Day 49

So Thursday we decided to take a day to sleep in since the weather forecast called for storms that evening. It stopped raining right before dusk, perfect conditions for our first frog call survey!

Frog call surveys are kind of like our bird surveys in that we visit several points (during frog surveys we target water bodies) and stay for a few minutes to listen for frogs calling. It actually was pretty neat-we had spring peepers, green frogs, fowler's toads, upland chorus frogs, and bullfrogs. We got to watch two beavers for awhile in one of the ponds where we stopped. We also saw a barred owl that we spooked driving up the road, and two barn owls near one of the frog call points. They have this eerie call that just sends chills down your spine!

Listen to the barn owl here! http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/2/_/target.aspx

Find out more about the barred owl! http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/3/_/Barred_Owl.aspx

Yesterday we went to the farther site and did some birding at the pasture plots- its always fun to herd the cows off the plots first- and today we went birding at our two clearcut sites that have been harvested within the past 2-5 years. We're using a couple of clearcuts to compare the bird communities between areas with harvesting disturbances and coal mining disturbances to see if there are any differences.

Tomorrow we will take our last real day off for the rest of the time we are here. We will finish with bird surveys in about 10 days since mid-July is the end of the breeding season. We'll move out of the house here, and then I will return a few times later in the summer and fall to check for salamanders.

Our farther site, PALS (Public Access Lands for Sportsmen) is open to the public for hunting use. This is a scene from a hollow (or holler in the local lingo) that was mined around 10 years ago and reclaimed.

Nice white-tailed deer track next to my clipboard.

View down the railroad tracks- straight ahead just a few miles is Kentucky!