Girls Trip 2012 [raptors!]

Girls trip, except not your typical girls trip. These girls like to play with predators that fly. Predators that when in hand, have a desire to rip your eyes out with their beak or talons. Unblinking eyes that challenge you and demand respect immediately. Yep, that sounds like a perfect girls trip to me!

I traveled east to meet up with Mandy in MD on Thursday. It was good to have a night to catch up before we headed further east to Cape May, NJ. I needed time to unwind from the god-awful DC-metro area traffic (give me my windy country roads any day, snow, sleet, hail - I’ll take them over that traffic nonsense) before beginning anew with more driving.

We were up and at ‘em pretty early the following morning. LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” was the first song of the day for the drive – dancing commenced immediately.

Fortunately (for me), traffic wasn’t too horrid as we headed east. Once we reach NJ the roads are small and pleasant. There was no lack of conversation as we traveled. Mandy lives in San Diego, so this is the only time of year we get to see each other and we definitely make the most of it. We had great music (Mumford and Sons, The Apache Relay, etc.) playing to accompany the conversation and we lapsed in and out of singing with music and continuing our briefly-interrupted conversation. It was one of the most entertaining drives I’ve had in awhile.

We arrived at the blind around 11a to find that Arthur had three birds he’d caught in the past 10-15 minutes ready to be released! Excitement! Two red tails and a Cooper’s. 

Overall, we banded far fewer birds than the year prior, but the quality (read: badass-ness) of the birds we banded this year was far superior.

Last year I got to see all three falcons (merlin, kestrel, and peregrine) in hand in addition to two Accipiters (sharp-shinned and Cooper’s). This year I got to see all three Accipiters (sharpie, Coop, and Northern Goshawk) and two Buteos (red-shouldered and red tail), and even owls (saw whet)!

Sharpie

Saw whet

Red shoulder

We camped each night in my new two-person tent that we set up IN THE BLIND because the ground was still quite saturated with water from where flooding had occurred due to Sandy. Overall, Cape May had very minimal damage from the storm – they faired MUCH better than the rest of NJ, it seems.

The nights were increasingly warmer, as were the days, each day we were there. We ate out a lot, hung out with some super-savvy birders and got all nature-nerdy discussing a myriad of things. It was such a treat to meet and spend time these folks.

 Any time with Mandy and Arthur is sure to be full of nonsense. When you sit all day in a 6’ x 10’ shack with people you tend to get a little loopy. Jokes, snark, and innuendos were full-force this year. We thought we were doing pretty well for ourselves, but then Sunday Dom joined us. Our snark was put to shame. My stomach hurt for two days from laughing so much.

But yes, you read correctly, I took a day to convert the horse trainer/dog trainer/photographer extraordinaire into a raptor junkie (is it safe to say you’re hooked on banding now, Dom?). It was really great to get to meet a blogging friend in real life. It was amusing how conversations just picked up as if we’d known each other for ages since we were familiar with each other’s pursuits through the blogosphere. Dom’s excitement and curiosity about banding and birds was very evident and while we had a slow day, we did get to see one really killer adult female red tail. Definitely the prettiest red tail of the trip!

While it completely slipped my mind to get a photo together, I do have this photo of Dom from my camera (because obviously if there aren’t pictures, it didn’t happen). We have some future adventures in the works... So, hopefully more photos of shenanigans will be available by the end of winter. We've decided we could get into quite a few spectacular shenanigans together.

Let me state the following items for those who will understand and appreciate them (and because I never want to forget the following statements):
I only want to touch you once.
That is not okay.
And you thought this was going to be awkward for me.
Go home turkey vulture, you are drunk.
Go home rock, you are drunk.
Go home   insert noun here , you are drunk.

Overall, such a great trip. So awesome to see NOGOs in hand after surveying for them 4 summers prior. And spending time with my best friend is always a huge plus. This trip allowed me to completely forget the rest of the world for a few days, laugh harder and more often than I have in awhile, and reset myself from stresses that come from the rest of the world. And without further ado, more photo spam for you.

