Hellos and Goodbyes

Sadly, Kari left us today. She is wonderful, and she will be missed. She brought a lot of positive energy to the project, and she was very good working with the birds. I'll miss her, we had a lot of good times:

Commuting to the organic farm while worrying that her car might not make it
Coon Bluff Road
Polts!
Various necessary shows, like Glee, Wonderfalls, and Flight of the Conchords
TAN VAN!
Looks like Marianne's going to ISO...
Setting off fire alarms
Mouse trailer internet access
Watching the boys talk only about cranes for hours and then slowly becoming those people who only talk about cranes for hours
and the unforgettable... Joys of JELLO cookbook

She is moving on to Connecticut and on to more challenging things. All my best and my love, Kari!

Cherry joined us about 2 weeks ago, to replace Kari's position. Cherry is Awesome! She's from the south, so it's nice to add diversity to the group. We went hiking up to Mill Bluff as a group (including Aubrey, Cherry, and myself). Aubrey and Cherry have a special connection, because they are both into Owl surveys. Aubrey works with an Owl banding project during the evenings about this time of year, trying to determine the habitat usage of the owls during their migration, and she has enthusiastically agreed to bring Cherry along banding, too. What happy chance! (also, according to the picture below, she's the only sane one left... ;) Welcome, Cherry!