Summer 2018

Musselshell and Golden Valley counties, MT

From May-July of 2018 I worked as a field technician on a grassland songbird study. Under the supervision of a Master’s student with the Avian Science center from the University of Montana, we monitored avian abundance and nesting success of four focal species: Vesper sparrows, Brewer’s sparrows, McCown’s longspur, and Chestnut-collared longspur. What this job meant for us as technicians was a long summer of early morning bird surveys and hot afternoon nest searches.

A typical work day (TR = transect, NS = nest search)

Sunrise over the prairie

Each day started before dawn. We’d pair up, drive out to our first transect, and walk either a short distance or a very very long distance (anywhere from 200 meters to 4 kilometers) to our first survey point. We would walk along a transect line and survey the different bird species at each plot, all of which had to be done before 11am, when birds stopped being as active and vocal.

The relentless sun over a grassy plot

Afternoons = nest searches!

Making a face because this plot was cursed – a dead cow, quiet rattlesnakes, and NO successful nests

To monitor nests, we first had to find them. This meant traipsing the prairie with chains and dowels for many hours over many miles. Regrettably, I have no nest searching pictures. However, you can imagine two people holding a chain and lightly skimming the grasses up and down a plot or using a dowel (pictured in my backpack above) to gently tap on the sagebrush and hopefully flush a bird off of a nest so we could mark it with a GPS point. Finding a nest was quite exciting. Monitoring them and watching the babies grow? Priceless.

 

Vesper sparrow nestlings!

Brewer’s sparrow babes!

A Brewer’s sparrow nest with a Brown-headed cowbird egg – they are nest “parasites” that lay eggs in other birds’ nests. The host parent usually does not notice, and raises the cowbird as one of its own. Often, the cowbird hatches first and pushes the other eggs out of the nest

Not uncommon to have cows watching our every mooove

Sunrise storm

 

 

 

 

 

All of this work was quite enjoyable – with good weather. But there was rain. A lot of rain…

Big sky country = watching rain fall from miles away

Storm over our little house on the prairie

Stuck

So very stuck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the end of this summer, I essentially had a Ph.D. in un-sticking trucks from muddy roads.

Dancing in the rain 

Scrapbooking with newspapers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of rain also meant lots of rain days. Some days, we’d delay our start time until the roads dried out. Other days, we had to keep busy in the field house. Data-proofing, ID-studying, and general chores took up most of this time – but not all. In a small house shared among 8 people with no wifi or cell service, how do you keep busy? Scrapbooking with local newspapers…

Some of our fine creations

Ron williams!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hours of walking and the struggle of navigating the rain was grueling at times, but the views and the birds were some of the most incredible sights I’ve ever seen.

#nofilter

Most of all, the people I worked with were some of the funniest and most interesting people I’ve ever met. I learned so much from all of them! Not to mention the joys of nerding out with a bunch of fellow birders (what’s your favorite story of corvid intelligence?)

6/8 of the field crew on a rainy nest check day – this picture was a celebration of making it up the hill without getting stuck!

There’s still a lot we don’t know about grassland bird life histories (some of these questions I explored in my senior thesis – read or listen). The more we can learn about their survival, wintering habits, migration routes, etc. the better we can inform conservation efforts and better understand the ecosystems and climate around us.