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neighborhood on the south flank of Humboldt State University. Just a few yards farther up the hill, the tall, dark redwoods of the Arcata Community Forest ruffled up their greenery and breathed. Whee-hoo. Whee-hoo, Gabriel whistled, sounding as if she were calling a dog. Tall and slender, with her wavy brown hair swept into a loose bun, Gabriel wore a blue fleece jacket over jeans and T-shirt. She was in the forest this morning to check on the Steller’s jay pairs she and other HSU researchers have been studying for years, and note who’s here, who’s doing what. As she walked she shook the canister, and the peanuts inside it rattled like kibbles. Whee-hoo. “They know that that whistle means peanuts,” she said, looking up and around, blue eyes scanning cloudblotted sky and bright tree tips. “Here, there’s someone up in that tree,” she said, aiming her binoculars at the bright blue Steller’s jay looking down at her from a roof peak, the crest on its smudgy head cocked up. It flitted to the tip of a tall cedar in someone’s yard, said shack shack. “So this guy,” said Gabriel — the jay yelled again, shack shack shack — “he’s announcing that he owns this place. Could be a girl, too. This is the kind of call that both the girls and the guys do. He/she sits up there, calling, and that means “mine.” She laughed. “Mine mine mine!” Shack
shack! said another jay, joining the first. This one’s legs were muddy, a sign of nestbuilding. Possibly its mate, said Gabriel. Then he said Bleep-bleep! Bleep-bleep! “Oh!” said Gabriel, excited. “That’s the male call!” The male jay leaned over to the other jay and fed her an insect from his bill. “There,” said Gabriel, laughing. “If you had any doubt whether they are a pair, now you know.” Gabriel grew up in Gruenwald, a small town near Munich in Germany, where she scrambled around the countryside with her parents and became entranced by birds and animals. She spent a year at Humboldt State University in 2001 as an exchange student in wildlife management, then returned in 2004 to work as a visiting scholar in wildlife management with Professor Jeff Black as part of her doctoral continued on next page
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Did you know...
One earthworm can digest 36 tons of soil in one year.
Beneficial Living Center Organic Amendments Fresh Compost Tea Beneficial Insects Workshop Wednesdays Resume September
Our Automatic Tea Machine (ATM) is open 24/7 148 South G St., Arcata • 633-6125 • www.beneficiallivingcenter.com
JUNE 28, 28, 2012 2012 northcoastjournal.com northcoastjournal.com •• NORTH NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, JUNE
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