The TCBO routine

Pulling early platform watch (Michigan's Ile Royale at left)

Nick and Ollie holding down the 'form

Ollie's platform shenanigans

Blister in the sun

The elusive Thunder Ape

"Do you have bags?"

Nick and I in the N2B Grotto, watching the Nighthawk nets

Banding a Dark-eyed Junco Junco hyemalis

About to release a Black-throated Green Warbler Setophaga virens

Ollie extracting a Sharp-shinned Hawk Accipiter striatus

Nick giving Sharpie release tips to Maina 

Sharpie cans by a hawk net

The sacred binder

10:30 a.m. Elvis-wiches = vital

Entering banding data

  It's been a week since I left the TCBO, and I'm still waking up at 6:00 a.m. er're day, mumbling "Early nets," as I blink the confusion from my eyes. Early nets were followed a half hour later by the start of watch hours from the platform, which was never left unmanned until six hours later. Every half hour saw net rounds, which entailed going around (You going right or left?) a series of mist and hawk nets checking for/extracting/bagging birds, and finishing off with an HT (Heligoland trap) drive. The ground traps/jay trap were also checked every half hour. Extracted birds were processed at the lab, which meant IDing, banding, and taking biometrics (age, sex, fat, wing chord, weight, notes). If you weren't banding in the lab, you were scribing for the bander. Platform observers marked all birds down as either 'Obs' or 'Vis' - birds just observed at the site, versus birds seen visibly migrating (heading southish towards Pie Island or Ile Royale).
  When the watch ended in the afternoon, there was a rotating list of chores to attend to, which ranged from cooking dinner or doing dishes, to doing the log or entering banding data into the computer. There was also the first week of endless weed-whacking, which shall never be mentioned again. An afternoon nap was an important ritual, but not always possible. After the aforementioned downtime, dinner at 6:00 p.m. was followed by the checking/entering of the log by the group, which could take 30 minutes to an hour, depending on Ollie's desire to argue about vizzing eagles. The start and end of my TCBO sojourn were marked by additional nighttime net hours - nighthawks in August, and owls towards mid-September. These efforts were undertaken from 8:00 p.m.-past midnight sometimes, so those days were getting pretty long by the end.
  Anyway, that's my thumbnail sketch of the TCBO routine. It was a helluvan experience.

The Bear

American Black Bear Ursus americanus

American Black Bear Ursus americanus

American Black Bear Ursus americanus

American Black Bear Ursus americanus (or is it a floating Mickey Mouse hat?)

Paw prints appeared on our trails in the 30 minute intervals between net runs

A bear does indeed shit in the woods

Pie Island, piece of cake for a swimming bear

  We were briefed about the Black Bears that hang around the field station, and when we encountered our first, a sow and three cubs, we chased them off by banging on pots. My second meeting with bears came at much closer range. I was checking ground traps on the shore, so my head was down as I came around the bend by the remnants of the old lighthouse. There were three traps left to check - first trap: empty..second trap: empty...third tra...what the hell is that? About seven feet in front of me, a large dark form stood up. I was staring into the face of a large Black Bear that had just raised itself up on its haunches from behind a low berry bush. I froze. The bear was calmly chewing on a mouthful of berries, and it looked at me with a 'good doggy' look on its massive face. I backed up slowly, then turned the corner and skulked back up towards the platform, swiftly returning with noise-making reinforcements. While I never sensed any menace in the bear's behaviour, that was about as close as I would care to get to a wild bear, thanks.
  A few days later, a younger bear decided to swim to Pie Island, which is at least a dozen kilometres from our tip of the Sibley Peninsula. We watched it swim confidently to the island, which took over two hours, and as it got smaller on the horizon, it looked like a floating Mickey Mouse hat.

TCBO raptors

juvenile Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus (adult)

Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura

Broad-winged Hawk Buteo platypterus

Sharp-shinned Hawk Accipiter striatus

Sharp-shinned Hawk Accipiter striatus

These are a few of my favourite wings...

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.

TCBO mammalia

Red Fox Vulpes vulpes

Martin the Groundhog Marmota monax

Martin the Groundhog Marmota monax

Eastern Chipmunk Tamias striatus

Dramatic Chipmunk

Vole sp. (I'll sort it out later - sure glad I'm not a volewatcher)

White-tailed Deer Odocoileus virginianus

  The Thunder Cape Bird Observatory is built on the site of a Victorian-era lighthouse, and Martin the Groundhog has taken full advantage of this. Martin lives in the most secure burrow of all time - a vintage iron boiler. Who says rodents aren't intelligent?
  The deer that hung around the station weren't a problem until a big buck started lurking behind the buildings and lowering its antlers aggressively at nocturnal strollers. Pro tip - never pee in the same spot twice...deer go crazy for the human pee-pee.
  The chipmunks made a regular habit of filling their mouth pouches with corn from the ground traps, and at one point a chipmunk and a Savannah Sparrow got caught in the same trap. The chipmunk ran in circles until it bumped into the sparrow, which it punched in the face before fleeing. Shenanigans.
  Our resident Red Fox was gorgeous, but we had to scare it off, as it was hanging around the nets. No Lynx or Wolves to report, unfortunately. Apparently the Sibley Peninsula used to be blessed with a formidable herd of Moose, but most, if not all of them have succumbed to Moose sickness, which allowed the deer to take over.
  The Black Bears...merit their own post.

Lovely Lapland Longspur

Lapland Longspur Calcarius lapponicus

Lapland Longspur Calcarius lapponicus (the brown tones really warm up in the sun)

Lapland Longspur Calcarius lapponicus (showing off its trademark 'longspurs' well)

Lapland Longspur Calcarius lapponicus

The bird merited a mention in the field station narrative, which I wrote that day

  One of my favoured TCBO bird encounters was with a Lapland Longspur. This particular bird showed up on September 11th and remained for several days. The bird was quite confiding, so much so that I almost tripped over it several occasions while checking ground traps. My one previous encounter with this species came on a memorable trip to Seosan with the BK Boys last November (http://snowyowllost.blogspot.ca/2015/12/seosan-november-28-29.html). Those birds were relatively distant, so the lengthy close-up views of the TCBO bird felt decadent.
  Is it just me, or is that bird smiling?

Out of the woods

Superior morning - time to get the early nets up

TCBO middle-autumn crew

Banding a Northern Saw-whet Owl Aegolius acadicus

  Just got back into Le Big Smoke, after six weeks at the remote Thunder Cape Bird Observatory field station. It will no doubt take a few days to readapt to showers and flushing toilets, the whole 'lots of people' thing, a fridge filled with impossible wonders, and no Lake Superior in which to nakedly leap. I feel like Dersu Uzala. Hopefully I won't get arrested for chopping down trees in the city and chastising water merchants, as he did. Him all same man.
  Many wacky stories from the bush to follow. Oh, I bumped into David Suzuki today in a washroom at Thunder Bay Airport, surreal.