BIRDS.

last monday our house got the chance to take part in Monomoy's National Wildlife Refuge annual Tern Census. Terns (& laughing gulls) are shore birds that come to rest, mate and lay eggs in the wildlife refuge in monomoy. our job was to work along side other volunteers and the refuge's biological science technicians to count & mark eggs in nests and any empty nests that we encountered. to do this was tricky. we had to wear REALLY flattering helmets with two long flags taped to either side. the birds will attack the highest point on anything that they feel is attacking them (we fit into that description, i guess) so this way they would attack the flags & not our eyeballs. we then broke up into 2 groups of twelve and positioned ourselves shoulder to shoulder while holding onto a rope and walked back and forth in a grid yelling out any eggs or nests we found along the way. the birds were definitely a little put off by us, i got pooped on the hand AND face. gross. but it was a VERY cool experience, & a bit scary at times. just another day to add to list the of things i never thought i would be doing.....

a bird about to attack me!

a video of us in the war zone of birds....