"Starry starry night, paint your palette blue and sky. Look out on a summer's day, with eyes that know the darkness in my soul. Shadows on the hill, sketch the tree and the daffodils. Catch the breeze and the winter chills, in the colors on the snowy linen land." - Vincent by Don McLean
Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. I looked at the fluorescent-lit pointers slowly creeping towards 9 on my watch under the starry night of the Grand Canyon State, wind breezes to the point where it feels like we never even left New York, and everyone said we are in a desert? Definitely feels odd as a high altitude and low humidity region, to have such aggressive crosswinds that sweep dust into our face. Snapping back, we have been standing here for a good 10 minutes; quietness took over our breath, solitude took over our movement. I stare into my watch once again: tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, and I took off into blank space..
My name is Terence, one of the fellow Earthwatch explorers who are spending their spring break into the depth of Arizona to follow and study owls, one of the most majestic animals there is, "A pinnacle of evolution." I love to travel, I love to stargaze, I love to study animals and I love to question and explore the blue planet that we call home; this trip is pretty much a perfect match for me and I have been loving it as we are 2 days into the Copper State. We spent the first night in Tucson to settle into the roughness of mountains, as we are totally in awe of how gorgeous and breathtaking the sceneries are around us. Day 2, we met Nikki and Dave, the trip project staff at our hotel in the morning, really passionate and amazing people to talk to and I'm already looking forward to the trip to study owls with them. We grabbed our luggage and started our 3 hours road trip into the research station in the town of Portal.
- Road tripping across the desert with Nikki (Left), Ms Mancebo (Right) with my fellow trip buddies: Asianna, Jacob and Ridwan (Background)
I always love a good road trip, always leads to places I never been before especially in this vast and beautiful land of the United States. As I look down towards that open road, I see cars, I see dust, I see vast emptiness, I see infinite amount of destinations that the road can lead to: from Tuscon to Montana, from Los Angeles to New York, from nowhere to everywhere. Though everyone has one clear destination in mind: Southwestern Research Station. As the interstate highway ends. the convoy slowly drives into the state park's mountainous terrain, things started to get bumpy as gravel paved road shocked and awoken the car's suspension to absorb that buoyant, our back starts to scream pain and begging for the bumpy condition to stop. But the breathtaking nature calmly control the entire situation as we are mesmerized by the scenery passed by our dirt-covered cars, we took out cameras, phones, tried to capture the best moments of the mountains, of the creeks and of the forest.
The jaw drop didn't stop there. As we arrived at the station, two things took over us: the jaw actually dropping and the solitude of the environment. It is honestly one of the most quiet and alluring environments that I have been, dust covers the ground around the station as water-lacking trees surrounds the narrow creek that slowly and quietly runs through the station. One of the things that catches my attention is the mountain ranges that sits comfortably at the backdrop of the station, it reminds me of the Californian Yosemite a little bit, with a similar landscape and shadow spots on the surface. I wonder who dared to conquer such devilish altitude?
- The mountain ranges behind the station
- Sunset Reflection on the clouds, the finest of atmospheric optics in Arizona.
After we quickly settled in our dorm rooms, we swiftly proceeded to our intro course to the entire expedition. Dave and Nikki gave us a detailed yet simple lecture on different types of owls we can find around the area and the uniqueness of the region on biodiversity.
- Dave (Left) explaining why Owls are the pinnacle of evolution in science.
The lecture was knowledge-filling and interesting as we get to know more why scientist do what they do with owl studying, though I'm really eager to actually go to the field and see an owl, so were my trip buddies and teachers. So we decided to head off to one of the field study areas nearby by hiking, during nighttime. A lot of us were excited and anxious at the same time as they never venture into the dark and see some starry nights, I have seen it before in numerous places around the world, though never one in desert. One of the most alluring things about stargazing is that every starry sky you see is different, it's ever changing when you are in a different time looking at it or different location studying it. As we walked down the gravel road in the dark, we turned on our headlights and look around: Everything is still, like time stopped for us to look around. It's vastly different from daytime as there are animals running around and people doing activities, but during the nighttime it's like a painting depicting the world standing still with the starry night surround and hug us. At this point in my train of thought I decided to pull out my earphones to listen the only song I had in mind: Vincent by Don McLean, depicting the beautiful starry night and giving it to Vincent Van Gogh, the painter of "The Starry Night" as a homage, I instantly felt relaxed and merge one with the nature as the guitar soothes my ears like a lullaby.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Pointers slowly creeps away.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Dust aggressively slap our face.
Tick, tock. Tick tock. The Orion moves towards the Polaris.
Time slowly went away as we waited the owls to appear and fall into our net, solitude slowly took over our senses and slowly we felt disappointed, frustrated. Why wouldn't it appear? Are we doing something wrong?
Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. I looked at the fluorescent-lit pointers slowly creeping towards 9 on my watch under the starry night of the Grand Canyon State, I slowly space out into the blank space as the dust piled up in my ear canal. It's so quiet I can only hear my clock slowly ran with the iconic sound:
Tick, tock. Tick, hoot. Tick, hoot. Hoot, hoot. Wait..
The net slowly moves and we found ourselves a cute little owl struggling in our net. All of us rushed forwards and start to admire how cute the little fella is, Dave and Nikki immediately record and hush the little owl into calmness to let us obverse the owl. It's an adult Whiskered-Screech Owl, known for their cat-like whiskers on their face, it's also one of the more common owl species we will find in the area. Everyone start to take pictures and in awe with how amazing nature is that we normally won't encounter back in the New York City. I think my eyes were more wide open than the freaked-out owl that was staring at us as Dave holds him firmly, it's my first time seeing an owl with my own eyes and I couldn't be more amazed by it. We pet him for moment then we let him go back into the wild.
As Henry David Thoreau once said, "All good things are wild and free." As we let owls back into the wild we also never forget why are we here in the first place. To learn more about owls and to experience the nature, and the free spirit of wild west. Maybe after we leave Arizona we won't be able to see these owls again for a long while, but as long as their spirit runs in the nature and that we connect with the nature more, we can always be with them in the wild. At this point in my train of thought, I decided to pull out my earphones once again and listen to the only song that I have in my mind right now as I wrote this, and once again stare into blank space under our starry first night.
"I'm a light sleeper, but I'm a heavy dreamer. Do you believe in endless miracles, do you believe in the impossible? Do you believe, sleep is a time machine? Do you believe in curiosity, do you believe in what you cannot see? Do you believe, life is a lucid dream?" - Lucid Dream by Owl City
Get it? "Owl" City? Sigh, nevermind me.
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