The good thing about long roadtrips is that you have plenty of time to think. The bad thing about long roadtrips is that you have plenty of time to think.
Driving from Kadoka, SD to Carbondale, IL yesterday, I had about 14+ hours to reflect on the past month, and what a brilliant month it’s been. When it comes down to it, 30 days is not a long time but these last four weeks have been jam packed with uniquely enriching experiences. I had not anticipated the wealth of access and opportunity that would be dropped on my lap.
I wanted telemetry experience, so after a quick lesson on how to use the receiver, I was handed the sole receiver that was available at the time and given free reign to track badgers that were out and about each night.
I wanted to trap badgers, so after a demo on how to set a leghold trap, I was let loose to trap any unmarked badger I found, as well as two marked badgers that needed replacement radio collars.
I wanted more experience handling carnivores – and mammals other than my disease-ridden beloved prairie dogs, and so I assisted in the processing of about two dozen black-footed ferrets and five American badgers.
It’s remarkable just how many chance encounters, casual introductions and referrals have led to jobs, grad school leads, collaboration on side projects and many a fascinating conversation. And of course there’s the people, who continue to amaze me with their generosity of time, expertise and advice that is so freely given. The world of conservation biology gets smaller and smaller with each passing field season. I look forward to the day when I truly enter this world and cease being an outsider peeking in.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
A Weekend of Rest
“A hunting cabin at the study site” – that was all I knew about my new home. I kept my fingers crossed for heat, grabbed what I thought might be my last shower in a good while in Interior, and dug out my no-rinse soap from my backpack and headed to Lower Brule, fully expecting a shed with a porter john out back.
And here I am writing this blog post on the kitchen table in my cabin on the plains, with a pitched roof, a loft, a wood stove, central heating, a washer/dryer, a clawfoot tub, views of the Missouri River, and a basement lab for pit tagging and processing ferrets. Mule deer and wild turkey mill around the cabin, and there’s a dog town no more than a 100 meters away.
I also seemed to have adopted two kittens and discovered that my slight allergy to cats has gotten much, much worse in the last year. There’s even a television that took me two days to figure how to use it … kinda. DVD (check), regular television news and programming (not so much). And after three days of puzzlement, I’ve confirmed that I’m back on central time even though I'm technically west of the Missouri.
I spent the last 2+ days eating when I was hungry and sleeping when I was tired. I hiked out to the river and checked out the PD towns looking for surface plugging, indicative of ferret presence. I cooked and froze food, setting myself up for the next 10 days. I read a book. I found wi-fi access. I made my first cell phone call from my place of residence for the first time in months.
I rested. I feel whole again. Good thing work’s started.
And here I am writing this blog post on the kitchen table in my cabin on the plains, with a pitched roof, a loft, a wood stove, central heating, a washer/dryer, a clawfoot tub, views of the Missouri River, and a basement lab for pit tagging and processing ferrets. Mule deer and wild turkey mill around the cabin, and there’s a dog town no more than a 100 meters away.
I also seemed to have adopted two kittens and discovered that my slight allergy to cats has gotten much, much worse in the last year. There’s even a television that took me two days to figure how to use it … kinda. DVD (check), regular television news and programming (not so much). And after three days of puzzlement, I’ve confirmed that I’m back on central time even though I'm technically west of the Missouri.
I spent the last 2+ days eating when I was hungry and sleeping when I was tired. I hiked out to the river and checked out the PD towns looking for surface plugging, indicative of ferret presence. I cooked and froze food, setting myself up for the next 10 days. I read a book. I found wi-fi access. I made my first cell phone call from my place of residence for the first time in months.
I rested. I feel whole again. Good thing work’s started.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Goodbye P. Dogs
The summer of 2009 is possibly the hardest I have worked in my life. At last count, we trapped some 1,270 individual black-tailed prairie dogs in four months and three trapping sessions. And then there were the nights spent spotlighting, initially for fun, then to help out, and then because two people were needed to hand spotlight out both sides of the truck.
I was entrusted with a research project to call my own. I stuck a leaf blower down 238 burrows, and hiked across PD colonies all over Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and Badlands National Park, with northern harriers, ferruginous hawks and bighorn sheep for company, plus the occasional perplexed tourist or cranky PD hunter.
