Species-specific field research can be a strange occupation.  So much of your life depends on exploring sometimes vast tracks of land, in a search for one thing – one elusive little winged thing – and it can do things to a person.  With so much time alone, it’s not uncommon to start talking to yourself [...]

In the last few weeks the Carden Eastern loggerhead shrike recovery team have been working hard in preparation for both the wild and captive shrikes’ return. Being this season’s Captive Shrike Technician, my biggest concern is those birds arriving from their over wintering facilities to join us at the Carden field site where they will [...]

Before the field season even started, when it was just Jonathan and I holed up in our little room at WPC headquarters with piles of maps and protocols, we saw what we thought to be a good omen: a Northern Shrike in the field next to our parking lot! What’s more, we saw it catch [...]

  For three technicians with limited bear experience, the extent of which has been limited to seeing them fleeing in the opposite direction of moving vehicles or nuisance bears in campgrounds, this has certainly been the spring of the black bear.  Most of the encounters in Carden have been tame, most being the operative word.  [...]