End of Field Season

Writing this from Kevin’s house; we came straight here from Cobb, after breaking down our camp this morning. Yes, the 2011 field season has officially ended. We had a good night last night. Our first turtle of the year returned last night and laid a second nest – the first time we’ve witness a double-clutch.

We had another turtle out of the water, but by the time 240 had finished, the other one still hadn’t started nesting. She was WAY the hell out in the far meadow, almost to Sandy’s house, and Nick decided that we wouldn’t worry about trying to find her nest. Instead, we went out at 7 this morning, and were able to find her, but not the nest (not a lot of effort was put into it, but it’s not like we actually needed more eggs this year). So, we processed the nest from last night, had breakfast at the Three Broomsticks, and then went back to Jellystone to break camp. We were out of there before 10, and made good time to San Ramon, arriving just after noon. Oh, there was one bit of excitement this morning. One of the workers at Jellystone asked if any of us knew about birds, so of course I said yes. Turns out they had an injured bird, and weren’t sure what to do. I told him to bring it over. I was a pileated woodpecker, maybe with a broken neck, but it was definitely still alive and kicking. So, arranged for Katie to take it to the Songbird Hospital; I hope he will survive! That would be a happy story.

I also have some homework for Jellystone. They asked us to put together some information on the plants and wildlife around the campgrounds, and I agreed to work on that. I’m sure I can get someone else to help, maybe Nicole. Although what we really need is a botanist. I can do birds and animals, but I don’t know much at all about the plants. In any case, It will be fun, I hope, and will make the staff at the park happy. They we’re good to us this season, so I don’t mind doing them this little favor. Plus Nick will appreciate the effort, too.

Mostly, I had a great time up there. Didn’t really feel sad to go this time, though. Not like when we left last week. Probably because we’d been up there a whole week this time, and also the turtle activity had slowed way down. It just wasn’t as exciting as it was last week. It was a fantastic field season, though. According to Nick, the best one ever. We certainly got loads and loads of great data.

Turtle Release

Released the turtles from the San Francisco Zoo today, and it was a lot of fun. I kind of love wading out into the middle of the lake. Not sure why it doesn’t scare me like a regular lake would, maybe because it’s not open water. Today we got a later start than last week, and also had to get final weights and measurements on the babies, plus renotching a few of them, so we didn’t get to the site until about 1:30. Still was fun, though. Hoping that tonight will be an active night out at the lake, and we get some new nests. It’s been a bit boring with how slow it got up here because of the rain. Although last night we did make one super cool discovery. Our first turtle this year, #240, was recaptured yesterday, gravid. This is the first time we’ve seen proof of a double clutch in one season, which I thought was pretty neat.

(Continued from earlier). Another cool event at tonight’s shift. We got a nest from turtle #70, whom I believe was the very first turtle captured and notched by SSU up at this site. She’s still alive and kicking! Literally! She kicked me several times, the little grump. Okay, so I can hardly blame her. We grabbed her and prodded her a lot, and opened up her nest. Hopefully no harm was done, though. She was adorable. I took a photo with her because I thought it was super cool to have found her again.

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Feeling a bit conflicted about the end of the field season. I’ll be glad to be home, sleeping in my own bed, having some time to sit around the house and do nothing. But I am going to miss this place, and my little turtle-ee-os. I will be back again this summer, when I come up to help Nicole collect the eggs that will be hatched in our lab and head-started. But still. I kinda love turtle season. Then again, probably a good thing to leave before I get really tired of it. This way I’ll be looking forward to next year.

I think I’m going to head to bed now. It’s not that late yet, but I haven’t been sleeping through the nights. Last night, I got woken up at 4:30 by a skunk going through the trash bag next to my tent. It was actually pretty cute. I knew it was a skunk because I could see the silhouette of its tail through the side of my tent. Like a puffy feather. I eventually had to put in earplugs to get back to sleep,

Okay. Nighty night! More turtling tomorrow.

June 29th

Another cold day up on Cobb Mountain. Only rained a little bit last night, and we were cozy and warm and dry in our tent. Today, it’s too cold to really do much field work, so I’ve spent most of the day in the Rec room, reading fanfic and doodling around on my iPad. We will go out for a four o’clock walkthrough, and maybe a couple of later ones as well, but I doubt there will be much turtle activity. So, another sort of long and boring day. I guess this is the dark side of field work, mwahahahahahaa! This might be the way the season ends – with a whimper, rather than a bang. Then again, if it warms up in the next day or two, we might get one more wave of turtles before we pack up our field camp on July 3rd. So, we’ll see. It’s been a successful season already, one way or another.

More tomorrow, unless I’m too busy and forget. We’re releasing more baby turtles tomorrow, which should be awesome, assuming the weather warms up a bit.

