Nightwatch

Early in June we had a crazy period of time were we had watch nesting turtles at night. It went for 7 days a week. Thankfully we all rotated so no one had to be out there every night. The first night I was out there most of us got to watch a successful nesting of a turtle. I didn't bring binoculars and chose to be catcher of the turtle once she was done so I didn't see her at work. I was rocking two walkies...one walkie I could only hear out of and the other walkie I could only talk in. After sometime, I got word that she was done and to catch her so that we could photograph and mark her. As I rushed over, she just sat there on the side of the stream. She gave me the look of "I'm exhausted and now you are going to eat me." I was able to see that she was marked so I let her be and took a couple horrible photos. My camera's flash doesn't work and it was at that I point I resolved to buy a new work camera. Hence the blurry photo above.

The second night I was out there was just me and one of my bosses. We split up at dusk and I ventured down a small trail to check out one stretch of the stream. When you leave me alone, that's when the weird things happen. Sure enough as I was walking I heard a minor noise in the very dark woods. It was getting dark and the hemlock woods were pitch black. I chalked it up to a squirrel but my spidey sense said otherwise. I kept going to my destination and headed back. As I was walking back, I heard a rare bird calling and another bird going crazy. Next to this and near the woods, I saw a bush being repeatedly tugged at. I get on the walkie and relay this to my boss as I continue to watch it. We chat back and forth and then I see the darkness behind the bush (which I thought was from the lack of light) turn into a bear head. It had the look of "Oh hiya. Didn't see ya. Don't mind me as i eat this bush or those baby birds." Needless to say, I headed back to my boss.

A few days ago we went to check on our radio tracked turtles. The new turtles were crazy far away and the beginning of our journey was immediately met with weirdness. We were venturing down that same narrow trail and heard a noise that sounded like an elk (not in NJ) or what I called a giant housecat throwing up but doubly fast. We immediately turned around and away from it and went to get a better view of the action. We saw nothing and went through our internal database of what that could be. We came up with momma bear telling her cubs that danger was near. We went around it to the road and were met with a bunch of senior hikers. They said they weren't making weird noises but had been on that same trail. They must have spooked it and we were the icing on the cake. I looked it up online and it sounds like concerned mother black bear, so we were correct.

Fast forward to summer

It seems that someone has pressed fast forward on the seasons and that we're fully in summer. I am already dreaming of already with this heat and humidity. I'm not meant to work in this heat. Tomorrow will be another scorcher of a day. It's tough to do a turtle survey when you and the turtles both want to escape from the heat. They are hunkered down in dense shrubs trying to hide and you are desperately trying to find them.

But here's some critters that I've recently encountered. There's a box turtle in the top pic. It seems every shot of him he's looking away from the camera, which is a shame since he has such pretty eyes.

Then there's this hatchling painted turtle that I found that has a shell defect. I probably spent way too much time worrying about it and giving it a pep talk that I lost my coworkers for a brief period of time. Then I had to find the perfect spot for it so that we didn't trample it on the way out. No matter. They didn't find turtles in the area they were while I found a wee one on our brisk walk in.
Here's a green snake, which is a pretty rare find. I even held it (not my hands in pic) where it promptly pooped. Gee thanks.
I found these frog eggs on sultry afternoon. The sun was hitting just right in the tall vegetation and I spotted them. Looking forward to the wee tadpoles when they hatch.
Finally...this is possibly a home for ????? Too small for a bear. I certainly can't fit in the hole, but who knows. Looks like a perfect spot for something to live in.

The happiest and most stressed time of year.

For most, it usually is the major holidays that involve presents or around tax time. For me, it's spring. Let's see what's on the spring agenda. Spring entails hawk and owl surveys, vernal pool surveys looking for frogs, salamanders, and friends, and various turtle surveys and turtle radio tracking. Plus we are just getting started with real spring weather that's conducive to such activities....aside from this non-stop drizzle that seems to never end. Hours upon hours are spent planning our weekly schedule and it usually goes to hell quickly. Weather changes so we all have to adapt. No point in doing those surveys when it's pouring, cold, and everything we are looking for will be hiding.

We are only a couple weeks in and the hijinks have started. It's pretty well known that if you leave me alone in the field weird things happen. Turns out that even means leaving me alone for 5 minutes. Like when I was radio tracking a turtle and thought I had found it but that it's transmitter had died. I was looking for one of our turtles that we knew the transmitter had recently died but she's a homebody so she should be easy to find. Turns out it was not her but a poor turtle with a 10 year old dead transmitter. I realized this when I asked my coworker when and why this turtle had gone from being a girl to being a boy. Then phone calls had to be made in an area with now cell reception. But in the end, we ended up removing his transmitter and now he's living the happy life with a weight lifted off his back.

