Pigs, worms, devils, and owlets 22 July 2003 One more week! I'm excited to go home (can you tell?). It's been a good season, but a long one. Trying and tiring, but still an amazing season. Clarke made it out to visit for the Fourth of July. We spent a day in Albuquerque and a few days here at camp, then took a mini-road trip through Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado (and that was just one day!). Clarke got to see where I live, work, and sleep all summer (about time too, this is my 3rd year ;) ), and even got to see an owl. The pig roast was fun, and very delicious. Robert really did a great job with the whole day. It was nice to be at camp but to be relaxing instead of working. Although I do have to admit, it felt weird at times. On the 5th we headed to Alpine, AZ (just across the border) for Ye Olde Tavern's 10th Annual Worm Races. A handful of people from camp were there. Alpine is a small town (obviously) and the only reason we've ever heard of the Worm Races is because one of my crew, Lex, lives in Alpine. We drank, we raced worms, we ate pizza and ice cream and fudge. Good times. :) Clarke and I took off from Lex and Stephen's and headed North through AZ into NM, just past Shiprock and then into CO by way of Cortez. We headed East through Durango and camped in the Carson National Forest somewhere between Durango and Pagosa Springs. It was a great little Forest Service campsite, right near a small river. We managed to scrounge some wood from abandoned campsites and borrowed a lighter from a neighbor. The neighbor looked at us strangely when we told him we didn't have any matches. We hadn't made any plans, just kinda bumped along the road and decided to stop for the night. We headed East a bit more then made a hard right back into NM and made it back to Albuquerque in time to have dinner at our favorite restaurant there, El Pinto (the best margaritas and salsa!!). The only downer in Clarke's visit was that I managed to get sick the day before he arrived. The problem with living in such close quarters out here is that once one of us gets sick, we all get it. It has been passed around camp for about a month now, and more than half of us have gotten what we like to call Camp SARS. Mostly I was just tired and coughing a lot. The bright side to being sick while Clarke was here (or so I tell myself) was that I was forced to relax since I had company instead of trying to work myself silly through my sickness. Since then it's been work, work, work. We got a new Playback system at the beginning of the month, which happens to weigh 53 pounds. We've had some interesting configurations of backpacks trying to get the entire system, plus our normal video camera, audio recorders, tripods, batteries, etc. into the field. I think the mascot for the behavior crew has become a pack mule. :) The Playback system is used to simulate the noise of a jet and we observer the owls' reactions to it. This is not being used in place of the jets this year, we've been trying for two years to get the permits for this part of the project, it just happens that the jets are not cooperating with us this year so we have more time for the Playback experiments. The toughest one was in Devil's Creek North. It's a long, steep hike into the area (not to mention the way back out!) and took six behavior crew members to get the equipment in there. Of course, we forgot something so our 2-day overnight turned into a 3-day overnight (well, 3 days, 2 nights). We made it out alive with several insect stings and only one twisted ankle (amazingly, not mine). Luckily, on the hike out, we managed to coerce two other people to help us carry the equipment out. And we managed to hike out on the night that El was cooking…I don't think I've ever eaten so much before. Clarke wasn't my only visitor this month. Dad and three of my siblings (Meagan, Pearce, and Jennica) were here over the weekend. We really only had one full day together since Dad's work only allowed him a brief vacation. We went hiking, and played in the creek, roasted marshmallows, and slept outside. We managed to pack a lot into one day. It was so much fun, although I think most of the crew here is not used to little people being around. The monsoons have arrived, more or less (mostly less). Later than usual, and with not nearly as much force as I've experienced in the past. Of course, now that I've said that, camp will flood tomorrow. :) There have been quite a few fires in the area, though the close ones (still several miles away) have been small. The big one, the Silver Fire, was quite a sight to see as we hiked out of Devil's Creek North. The light afternoon rains are nice, but don't do much more than pat down the dust for a few hours. Today was the biggest rain we've had since that crazy hailstorm a month ago, and it only lasted 45 minutes. As the season starts to end, we're taking account of what we've found this year. We have had a record year in nests and owlets. We've lost a few of each though too. You always kinda hope that just because you don't find an owlet at the end of the season, that he's just hiding really well that day. But occasionally, you know that he's gone. We've found the remains of one owlet this year, attacked by a raptor by the looks of it. And we're pretty sure that another owlet is gone, based on the parents' behavior today. So it goes. Surprisingly, one owlet that we were positive wasn't going to make it out of the nest is getting along swimmingly (well, you know what I mean). He had some weird deformities when we found him (we named him Quasimodo), but he's shaped up nicely and looks almost like his/her brother/sister (can't tell the sex of an owlet without DNA). One week left, then a few days in Silver City to wrap things up, then HOME!!! I'm going to do exactly nothing for two weeks…I can't wait. I hope you and yours are all doing well. Take care. Love and sunshine, Stefanie ;) top of page letters from camp