#3 – Marvels of May

#3  –  Marvels  of  May

By Ilene West | June 4, 2026

May was a roller coaster of sweeping sites, catching hens, and falling into ease and rhythm of life up here in the Interior. Some highlights from the past month include banding our first Bufflehead, watching the Boreal Owlets hatch and grow, finally checking our last few boxes that were inaccessible during snow melt (unless you wanted to go for a frigid swim to them!), seeing more Common Merganser and Red Squirrel mamas, finding a second Barrow's Goldeneye nest (first time in the project's history), seeing wildflowers bloom in the forest, spotting scoters at the backyard pond, BFG (Big Friendly Giant [maybe]) in the form of a moose snacking on greenery next to my tent, and witnessing the season change from winter to spring right before our eyes.

I experienced the start of spring a few times this year. Working in coastal Virginia during March, spending time with family back home in Michigan during April, briefly hopping down to Louisiana to encounter what I would consider serious summer weather already, and then skipping right up to Alaska at the start of May to residual snow cover. Spring up here feels the most rewarding. There is something so wondrous about all of the new growth and looking out toward the green mosaic hills now. The forest smells are incredibly refreshing. We have been treated to mostly sunny days so far as well, which is all we can hope for doing this work. Standing at the top of a metal extension ladder up against a swaying tree in the thick of a thunderstorm is not ideal… really ever! We have been pretty lucky.

You might be wondering, what is the point of all of this running around and checking boxes? We conduct multiple sweeps for a few reasons:

1.) To see if there is any occupancy at all by any species. For Common Goldeneye, this initiation could occur through the end of May, which we have definitely observed even during this final full sweep.

2.) If a box is considered active with a nest, we revisit every 7 to 10 days to record egg data and determine incubation stage. It is the candling and aging of eggs that helps us predict when the ducklings will hatch.

3.) We have to catch and record data on every incubating hen to be able to tie the 2026 field season to her nesting history! We have caught already banded birds (called “recaps”) and new ones that we will then place a uniquely numbered metal band on the bird's leg. A group of these hens still have web tags affixed to their inner foot webbing that were deployed when they were ducklings! You can actually follow the data trail backwards to find out which year and box they hatched in. It is truly extraordinary and underscores just how significant long-term monitoring datasets can be.

Spring beauty and nest talks aside, something I wanted to expand on is this: the work usually does not end when we arrive back from the field. Anyone who has lived in a research camp like this knows that there will always be a million things to upkeep, troubleshoot, and find solutions for in order to make everything happy and functional. Data entry, updating the whiteboard, planning for the following day, cleaning gear… those are all work-related duties. What people do not typically see or think of are how the things we consider "everyday norms" back home might be accomplished in a more remote setting:

• Tub dishes - the photo with the faucet is deceiving! There is no running water here! We were actually melting snow for dishes in the first month, which worked out great for saving on drinking water.

• Chopping and restocking the wood pile - very cathartic. A great way to release any pent up energy. Growing up in rural Michigan, you could never say the word “bored” at grandma and grandpa’s house… that meant it was wood choppin' time! They will be happy to know that I enjoy it now.

• Refilling water and fuel - done when we are running low, which is usually about once a week.

• Laundry - when and where we can! Sometimes washing stinky, duck poop-covered rags at the coin laundromat only to have a local tell us that we used the broken rinse cycle machine… so now they are wet, still stinky, duck poop-covered rags, but they do have the essence of sudsy Arm & Hammer.

• Hanging up clothes and rags to dry - when they do not fully wash or dry at the coin laundromat. Or when someone inevitably floods a hip boot at the Old Road... happens every time without fail.

• Showering - again, when and where we can! $4 for a 4 minute shower sometimes makes all of the difference in the world.

• Fixing things - generator that would not start, scraped up tent from blowing across camp in wild winds, propane fridge that runs sometimes and then seemingly decides out of nowhere not to other times… I know more now about flue baffles and burning orifices than I ever could have imagined in my past. Our current silver lining: it has been running strong for at least a week straight now. Knock on wood! Please no one make any sudden movements!

• Yelling at the porcupines - okay, maybe not yelling, but kindly redirecting lady porcupine and her buddy to stop trying to eat the cabin and, as of yesterday, Morgan’s tent.

• Updating our social spaces - blog writing, taking and sharing fun photos online, working with our project partners on upcoming presentations and features… stay tuned!

• Keeping up with family, friends, and loved ones - this is the one we care about the most, talk about the most in the field, and have the hardest time finding free moments to sit down and call for as long as we want to. We love you all and miss you so much. Thank you for being so supportive of our unusual career choices.

• And the many more to-dos that manifest - like cutting out and putting up bird reflector stickers, so the Redpolls will stop smacking into the cabin windows! Or trying to find our next jobs and apartments for after the summer. Making a camp bird sighting list… which I still need to do for the 57 species we have seen so far. Most recent additions being White-winged Crossbill, Blackpoll Warbler, and potentially a American Wigeon x Eurasian Wigeon hybrid...? Birders and waterfowl-enthusiasts, you decide!

These are parts of an average day not only working but living in the Alaskan wilderness… and we are not even as remote as it gets out here! Too, there are versions of this happening across the country through thousands of field positions where crews are researching wildlife, ecosystems, and collecting valuable data to inform future conservation and management. We feel truly fortunate to be here, experience it all, and call the boreal forest our seasonal workplace and home.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! If you have not done so already, check out our previous blog posts: "#1 – Boreal Beginnings" and "#2 – Duck, Duck… Squirrel". Finally, shout out to our wonderful visitors this past month: Kevin, John, Amanda, and Michael! Thank you all for making the trek over here to have some fun (and maybe sometimes struggle) with us in the field. We loved every minute of it and hope you all did too :)

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