7 August, 1997

Thursday, August 7, 1997.

An early morning sighting of a Common Loon caused me to get out my binoculars and take a closer look at the birds on Toolik Lake. John Nevins and I couldn't decide whether the birds were Common or Yellow-billed. We eventually agreed upon the Common Loon classification.

Today it is raining and cold. The (minimum) five-days collection time is up, fearing another hard rainfall and the possibility of losing some of the insects, I returned to the Kuparuk River to retrieve the insects cards. My first stop was in the control zone of -0.7 and -0.1. I picked up all of the cards except those in the stream. Although I had on hip waders, the water level was over the tops of the waders and the current was very strong. I marked the cards as I collected them - noting the location. I returned to the truck and we all went back to Toolik for dinner. We returned at 7:00 pm and I retrieved insect cards in the experimental zone at 2.5 km and 3.0 km.

All cards in the experimental zone were retrieved with the exception of the 2.5 km station at 500 meters. Although I looked for 15-20 minutes, I saw no sign of the wooden stake or the three gray insect cards. Also, I was unable to retrieve the 3.0 km center of the stream insect cards because of the high water and swift current. I had arranged for a 9:30 pm pick up at the Kuparuk and I returned to Toolik around 9:45 pm. Karie and Nat stayed on to process the fish caught by the fishermen. I think they worked until after midnight that day.