Day 3

Hello friends-

I apologize that I haven't written sooner- we are still without internet at our field house! We're all pretty bummed since we wanted to stay in touch with many people (but hopefully it will be hooked up soon?). So for those of you who don't know, I should fill you in about what I'm doing. Here it is in a nutshell:

I am living in Wise, Virginia (10 miles from the eastern Kentucky border) and working on two sites that have formerly (and are currently) being mined for coal. I have two assistants working with me from Virginia Tech- Lupita, another graduate student from Mexico, and Chris a wildlife undergraduate student. Basically I will spend this summer and next summer looking at wildlife communities on these sites after they have been through the required reclamation process under law. We will be looking at different types of reclamation type (e.g., forestland vs. grassland), age since reclamation, and vegetation cover composition and structure. Now for the wildlife part- we'll be sampling birds, salamanders, and frogs on most of these sites to find out what species are there and how many.

So that's it. Sounds easy, right? haha. I dare you to get up at 4am everyday to be out on the sites at sunrise to count birds. Or to memorize a hundred or so common bird songs. Or to stumble around in the dark while it's pouring rain searching for salamanders. So wildlife research isn't for the faint of hearted. Not a surprise.

I really hate ticks! I've rarely ever found one on me, but myself and my field assistants have been pulling them off us left and right. The areas where we work are very rocky with tall grass, perfect for little buggers like ticks and poisonous snakes! Fun stuff.

Our field house isn't too bad at all. We are staying on the campus of the University of Virginia's College at Wise, a smaller satelite campus of the larger UVa. The house is close to campus, has 3 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, and a nice yard (it's supposed to have internet!). I also am using a vehicle from Enterprise as our field vehicle (since VT didn't have any 4-wheel drive available). So we got a 2007 Jeep Liberty- really nice! I feel badly that we have to get it so dirty and put so many miles on it. She'll be well broken in when we turn her back in August.

So the past few days have been spent getting settled in the house, marking out plots for sampling, and practicing our birding skills together. We will get to start officially sampling in a day or two! Unfortunately, the birds don't get many days off, so neither do we! Busy busy busy.

Things have been really stressful (since apparently, I am the one in charge?), but it's going alright thusfar. Well, I will write more later- I'm having some trouble posting pictures, but I'll try to get some up soon. Peace-