Out on a Limb: Forest Maintenance

Today we spent the day limbing up Doug Firs. It sounds like easy work but with 40+ acres and two people to do it all, it’s a daunting task. Why are we doing this? Cuz, forest fires are a very real threat to anyone’s safety in the PNW and while our little slice of it is well-hydrated, it doesn’t mean that it always will be so it’s best for us to get rid of fire payload while it can be broken down by animals, gravity, fungus, rain, and time. LOTS. AND. LOTS. OF. TIME!!!

It’s not terribly fascinating work. You approach a tree that has full canopy from a trail and start working your way in and take limbs that have shed all foliage. Sounds like a good time, right? No, well, you’d be wrong. While tiring it lets me listen to bird song. It’s something I really love to do. Being out here has really given me a love of bird song. Even the Skrak, skrak, skrak of stellars jays can be enjoyable to me at this point. (Though just as frequently, I wish they’d STFU!)

Using Cornell University’s Merlin App (A truly miraculous find for any beginning birder.), you can record the sound of a bird and get feedback on what it likely is, you can cross-reference against pictures, you can even cross-reference your recording against birdsong examples. Today I heard a Spotted Towhee, a Black-headed Grosbeak and a Swainson’s Thrush all chorusing together as I clipped branches. It was great.

Normally, I see the towhee’s bouncing around but they didn’t reveal themselves today except in song. The Grosbeak’s are almost always only heard in song and the Thrush’s song is possibly the most remarkable of the lot of them and the bird’s plumage makes it a most unremarkable sight that I have only seen once. Honestly, their song is the coolest part about them. They sound akin to what my ear equates to a creature leveling in a video game.

Regardless of if you love the kind of maintenance we did today or if you just find it tedious, the birds make it better (for me at least). A day well spent shaded by our mixed Doug Fir canopy and filled with birdsong. What more can anyone want