Day 12

Well today was an early morning! No bear sightings this time though. I think we were all dragging a little bit this morning (being that it was Monday and we were coming off of a relaxing weekend...and the fact that we had to leave the house by 4:30am). Today we sampled some pastureland and did some habitat plots (I was proud that we did 20 of them, even though there weren't any trees to count).

Saturday we decided to take a day off, and I took a ride to Breaks Interstate Park. It's one of only two state parks in the U.S. that has shared management and involvement between multiple states. So Breaks is right on the border of Virginia and Kentucky, about an hour north from where I am staying. But it was certainly worth the ride! The views were spectacular and it was a clear and beautiful day. I even got some recreational birding in, where I wasn't constantly counting individuals and estimating how far away they were from me.

Yesterday we spent a half-day laying out more artificial habitat coverboards for salamanders. The boards aren't too big, but they are rough-sawn timber so they're pretty heavy, and its hard to carry them up hills and over rocks. We did pretty well setting them up too! Things have been moving along!

The weather predictions for this week are good, so chances are we're in for some good birding!

You're looking at Kentucky!

Now you're looking at Virginia!