June 28th

Rainy day at the field site. Boring and cold. Had a good conversation with Nicole, but the day was kinda long without spending a chunk of it chasing turtles. We did go out for an afternoon walkthrough, though, and found a couple of awesome king snakes (see below). Hopefully it will clear up – and warm up – by tomorrow. I’m cold, and I don’t really like it. Might even sleep here in the rec room tonight, since it will be warmer. Not sure how comfy it would be on the floor, though, even with my thermarest.

Yesterday was a good day at the field site. Five turtles out of the water, and I think people were having a good time. Had a bit of a hassle with a telemetry turtle who couldn’t be located after nesting, even though we searched for an hour in the dark. Amazingly, we found her late this morning, though. We’ve already had a good season, so if it slows down now because of the rain, that’s okay. I would just like for the weather to get a bit warmer than it is now. It is weird to be getting rain at this time of the year. Then again, weather everywhere is screwy. And people still doubt that climate change is real?

Right now, I’m exhausted and really just biding my time until I can go to bed. Which might actually happen in about half an hour.

June 23

Yesterday was a good day at the field site. I conquered my fear of the tree blind – I sat in it for about an hour and a half, watching turtles. I can now get in and out without any hesitation, and being up in the tree doesn’t make me feel sick to my stomach. I actually really like it now. Working on my fear of heights, one tree at a time. 😀

There were a few frustrating moments last night, though. While I was watching a new, unmarked turtle move across the meadow, a group of people came noisily down the path. I came down from the tree blind to talk to them, hoping to sweet-talk them into not making a bunch of noise in the area where turtles were nesting. They were reasonably okay with the idea, and did go a different way rather than going through the meadow, but they were super noisy. I wish we could keep the public out of the area during our field season. Because of this interruption, I lost sight of that turtle – although it may have reappeared later, near the path to the parking lot. Even then, it didn’t start nesting until late, and even when Nicole and I returned well after dark, she still hadn’t finished. So, we have her nest, but not any maternal data on the turtle herself. Ah well. Also, I supposed I should mention that I jabbed my knife into my hand yesterday, taking telemetry off of a turtle. It bled like crazy, so hopefully anything that might have given me an infection got washed away.

Today was a hoot – we released last year’s head-started turtles from the Oakland Zoo. It was fantastic – wading out into the lake, which was a bit scary for me at first (I have a fear of water I can’t see into), and the water was COLD until I got used to it, but it was also totally AWESOME! The baby turtles are so cute, and it’s great to see them swimming away. Plus, it was fun to see some old friends – like Nicole Jaggi, and Tracy Bain from Derek’s lab. And Zannie, of course.

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Release team, looking “sexy” haha:
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Anyhow, I loved releasing the little guys, so much that I’m going to make sure that we’re out there next week for the SF Zoo release, as well. Actually, we’ll probably just go up on Sunday, and stay all week long, until the end of the season. I actually felt really sad this afternoon, driving home. I miss the turtles, and the work of tracking them. It almost seems a bit weird to me, just how sad I was feeling. I wonder how I’ll be after the end of the season. Or after the end of my Master’s degree! Over the past few days, though, I really have decided that I LOVE field work, and would love to be able to do this as a career. I love being outdoors, I love working with animals, and I love doing science. Yeah, being a field biologist will be a good fit for me.

Feeling really tired tonight, so will probably go to bed in a few minutes. I have a few more organizational things I’d like to do tonight, and then bed. Tomorrow, I want to remember to work on some school-related things – I need to figure out how to start applying for my field permit, I need to finish a current CV, and I need to start getting the stuff together to apply for grad school. Most of it can probably wait until after the field season, but I don’t want to let stuff wait for too long.

June 21st

Still at the field site. Just found out this morning that the Oakland Zoo’s turtle release is happening on Thursday, so we decided to just stay up here a couple of extra days, instead of driving back today and back again on Thursday. Plus, there should be plenty of turtle stuff to do. We found eleven turtles out of the water last night, which I think is the most any team has ever found in a single day. Pretty cool, especially since there were just three of us – me, Kristi, and my son, and he wasn’t working the whole time.

Tonight we have a big team, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we find even more. Yay turtles! Other than that, not much to report. It’s kind of quiet up here, so it’s not like I have a lot of adventures to detail. Well, I guess I could give more details about the turtle research.

Last night, most of the turtles we found were in the small meadow, but my son and I found one really exciting turtle in the far wooded meadow. Earlier in the day, I had removed an exclosure from one of last year’s nests, thinking that it would be good to get it out of the way in case another turtle, or even the same one, wanted to nest there. Guess what? We found a turtle nesting less than one foot away from the old nest. I don’t know yet if it was the same turtle, but if it is that is really exciting.

The other cool thing is that we found the turtle right after she finished nesting, so we didn’t have to wait around for her to finish. I love that turtle. #228. Bless her heart. Turtles are awfully cute.

