Day Nineteen: Birds, BAAAAAAAAAAAs, and Burros
6/28/11:
Five o’clock in the morning, and I found myself walking through an Arizona lake. Of course, at this time of year in this part of the country, that lake was more a soggy marsh, but let’s not quibble over details.
Quentin, Joe, and I were working with the non-game KNF Wildlife Biologist (birds and amphibians, especially the leopard frog, are more her thing). As part of the Marshland Bird Monitoring Project, this bio was conducting a survey at/in Coleman Lake. With a specialized squawk box, she would play a series of different marsh bird calls, scouting the area with her binoculars and using a special instrument to gauge the distance of the birds.
It was a beautiful morning, all of us standing among marsh grasses on ground of varying solidity. An intricate ecosystem had developed in this sometimes-lake, and I watched curiously as Red-winged Blackbirds darted among the reeds and dropped low over the remaining standing water. We surveyed at three points, each one successively wetter and more difficult to reach. We were rewarded for our efforts by the returning calls of Griegs, Piebills, Coots and Sora (disclaimer: I’ve probably spelled all of these names wrong).
On the drive out, we had our second critter encounter of the day: a big white sheepdog. His charges soon followed, streaming through the thick green trees in a fluffy white mass, the morning light catching on the backs of many a sheep.
Hours later on the Cureton Ranch and after learning about the mano (a prehistoric grinding stone) and the metate (a sandstone piece that corn was ground on), I had my final animal experience of the day: feeding my apple to the delicate- and big-eared Cureton burros.
Photos: 1. & 2. KNF sheeps
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