Everything's a hassle

Still no internet!

Overall things are going pretty well. The weather has been wet and cold but it looks like it will be turning around soon (hopefully it will stay that way!). We finished our first full round of bird surveys today (i.e., we visited each point once thusfar), so only 3 more visits to go! It has been relatively wet, so we got two frog call surveys in and have caught some salamanders under the coverboards. I think it has still been too cold at night for amphibians, so I expect more success when the nights are warmer. Since we've arrived, most nights and early mornings when we bird have been in the 40s. Not ridiculously cold, but still cool enough that the wildlife are not ready to be active:)

We did have our first bear sighting yesterday. The weather was cool, overcast, and breezy- just what bears like! He was very close to the active coal mining, which surprised me a little, but did move off when he saw us coming. We saw him from pretty far away, so I don't have any good pictures of him. It was a lone bear without cubs (medium sized, so I'm just assuming it's a him).

We are now staying at the house on UVa-Wise campus, which is right in the town of Wise and close to "civilization." By civilization, I mean Wal-mart, Kmart, Applebees, Pizza Hut, and McDonalds. That's about it! Charlotte and I are living with another girl from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. She is working as a physical therapy intern at nearby Norton Hospital.

I'm sorry for the lack of pictures, we hope to have the equipment we need to set up the internet at the house soon. I'll be sure to post the backlog of pics then! My time on the internet at the library is up, so I've got to go!

Where have you been?

Sorry about my lack of blog writing! We have been staying at a field house right on the Powell River Project mine site since we arrived. On Monday we will move into the house on the UVa-Wise campus which has internet (yay). Things have been going ok so far, the weather has been questionable every day which makes scheduling work difficult. So far the only "problem" we had was a power outage for a few hours, which turned out to be a power company issue instead of us shorting out the house.

I'm at the public library right now, and there is a time limit on how long you can use the computer, so I've got to go! I will write more next week and post some pictures- I've already taken quite a few!

And we're back!

Well the end of the semester is here and it's time to get going once again. We set sail tomorrow morning. Only issues thusfar have been trying to get a 4WD vehicle to use for the duration (I've already been over to Enterprise 3 times). For the first 10 days this year, I won't have internet access. We are staying at a research cabin before moving back to the house on UVa-Wise campus from last summer due to availability issues. The cabin should be ok, and is convenient as it is on one of the study sites, but makes for a farther drive to the other location (~ 2 hours).

This summer I will have one technician working with me. Charlotte is a junior wildlife student. Charlotte, Chris (my tech from last year) , and I went down to the study sites for a weekend in early April to scope out the sites, remark points, and check coverboards for salamanders. It was incredibly wet (roads were REALLY muddy) and we did actually find some! We're hoping for a wetter summer than last to focus on amphibian work.

Blogs might be a little bit on the light side early on until I get better internet access, but I hope you'll stay tuned to see how things are going. I'll of course post as many pictures as I can and keep you updated!