It’s hard to believe, but we are almost two weeks into March and there are still no birds at Monument! I also struck out when walking towards Guston lek. The two-track is still full of snow. It was kind of fun to walk through, however. There is a thin sculpted layer of ice on top of the snow, and walking through it created faint tinkling crashing sounds with every step. I imagined being an unwitting party to a Liliputian domestic spat, where tiny husbands and wives were throwing even tinier china plates and glass vases at each other.



Although the dawn was a bit frustrating– an eagle overflight foiled our chance to get our first “buttprints” (photos of tail feather patterns)– we had a very productive day. Cable Day.

We had a good half-dozen tubs full of microphone cables (close to 50 cables in all) to sort through, check for continuity and rodent damage, measure how long they are, then re-coil. Some of these cables were over 100 meters long! Someone would hold the microphone end and a 100m tape, while the rest of us would uncoil.




Glad to have this done! And thankful that we had a beautiful day outside to do it.