So today was long. I haven’t written in a while not because I haven’t been doing a lot of stuff, because I have, no it’ because the stuff I was doing was relatively unremarkable. What we did includes,
-Another observation period on Pilot Island, this time Crissa and I were joined by a guy named John (in my head everybody’s named John this season but he really was named John I think.). After 2 days on Pilot the crew came up with a total of 149 unique bands. Our target? 150. Close… but no cigar.
-Tried out paddleboarding. Stand up paddleboarding (SUP) started in Hawaii as a way to surf without waves. It’s starting to catch on other places including one of the smaller towns around here. It was AWESOME, we rented boards for 2 hours and I was hooked! I want my own so I can take it wherever I go. (I’ll post pictures but since my camera isn’t waterproof the pictures are all on Crissa’s camera.)
-Took an awesome boat tour (sort of). Captain Matt from “Adventure Rafting” out of Fish Creek agreed to take us out to Jack Island, drop us off and pick us back up a few hours later. The boat ride was super fun, he’s got a boat that is a bit smaller then our Zodiac but has speakers and he played music for us and we did loopdydoops and went fast and flew past a big tour boat. I sat in the front of the boat and it was sweet. If you’re ever in Door County look him up. There was another couple on the tour that were on their engagement weekend. The woman was afraid of birds… I felt pretty bad taking her to one of the island but she handled it pretty well. They were very nice. I hope they live happily ever after.
-A short observation period on Jack. I’m glad we got out there and all but it was pretty boring. Total number of band sightings = 0. Which is actually not bad because we’re discouraging cormorants from nesting there, There were maybe 50ish nests on the island (which seems a big number but remember we think 400 is a small number) and maybe a couple hundred cormorants. I bumped my head on my spotting scope and have a bruise… luckily you can’t really see it under my hair.
-Got supplies ready.
This week will probably be our biggest week yet. Tomorrow we’re headed back out to Pilot to do biopsies on adult birds. Last year due to weather they only were able to biopsy 8 so this year our goal is 52!
We’ve readied and tested our traps, strung leg bands, procured the needed drugs (it took us a few hours to find a vet that had the anesthetic we needed), labeled everything, and did whatever we thought would help the process go smoothly. Now, as long as the weather holds, we should be good to go!
We can do it (I think) so BRING IT!!
P.S- I also re-discovered the fact that fireworks make my ears hurt for around 20 hours after the fact. Next time I’m wearing earplugs!
