4.8 • 734 Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
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0:00.0 | When I was in my early 20s, I had an influential experience with bird nests. |
0:06.0 | I was an undergraduate studying zoology at Cal Polypamona in Southern California. |
0:11.6 | At the edge of campus, there was a little remnant patch of scrub habitat, |
0:16.5 | the sort of habitat that, for thousands of years, |
0:19.3 | blanketed the coastal lowlands of Southern California, |
0:22.4 | before the landscape was transformed into the nightmare of urban sprawl that it is today. |
0:28.3 | This patch had some western sycamore and native walnut trees overshadowing shrubs like |
0:34.4 | Toyon, Blue Elder, and Black Sage, and some coastal prickly pear cactus in there, too. |
0:41.6 | I was becoming more and more intrigued by birds back then, so I volunteered for a research project |
0:47.4 | that my ornithology professor was running. The bird of interest was the cactus wren, |
0:53.6 | Kampilorinkus Brunea Kapilis. |
1:00.0 | It's a large, noisy wren with a spotted breast, a streaky back, and lots of personality. |
1:07.0 | The goal of my professor's project was to gather data on cactus wren nests, to find any general |
1:13.9 | patterns in nest site selection, nest orientation, stuff like that. Honestly, this was a long time |
1:21.1 | ago and I don't remember all the details. But I do remember loving the experience of going out into that scrub habitat in the early morning, |
1:30.6 | breathing the cool air, redolent with the spicy sweet scent of sage, and hearing the cactus wrens |
1:37.1 | and other birds singing. I had my data sheet on a clipboard, and I'd go check on the cactus |
1:43.0 | wrens and their nests to record data. |
1:46.5 | These wrens use dried grasses and sticks to build an enclosed spherical nest with a side |
1:53.4 | entrance hole. And just where do they like to place these nests? You guessed it in cactus. |
2:04.5 | Cactus wrens prefer to tuck their nests in among the wicked spines of dense cactus. At the habitat at my college, the only cactus option was coastal |
2:12.0 | prickly pear. You can imagine that this is a pretty safe place to raise your chicks, |
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