Downtime at TCBO

Ollie the boffin bodging together a hand net - he owes me 1$

Ollie beating Nick at chess

David beating Nick at chess

Cribbage = worst game ever

Playing TCBO Pursuit

TCBO Pursuit board - I made it in four minutes, and it shows

Mille Bornes - everyone's favourite

Bimble Scrabble

Reading on the platform

Team reading

Message from the past

Hike up to the cliffs with Nick

Nick = Lake Superior's Little Mermaid

Fire filled with exploding rocks

Everyone's favourite pastime - napping

What to do with your free time after six hours of birding on the platform? Birding from the tower, of course (Hare Island visible, and Thunder Bay on the horizon).

Sweet tape collection - we played the Dylan tape repeatedly

  The TCBO routine and chores took up most of the crew's time at the field station, and I'll get into that later. When we were off the clock and not napping, I'm happy to report that we weren't glued to our phones (no internet service except for a spotty signal up the tower), or watching TV (no TV there). The station has been around for 25 years, and our downtime was filled with an array of refreshingly old school pastimes that wouldn't have been out of place in the early 90s (I'm pretty sure I can remember the early 90s).
  Aside from the above distractions, there was skipping stones, prank battles, mandolin/singing jams, Indian arm wrestling, writing, drawing, charades, map-drawing contests, baking, and watching the odd movie on a laptop. We also engaged in such arcane pursuits as listening to entire albums, and talking to one another. It was awesome to unplug for a while. What am I doing now? Watching TV.