Things I've learned in one week

Last Monday morning was my first morning out, up before dawn to go on a bird survey with Tom. Every day since then, I've been out with either Tom or Jaime. Every place we go, we've been looking for cones and crossbills, and I've been picking up some useful information on trees, bird songs, and how to read trail maps.

By now, one week into it, I've finally gotten to the point where I feel a close personal friendship with lodgepole pine, with its bottle-brush, slightly scattered look, and its upright, enthusiastic way of growing. And its generous habit of always having at least a few new cones, while all the spruce and fir are empty.

I've also renewed my acquaintance with the familiar, more relaxed-looking Douglas-fir, which also often has a few new cones. (I already knew Doug fir a bit, but had no idea its cones looked so silly when they were new! - the whole tree peppered with what look like purple plastic dog toys covered with silly green spikes - nothing at all like the sober brown that a proper, civilized "pine cone" should be. Not that it's a pine, but whatever, it's definitely not a very professional look for a conifer.) After buying a small pocket-size tree book, I've also keyed out (= formally identified) a few blue spruce (huge, dark, and drooping, with VERY prickly branches!) and limber pine (wearing a hat of crazy-looking, bendy cones coming out at right angles). There's a few others that I haven't quite figured out, though.

I also have been trying to learn the local bird songs. Tom Hahn has always had an incredible ear for bird song, and it's a crazy experience walking outside with him. He can't get through two sentences without interrupting himself to point out a vanishingly faint bird call that he's just heard - and not only does he instantly know the species, he often can tell the region the bird grew up in, its age, its mood, and whether or not it just woke up. (I'm not exaggerating.) He is the sort of person who is honestly puzzled that anybody could POSSIBLY, EVER confuse a Western Tanager song with an American Robin song, and if you know those two songs, you'll see what I mean about Tom. Anyway, I got a jumpstart on my Wyoming songs that first day, just by walking around with Tom and just listening to his nonstop running commentary on every one of the hundreds of faint woodsy sounds surrounding us.

Tom then had to return to California for a bit, so since he left I've been trying to figure out the remainder of my Mystery Song list on my own. Some of those little birds are pure geniuses at hiding themselves! I'll be chasing them around for an hour and never getting a clear view. But almost every hike is marked by a Mystery Song triumph: the Olive-Sided Flycatcher posing this morning with its simple, loud "quick three beers!" in the sunny meadow this morning at Death Canyon... the entire hour I spent chasing a magnificently singing Lincoln's Sparrow in endless circles, back of Triangle X... the brilliant, nuanced, creative vocabulary of the gorgeous Green-tailed Towhee who came to visit our crossbills at the ponds this morning, turning cooperatively to show me first his chestnut cap, and then his fancy green tail... the shockingly beautiful Lazuli Bunting singing at the marsh... the odd, enchanting "zeep" of the Common Nighthawks that flit around our camp at night... the mysterious evening song that turned out to be the "longer" night song of the Western Wood-Pewee.

While doing all this tromping around, I also found a Lincoln's Sparrow nest, a Violet-Green Swallow nest right in our campsite, a Dark-Eyed Junco nest just one yard from our truck tire at Mosquito Creek (and full of babies! No wonder the parents were so upset! jeez, that was close!). And almost got a Chipping Sparrow nest today.

Other things I've learned in the last week:
"Improved Dirt Road" means "Somebody put some gravel here once, sometime in the last twenty years".

"Unimproved Dirt Road" means "Some joker drove a jeep through a mudhole here once and left 2 faintly discernable ruts".

"Four Wheel Drive Recommended", in a national park road, means "You don't need four wheel drive at all, but we don't want lots of people driving down this road".

Two tourist cars pulled over to the side of the road means a pretty view of the Tetons; three cars is an elk; four or more is a bison calf or a moose.

And "We're going to get to bed early tonight FOR SURE" means "No we won't."