Dave and I were definitely hanging with a different group of people than our usual artsy crowd. There was a woman scientist who specialized in one particular snail, Dr Steve Buskirk who just published a book called Mammals of Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park. Then there was Zack from the Casper Audubon chapter. He could identify a bird just by hearing a few distant notes. Saturday, he was leading a group of gravel crunching amateurs, myself included, when he abruptly stopped,threw down his baseball cap, (he says he can hear better without a hat on ) and pronounced, "Grasshopper Sparrow!" I didn't hear a thing and we never saw it but I believe him! We also took part in a Mist Netting demonstration. One of our catches was a pair of feisty, male Yellow Warblers ( mating season, need I say more). A few of the scientists at the BioBlitz are trained and licensed to bird band. They showed us how to figure out how old the bird was, its sex and how to measure for and apply the tracking band.
These days, the cows like to winter in the coffins so there's literally 3 feet of manure inside. The grounds are also strewn with spent rifle cartridges and rusting carcasses of abandoned machinery. All that money and effort to keep 3 warheads pointed at Russia for less than 4 years! I need to remember that it was the Cold War era and our country was on edge about nuclear war (click this link to see Jim's powerpoint with historical pictures of the missiles). Being 60 (just!) I remember disaster drill training in grade school. We all had to cover our heads and hide under our desks in the event of a nuclear explosion. As if that was going to help. Time to get to work on the LEAP 366 ring for this event. I chose to represent the Bioblitz weekend with some 1/2 price, green yardage I snagged at Meals on Wheels and a silver sunshield which was swag from our Blue Credit Union customer appreciation BBQ (sorry but it's just what I needed). Greens for the grassland prairie and the staff T-shirts. Silver to represent the metallic skin of the Atlas D missile which Jim said was, "dime thin" He also wanted to be represented by the original Guided Missile insignia which was sterling silver. Perfect!
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LEAP 366
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