I worked today. In the afternoon I cleaned up some fiber - picked out debris and discarded any bunches less than 3" long. Tedious and mindnumbing stuff. I went to the wildlife clinic again. Today I got to skin mice and gut gophers. Mmm. It was disturbing watching the seagull devour minced mouse, guts and all. SOMEHOW, watching 'gulls eat McDonalds fries is less disturbing. It really shouldn't be, but it is. I battled the yellow jackets to feed the great horned owl, hawk, and raven. The jackets are thick..too thick for my tastes. We need more traps and less cat food. On the way back I narrowly avoided mushing a digger crossing the road - it went right between my tires. They aren't the brightest creatures to grace the earth with bushy tails.

Yesterday I only worked in the morning, so I went on a nice hike in the woods. I heard branches snapping between our house and the waterbox and found deer tracks fresh with canal water. I came out in the clearing to find three bucks out in the orchard - two forked horns and a spike. I watched them as they bounded about and they wandered over towards our house so I called Tim so that he might have a chance at seeing them. He just went out in the yard and scared them back up though. In the woods I saw one more deer, a doe, and heard another. I always end up hiking to the same point - there's a hunting blind in the trees at the top of this hill. It looks like one might have good chances up there - there are many deer and elk trails in the area. I also saw several western fence lizards and tons of large grasshoppers and crickets.

I went to the clinic last night too, but it wasn't super exciting. I cleaned osprey cages, got smacked in the face by a rogue osprey's wing flapping, and labeled X-Rays. Oh well. I like the drive up there - I always see deer and it's just a nice view of the gorge. Tomorrow = bear watching! And everyone watch Conan O'Brian 'cause Guster's gonna be on.