On Friday I spent all day exploring around Los Banos, meeting key players in waterfowl conservation and water distribution. Mostly though, I just looked and sighed.Â
There is so much to be said for embracing good work that has already been done. I wish we spent more time showing people what has been proven possible instead of threatening them with horrors we are certain are inevitable.
I saw three peregrines in the heart of the Los Banos duck club country. Many people were certain they wouldn't be in the wild much longer when I was a child. Now you can't swing a lure without hitting one. Falconers like me are actually complaining about the bother of them in the field, harassing our captive-bred falcons, hunting and training with us unwanted. They've become a welcome pest, but pesky just the same. I never imagined I'd be able to say with annoyance, "ANOTHER passage peregrine?" What an amazing success.
I also watched a spectacular number of geese in the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. Many of them were Aleutian cackling geese. (They look like Canada geese, but are smaller and with a white ring at the base of their neck.)
From the Department of Fish & Wildlife in Oregon:
Aleutian geese were put on the endangered species list in 1967 because of extremely low population numbers. At the time of federal threatened and endangered species delisting, their population had reached a sustainable level of 60,000 to 70,000. The current population level is above 115,000. Hunting was allowed in 2005-2006 in Oregon for the first time in more than 50 years.
Ducks Unlimited partnered on this refuge project. The density of geese in this area, or perhaps more appropriately, the quality of the habitat has everything to do with the efforts of the fantastic team of people with whom I'm working. Raising money for conservation work in this economy may not be as easy as I would like. All the same, I am very certain that will be many days like yesterday when I look across wetlands and think to myself, Is this really what I get to do for a living? Amazing.
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I promise I'll get better at these! Give me time to get used to pulling it all together and making the best of my equipment. (to remember to raise the lens instead of gawk)Â Blurry and ends upbruptly, I know. But we have an amazing amount of projects in process or completed out of my regional office and that's just regionally...
> Las Banos. I spent a month there one week when I was a kid being schlepped along to falconry meets with my parents. I sweat I’ve never been colder in my life. Hope you packed your longjohns! MISS YOU!
You should come to a meet with me sometime. It’s a totally different world. Falconry trips involve hotel rooms, bottles of wine and room service.
You do have the coolest job ever. Somehow I’m following you on Twitter or you’re following me (truwest), not sure how that happened but enjoy your occasional post and yes, indeed, what a cool job! It woulc be my lifestyle choice, but alas, I have to live it vicariously. Dang.