When I wake up Tuesday

We're getting close to the safe dates for surveying birds. A safe date in this context implies that a bird you detect (hear/see) is a resident. This morning I will see hearing Scarlet Tanagers and Tennessee Warblers in my suburban neighborhood so these species are not within safe dates. I'm going to assume that nearly all species will be "safe" to survey by May 26. I have a bunch of project I can work on this summer that do not require students. All have advantages and disadvantages. I guess the larger goal is to do science that gets published. 

Here are the possibilities I'm considering:

Project	Advantages	Disadvantages
Wood Thrush nest success	Interesting, can add data to sparse data set. Can be done any time	Finding nests is super time consuming. Lots of squeeze for so little juice. Unlikely publishable
Urban bird diversity	Easy, interesting, possibly publishable. Done by 11 AM	Need lots of data and an interesting spin to make it publishable.  Up early.
Fire and bird diversity	Potentially publishable. Interesting. Done by 11 AM. Data used for other projects	Need to get permits, sites may or may not be burned (no experiment), up really early. Need to figure out how to assess vegetation structure quickly.
Nothing	I can write, get papers out, work on lectures	Boring

For my mental state, I finished the semester much better year than I have the past two years. This is good. Still, a rapid transition from classroom (recently my sofa) to the field leaves no room for downtime. However, things have to happen. 

I'm leaning towards Fire and Bird Diversity. I have a state grant to study birds and prescribed burning but that research is put off a year due to COVID. Having the diversity part settled will allow me to focus on food webs next year when I can have students in the field with me. The big downer of this research is that State Game Lands are not in my backyard and I need to get at some sites at sunrise that are over and hour away. Oh well, there's always coffee. On the upside, I'm done by 11 (that's the protocol) so I can still work on papers (although when you're in bed by 7 I'm not super productive). I can also listen for Wood Thrush and look for their nests when wrapped up. 

The more I think about it. The more I should the fire project. So be it.