This last month has been chalked full of activity.  At the start of the month I participated in a week long AIM training.  AIM stands for Assessment, Inventory, Monitoring.  It is a protocol used to evaluate landscapes on their flora.  It measures plant cover, species richness, as well as information about soil type and stability.  The week long intensive training started with presentations in a classroom setting and then transitioned to learning techniques in the field.  It was certainly a challenge learning all the techniques and rules to the survey, but towards the end of the week everybody was feeling more confident and ready to practice it on their own in the field.  Two weeks later, the AIM team at the Prineville office met up on Friday and headed out into the field to calibrate.  The practice of calibration is meant to ensure that everybody on the team is getting similar results so that there is no bias depending on who is collecting the data.

After the training there was work to do around the office to prepare for the upcoming field season.  Much of this work was attending safety trainings so that I am prepared for all of the unexpected situations that I could encounter in the field.  Other than trainings, I prepared maps and routes to field sites that I would be traveling to in the future.  My first set of excursions into the field focused on Greater Sage Grouse again.  This time instead of monitoring active leks, I was monitoring unoccupied-pending leks.  These leks are essentially ones that have not been documented to contain Sage Grouse for a certain number of years.  My job was to drive out to these leks, then hike out to the lek center and check for signs that they have been utilized recently.  This mostly meant checking for clockers and cecal tar (two types of Sage Grouse excrement).  Most of the leks that I checked had old signs, but a couple had recent signs indicating that they should be examined more closely next year.

Greater Sage Grouse Cecal Tar

Greater Sage Grouse Clockers

After I surveyed the leks that I was assigned to, I was ready for the next adventure.  This turned out to be conducting wildlife clearance for Juniper thinning.  A little bit of background here about Junipers.  Junipers have been rapidly encroaching on the western landscape from their traditional distribution.  They are cleared by ranchers and farmers because of the water that they hold, but they are also a major threat to Greater Sage Grouse (GSG).  GSG lek and live in open habitats that are optimally free from tall structures.  Raptors and Ravens perch on these structures and use them as a vantage point from which to hunt.  Depredation from raptors and ravens has a highly deleterious effect of GSG populations, so we are trying to reducing perching locations for these predators.  It turns out that Junipers are perfect structures for raptors and thus need to go.  However, due to the Migratory Bird Act of 1918 that we cannot destroy nests of birds, so that is where I come in.  I go out to the areas that are prioritized for Juniper thinning and check for nests.  If I see a nest I take a GPS point and mark it with flagging tape.

Before I embarked on this new field assignment I took advantage of a three day weekend and planned a birding itinerary.  Earlham College, my alma mater, has an annual bird count and I was eager to be a part of it this year.  I left Prineville and traveled to Smith Rock and the Sisters area, where I located many species of woodpecker, the highlights being Black-backed woodpecker and the White-headed woodpecker.

White-headed Woodpecker

Black-backed Woodpecker

I then traveled to Corvallis before stopping by the coast.  I managed to find many of the shore birds thats I was searching for including the Black-bellied Plover, Western Sandpiper and Whimbrel as well as many other species including Common Murre, Black Oystercatcher, Harlequin Duck and Brown Pelicans.

Whimbrel

Western Sandpiper and Black-bellied Plover.

Then I spent the morning in William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge and saw a wide range of species from the Black-throated Grey Warbler to the Western Tanager and Black-headed Grosbeak.  Then I returned to Prineville and picked up a couple of species before heading home and calling it a weekend.  All in total I had seen 130 different species over the weekend, a fairly respectable showing.

Shortly after this, I headed out into the field and started to search for nests in Juniper trees.  This consisted of a heavy dose of hiking, but through a wonderful landscape. Not only was the scenery beautiful, but is provided me another opportunity to search for birds while looking for nests.  The highlights so far have been a long-eared owl, a variety of sparrows, as well as a very photogenic Wilson’s Snipe.

Vesper Sparrow

Gray Flycatcher

Nest in a Juniper tree

Wilson’s Snipe

I am loving working with the BLM in Prineville and cannot wait to report on my next adventures.