AMB Class #2: Playing with Fir

Class #2 comes just two days after the first field trip.  Yeah, that one:  the one that left me feeling so rotten.  Those two days have been full of lots of soul-searching (is this really the thing for me at this point in my life) as well as Galapagos photo processing (when you take 6000+ photos in the space of ten days, you may never get done with the photo processing).

Oddly enough, these two thing dovetail nicely.  For every doubt I have about the AMB program, there’s a photo of a cool bird.  For every concern I have about whether I’m suited for this, there’s another memory of a cool bird experience (like, say, watching a Waved Albatross courting ritual) and being completely awed by it (credit to Melissa for a fabulous capture and memory, one that makes me smile and laugh every single time):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissa_vet/9452753909

So on this Monday evening – my first official AMB class – I leave home a good 90 minutes before class starts.  There is no way that I’ll be late tonight.

This puts me at the Audubon Nature Center plenty early for class, and that allows me to pull out my binoculars and stand outside and listen and watch.  The Nature Center is a great birding spot:  the habitat, I am learning, is a mix of Emergent Wetlands and Lowland Riparian and Open Water Streams.  Combined, these habitats provide large numbers of birds and much diversity of species year round.  

Tonight, I stand outside, listening.  I am learning, as a birder, that my ears are far more useful than my eyes, especially when I first enter a new area.  Tonight there is a bird singing, with a whiny, plaintive voice.  I don’t recognize it.  Chuck, the mentor who will be teaching tonight’s class, is standing near me, listening, too.

Lesser Goldfinch (female), Genesee Mountain Park
7/13/13
Habitat:  Douglas-fir Forest

“Who is that singing?” I ask.  It seems like I’m forever asking versions of this question these days (the most common being “who is that?!”), and Chuck answers quickly and helpfully:  it’s a Lesser Goldfinch.  I’m grateful for the answer, and I’m thankful that I got a direct answer rather than the Socratic approach.  That Socratic approach?  Maybe a good learning method, but it can also be very annoying when you just really want an answer.

But I’m annoyed at the answer, too:  this is my four percent bird!  I need to learn this thing!  Dang.  I think I need this program, and I need it badly.

We go inside the Nature Center to find the mentors (I’ll tell you more about them later) setting out sprigs of greenery on the tables.  If it were a couple of months later, I’d think these were Christmas decorations.  But as I watch the various mentors carefully placing a cone here amongst the green needles, and another there with some different green needles, and then a piece of bark there, I understand that we’re doing hands-on learning.

I’m not sure what I expected, but from this moment on, I realize how extremely well organized this program is.  The folks doing the teaching are – to a person – knowledgeable, good presenters, engaging, interesting, and captivating.  Most importantly, all of the folks who present information tonight – including Chuck, who leads this class – clearly love this stuff.  And they are eager – so very eager – for those of us in the class to learn.

And I am blown away.  Completely.  And.  Totally.

Let’s get real:  these people are volunteers, and to put in the kind of time in preparation and participation:  well, the love comes shining through.  

Did I mention that I’m blown away?

Wilson's Warbler, Cherry Creek State Park, CO
9/8/12
Habitat:  Lowland Riparian, in migration
Narrow-leaved (Sandbar) Willow

Oh, and did I mention how much fun this is?  We get handouts that tell us how to differentiate between pines and firs and spruces and junipers.  Together, we pick up the greenery and compare.  Ah, I see this pine has needles in groups of twos and threes (so it’s either a Ponderosa or a Lodgepole), and the Douglas fir has single needles and this Bristlecone pine has needles in groups of five.  Who knew?  Amazing!  Wow, look at this cone:  it’s got little thingies (called variously snake’s tongues or mouse's tails;  I’ll stick with “thingies”) sticking out.  That makes it a Doug fir cone.  (Soon, we'll learn that these thingies are called "bracts", but no need to get ahead of ourselves just yet.)  And so on and so on.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Echo Lake, CO
6/23/13
Habitat:  Spruce-Fir Forest
Engelmann Spruce (see how the cones grow up?)

Hey, this is going to be fun!  The lecture that follows puts things in context.  Why do we care about this tree versus that?  Why study habitat;  for heaven’s sake, this is a course in birding!  Well, understanding habitat helps us to ID birds in the field, since different birds exist in different habitats.  It’s the first thing to look at even before you see a bird.  What would you expect to see here?  What birds nest here, stop over on migration, summer or winter here?  Studying habitat is also a springboard to understanding conservation issues.  You can’t be a birder and not become (if you weren’t already one) an ardent conservationist.  It just doesn’t work that way.

Wilson's Warbler, Echo Lake, CO
6/23/13
Habitat:  High Elevation Willow Carr - even though this guy is in a conifer
He was flitting and singing in the willows, where he nests.

Chuck leads us through a description of terms and concepts we’ll need to know, all related to habitat.  Abiotic qualities are the physical attributes:  elevation, north/south orientation, etc.  Biotic qualities are the botanic ones;  greater plant diversity impacts the numbers of birds and of species.  We’re introduced to the concept of biogeography:  why does a bird exist in one area and not in another?  Then we start talking about specific habitats in Colorado.  Colorado is home to a multitude of habitats, one of the most diverse states in the nation.  With the abundance of habitats, we’ll only be able to survey the full list, and then do a deeper dive into the ones we’ll see close to home.  That list is still incredibly impressive, as we range from the Shortgrass Prairie of much of eastern Colorado to the high elevation Alpine Tundra of the high mountains.  Tonight, we cover in detail habitats ranging from Lowland Riparian to Montane Riparian to Willow Carrs.  For each habitat, we’re presented a sampling of “indicator species”:  the birds that fairly well define the characteristics of the environment.

American Pipit, Mount Evans, CO
7/7/13
Habitat:  Alpine Tundra

As he hits on each different habitat, he points out an indicator species:  the bird you can count on seeing in this habitat.  That doesn't actually capture "indicator species" but it does the trick for me right now.  And for many of the indicator species, we get another mentor presenting a species profile of the bird.  We cover High Elevation Carr, and voila!  We get a detailed description of a Wilson's Warbler.    Alpine Tundra?  Here's a bunch of stuff you never knew about American Pipits.

I love this.  Utterly and completely.  What a cool program this is.  How do I sign up?  Oh, I’d forgotten:  this is my home for the next year.  Most excellent!

American Pipit, Mount Evans, CO
7/7/13
Habitat:  Alpine Tundra or possibly Krummholz

My head is buzzing with new concepts like Ecotones (“edge habitats” – places where two major habitats come together), and “Carr” (no, not the thing you drive), and  - my favorite – “Krummholz” (literally – from the German – “crooked tree” – indicating the transition zone from subalpine forest to Alpine Tundra, where the trees grow crooked and one-sided because of the effects of the winds).  I leave class still trying to figure out what the heck a “forb” is, but it feels like a good challenge, not one that will defeat me.

When we wrap up for the evening, my head is spinning, full of new concepts and terms and thoughts.  There is so very, very much to learn.  I feel like I’m back in fifth grade again, and I absolutely loved fifth grade.  How could I have ever thought that this wasn’t the best thing I’d ever done?