Long Day

Friday morning I was scheduled to do a breeding bird survey in Dubois. The survey is to start 30 minutes before sunrise (5:15 am). Since Dubois is ca. one hour from Rexburg I needed to leave Rexburg by around 4:00. Mike agreed to come along and record the data. So, I woke up at 3:15, picked Mike up around 3:30, made a stop at Maverick for beverages and hit the road at 4:05. That was the first of these surveys I had done. It went pretty well I thought, although I had a hard time identifying a couple different sparrows by song. I hope to do it some more. Mike was a good sport and it was nice to have him along. We found this mailbox somewhere along the way and Mike wanted to hop on for a ride.

Mike on Mailbox, Dubois, ID 2006

On the way home we stopped in Dubois to show Mike the Dubois Civil Defense Caves and to have some lunch at the gas station deli.

Dubois Civil Defense Cave, Dubois, ID 2006

Mike Photographing Raven Chicks

I got home around 1:00. After a quick nap I loaded up the car with camping gear and went to meet up with the scouts at 3:00 for a campout. We went up to Buttermilk Campground in Island Park. The campground is on the shore of Island Park Reservoir. It was a lot of fun. The scouts went swimming, we sat around the campfire, and when it was dark we caught a few crawfish. After catching 20 or so crawfish, we came back to camp and boiled them. I was pretty impressed that most of the scouts ate, and even liked them. I finally got to bed at midnight and slept in until 9:00. The kids complained about my snoring, I didn’t hear a thing.

Buttermilk Campground, Island Park, ID 2006

Campfire, Buttermilk Campground, Island Park, ID 2006

Crawfish Before and After Being Cooked