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!

Day 60

Well, after 5,000 miles of driving, 2 flat tires, 500+ bird survey points, and only 4 cases of poison ivy, it's finally here: Day 60 and the end of our adventure (...or not?).

Tomorrow we will move out of the field house and back to Blacksburg. I am hesitant to say that I'm "done" because I'm nowhere near finished! Now comes the "not-so-fun" part-- putting the information into the computer and using statistics to see what it tells us. Plus, I get to come back next year and do a 2008 field season all over again! And anyway, we still have salamander stuff to do through September of this year.

Well, we finally got some rain (figures, on the last day!). It rained all last night and through this morning. We got to fit in our last hour of birding this morning before the rain started up again, and got soaked while doing our last coverboard check. Boy was that fun! This evening we will most likely go out to do a final frog call survey to finish up.

So, don't be disappointed, the blog is not finished! Things will just be a bit slower now. I will probably come down 3-4 times to work on some salamander surveys, so I will try and take more pictures and write about what I'm doing.

So I thought I would leave you with some beautiful sunrise shots (not sunsets- it's not over!) to celebrate us not being "done."

Day 58

Only two more days of work left! Hard to believe Day 60 is right around the corner. We've been working pretty hard trying to finish up so we can all enjoy a couple weeks of summer before school starts again on August 20. Actually this past weekend we took a quick trip back to Blacksburg to drop off Lupita since she had to get back to Mexico. Chris and I will check out of the house on Thursday!

The past few days have included some amazing up-close ruby-throated hummingbird sightings. The flagging that I use to mark points is orange, so one actually flew right up a few feet from my face this morning, checking out the "orange flower." I would love to get a good picture of one, but they are just too quick. The best pictures can be taken while watching a hummingbird feeder (see my mom for these, she's got some good ones!

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/224/_/Ruby-throated_Hummingbird.aspx


Chris also had another black bear sighting the other day, a young male probably. I think they are pretty skiddish in the area where we work because it is really remote and they don't come into contact with people very often. I guess that's good for us! Most of the time I think they know we are there, they just stay out of our way.

Modeling some ticks! The newest fashion!! Please note, my right leg was in the grass for a matter of 15 seconds while standing alongside the road, and this is what happened!

How many can you count? Chris holds the record for the most ticks crawling on him in one day- almost 100. Definitely won't miss these guys!

Day 53

Happy Fourth of July!


Well we have 5 more early mornings of birding left in the season! We have to be finished by around July 15 since that is the end of the bird breeding season, when males stop singing as frequently and birds typically roam around more. Following the end of our birding days, we'll check coverboards one more time and check all of the plots to make sure that flagging is in place since these points will need to overwinter until I come back for more bird surveys next year. Granted, most of them will probably get lost (or eaten) before I need them again next May, but we might as well get them ready.

So what's the deal for the rest of the summer? I'll have to come back a few more times in August and September to check coverboards since salamanders will stay active for a few more months into the fall. If the weather works out right, there may be the potential for some night searches, but I really hope not since I will be starting school and won't be too excited about the 3 hour drive down here.

Box turtle in a puddle!

Rasnick Cemetery- a small family plot on top of a mountain. Immediate off to the right of the picture is a 100 acre clearcut (all trees were harvested and sold). I was told the Rasnick family sold out their timber and then sold the property to the landholding company that I am working with currently.

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!