coast. A few stayed back to chill here [...]

My first blog of the new season and I’m a bit intimidated! Already it’s great to be back, although I am adjusting to this wet, soggy, does-it-want-to-snow-or-doesn’t-it weather. I came from doing some field work in Arizona where it has been much warmer. All the interns are so enthusiastic to get out [...]

Saturday morning the crew departed for the field before five. We split into four teams to survey four historic sites paired in two separate areas of the forest.  If one team failed to find owls, they would join the team on the nearby site and hopefully everyone would get a chance to see an [...]

After three days of “classroom” instruction on driving safety, changing tires, data collection, zoonotic diseases, dangerous wildlife, owl biology, weirdos in the woods, maps, compasses and GPS (among other things), the interns were ready for the field.  Thursday evening we split the group and headed south to a couple historic sites, listening to owl recordings [...]