I stayed late after radio tracking to try to find some bears. I met up with a friend and spent over an hour searching in what was supposed to be prime time and area. Nothing was seen so I was started the long drive home after the long field day and spotted a mama bear and her two wee cubs basically in a brushy area by the highway. I love seeing things in the wrong spot after searching the best areas.

Then there's the owl survey from the car that illicited a pack of coyotes to respond. They did their locational calls and it was far away and faint, but definitely interesting. I'm just happy they weren't closer and that I was in the car. Or the almost coyote incident my co-worker had on foot that same night where he progressively encountered 7 pairs of glowing yellow eyes in woods where he's heard that same coyote locational calls. Alas it was just deer.

So I leave you with several shots of turtles I've found in the past couple weeks. Those are the good days where I'm solo with nature and can really enjoy spring.

Spring-Autumn turtle radio tracking recap

I realized that I never once blogged about my turtle searches and radio tracking that took place in the spring through autumn in a place we collectively call "the park." We did numerous snake, rare plants, raptor, and turtle studies at the park in the past couple years. I was never involved until this spring when everyone was mobilized there at once. More people = more trouble and harder coordination in my eyes. This was no exception. We had 4 walkie talkies spread over 10 people in an area where cell phone reception was null to spotty at best. At times, it was comical. People without walkies would be yelling for attention and people with walkies thought they were talking to someone far away when in fact they were talking to someone 20 feet away. Total miscommunication and mayhem style.

Our mission in the spring for my group was to find rare turtles. I was one of the few that couldn't find any. It got to the point that I didn't want to go because it was pure frustration for me to see everyone find turtles but me. By late spring, we were allowed to place radio transmitters on rare turtles and we were radio tracking several turtles. Also by late spring, it was sweltering and you had to wear hot hip waders to get around the rocky, rapid, and deep streams. Bears and poisonous snakes abounded. Nevermind, the steep and foreboding terrain. You'd be in a dense brush area and you would see bear dump after bear dump....clearly a bear nest/napping area. It didn't give you a warm and fuzzy feeling and any rustling noise was met with alarm. We were told to never go out to the park alone due to all of the above reasons.

I had periodically radio tracked the turtles in the summer and it would be challenging. The turtles liked to hide in the most ridiculous areas....under dense barberry neck high in a wind-thrown part of the woods. It was a spot where dozens of trees had blown down in a wind shear event. Barberry has those nice needle thorns. You'd spend an hour searching one small area just to find one turtle.

By fall I saw on my schedule that I was go out radio-tracking at the park alone. We were all busy so I didn't have a chance to find out if that was a mistake for for real. I was apprehensive because weird things always happen to me when I sent out alone and I just had a feeling. But I geared up and tried to make the best of it. I attached the radio receiver to my belt, had a walking stick in one hand and the radio antenna in another. Radio antenna was wired to the receiver on my belt. I had a field vest one and a backpack on top of that. I felt like an one-man band. I found the signal of first turtle near this large hole along a stream in the top picture. I couldn't get a visual on the turtle but it had to be there. So I moved on.

I continued on and saw what appeared to be a rare turtle across the stream 1/2 in the water 1/2 out. As I got closer, I confirmed it was a turtle and not a rock/mirage. I reached out to grab it and it was really really heavy and I noticed another turtle was attached. Yikes! I couldn't hold them up with one hand so they slipped back into the water. This is when things get fuzzy. I must have thrown the antenna and walking stick onshore (and yet still attached to antenna) and grabbed the two quickly swimming and now separated turtles. It was a miracle that I grabbed them both. I get back to shore and now have two large, biting, scratching, and angry turtles. I'm now supposed to measure, take notes and photos, mark, and attach radio transmitters to them. I really can't swing this alone. It's a struggle just to hold them both. I frantically call the office (with cell phone held to my ear by my shoulder) and after numerous attempts I get through. Several phone calls later I get someone to come out and help. It's a 45 minute one way drive but that gives me time to calm down and start the work up. I dump the contents of my backpack out and the turtles are put in....jail if you will. I am hoping in the 1+ hour that I will forced to stand in one area that a bear, poisonous snake, random hiker, and the rain won't strike. The male was very calm and relaxed at the bottom of the bag. The female was attempting a jail break every 5 seconds. Each single measurement I took of him, I had to put her back in the bag. I managed to finish the measurements and markings before my boss came. We finished up and radio-tracked the others without incident.

I wanted to show my boss this hole and see if we could get a visual on the first turtle. That's when things kicked it up a notch. He crawled in the hole and announced "we got copulating turtles in here." It was the radio tracked female turtle and a suitor. So I crawl in. Mind you that if I am in that hole, you can't see me at all. I get down on my belly and snap the picture at the very bottom. That's when the hole was named the "grotto." We've been back to the grotto a bunch of times. But now with the break in the drought, the hole is no longer mostly dry. I'm off to radio track turtles this week and I am very curious if something rather large, furry, and black had taken up winter residence in there.....if you know what I mean.

