Obtaining Owls and Finding Flycatchers

Today I found a great video on Science Friday's website showing the tedious nature of capturing cavity-nesting birds.



This video brings back a lot of memories from a project I worked on in a similar forest in Arizona where I saw my first and only, flammulated owl nesting in an aspen cavity.


Speaking of bird work, it looks like I will be conducting extended field work on birds this summer for the first time in four years.


Once the mountain of paperwork and logistics is cleared, I will have a grant from the state to investigate nesting habitat use of willow flycatchers in response to restoration of Geyer willow in Killin Wetlands, where I have been conducting volunteer bird counts for the last few summers.



This will be like a part-time job to supplement my Forest Service work, which does not get me outside very often. Full-time research biology work is nearly impossible to find in the Portland area, so I have had to piece together a position of my own design,which has worked out so far. A larger salary and job security would be nice, but these days I can't complain.