Just call me Annie Oakley

Turns out, I'm not so bad with a shotgun. I got up there, pumped the shotgun, aimed, and fired three times, pumped it again to eject the last shell, shouldered the gun and then walked up to inspect my picture of a bear. Three shots to the heart. Next time, I hit three shots in the kill zone- lost a little of my beginner's luck, but still managed to be 3/3. The moving target wasn't quite so easy. Picture this: there's a picture of a bear on a trolley on wheels with a long rope leading back to the shooter. Just behind the shooter are two people holding onto the other end of the rope. When the shooter is ready, he/she lowers the gun and the spotter (standing next to the shooter) gives the pullers a hand signal to begin pulling. The shooter has about five seconds to shoot the bear before he/she has to step out of the way to avoid being hit. The first time I did it, I just saw this bear coming at me at high speed and fired off three shots in the general direction without aiming well. 0/3. But I got the hang of it by the next time and hit 2/3 in the kill zone. Not too bad. So, now I'm ready to hunt grizzlies. Wait, no, I mean, I'm ready to protect myself from attacking bears.

This afternoon I got my very own flight suit and flight helmet for the helicopter. It's pretty snazzy. I already have a flight vest full of all of the survival tools one would need if they crashed in the middle of nowhere. And I learned how to use a satellite phone. I never thought bird surveys could be so exciting!