February 21, 2016
At Caulín the other day, we saw an FEG bird but couldn’t read the full flag code before the flock flushed and we lost the bird. We got the unique color combination which would give us the ID (the first time this has happened all season). The entire drive back to the research station G and I ran through every breeding pair we had last year (only those would have a unique color combination), “It’s not 1MN or J12, NX or J15, H18 or J88, E95 or 1KP…” You get the picture. None of them seemed to line up. We were stumped. And nervous. What if this was it. What if this was our bittersweet 30th? We didn’t know if it was a new bird or not, we didn’t know if we were excited, but we were dreading looking up the color combo - what if it didn’t exist! We could have read it wrong. G didn’t see all three colors so it was riding on me. Talk about pressure! (Turned out to be the male we hadn’t seen there in a month - phew) It got us both thinking about that 30 hump and how much we maybe don’t (?) want to cross it.
We talked about not wanting to turn 30 and stay 29 forever. It’s that jump in decades most people seem to dread at least a little bit. Was something akin to a change in decade holding us back from crossing from 29 to 30 godwits?
But today we almost thought we had that elusive 30th bird. (Whether or not we want to turn 30!) We went to a site near Dalcahue that has never had many birds. I had assumed it wouldn’t again and scheduled us to hit another nearby bay as well. When we arrived, G pulled out his scope to see if there were any godwits. I heard him say, “Geez it’s a big group today” and then the next words out of his mouth were, “I got a green flag!”
We’ve never seen one at this site, so the excitement was high - could it be a new a bird?? He was roosting and all we could see were the three color bands once again. Dread settled in.
And then he put down his other leg - C85. A male we’ve seen twice on the island of Quinchao just across the channel. It’s hard to be disappointed when any green flag is good data, but 29 is starting to feel a little stale. 30 sounds like a much better sample size, doesn’t it? Any day now I suppose!
Scan update: good ole 29. Maybe we do want to stay young forever?
At Caulín the other day, we saw an FEG bird but couldn’t read the full flag code before the flock flushed and we lost the bird. We got the unique color combination which would give us the ID (the first time this has happened all season). The entire drive back to the research station G and I ran through every breeding pair we had last year (only those would have a unique color combination), “It’s not 1MN or J12, NX or J15, H18 or J88, E95 or 1KP…” You get the picture. None of them seemed to line up. We were stumped. And nervous. What if this was it. What if this was our bittersweet 30th? We didn’t know if it was a new bird or not, we didn’t know if we were excited, but we were dreading looking up the color combo - what if it didn’t exist! We could have read it wrong. G didn’t see all three colors so it was riding on me. Talk about pressure! (Turned out to be the male we hadn’t seen there in a month - phew) It got us both thinking about that 30 hump and how much we maybe don’t (?) want to cross it.
We talked about not wanting to turn 30 and stay 29 forever. It’s that jump in decades most people seem to dread at least a little bit. Was something akin to a change in decade holding us back from crossing from 29 to 30 godwits?
But today we almost thought we had that elusive 30th bird. (Whether or not we want to turn 30!) We went to a site near Dalcahue that has never had many birds. I had assumed it wouldn’t again and scheduled us to hit another nearby bay as well. When we arrived, G pulled out his scope to see if there were any godwits. I heard him say, “Geez it’s a big group today” and then the next words out of his mouth were, “I got a green flag!”
We’ve never seen one at this site, so the excitement was high - could it be a new a bird?? He was roosting and all we could see were the three color bands once again. Dread settled in.
And then he put down his other leg - C85. A male we’ve seen twice on the island of Quinchao just across the channel. It’s hard to be disappointed when any green flag is good data, but 29 is starting to feel a little stale. 30 sounds like a much better sample size, doesn’t it? Any day now I suppose!
Scan update: good ole 29. Maybe we do want to stay young forever?