Last night, we had thunderstorms and lightning, with rain pouring down and whipping against the windows while the trees rocked in a frenzy. It was all very dramatic... but we got to sit down at the table to a nice spaghetti bolognese and let the storm run it's course. We had another thunderstorm earlier this week.. after the Canucks lost in the final game. Of course, nothing like the drama experienced in the city, which I can only say is a complete tragedy, but we had very picturesque dark clouds swirling over us in strange patterns (see my pictures!), opening up to thunder, lighting, and rain.
This week has been a busy and productive one in terms of Warbler work. We had a banding blitz one day and caught and banded 11 birds and on two consecutive days we found 10-12 nests.. each day! Our maps of our study sites are becoming more and more clustered with little numbers that mark our nests and it's been a bit difficult to keep track of them all these past few days with about 26 new ones in 3 days! No chicks yet.. the nests that looked as though the could have hatched this week seem to have abandoned their nests and rebuilt nearby to start the process again. Not sure why... it must take a tremendous amount of energy to lay 5 eggs, so it must be something significant that forces them to abandon and start over, committing double the amount of energy to produce their young. Anyways, our next potential hatch date could be as soon as Monday! Which would be amazing.. we'll see!
And so we're half way through our field season already! It's incredible.. it still feels as though we're getting started. I know we still have a lot of work ahead of us and only a month left!
Anyways, I think it's time for breakfast!
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