It feels like my time here at PRBO is drawing to a close. Stefanie left today, though she'll be back in a week and a half to finish things up. But I'm starting to think about packing up my stuff, mailing my guitar, how I'm getting from the Portland, ME airport up to Winter Harbor. It's very ending-like around here. We also took the group photo of the Palo summer crew today. Hummy the Hummingbird float was also present for the photo op. Matt, Gunther and Libby also cooked up a Steak & Eggs breakfast for Stefanie's last day (Stef is a big protein advocate) and so we all had a good mid-morning meal.
And also, life goes on in the grids. Today, Matt and I helped Jonathan to target-net and band nestlings. The Wrentit nestlings were there and we were successful in banding them. But, our target-netting efforts included a WREN pair and two NWCS territories but we only succeeded in capturing the White-crowned sparrow. Also, none of us had a watch with us (what kind of biologists don't wear watches?!) and so we didn't realize we had been gone for 4 hours. We got back in time to be part of the photo and to attend the meeting where Geoff also discussed his 1987 journal paper on the possible role Chernobyl played in a sudden decrease in the number of young birds captured at Palo in 1986. Then, we all went to Vladimir's for Czheck beer and pretzels.
So, it feels that things are winding down, we try to squeeze out the last drops of fun times. But there is a bittersweet feeling in the air, as if it's too good to last.