Gosh darnit, it's too hot

[obligatorycoffee]

Fieldwork has been excruciatingly hot, leaving me pretty much too drained to do much else besides do fieldwork laundry and try not to bake in my apartment. Bleh. To make matters worse, the bird species I study essentially abandoned the only breeding site in the state, so things aren't looking terribly good for my birdies. On the bright side, I have enough data to finish my PhD, but boy does the situation not look great for the state bird population.

Anyway, my garden is coming along nicely and I harvested my first zucchini! Lots more to follow, so I may be in zucchini hell very soon. Not that I'm complaining, because heck, fresh vegetables!

Comments

[obligatorycoffee]

They're not well monitored in the broader region, so it's hard to know for sure, but their numbers have been increasing rangewide, so it's not a huge concern. Still, quite striking to see an essential extirpation of breeding individuals from an entire state.

We're fairly confident that coyote disturbance at the colony is the primary cause, because they've been able to access the colony from the shore because water levels are so low. Could potentially be a reaction to some birds at the colony dying from avian flu, but that's speculation until we get test results back from the few individuals we were able to go out and swab.

[citrakayah]

Oh, is it at one of those drought-stricken lakes with the former islands? That sounds pretty plausible. Wonder if they might return if the water levels return to normal. How many drift away from the nesting grounds they were raised in? I don't know birds that well.

[obligatorycoffee]

Yup, it's one of those lakes. Mostly water diversions for agriculture in this case. They'll likely come back if the water levels go back to normal, but I don't know how reasonable it is to expect any near-term water improvements 😓

We don't know for sure how many go to other nesting grounds, but it's probably a fair amount! Not too worried about them honestly, but it's sad to see