I got four points on HETH 1 today! John came with me to help with the first one, which we had to really estimate. Then he went to the rock outcropping where we caught HETH 1 (aka 0.615 which is the end of the male's transmitter frequency). I tracked the bird toward the outcropping until I saw John, and then I headed north down the mountain slope, away from the trail and John. John then radioed me and asked where the bird was; up or down. I swung the receiver vertically and responded "Up." John said that he had just seen a thrush-like bird fly high into a hardwood near me, and that must have been my bird!
After twenty minutes of waiting (that's the adjustment time needed for a bird to go back to his/her normal behavior), I went tracking again. This time, I saw the bird when John approached. Before he flushed 0.615, though, I saw an unbanded thrush fly by. Perhaps that was HETH 1's female?
For the last point, I tracked 0.615 west, following the contour of the ridge. Then the bird took me up the slope (south). I saw a thrush fly southwest, but it wasn't HETH 1 because the receiver did not beep differently. It was probably his female again. I tried to carefully go toward where the bird had flown away. I stood there for a minute, pointing the antenna southwest where the signal was faintly coming from. Then, suddenly, the beeping blew up, getting so loud I looked up. In less than a second, I absorbed the image of HETH 1 fluttering over a dead tree that was split open, the tree's beautiful honey-rust inner wood exposed. The thrush was holding a big, thick, dark insect like the one John and I had seen when we caught 0.615. Then he flew away, out of sight through a thicket of young red spruce. I stood there, open-mouthed, and then marked the point and recorded my observations. Whoop whoop! A visual for my fourth point of the day!
We stopped telemetry halfway through the day due to rain. We drove up to the Mt. Mitchell Museum, which houses all kinds of cool natural and social history about Mt. Mitchell and the Black Mountains.
Cool Things Seen during Telemetry:
- Female Blackburnian on the ground (same one from yesterday) carrying a single strand of grass, so fine I could hardly see it. Though I watched her for a bit, I couldn't see where she had flown to her nest.
- I saw a Veery as we were driving to the bird study site, which was a cool lifer. Their song is beautiful and almost metallic, and Edward and John describe it as two downward spirals.
- Fiery-orange azalea that I knew Mama would love
- Small rainbow that disappeared after my first few photos. As it dissolved into the sky, its glowing particles fading like mist, I got "Shine" by the Avett Brothers (an NC band I absolutely love) in my head. If you know the song, you also know it's quite fitting for the moment.
- Mountain laurel, sometimes pale white, others blushing pink
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