We were successful in capturing thrashers using mist-nets partially surrounding a prominent tree or shrub. Would you fly into this catclaw? #DesertThrasher #birds #banding

But before we can band and deploy satellite tags on our #DesertThrashers to study their movements, we have to catch them first! A challenge, but also fun. Here Spencer sets up our decoy thrashers to help bring the #birds in.

GBBO biologists Dawn Fletcher and Lauren Harter fit a LeConte’s Thrasher with a satellite transmitter via a harness looped around the legs, holding the transmitter comfortably on the bird’s back #DesertThrashers #banding #ringing #conservation

A critical piece in #DesertThrasher conservation is understanding their movements. One of our projects this spring was a big push to deploy satellite tags on Bendire’s and LeConte’s Thrashers. We were able to tag 20 birds this spring! #birds #conservation

Today's #BirdOfTheDay is a Pinyon Jay, perched on a juniper, giving our surveyor some serious side-eye, perched against a bright #BlueSky. #corvids #biologistsnotpoets #apologiestopoets #andanyoneelsewhohappenstoreadthis

High-tailin' it off to the weekend! Hope it's a great one :) #FieldCamFriday #OnThisDay

Working through some Mountain Bluebird data, needed a break, figured I'd share this great photo, taken up in the Bodie Hills in California! (And now going to get some coffee....) Hope you're having a beautiful bluebird kind of day, yourself!

California Ground Squirrel pauses for its glamor shot.. #TrailCamTuesday #Mammals

It's #MountainMonday, so let's trip back along Memory Lane to the eastern Sierras, June 26, 2023! Steep slopes, snowy peaks, and so, so many Green-tailed Towhees and Fox Sparrows!

It's #FieldCamFriday, yet again! #OnThisDay in 2024, a bear and cub walked past our camera in western Nevada. Have a great weekend, everyone!

One of the encouraging results of this field season: finding more rabbits/jackrabbits across more areas of Nevada. It's been tough the past several years, after rabbit hemorrhagic disease ripped through the region's lagomorphs ... and tough on the species that rely on them for food. 1/2

We didn't just look at birds at the Mono Basin Chautauqua - this Lodgepole Chipmunk popped up for its glamour shot!

Our field trip on last weekend's Mono Basin Chautauqua provided a classic Pinyon Jay experience - we heard and briefly saw a flock of ~30 birds before they flushed & disappeared from view ... sometimes that's just how it goes! But it was a great outing all the same!

Scouting Pinyon Jay flocks for last weekend's Mono Basin Chautauqua was a great success, and Ned even found young fledglings - and crossed fingers that they'd appear on the actual day of the field trip!

Not all of the points on this transect had been treated or burned, though, which makes this transect such an interesting one to monitor into the future! Many thanks to our supporters for making this survey possible!

At another point along our adopted transect near Lages Station, we can see the changes that have occurred here. This point had been treated, where pinyon-juniper had been removed from the site. Then in 2020, it had burned. Unsurprisingly, the birds are quite different now!

Last weekend's Mono Basin Chautauqua was a great success - many thanks to the organizers for inviting us, and to everyone who joined us to learn more about Pinyon Jays!

A major goal of our Adopt-a-Survey program is revisiting sites in/near fire polygons, to learn more about fire effects on Nevada's bird communities. Thanks to our supporters, we re-visited PJ-RavenLages in ne Nevada, for the first time since 2009, and for the first time since it burned in 2020.

It's #TrailCamTuesday! #OnThisDay in 2024, we had a few pronghorn walk past our camera ... and you can see the silhouette of our ARU* recording birdsong, too! * Automated Recording Unit

This is actually part of a summer series! If this coming Saturday doesn't work (or even if it does!) you can join us on July 11 and August 15, as well :)

In addition to the nesting habitat data we collected, our #Arizona #PinyonJay crew collected nest measurements, including height, width & diameter. These data help us to build a clearer picture of Pinyon Jay nesting ecology.

Our #Arizona #PinyonJay crew trains for nest and habitat assessments. After the young had fledged (Pinyon Jay nest colonies are very sensitive, so we wait until after the flock has left), we measured habitat variables around the nests we'd found.

Last month, we surveyed Mojave Desert point count transects for the #NevadaBirdCount - this Ash-throated Flycatcher was foraging in the WeeThump Joshua Tree Wilderness / Avi Kwa Ame National Monument.

It's #FieldCamFriday! Hope it's a happy one :)

Ahh, surveying birds in the Montana Mountains of northern NV, hiking thru rolling sage (at least until you reach the massive escarpment plummeting down to the valley floor), a symphony of Brewer's & Vesper Sparrows, including this Vesper greeting the morning ... in today's entry for #worstbirdpic :)

Stormy skies overhead - behind the lens, a race to take down the mist nets before the rain began! #PinyonJays #banding #betterlucknexttime #lightningandmistnetpolesdontmix

Can you spot the mist net? We hope the jays don't, anyway! Our crew spent weeks baiting areas with peanuts/sunflower seeds to attract the jays, & help them become comfortable visiting the site. Only after that, did we carefully set up mist nets nearby. This site/this round, we were out of luck.

Catching Pinyon Jays requires a lot of sitting and waiting... and excellent camouflage. #birdbanding #patience

A busy field season so far! Our #PinyonJay program in AZ just finished up a banding session- the jays are so smart, you never know how they'll go! This one, no jays banded. But between net runs at the banding station, we searched for used nests. (All the young here had already fledged.) #birdbanding

Just realized the link card didn't show with the great design! So here it is - thanks so much to the students at Baker Elementary School, can't wait to pick up the t-shirt :)