Day 29

I think this is multiflora rose- not sure though!

So, anything new with me? Just more poison ivy! Yaaay!

Yeah I've got a good sized splotch of it on my arm now- so much fun. Probably a result of the poison ivy patch that we did habitat surveys on with my advisor on Thursday. So far no one else has come down with it though!

Not much else is new really- yesterday we did a bunch of habitat surveys, which I was really glad to get done. We have about 30 more points to do habitat surveys on (which is 120 more actual plots), so I think we should finish the habitat stuff within 2 weeks. However, it has been really dry here, so we have not had any good weather for salamandering (what we wildlifers call the process of performing a salamander search at night in the rain). Most of the time, if the conditions are not right, the salamanders will stay buried in the ground until the soil and leaf litter is wet enough for them. The birding surveys are progressing very well, since each day has been clear for good birding.

Today we are taking a day off to catch up on some sleep and get a few things done. Next weekend I am taking an overnight trip back to Blacksburg to work on a few things with my current and new apartment, banking, etc. since I can't do much of that out in the sticks.

Well, its back to birding tomorrow morning! There is no significant chance of rain this week, so the drought continues (that was the headline story on the newspaper here, which is appropriately called the Coalfield Progress). Check back for more updates later!

The cattle eating one of my plots. You can see the orange flagging in the tree- I had an orange flag in the ground, but they ate it!

This is the water truck- he waters the roads to keep down the dust and carries water to the mining site for coal cleaning. I wish I had another car in this picture for scale, because the truck tires are bigger than our Jeep!