In other news, my son and I held a king snake today, caught by Erika. Super cute! My son wants to get a snake as a pet, and I’m thinking about agreeing to that one. Oh, and I have lost the cables and charger for the field camera. That does not make me happy. I hope they turn up soon. We’re off to the field site in a few minutes, so I think I’ll call this one a wrap. Is that how they say it in Hollywood?

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Cobb Mountain

Up in Lake County today, drove up with my son this afternoon. The weather is beautiful here, cooler than back at home, I think, which is good. It’s starting to get a bit warm for me. Apparently, there have been turtles galore over the past few days, so we should be busy at the field site this afternoon. Which is good, it will make the time pass quickly. I just hope we don’t end up being out there until some ridiculously late hour tonight. We’ll see.

Watched a pair of orioles chase away a crow. They must have a nest right near our campsite. The orioles are absolutely gorgeous, orange and yellow and black.

Will be off to the field site shortly, so I guess I’ll wrap this up. Feeling a bit out of sorts . . . hopefully being out with the turtles will cheer me up.

Here are a few photos from the first couple of weeks of the field season, including a Banana Slug Club pic. 🙂

Student Helps Songbirds Take Flight

Originally posted in the Sonoma State Star; reproduced here in its entirety as it is no longer available on the newspaper’s website. (Archival information here: http://library.sonoma.edu/specialcollections/ssuarchives/studentnewspaper/student-helps-songbirds-take-flight).

By Ronald Pierce

When Sonoma State University senior Wendy St. John is not playing video games or spending time with her son, she volunteers her time at The Songbird Hospital (SBH) based in Sebastopol, CA.

St. John, a biology major focusing on ecology and evolutionary biology, began volunteering at the SBH two years ago for director Veronica Bowers, who runs the SBH on her home property. The organization operates on the US Fish and Wildlife and California Department of Fish and Game licenses of Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue.

St. John plans to return to SSU after her upcoming graduation to receive her master’s degree, and is currently working on an ongoing project with assistant professor Nicholas Geist involving western pond turtles.

“I started really young. My mom rescued and raised birds at home back in the 70’s – that’s not legal,” said St. John, describing the beginnings her lifelong passion for birds as well as other animals. “I’ve just always loved birds.”

St. John was volunteering with Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue when she discovered a sickly, baby crow that she took to Bowers at the SBH. Having heard of Bowers’ work but never visited, she took the opportunity to drop by.

“My poor baby crow died; he had intestinal parasites,” said St. John.

The SBH specializes in the care of passerines, a wide classification of songbirds based on vocal structure that includes sparrows, finches, swallows, crows and ravens, although the SBH does not care for crows and ravens. Over 500 injured, orphaned and ill birds pass through the SBH every year from both local and migratory species.

“Our birds don’t get the same care in bigger hospitals for their specialized needs,” said St. John. The SBH works with the small, fragile birds that require more intense care than the average creature.

Babies, which arrive en mass in the season between May and August, require feeding every 30 minutes to two hours while still young. Other jobs St. John performs at the SBH include cleaning the outdoor aviaries, basic medical examinations, releases, and management in Bowers’ absence. An average week for a volunteer, like St. John, between May and August is four to ten hours of work in one or two shifts.

“Cliff swallows, like the ones at SSU, are Veronica’s favorite,” said St. John about the flock of cliff swallows that nest annually on the outside of Salazar Hall. “Their mud nests may have babies already.”

The birds build their dried mud nests on the high walls due to the similarities to the cliffs for which the birds are named. The school is very cooperative with the birds, only washing down the nests after they have all flown south for the winter to prevent the growth of parasites, as it is illegal to destroy the nests of native birds in a way that would interfere with breeding.

Bowers said that several cliff swallow babies pass through her hospital from SSU each year, saying that any cliff swallow baby old enough to leave its nest should already be able to fly. In any other case, the baby will need care as soon as possible.

Bowers spoke highly of St. John as one of her key team members.

“Wendy’s strong intelligence in the natural world and academic studies are an asset to our work at the SBH,” said Bowers. “Her high energy and good humor is a welcome aspect of her personality when getting work done.”

The Song Bird Hospital, located at 8050 Elphick Rd. in Sebastopol, welcomes all potential volunteers. Those interested should visit their website at www.songbirdhosptial.com. Any student who finds a baby bird should call the SBH at 707-484-6504 and not attempt to care for the bird themselves.

Richard Dawkins – Beware the Believers

This is my one of my favorite YouTube videos. The song is catchy, and it’s SO freaking hilarious, especially if you’re familiar with arguments about evolution vs “intelligent design.” This came out, IIRC, around the time of the Scienceblogs kerfuffle about the film “Expelled,” and honestly, I don’t know if it’s meant to lampoon ID creationists or Richard Dawkins and other atheist scientists (including P.Z. Myers and Eugenie Scott who are “featured” in the video) – but it does a great job of poking fun at both sides. Best of all, hip hop Charles Darwin! As someone who identifies as a methodological materialist (but not a philosophical one), I adore this video. Geeky science humor doesn’t get any better than this.