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Transcription
124
Gill, Douglas E.
1964
ahead of Larry's shot burst of speed and frequent rests. We relaxed at our
camp after the hour plus climb and I ate a relatively hearty meal of corn
and beef stew. We warmed ourselves in the last of the sunlight on our ridge
and quickly put on all that we had as the shade was cold. I brought an
extra shirt which gave me four layers which was a vast improvement over the
other night. We soon decided to go down to the chick burrow and wait for
the adult to return. Working down the slope warmed us up but sitting on top
of the ridge by the burrow was cold. The last of the sunlight finally faded
from the last high peak and it got colder. We threw stones at a flat rock
just to be active and warm up. Finally dusk settled and the first of the
Dark-rumps came in. I caught one glimpse of it, but I was amazed I couldn't
see it in the twilight. Soon a few more came in and all seemed to be con-
centrating their activity around a ridge to the right of No. 5. Several
times their calling remained in one spot for a long enough time, that I
thought they were sitting on the ledge. Either that or a male in a burrow
was answering. One or two birds flew around the rock ledges below No. 5
but none came up the left canyon or anywhere near the chick's burrow. We
were both cold and were trying to decide what to do. It must have been
nearly 1-1/2 hours after dark and the total number of birds in this area was
4 or 5 and the adult of the chick still hadn't come in. Off in the distance
we could hear several more and I estimated the total number of birds for
the craters may have been 15; that is the birds we were hearing may have been
as high as 15 but, the total birds for the crater we agreed might be safely
25. We decided to check some of the good burrows Larry had found on the
ledges below No. 5. We had difficulty finding some and found no birds. We