Week of Data Entry

An important and necessary part of the scientific process...

Monday: meeting with Sue, to-do lists made. Proof and enter banding and phenology data, repair nets and replace the ones too damaged to fix, adjust support ropes, trim net-lanes, catalogue and fix chest-waders, set up fall nets (8-10, 12, 14-16, 22), fix trail to nets 8-10, put together banding kits #2 & #3, set up data binders for fall, print fall data sheets (banding, summary, phenology). I will be going to the Denali Highway to help Sue the week of June 13-17, and Dayna will be gone doing point-counts for the last week of June.

Done: 7 data sheets (0A)

Tuesday: went for sushi lunch with Sue, Dayna, and Tricia for Dayna’s birthday. Serious yum happened.

Done: 7 data sheets (0A, 0, 1)

Female White-Winged Crossbill!

Wednesday: banding! Slow-ish, fairly normal day, a bit rainy during closing. Around the middle of the day, two of my volunteers came back to the tent after a net run, handed me some bird bags, and immediately started pouring over the field guides. “We’re pretty sure we’ve got something cool, but we anted to check first.” Much to my nerd-ish glee, I pulled a White-Winged Crossbill (WWCR) out of the indicated bird bag. Awesome-bird-cookies to Paige and Karen! It was a female (generally yellow, males are generally red) with a nice-looking brood patch. We tried valiantly to find her man-friend, but to no avail. Her upper mandible crossed to the left. I heard somewhere that crossbills’ bills can cross either direction. They use the crossed-ness to pry open conifer cones (Black and White Spruce here in Fairbanks) for the seeds. White-Winged Crossbill was a new bird for me, both for banding and in-hand. ^__^

(Wednesday 8 June) Banding Summary: 17 birds, 8 species (AMRO, SCJU, CORE, YWAR, MYWA, HAFL, NOWA, BCCH, WWCR).

Thursday: more data entry.

Done: 8 data sheets (1, 1B, 1A, 2, Recap)

Friday: more data entry and Denali Highway packing lists. I am a compulsive list-maker.

Done: 6 data sheets (0A, Recap)

Saturday: banding again! Very slow and nothing much of interest.

(Saturday 11 June) Banding Summary: 10 birds, 8 species (NOWA, AMRO, BCCH, HAFL, OCWA, LISP, MYWAY, SCJU).