Recapping

A relaxing evening at the camp

I had high aspirations to write a lengthy post about everything that has gone on, but as more things keep happening and happening, the likelihood of that is becoming slimmer and slimmer.  So here's the bulleted version:

• Morgantown bound last weekend.  Visited with so many people and had a hands down amazing time.  I sucked at partying and going out when I was in college, but I seem to be better now considering my bedtime of 5am on Saturday morning!  (Gibbies for drinks, Bent for mad dancing, and onward with more friends for a cool down.)  Win.  And I wasn't even drunk and therefore didn't have to combat a nasty hangover.  Double win.
• Hotdogs are a completely acceptable breakfast.
• Drove to Elkins,  then to my cabin on Saturday for my dad's birthday/to see family for the weekend.  Intended on staying the night there and hitting up some Purple Fiddle action, but sleepiness over took me and I drove home and conquered 12 hours of sleep.  Booya.

Mini-tour of our cabin; family built it/re-built it in the late 80s after the first burned down

Kenai wanted a charred stick but was afraid to get it

Family and friends

The high elevation fields and mountains of WV where our cabin is

Just chillin' on a back road

• Woke Sunday morning with the realization that I had another two days of weekend and Elkins was presenting me with nothing to do.  So, spur of the moment, I drove BACK to Morgantown for the WVU vs. Marshall football game.  I had no ticket but I did tailgate for a bit and then ran into a friend I hadn't seen in two years and watched the game w/ him at his friend's place.  We got hungry and decided to walk the 6 blocks to my car midway through the 3rd quarter - oops.  Rain, hail, lightning, thunder & me screaming expletives at the sky as hail pelted my bare legs.  (WVU's game ended up have 4+ hours of rain/lightning delay and Marshall defaulted the win to WVU, 33-13)  Yeah, it was a good time.  Hilarious.  I haven't been thoroughly soaked by rain in a long time.  Loved it.  We finally got into my car, got across town, and snagged showers and some food at his friend's house then headed out for a sushi dinner a little while later.

Ravi drenched

Drenched, but happy!

Om nom nom nom

• I ended the evening crashing at my friend Jack's place with him and his buddy.  Chilling and watching movies on that rainy night was just what I needed.
• It basically rained from Saturday - Thursday here.  Boo.
• Rain brought cooler temps.  Yay.
• Sickness struck me down Tuesday morning.  Tonsils swollen.  Queasiness started to ensue.  Went to work for a half day and came home.  Ended up being out of work all week until Friday late morning.  Fever, strep, nausea, puking.  It was glorious.  NOT.  Despite being loaded down with tylenol I still had a fever of 101.5.  Blech!  And NOTHING I ate would stay down for two days.  My food love has returned.  And I have a renewed sense to work out and be in shape after lying in bed for three-ish days.  Must. Move.

 

Cows in the road; how many points should I get for hitting it?  'Cause I may or may not have grazed one at a balmy 5mph

My Escape

More pictures and video to follow in the upcoming days...

The here-and-now

This is Kenai illegally on my bed.  I found him this way when I came back from washing my face this morning. 

My test this morning was cake (or so I thought).  I could be proved wrong when I get it back.  I'm currently sitting in my last "real" GIS lecture.  We don't have a final - just the final paper.  I'm not paying much attention due to this fact.  My paper for this class is the same as for my thesis.  I hope to have this finished by tomorrow night AT THE LATEST.  At which point I will celebrate.  Ow oww!  So, wish me luck.

Wednesday I present it at a symposium - and get a chance to win $100.  Then I'm headed home until Sunday afternoon.  I haven't decided yet if I will opt out of all phone/text/facebook activity for this break - next week when I head off for a break before my final (on May 5th) I definitely am though.  Super looking forward to getting away from it all and going on a little sabbatical.  I think I need to work on getting away from constant communication a little more.  I hate feeling like I "depend" on it.  This whole blogging bit isn't so bad, I don't feel a NEED to do it.  I can easily set it aside.  I wish I could do that with texting and Facebook - I just seem to end up doing it without even realizing.  I get lost in a world apart from everything that is actually going on.  That's not good.  I want to try to become more focused on the here-and-now.  I hope I can do that this summer (and future).

And on that note, I guess I'll get back to the here-and-now and face the music (or lecture) going on.  =)