The UBS Team

UBS sponsored six fellowships on this trip. Three went to folks in Chicago: me, Keith, and Asha. Keith works in the IB, and Asha's a middle school teacher in the Chicago Public Schools.

We were joined by San Franciscans Steve, Bing, and Dave. Steve sells Asian equities in the IB, Bing evaluates properties for a REIT, and Dave teaches math at a Bay area magnet high school.

This was a fine group. Keith asked insightful questions, and Steve spurred us on to new athletic feats. Bing knew her birdcalls, Dave was a master of original limericks, and Asha could rock a handheld GPS. None of us were birding experts, but all of loved the outdoors. This group was up for anything. This group was willing.

The presence of the corporate fellows had a pretty profound effect on the dynamics of the overall team, according to one of the veteran Earthwatchers. David, a retired academic from Ann Arbor, MI, told me:

"You take people who work in corporations, they're younger, they have a different perspective, especially when we get talking about how to solve some of these [environmental] problems. This is about my 19th trip, and I like having them; I really notice the difference. Suddenly it's not all scientists talking with each other anymore."

At the same time, I know that the corporate fellows appreciated the experience of the other volunteers. Most worked in the sciences, many knew a lot about the biodiversity of the area. Without them, we would not have learned nearly as much.

Asha and a birdie:

Keith and Steve in the field:

Bing:

Dave:

The whole group:

Victory at Karns Meadow

The Earthwatch team monitored four sites throughout the week:
pristine Blacktail Pond, in Grand Teton National Park; a wooded site called Jackson; a mixed conifer and aspen site at Kelly; and Karns Meadow. Located in a marsh behind a gas station and next to a road, it's considered a distressed site, and is included to see how bird species respond to noise and habitat reduction.

Karns was also our least favorite site. We needed knee-high boots to get through it, and the mosquitoes were the size of prairie chickens. They can bite through several layers of clothing, so the only defense against them is to wear a raincoat. We groaned when Megan declared that it would be Friday's research site.

On Friday, when we arrived before dawn, the mosquitoes were still sleeping. So were the birds. But as they woke up, we suddenly had outstanding success identifying them. That morning, in the muck and mosquitoes, we identified 11 birds with banded legs--more than any previous group. I identified a song sparrow, who had the good grace to stand on a branch and show off his bands.

Here is a photo each from Blacktail Pond, Jackson, and Kelly:

The Big Hike

On our free day, five of the six UBS-sponsored volunteers talked each other into taking a monster hike on Crags Peak trail. It's a 2,700 foot vertical climb into a "hanging canyon" and beyond. To get to the trailhead, we borrowed a van, drove to Grand Teton National Park, and took a ferry across Jenny Lake. It's fed by springs rushing down from the Tetons, and is beautifully clear and very cold.

We picked our way to the top, first on a steep path, and then across a boulder field. Someone suggested that we go "mountain goat style", leaping from boulder to boulder, which did speed things up. The altitude slowed us down as we went higher and the air thinned out.

It snowed late into the season in the Tetons this year, and we hit the snow line a third of the way up, some of it turned pink by a form of bacteria.

Three and a half hours after we'd started out, we stopped for lunch at a green lake fed by melting snow. Two brave members of our party jumped in, and headed back to shore just as quickly.

After two sweaty hours downhill, we jumped into the emerald depths of Jenny Lake.

It was a near-perfect day.

The snuffling warbler

Yesterday morning, I stood behind a clump of cottonwoods hoping the birds wouldn't notice me or my partner, a lovely retired physician from Rhode Island named Lyman. Lyman moved off to the other side of the cottonwoods, and after a bit I heard him crunching around. And snorting gently.

Now, I'd only known the man for a day or so, but I didn't recall him snuffling. I wondered briefly if I could write shareholder reports with one arm.

Moose can be aggressive, especially with calf. I'd prefer to give bears a wide berth. Bison, too.

Lyman was nowhere. I hoped he wasn't heading for the beast in the bushes, but I didn't want to be breakfast, either. In the wilderness, it's every gal for herself, I figured. Ciao, Lyman.

On my retreat, I hissed at him to follow me. He did, and we backed up far enough to see two large bison munching.

Morning Research

4:30 am: Alarm. Shower and grab the pack loaded the night before: binoculars, two liters of water, bird chart. As a bonus, the stars are still out.

5:00 am: Shuffle to breakfast, pack lunch for the field of hummus pita wrap, carrots, and cookies.

5:30 am: Meet up with Megan, the expedition leader, who is conducting her own avian research this summer. Drive to the day's research site in Earthwatch van. Savvy novices take this chance to grab an experienced birding partner. I find a gem in Glen, a retired math teacher from Darien, IL. This man knows birds.

6:15 am: Using a handheld GPS, we find our plot. Begin moving through the woods near sunrise. It's cool out, and early for the birds, too. Pause by trees emitting promising 'cheeps!"

7:15 am: Glen follows the sound of a song sparrow. I shuffle ten feet behind him. Maddeningly, the sparrow flits around. This makes it hard to hone in on the prize data: the presence and color of any bands on his legs.

7:30 am: The song sparrow flits up to the highest branch of a cottonwood. Victory! He's banded. Red over orange on the right leg, blue over silver on the left. I record the data in our log.

7:30-9:30am: We stalk yellow warblers, (unbanded) see an osprey, and follow a few robins. But they're too common to be interesting.

9:30 am: It's getting warmer, and the birds are quieting down. We chart all our data and head to check another research station, to meet biologists conduction season-long research there.

Everywhere..except right next to you

That sums up this morning's pre-dawn bird efforts. Topo maps in hand, we went searching for nests. Looking for birds, I stumbled across a bison! Full story tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's the closest I got to a bird today, which was in our late morning lesson on collecting birds and banding them.

Skills Day

This work is not for the timid.

You laugh, but by the end of this week, I'll have mad birding skills.

We started out early, when it was in the high forties and the wet sage smelled wonderful. By the time we rested in the late afternoon, it was 86 degrees and we had:

-packed lunches
-practiced using handheld GPS and satellite maps to find points "in the field", as biologists love to call all the outdoors
-learned how to chart the locations of bird nests when we find them
-more importantly, listened to birdcalls to identify our chosen ones (we will be studying the yellow warbler and grosbeak populations). For this, we have CDs of birdcalls.
-battled mosquitos
-outfitted ourselves, with some difficulty, with knee-high rubber boots for more work in the field tomorrow

That fieldwork begins at 5 am. We'll be looking for nests in an area of Grand Teton National Park. So far, I've found the best part of birding is that it requires that you walk carefully through the woods, listening, and there's no better place to do that than this rarefied area.

Today I had some connectivity trouble, so I hope to post pictures of our work tomorrow.

P.S. Birds see far more colors than we do. Some even see in infrared!