Yesterday afternoon I made the seven hour train trip from DC to NC. Need I waste space and energy commenting on the pathetic inefficiency of the public transportation infrastructure in America, or can I take it as read?
The scenery was beautiful, the dense undergrowth and old houses pressed up against the tracks. I also had a very fun and interesting traveling mate, a man who was on my project last year and is currently a field tech for another project at the Smithsonian migratory bird center this summer. He looked out the window and would get very excited when he saw prime cardinal habitat, as he has been on a mission to find cardinal nests for the past several weeks. I was not scanning for robins' nests, but I know that feeling when you just know you are in the right spot for a nest. It's a sixth sense you develop when you have been obsessing over a species for weeks, honing in on their every move. Once a friend who works for an environmental consulting agency back in San Jose told me the minute she got out of her car and surveyed a landscape she could sense whether or not she would find burrowing owls. I always wondered what it would be like to be so intimately acquainted with a species that you begin to think like them, and I can finally say I now know.
My friend and I also had some fun listening to the CD that came with Kroodsma's book on bird song. The last track, 98, of the sooty shearwaters is just amazing. It was so cool to hear the bird sounds coming out of his earphones on the train, made me feel more at ease. On our drive back to DC, I plan to listen to my CD of local DC bird singers over and over, maybe I'll finally get a them all down.
It was a good trip, despite being long, but on arriving I was hit yet again with a bad case of the Friday night blues. Friday used to be the beginning of my workweek, I would open the veterinary emergency clinic doors at 5:30 pm and I always pulled into the parking happy to be there, excited about starting the week (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then either Monday, Wednesday or Thursday for my fourth shift). It's been three weeks, and I still really miss it and my Friday night crew. Shout out to all you guys working on the weekend, I wish I could be there to help you out.
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