If you guessed getting ready for bird surveys, you are correct!
In the southwest United States, the best time to observe wildlife is when it is cool, which is either at dawn or dusk. Birds in particular are very active in the morning hours, when there is less background noise and songs carry long distances. When it gets hot, most birds hunker down. That means bird biologists have got to get out bright (actually, no, dark) and early to complete thorough bird surveys.
On Tuesday, my fellow wildlife intern and I participated in two intense bird surveys: a breeding bird survey in the morning, then a nightjar survey in the evening. The breeding bird survey sent us out at 3:30am to a route our wildlife biologist, Sheri, has been running for four years now. We drove to specific points, turned off the car engine, and had three minutes to name all the birds we saw and heard. Fifty points were plotted on our GPS, and the birds kept us busy at each one. Birds we saw included common nighthawks at dawn, violet-green swallows in residential areas, lots of horned larks, golden eagles and burrowing owls on rangeland. It felt like we had been working all day by the time the sun came up and brightened the mountains.
We took a break until that evening when it was time to go searching for nightjars. Nightjars – also known as goatsuckers because it was once believed that they sucked milk from goats during under the cover of darkness – are small nocturnal birds that rest on the ground and feed on insects at night. Like the breeding bird survey in the morning, we drove to specific points and paused to listen for the birds. The two species of nightjars in Southwest Utah are the common nighthawk and common poorwill. In the bright moonlight it was possible to see the birds as they flew erratically after moths, but listening for their songs was the sure-fire way to identify the birds. Nighthawks make a nasally peer, while poorwills softly say their name, poor-will.
On Tuesday, the nightjar survey concluded close to midnight before driving back to the office. The nightjar surveys continued Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Despite being pretty tired by the end of the week, it was worth seeing and hearing birds and other wildlife before the rest of Utah woke up. Wildlife biology requires a high level of patience and endurance. Often you don’t see your target species. Last night we only heard one poorwill. Oftentimes you must work odd hours in remote places. But it is worth it, because the data goes toward conserving habitats and species. Wildlife biology is difficult work, and for me, it is absolutely worth it, even if I got to be up and working at 3 am.