Checking out a cute chick

Dutiful dad brooding his baby

I don't feel like I'll ever be comfortable again. There's a kink in my back, my Achilles tendon feels like someone shot a poisoned arrow into it, my shoulders are crunchy, my knees are bruised, my ass is sore, and my eyes are strained. Do I sound eighty or what? But that's what sitting on the hard ground, back arched and eye pressed to a spotting scope for eight-hour stretches will do to you.

I've been on Nest Watch duty the past three days, following that weird day of impending government shutdown. Well, the government is still up and running, so after a lovely day spent eating all the contents of Studio City in a 24-hour period, I drove back up to the mountain, happy to return since a) I still had a job, and b) there was a new-hatched chick in need of watching!

Good grief, I nearly squealed the first time I saw that fuzzy little dinosaur materializing between its dad's legs as 247 stood over his brood. But squeals are quite unbecoming of serious biologists, so I wisely held my tongue.