I earned some money on the bike today! One of my part-time jobs is doing Environmental Assessments for proposed Wind Turbine farms. Locating Wind Turbines in areas where they won’t chop up birds is of paramount importance, so I’ve been hired to do bird surveys to ensure that the planned locations aren’t in the middle of migration flyways. This morning, under gray skies and high winds (Beaufort 5), I drove the bike to my project area just outside of Forest, Ontario, and surveyed the fields and forests for the first of my winter visits.
I drove 120 km for the total expense of about a gallon of gas. Normally, I would have taken my big gas-guzzling Buick Roadmaster. The downside of riding the bike, for this kind of work, aside from getting cold, is the noise. Hearing protection on a bike is mandatory, due to wind and engine noise. But being able to hear birds is an important part of survey work, so each time I stopped, I had to take off the helmet, the balaclava, and the earplugs.
Birding Tip #1: When blowing snot out of a nostril onto the road, cover the lenses of your binoculars!
Birds added to the BMW list today include:
American Tree Sparrow
Northern Pintail
American Kestrel
Rough-legged Hawk
American Black Duck
Northern Harrier
Horned Lark
Bonaparte’s Gull
Rock Pigeon
Great Blue Heron
Total bird species: 29
I drove 120 km for the total expense of about a gallon of gas. Normally, I would have taken my big gas-guzzling Buick Roadmaster. The downside of riding the bike, for this kind of work, aside from getting cold, is the noise. Hearing protection on a bike is mandatory, due to wind and engine noise. But being able to hear birds is an important part of survey work, so each time I stopped, I had to take off the helmet, the balaclava, and the earplugs.
Birding Tip #1: When blowing snot out of a nostril onto the road, cover the lenses of your binoculars!
Birds added to the BMW list today include:
American Tree Sparrow
Northern Pintail
American Kestrel
Rough-legged Hawk
American Black Duck
Northern Harrier
Horned Lark
Bonaparte’s Gull
Rock Pigeon
Great Blue Heron
Total bird species: 29
