August 19th -- Goodbye Pendleton Lake!

Today Judy, Carrie and I went out to the Pendleton Lake site in the State Park, to remove those snares to move to a new location.  We decided to pull them because they have been there for roughly a month and haven't produced any results.

Judy and I have been scoping out areas the last week to place the snares at and came to an agreement that Cherry Lane Trail, another site in the State Park, would be a great place to try.  I really like it because it is mainly comprised of beech trees and beech nuts are coming in right now, which are said to be a portion of flying squirrels diet.  It would be really great if we could get some flying squirrel hairs in this new area to back up this claim.

After placing the snares at Cherry Lane Trail, we decided to add 5 more hair snares onto Yellow Birch to try to collect the last few hair samples Dr. Flaherty is looking for -- we are trying to collect 20 flying squirrel hair samples from each site we have, and I believe we were at 17.  While walking out the trail I saw some bear tracks in the mud, a nice little patch of cotton grass and some beautiful butterflies!

I can't believe tomorrow is my last day!  I sure will miss the Friends of Blackwater!  It has been an amazing summer, and I've learned so much!  I'm sad to leave and will miss everybody, but at the same time I'm ready to go home and get back to school!  Does that make me a nerd??  :)

A mushroom spore print I made

 A beautiful butterfly, unknown species

 Carrie and Judy at the Blackwater Falls State Park lodge

Black bear track!

Interesting mushroom Judy found

 A sea of cotton grass!!

August 18th -- Carrie's First Day!

Today was my replacement's, Carrie's, first day on the job!  I took her to all the hair snare sites to show her how the hair is collected and all the special protocol we follow.  I think today went very well because we collected a lot of hair samples, and even beat the rain! 

Since we currently only have 4 active sites right now it didn't take us too long and Carrie seemed to pick up the system pretty quickly. 

Today we also looked at the results from the e-coli test Lon and I collected and prepared on Friday, and we had 3 blue dots -- e-coli -- and a bunch of red dots -- other coliforms!  We put it back in the incubator because it looked like there were some more dots coming into color, so we wanted to see what another day in the incubator would result in. 

Tomorrow Judy is coming to help Carrie and I in moving the hair snares from Pendleton Lake to a new area we picked called Cherry Lane Trail in the Blackwater Falls State Park.  It should be a good day, and I will get to show Carrie how we place and hang the hair snares! 

Crazy/cool looking spider Carrie and I saw on the trail today!

 Look at all the sori on this fern!  How neat is that?

 This snail decided to make a home in one of the bait trays in one of the hair snares!  Silly snail!

What the e-coli culture looked like! 

August 15th -- Ecoli Water Testing!

Today I went with our faithful volunteer Lon to assist with an e-coli test on the north fork of the Blackwater River at an area called Sand Run.  It was a great experience and we had to take a canoe to get there, so it was fun to get out there on the water! 

The testing process was pretty interesting.  In the field we tested the typical things such as pH, TDS, salinity and temperature, and then we collected a sample to bring into the office.  We had to keep the sample on ice and had only an hour to get back to the office and get the water plated in a petri dish to put it into the incubator -- so time was of the essence!

Once we got to the office we had to prepare a petri dish by placing drops of this solution -- the name has escaped me at this particular moment -- into it.  We then had to use this special device that you put the water collected in with a filter in the bottom.  You then suck the water out through the filter and it should leave behind any type of bacteria on the filter.  The filter is then placed in the prepared petri dish and then into the incubator!   The results can take anywhere from 2-3 days to surface where e-coli will show up as blue dots on the filter and other coliforms will show up as red dots!  I can't wait to see what comes of this test! 

 Canoe is ready to go!

 On the river!

 Lon and I on the water!

 Sucking the collected water out through the filter

 The prepared petri dish with the sample in the incubator

And now we wait!

August 14th -- Moving Camera Day!

Today Judy came, and along with the typical hair snare checking, we moved the camera we had at Pendleton Lake to the #10 hair snare on Yellow Birch.  We decided to do this because 1) we closed Pendleton Lake because it was a non-productive site, and 2) we have confirmed northern flying squirrel hair at the #10 hair snare on Yellow Birch so we want to try to supplement that with photos (plus I would really like to capture at least one more flying squirrel picture before I head back to NY)!

In pulling the camera, I discovered tons of photos, which I was surprised by since the snare, in the whole month it had been there, had never been triggered!  I believe there was at least 60 pictures of mice, there were pictures of deer, raccoons, red squirrels, and even a blue jay -- no flying squirrels though.  I also discovered that the date and time settings on this camera were wrong and said the year was 2011 -- I need to fix that!! 

Judy and I got a few fair hair samples on the Yellow Birch Trail, and came up empty handed on the Blackwater River Road Trail, but all-in-all it was a pretty good day!

