So, I've dragged my feet on this blog long enough. I've meant to update on Tennessee, New York, AND my journey home. But the lack of consistent internet, coupled with the incredibly long posts required, gave me an adequate excuse to never do them.
(For the photog version check out my Picassa Albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/androecy)

Instead of using it as an excuse, I will continue on. With my freetime I'd love to redo the entire blog: writing, formatting, and pictures. In that time, I'll add on those posts, because I'd love to use those as a jumping point for teaching many biological/ecological concepts.
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I'm back in New Braunfels now, and spending the winter here. After leaving home for six months, I honestly have gone through tremendous changes. Whether it shows outwardly or not, I feel I came back a different person. I think this is natural after experiencing so many different things. I climbed mountains, walked on beaches, ate ridiculous amounts of food, stepped on snakes, found wild horses, fell in love, earned a broken heart, found friends, fought, cried, caught birds, salamanders, snakes, forced in too many awkward situations, forced to meet people, became popular, and burned many bridges.

And here I am back home. After many months of wishing I was back home, I'm back and unsure of how I feel.

Granted New Braunfels ranks in the top places to spend winter in North America. Fair weather, beautiful hill country, eclectic, and within a couple hours of top birding hot spots. The hill country is home to me.

I'm just not used to having, stability. It frankly scares me. I lived out of my car for 2 weeks, never knowing where I was going to sleep that night. Before that I worked field jobs with unfamiliar people in unfamiliar places. Now I'm in a room I'm used to, running down streets I know, and not knowing what to do with myself.

So I did what any bird would do, I began nesting. I spent the last couple of days cleaning out this room, vacuuming, cleaning, while Mom and Scott spent all of today trying to get rid of the rodents. Not that there is anything wrong with this room, it just simply had squatters in it while I was gone.

With the room clean, I began, with magpie like tenacity, hanging up my collections. I have this collecting tendancy. I'm not normally much of a collector, but I am extremely nostalgic. I take signs, maps, or small things from places I go.

My map of Fort Hood, Tx (classified)

Perhaps stolen sign from Fort Hood as well as my National Refuge Week poster

Another perhaps stolen (in small print-personale conducting wildlife surveys), and my Golden-winged Warbler working group poster entirely in spanish (that I can't read)

Map of the Mississippi River Delta and our transects (There's a star in the middle where we stayed)(also classified)

I didn't get a chance to hang this one up, as it's going to go on the door with magnets. This is our field site in Tennessee with territories and nests marked (needs to be updated)

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With that done I wanted to fix up the backyard. I definitely have fallen in love with birds. Before I was really serious, Katie famously told all her friends I left her for birds. It's essentially come true now. My life is so much more meaningful with them.

So step 2. Bring all the birds to my yard.
I started this by hanging a feeder outside my window. What I love about birds is they don't play by the rules. Himalayan Snowcocks in Arizona? WHY NOT? Birds hundreds of miles off their suspected range? WHY NOT? Never migrate because theres plenty of bird feeders in a neighborhood? SURE!

Ontop of that I want to build a small feeder I can put oranges out on. Oranges are a favorite treat for many birds, and a great attractor. I was unsure how to go about it, so I began by making a test model. I used whatever I could find in the room, cardboard, paperclips, and some fishing line.

Juice from the orange, just fyi

I placed a screw in the middle for the orange, and hung it by 4 rings made from paperclips.

I honestly don't know how much weight this can hold, but hopefully it can hold a couple ounce bird. If I get enough interest in my oranges, I'll build a better one out of wood, with sides, and a roof.

We'll see how it does in the morning.
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Before I left last spring, I put out a novel birdhouse I received as a gift for my birthday.
Today I decided to see how it fared. Though made out of some kind of treated cardboard, it held through the summer. The cardboard was a bit waterlogged and clearly not going to make it through another season, so I began taking it apart.

As I took of the top and began opening the birdhouse, something clearly had nested in it. The box was filled to the brim with grasses, feathers, and even a cracker wrapper. I stripped off each wall carefully, leaving only the bottom remaining. Strengthened with the various bird feathers (wood peckers, mockingbirds, and wrens), it held its shape well.
Right at the bottom were even two remaining eggs that didn't make it through the season. From a few body feathers and the eggs I reason it was a Carolina Wren.

This is a common backyard bird. They are very curious, getting themselves in trouble often. Wrens are known to walk right into peoples open doors and frequently get caught in houses. Added to their strange behavior they also nest in very peculiar places. Here's a couple I found online:They nest in garages

They nest in shoes

They nest in bathrooms (apparently this was a womans scunchi bowl)

I'm pretty sure I know exactly who this couple was. Scott sent me this picture back in March.
A Carolina Wren had nested in his motorcycle helmet. It's the same wren I see fly in and out of the garage, fly all over the house, and stare me when I walk outside. I'm sure by putting out the birdhouse I saved another one of Scott's possessions from another nesting attempt.
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And that's all for now! I have been dreaming all month about making a couple repeated segments. These include a Backyard Bird Profile segment, as well as one on travel tips. So stay tuned!

-As a side note- I officially saw my 300th species of bird a week ago. While playing football in Plano, I heard a very curious tse-tse-tse call, and BAM Dark-eyed Junco. No binoculars necessary. A good 300th for me. Since then I've added two more: Rock and Cactus Wren at the Sibley Nature Center in Midland, Tx.

302 :)