Thursday, June 16:
Woke up at 0530 again and ate yogurt with granola, along with raisin cinnamon bread and almond butter for breakfast.
At 0700, all three of us went down to the gap where 0.615 territory is and set up two nets in a V-shape. I set one up while Olivia and Edward set up the other one. But after a while of playback, there was only a far-away HETH song response. We did catch a beautiful, tiny, female Golden-Crowned Kinglet that we released after taking a few pictures.
By 0900, Edward had gone farther down the trail to try to catch new birds past HETH 3’s territory. Olivia and I were setting up a net on the trail by HETH 1’s territory. I had seen a thrush flushed right off of the trail as we walked by, and was so excited I wanted to set up a net then and there. After much frustration (the net was twisted and thus took us 45 minutes to set up) Olivia and I succeeded in putting up the net. After playing playback for a while, Olivia left to help Edward band a new thrush (yay). At about 1100, I was about to take the net down, and of course a group of people come down the trail. The group consisted of three people, one man in his seventies and a couple in their twenties. I immediately began apologizing profusely about the net being in their way and said that I was about to take it down. I explained that I was trying to catch a Hermit Thrush to take its transmitter off. I told them that I was with the Museum of Natural Sciences. The elderly man said, “Oh, in Raleigh?” I nodded. He said that he lives in Harrisburg, Virginia, where there is a pair of professors that catch and band saw-whet owls! How cool! The woman asked if the trail would end or turn around soon, and I said no. They also asked about if there was a place up ahead with a good view, to which I also said no. The elderly man said, well, this is still pretty, and I agreed wholeheartedly. I mentioned the beautiful view from the overlook and wished them a good hike as they turned back.
After taking down the net, I went down to help Olivia and Edward with a new thrush that they had just caught. I went down the trail for a while until I came to the tree that we call the “Nap Tree,” because it is a huge fallen log that is parallel to the ground, a perfect space to take a nap. They were color-banding a male HETH and I released it when they were done. We ate lunch and then kept going down the trail to catch more new birds.
We played playback every 50-100 meters down the trail, and after walking down a couple of switchbacks, and aggressive male came in. We walked another 30 meters down the trail before setting up a net, and after waiting a long while he flew into the net. Edward and I jumped up right away and started flat-out sprinting to the net (this is because, in our experience, HETHs had a pretty easy time getting out of the net). But of course, being me, I didn’t see this enormous branch at the ground at my feet as I began to run, so I promptly tripped and almost face-planted into the dirt. Luckily, I regained my balance, but it was pretty hilarious to watch, I’m sure. That klutzy moment marked the beginning of the end of my sanity that day. After getting the male thrush out of the net, I could hardly put the color bands on the bird I was laughing so hard. Edward missed my near dirt-eating moment, and I could hardly tell the story because of my hysterical laughter. Olivia was already laughing, having seen the graceful moment, and once Edward understood what had happened he cracked up, too. So, here the three of us were, laughing our heads off on the trail near the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi. Soon Edward and Olivia figured out that I could not stop laughing, and so they teased me a bit until I was laughing so hard tears were streaming out of my eyes. Finally, I processed the thrush and massaged my cheeks, now sore from laughter. What a wonderful day with wonderful people.
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