I learned to make naan and bake two desserts. I played mini golf on National Talk Like A Pirate Day, and hosted a Malaysian makan in my trailer. I dye marked a ferret and trapped a badger, a handful of burrowing owls, a 13-lined ground squirrel, a rattlesnake, and several cottontails. I only mildly molested a large male PD weighing in at a 1490g(!), and scraped road kill off Highway 44 to get hair samples for a flea study. I drove from Wall to Interior with five gallons of gasoline in water jugs the night we found out that our one gas station in “town” started closing early for the Fall. I memorably got cozy with the crew on our second to last night – five in a trailer barely built for three – because both trailers ran out of propane 24-48 hours before the end of the season.
And in my free time, I’ve delved dangerously into André Gide, Joan Didion, David Quammen, David Eddings and Ayn Rand.
I’ve lived a lifetime this summer.
I was entrusted with a research project to call my own. I stuck a leaf blower down 238 burrows, and hiked across PD colonies all over Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and Badlands National Park, with northern harriers, ferruginous hawks and bighorn sheep for company, plus the occasional perplexed tourist or cranky PD hunter.
I learned to make naan and bake two desserts. I played mini golf on National Talk Like A Pirate Day, and hosted a Malaysian makan in my trailer. I dye marked a ferret and trapped a badger, a handful of burrowing owls, a 13-lined ground squirrel, a rattlesnake, and several cottontails. I only mildly molested a large male PD weighing in at a 1490g(!), and scraped road kill off Highway 44 to get hair samples for a flea study. I drove from Wall to Interior with five gallons of gasoline in water jugs the night we found out that our one gas station in “town” started closing early for the Fall. I memorably got cozy with the crew on our second to last night – five in a trailer barely built for three – because both trailers ran out of propane 24-48 hours before the end of the season.
And in my free time, I’ve delved dangerously into André Gide, Joan Didion, David Quammen, David Eddings and Ayn Rand.
I’ve lived a lifetime this summer.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Down to the Wire
I have data coming out of my ears. We blew through 1200 data sheets a week ago, and even though at least two crew members are entering data every day, we’re still behind. I was caught up on data checking on Monday. Today I have 22 sheets pending, and that’s just my half of it.
My second to last work week started off with a bang. We have three plots open for 2nd trapping and another three plots open for 3rd trapping. That’s 535 traps in play every morning – probably the most ambitious push to date. Thankfully, after three long days, we’ll be back to a more reasonable workload of four plots tomorrow.
With temps in the 90s and little to no wind, it’s been a strange September but trapping’s been grand.
My second to last work week started off with a bang. We have three plots open for 2nd trapping and another three plots open for 3rd trapping. That’s 535 traps in play every morning – probably the most ambitious push to date. Thankfully, after three long days, we’ll be back to a more reasonable workload of four plots tomorrow.
With temps in the 90s and little to no wind, it’s been a strange September but trapping’s been grand.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Things that make me go … grrrr
1. Unsolicited remarks about prairie dogs being bad for the environment and that plague is nature’s way of thinning them out.
2. I knew exactly three things about leaf blowers, and am absolutely hopeless at troubleshooting in the field when machinery breaks down because I don’t actually understand how these darn things work. Today, I know exactly four things about leaf blowers.
3. That I kinda bounce off a shovel when I jump on it, trying to dig into dry, compacted dirt.
4. My strategy for dealing with stress by working harder so I’m too exhausted to think, doesn’t work as well as I’d like it to.
5. Data checking.
6. I have to unscrew eight things just to replace a headlight in an old Jeep.
7. Dropping a screw after I’ve unscrewed eight things to replace a headlight in an old Jeep, for the second time, because each headlight decided to go defunct one week apart.
8. Old maps that don’t correspond to the lay of the land.
9. That I’m not more excited about going back to school.
10. Summer’s almost over.
2. I knew exactly three things about leaf blowers, and am absolutely hopeless at troubleshooting in the field when machinery breaks down because I don’t actually understand how these darn things work. Today, I know exactly four things about leaf blowers.
3. That I kinda bounce off a shovel when I jump on it, trying to dig into dry, compacted dirt.
4. My strategy for dealing with stress by working harder so I’m too exhausted to think, doesn’t work as well as I’d like it to.
5. Data checking.
6. I have to unscrew eight things just to replace a headlight in an old Jeep.
7. Dropping a screw after I’ve unscrewed eight things to replace a headlight in an old Jeep, for the second time, because each headlight decided to go defunct one week apart.
8. Old maps that don’t correspond to the lay of the land.
9. That I’m not more excited about going back to school.
10. Summer’s almost over.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Trap Happiest: American Badgers
I’ve found my true love. These are such amazing beasts; cantankerous characters deserving of utmost respect. And if you get a chance, some pretty serious manhandling is certainly called for.
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