 Red squirrel

 Unknown butterfly species on a thistle at Pendleton Lake

 Raccoon butt!! 

 Oh, I caught you Mr. Raccoon! 

 Blue jay -- how cool to catch a photo of one with a trail camera!

 mouse...ugh!

 more raccoon

White-tail deer buck, in velvet!

August 12th -- Mushroom Day

Today Judy came to go out in the field with me and get everything in order for my replacement.  We went to the Canaan Loop Road sites, the Big Rock and Flag Run, and were even able to beat the rain!  At the Big Rock we had 6 out of the 10 hair snares that were productive, YIPPEE, but at Flag Run we didn't have any productive hair snares.  I was playing around with the camera with have at Flag Run because it hasn't been taking pictures, even after I put new batteries in it...I ended up having to bring it into the office because there I couldn't fix it in the field -- hopefully it's an easy fix, especially since we are borrowing these cameras!

While out and about at Flag Run, we noticed these coral-like mushrooms that have popped up all over the place.  I pulled out the handy-dandy mushroom guide we have, "Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians" by William C. Roody, and discovered they are called crested coral (Clavulina cristata) and they are edible...I think I'll leave the edible part up to the experts.  Wild mushrooms freak me out just because there are some that are deadly poisonous so I'd rather not chance it!  Anyway, for any serious mushroomers our there, I highly recommend this book just because it is so detailed and has great pictures in it!

 Fall is on the way!  A lot of the maples are already changing!

 Crested coral mushroom!

August 11th -- Office Day

Well, due to inclement weather I was unable to go out into the field today!  Because of that, today was not very exciting.  I prepared for my replacement that we hired, Carrie, and worked on a variety of other office-related tasks.

We had crazy storms all day long, I really enjoy stormy weather something about storms are relaxing to me.  On my way home from the office there were branches down all over the road!

Anyway, since I wasn't out in the field I didn't, once again, take any pictures today.  I decided to share with you all some photos that were taken last semester in my Wildlife Techniques class by my Professor.  I hope you all enjoy them!

 My friend and fellow classmate Eli and I in the field in -20 degree weather!

 We were placing a track plate box -- animals go in, walk on a board covered in soot and get their paws dirty, then they walk over a piece of white contact paper and leave a print for us to collect!  :)

 We were burying it in snow to help make it blend in to the environment a little more

 I'm opening a scent capsule placed inside the box to help draw in animals

 SUNY Cobleskill wildlife technician Mark Kiburz showing me how to remove a bird from a mist net.  Mist nets are used to help in catching birds so we can measure them and place bands on their legs

 Me tracking a radio-collared rabbit on campus.  The collar emits a radio frequency that can be picked up with the antenna I'm holding and in the headphones you hear beeping, the louder the beep is the direction the rabbit is in.

 Getting some kayaking experience...yes, we did this in class :)

 Surveying for aquatic invertebrates.  We used the dip nets to scoop up water and emptied them into the tray to see what kind of invertebrates we captured!

August 8th - Frantic Day

Well, today was just CHAOTIC!  I had to plan this canoe trip for some contest winners on very short notice while doing my normal field work...

Thankfully, I found a canoe and someone to help with the canoe so the winners could enjoy a nice canoe ride down the Blackwater River.  Originally they were supposed to go on the 9th but then decided they wanted to go on the 10th so that gave me a little more time to prepare...

Craziness aside, Lon and I went to the Canaan Loop Road sites.  I discovered yesterday that the squirrels really like peanuts and the snares weren't disturbed by bears, so I was hoping for the same results today.  Sure enough we had 7 out of 10 at our Big Rock site that had been successfully triggered with viable hair samples -- 6 of which I could confidently say were flying squirrel hair!  Flag Run was a different story...all of the snares were still open but all the bait was gone -- MICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I tell you, if it's not bears, it's mice...if it's not mice, it's bears!

The next intern will be lucky because the black bear activity will really die down late October into November as they go into their winter sleep and the mice activity should hopefully die down as well so it should, hopefully, be smooth sailing for them!

Sadly I didn't take any pictures today so I thought I'd share some photos with you all from my internship last summer.  I was an avian field technician for a Grad student from Louisiana State University and our work was along the middle rio grande in New Mexico.  We were based out of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

Cottonwood trees are pollinating as they release this "fluff"

 Spiny softshell turtle

 Volunteering to band cave swallows at Carlsbad Caverns in NM

 Shooting a bearing -- we are standing in the Rio Grande by the way...it was dried up!

 I believe this is an ornate box turtle

 Crossing the Rio Grande when there was still water in it

 Found this scorpion in my room in the bunkhouse I was staying in!

 There was a coopers hawk nest behind the bunkhouse...there are 3 juveniles in this picture!

 Western diamond back up in a salt cedar tree!

 Greater roadrunner - "MEEP MEEP!"

Raccoon tracks on the banks of the Rio Grande!