Sneaky Squirrels

The squirrels of Hodgdon are the epitome of animal adaptation to human presence. If we leave the bear box open for a second they are in there. I actually trapped one in the bear box the other day (I’ll try to post the extraction video later, but it was interesting). I decided to clean out the bear box today and the squirrel got my old peanut butter jar that I am planning to collect insects in. He was really cute, so I jest let him lick out the inside. We left our packed lunches out for one second, and a squirrel tried to get away with an entire pear! We chased it across the campsite and were able to get it back with only a few bites. Victory!!!

To the Valley

I got up this morning and decided to break into my whole grain flour and make pancakes, and yes, I did make bird shapes. Jeff took off to band at Sequoia today, leaving Jessica and I with nothing to do. We decided to go to the Valley to explore and do some shopping. Dan, the other intern who left early, told us that we could get employee IDs (we our treated like employees) and get a discount on food and retail items. We actually get 50% off fast food, which equates to about normal prices. There is so much to do in the Valley; we went to a couple of shops and an Ansel Adams gallery which had some really cool post cards and gifts for Jenevieve’s birthday (I would say what they are, but she reads this blog too). I still found time to process a few birds.



We took the shuttle to the Yosemite Lodge for lunch where I was finally able to get the fish I had been craving. I had a salmon burger on a wheat bun with lots of tomato and a chocolate ice cream cone. When we left from lunch we read the newspaper headlines only to find out that Michael Jackson has died. I feel so unconnected here sometimes. I can’t believe the King of Pop is gone; we were just talking about him yesterday. We decided to walk back to the car, which turned out to be faster than taking the shuttle. So far it’s been a nice day off. Later we may be going to the Evergreen with some of the rangers for some Reggae music.

Cold Nights, Part III

This will hopefully be the last post on how cold it has been at night. It is starting to warm up during the day, but the nights are still cold. My stepfather and Mom sent some great thermals that arrived today. Thank you so much. They are very warm, so I’m sure I will be warm at night. It will be nice not to have to use my camp chair for insulation under my sleeping bag.

Escaped Selasphorous!!!

At Gin Flat Meadow Jessica got either a Rufus Hummingbird or and Allen’s Hummingbird, which both belong to the genus Selasphorous. I got to the net right after she put it in the bag, and right as I got back to the banding station, it escaped from Jessica’s hand. I saw it as a blur as it went by, which was very unsatisfying. I felt sooo disappointed; I still need to see the Rufus, Allen’s, and Calliope Hummingbird before I leave.

Ten Kinglets at Once!!!

Today we got the first of the juvenile Golden-crowned Kinglets have started to fledge. It was great, but we got too many at once. Kinglets are small birds, which means they can lose body heat rapidly; we have to be really careful when we extract and handle them. We got ten on our second net run and ten more on our fourth. There were so many that we couldn’t take our full range of measurements: just a band number, wing cord, and weight. It was really stressful, but Jeff showed me a trick for carrying small birds. Normally when it’s cold I put bird bags clipped to a carabineer inside my flannel shirt, but with small birds, Jeff said we can put the bags right against our skin. It should be just as warm as a hot box and prevent them from getting stressed. We can also double bag them so they can huddle together.

Mama Bear and Cubs

We were banding our busiest site (Crane Flat) today when at the end of our net runs, I saw a sow bear with two cubs. I was maybe 40 meters away from where they were foraging. I went quickly back to the station to get the bear mace, just in case. I tried to haze the bear away (I hadn’t seen the cubs yet), but they didn’t really notice and continued foraging. We closed the nets (bears are known to eat birds out of mist nets) and took some great pictures before heading home. Jeff got some great ones with his telephoto lens that I’ll try to post later.

Hooded Warbler

We may have gotten the bird of the year today, at least for Yosemite. Although common in the East, this second year male was an extreme vagrant here in California. I’m kind of embarrassed to say that I didn’t recognize it when I extracted it from the net. It also lost many of its rectrices in the net (a crime against nature for such a beautiful bird), but was still breathtaking.

I don't have a picture of the Hooded, but this is a nice Yellow Warbler

Scientific Reasoning

I had been planning to take a philosophy of science class online with CNU this summer, but I don’t think it’s going to be possible anymore. I haven’t had the most reliable internet access here in, but it’s been great getting to use it at the Evergreen or Mountain Sage in Groveland. The intern who I had been tagging along to the Evergreen with decided he couldn’t volunteer anymore. I’m not sure I can make the course deadlines (at least twice a week), and this class is starting to looking more like a fool errand than a challenge. I really regret not being able to take it. Science is pretty much the greatest thing ever, and as a scientist I want to learn more about how it works on a philosophical level. I’ve already read a lot of the course work, which is really interesting, so I guess I’ll have to be content with that. I was even brainstorming paper ideas and was stuck between ‘creativity in science’, ‘science and pseudoscience’, and ‘consequences of the scientific worldview’. I am sure this is for the best, and at least I have had a few interesting conversations here with Jeff and Jessica and have some cool books to read.