It has been a very exhausting week. I've been in the field morning and night banding and bleeding birds. I have to admit, I feel pretty confident now with bleeding chicks, which is good because there are many more to come. Next time a nurse misses my vein when taking my blood, I'll have no sympathy knowing I can do the same thing from a vein MUCH smaller, haha. Anyway, the tundra seems much quieter, with many failed breeders migrating and other shorebirds gathering in post breeding feeding flocks.

I did a little seawatching a few days ago. The pack ice is still pushing the shore here in front of our building, but you still can see some birds migrating. Being at the point is much better for seawatching. The big story for the watch was the number of migrating Jaegers! 20+ of Long-tailed, Parasitic and Pomarine in one hour. I even had Parasitic and Long-tailed flying over my head. I also had one Black Guillemot, a Common and Steller's Eider and some Long-tailed Ducks. There were a few Pacific Loons migrating as well.

Yesterday was a very exciting day. The fun started on my way to a new area to learn radio telemetry. As we were nearing our location, a long Caribou was running along the road, looking lost and worried. There is a herd of 10,000+ way out on the tundra, but too far to see. We do see the locals coming back with dead ones on their ATV. This was the first one I have seen! I thought I might have missed them. I got a bad picture handholding my camera. I think the bluish dot on his tail is a reflection as a result of the sun.

I then learned how to do radio telemetry. It sounds hard, but is fairly easy and I quickly got used to it. I found a few birds, but they did not appear to have nests.

While out in the area, a crew leader found a human skull in the middle of nowhere on the tundra. It looks very old and has moss growing out of it. If it were anywhere else in the States, it probably would be a huge deal, but really not so in Barrow. I was in the area yesterday and saw it.

The Pomarine Jaegers have been extra brutal lately as a result of their hatching chicks!

Today I was back to banding and checking nests on the plots. I got to see, and bleed, my first American-golden Plover chicks! They are really cool!

Since it is the season for chicks, and I heard the Snowy Owl chicks were hatching, I thought I would take a peak. Check out these little guys!

The fog has been staying away finally, but I've been way too busy working to go to the point and seawatch. I haven't seen a male Spectacled Eider lately, but I'd imagine the males are starting to gather and migrate, probably visible migrating at the point.

Looks like my schedule will keep my inside the next two days putting some final plot maps together. It feels like the season is wrapping up, but I still have a month to go!

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