Amy here. just arrived in montana two days ago. on the night I arrived, all of the other vaguely college age people in our trailer park were having a white trash party, which charlotte told me on the way in but i forgot. so i got out of the car and saw a bunch of people barbecuing in cutoffs with mullets (which were actually wigs, i noticed later). it was terrifying, until i remembered the party, and then it was fun.
anyway, on my second day we went out banding and got tons of birds in our nets, including two eastern kingbirds, a bunch of housewrens, field sparrows, a lark sparrow and a meadowlark. as i was untangling one of the kingbirds it pooped on me thrice, once hitting my chest from the end of my outstretched arm. they have impressive range. and when they get mad they puff up the feathers on their heads and expose a bright orange patch of feathers (their heads are black), which is something to see.
charlotte and i will make a more extensive post later with photos, but we both left our cameras at the MAPS station (which is an hour drive away), so no photos for now. edit: got our cameras, here are the photos!
this is my and benton, john carlson's son, banding an eastern kingbird at our maps station.
Me and the eastern kingbird again. the brown spot on my shirt is poop. im still delighted though! eastern kingbirds are especially cool because when you're holding them by their legs and they're flapping their wings and getting mad, they show a bright orange patch of feathers in their crest to warn you away.the first time i saw it i was alarmed.
this is charlotte and some rainclouds we saw on tuesday as we were leaving our study site. we got rained out by those clouds.