Reservoir Dogs

I left sweet Valeria and the road-trip crew on May 21st in San Francisco. I left to go to Oregon to work, as planned, but was still unsure what that would entail. I was to be an aquatic colonial bird surveyor, working as a contractor for an organization that will remain nameless. But the work would be in south-central Oregon, characterized by the looming Cascades to the west, agriculture, and of course, marshes and lakes. Our 7 target species: Forster's Tern, Black Tern, Franklin's Gull, Eared Grebe, Western Grebe, Clark's Grebe, and White-faced Ibis.

I slowly began to adjust to life without QuafferT and ImmortalM. With a long list of wetlands to visit and a car loaded with my belongings, my field partner and I set off... and aside from a pair of crises: a broken-in passenger window and a broken-down starter.. things began to become routine. 1.) camp at a site 2.) wake up and survey it 3.) figure out how to get to the next site.

But the sweet truth was that I didn't have to be weened quite yet. The Valkyrie triumvirate did have one last hurrah! ImmortalM and QuafferT were planning on stopping by for a couple days to check the work out and relax on Memorial Day weekend. So, on the 30th of May I hailed down Valeria in the teenie town of Bonanza, Oregon... a town consisting of a general store and a smattering of houses. We caravanned out to Gerber Reservoir to search for a spot to camp. Passing by a few widely scattered camps we settled along the border of pines overlooking the reservoir. With a fourth member present, my co-worker Smeagol, a unique opportunity had presented itself: photos of all 3 of us in action. Oh the excitement. Oh the potential.

The first few hours of the evening consisted of decisions about the fire. We were blessed with a massive pre-built fire pit, so the opportunities were endless. Conversation focused on how to get two separate cooking stations going while simultaneously keeping a reserve fire in the center.


Another piece of luck fell upon us during our fire-work: the nearest group of people left their campsite! This could mean only one thing. A RAID!!!!! We charged down the shoreline to the other camp, scouring the earth for precious items, for anything that would assist us in running our own camp. A treasure trove lay around their fire pit. Huge, split hardwood logs and more importantly... bars of metal!!!!!! We carried everything we could and began re-building our fire stove. Man had discovered metal, and it assisted us greatly.


Needless to say, we had a thoroughly rousing evening. We scoped out the roosting birds and faraway people, and later on the full moon and stars. We sat around the fire and laughed our heads off, drank hot chocolate, and of course.... duked it out in marshmallow battles until we passed out from the sugar lode.

The game plan for the next day was to go out together to one of our work sites, check out some birds, and play adventurer. We headed to an expansive, flooded flat... stretching far off in each direction and filled, excitedly so, with nesting birds. As we arrived we saw one of our target species, black terns, flying buoyantly over the field. Along with them flushed willets, phalaropes, and yellow-headed blackbirds... while in the distance stood immense sandhill cranes.

So. We headed out into the marsh to look for black tern nests. We trudged like Vietcong across the rice fields.. stopping to examine what we discovered along the way.




And we discovered nests. Below, a tern nest... confirmed as the protective adults swooped and screamed over our heads. A quick photograph and we got away to prevent any further stress..


Here's another nest still under construction.


And for icing on top of the cake.. how about a Bald Eagle nest? Here's one of the adults screaming at us. No one got scalped.


For some reason I can't upload anymore pictures to this post so I will stop. But I'm sure ImmortalM And QuafferT will add some more about our galavanting as they see fit. I, on the other hand, will pack up my computer here in Klamath Falls, slide it into my backpack, toss the backpack into a backseat crevice, and start examining the DeLorme Atlas for directions to the next site.