Birdies please come home.

The end of a beautiful day, and I am EXHAUSTED. The thing with field work is although you start the day fresh, you often end exhausted and the situation compounds over time with how many days since you have had a rest. If you are like me, you have a hard time taking a break. I would love to say because I like my birds so much (which I do) but it is probably partially owing to the fact that I have just a little over 3 years to get something substantial to make up my thesis. That is a lot of anxiety and worry to have over your head. But luckily, a lot of that goes away when I get out into the field.

Like today, day 4 of NO BIRDS. I am actually just here on a “winter season” quick data collection for 3.5 weeks, and it took me a couple days to find my birds, and for about 2 weeks after, I enjoyed finding 9 out of 15 of my social groups (plus a WHOLE LOT of fledgling that they busily produced in my absence). Then, after deciding I have recorded as many calls as each group would let me (without sucking up to the point that I get no natural behaviours and all the birds do is beg, beg, beg, climb all over bag and stealing food and then sit on a branch and poo and expect me to provide from them), I went in search of the rest of the groups. Big time. Like all over the station lands. All the way south of the lake along 2 ridges until the station border. And then up and down Picnic Creek and along the two south ridges. And then from Saloon Crossing up to the Fence. All around Freislich, again. And finally today, in the Hilux 4WD to ochre house and Sandy Creek. The station’s most isolated spot. And consequently the most beautiful (and unfortunately due to broken camera, no pictures to post)

Oh my god, gorgeous. The location is a refuge. The last year’s rain creates a lush vegetated valley, with creeks running out into the flatness of the outback in one direction and into some soft hills in the other direction. I see herons, kites, hawks, small birds. Not my birds. Surely the birds are taking winter refuge here. Please?

But no. And what also sucks is that I can’t force myself to walk more than 4 hours with my pack full of recording gear, extra gel batteries, water, emergency stuff, etc. I am so tired. I have been tired for a few days- it’s a lot of ground to cover. But realistically, I go through energy cycles and all the beauty in this world can not get me to drag myself farther. So, begrudgingly I accept that I better head back and I trek back the “fast” way, which consists of not following every bend of this sinuous creek. But the “as the crow flys” route has its merits, and as I head back over the rocky grass and thorny bush covered ground, I encounter several “ rest patches” made by kangaroos. These patches stand out among the grassiness of the vegetated land, because there are the ONLY patches of ground not covered in grass and scrubs. Kinda cool thinking about kangaroos resting there, and very tempting for me to rest in, being that most attempts to sit down resulted in burrs or thorns in my backside!

So, I end my day, a day of beauty but no birds, and hope that tomorrow brings me better luck, better rest, and maybe some recordings of some chatty birds.