Seeing spots

The turtle preseason is fully on its way. I hit the jackpot in my secret land that currently resembles glacial lake passaic. See photo at the very bottom. But once you get past the first ocean, it's an oasis of nature that's rarely sees people. I've had a rare owl there on my last brief outing there. I even heard the owl briefly call in the middle of the day, which is unusual but not unheard of. Today I found 5 spotted turtles. The last turtle I even sprinted across part of the lake. Of course it plopped into the water and I thought it was long gone. But a few seconds later a turtle head came to the surface and I grabbed it. One turtle that I did miss (but see it's butt) caused me to plant my butt and sleeved arm up to my elbow in cold water. Nevermind the clipboard that came undone with piles of semi wet paper strewn about. I taught myself a new turtle finding technique. Since I was in crunchy dry vegetation, I could see and hear when a turtle was moving and would sprinto to that location and find the turtle. So it was a great but tiring day and my hand tan is full swing.

A Great Personality

The weather hasn't been too cooperative for successful turtling. I did get out today for a few hours and thankfully the weather held. This site is huge and in south jersey. I'm used to north jersey sites and this site has very deep water and muck. Plus there's the floating effect of walking on a mat of vegetation that doesn't quite hit solid ground. Every step that's taken is met with thousands of bubbles and ripples of vegetation and water going out in every direction. Did I mention the random bottomless pits? So every step is calculated and tested before full commitment. It's so deep that I bought hip waders. I sort of feel like a pirate.

The super rare turtles at this site are the most unattractive. Their shells have been deformed or eaten away presumably by the acid in the soils. We are not sure what is going on here. When I spotted this lady, at first I thought she was dead from her appearance. Second, I wasn't sure exactly what species she was. But all worked out and she put up a good fight while I measured her and took notes.

This weekend I noticed a large dead snapping turtle along the road in my local wetlands. It didn't look run over but each time I went by it was in a slightly different spot. Today it was fully on the road and pretty beat up. I guess some scavengers have been moving it...either that or kids have nothing better to do. Monday after work I drove by and spotted two small turtles on the road. At first I was excited, but that quickly turned south when I realized they had both been run over. In years past, I've helped a bunch of turtles cross the road in the area. It just might be time for some turtle xing signs to go up.

Ehn!

There's only a couple more weeks of turtling. I spent a good chunk of sunday out and about. I found two super rare turtles, so that always makes it a good turtling day. The feisty one, pictured here, shows why it's hard to take notes, measure the turtle, and hold the turtle. Note the claws of the back legs digging into my fingers and the "ehn!" expression.

Here's an abandoned church that I often pass while turtling. It has a graveyard, which I'm sure is just as interesting. One day I'll have to come back to further investigate. Check out the large boulder blocking the basement entrance.
The dame's rocket is in full bloom. I always love watching the cycle of wildflowers and shrubs that go throughout the seasons. What I don't love is the cycle of annoying bugs. Today my head was constantly being orbited by some blackflies.

Small, smaller, and smallest

This extendo weekend I spent some time turtling. I ventured out to a couple sites, one of which is close to the homestead. Both turtling outings had less than ideal weather. It was way too hot in my book. That means the turtles would not be out basking, but rather hiding in the mud and water. The home site had previously resulted in a bunch of dead turtles. I was hopeful that my luck would be much better.

I spotted a small spotted turtlet within a few minutes of getting there. It was puttering along in the water but i managed to grab her. This site is mostly bottomless, so foot travel is slow and methodical.

This site has a bunch of fallen trees, which I use to shimmy along the deeper water areas. Balance beam was never my strong suit in gymnastics and the thought of bottomless pits on either side is enough to get my vertigo going. The smaller turtlet was spotted in one of those pools. I managed to grab her without taking a header into those pools.

The final spotted turtlet was found much later. It was just relaxing in the shade in a puddle surrounded by cattails. So I found my three turtles and headed back to the car. All and all it was a good day.

50% skill, 50% luck

The super rare turtle quest has turned out well this season. Most of my super rare turtle finds have been made under great duress. It's been at the end of the day when I'm tired, hungry, thirsty, feeling depressed/cursed, etc. A recent time I was out with two of my bosses and they were finding turtles left and right. They had a bunch of hatchlings and I was coming up empty-handed. Cue the internal cursing and damning! One boss found a turtle within a minute of coming into a site I had only ever found one turtle. It was my nemesis site. Then we hit one last site at the end of the day. I was running on fumesand ready to quit all super rare turtle searching for good. I think we've all been in that place before. Let's just say I was going to call this post "Frustration!" Then within 10 minutes at this final site I spotted a super rare turtle underwater. Jackpot! I searched another 30 minutes. Nothing. It was getting so warm I could tell my face was totally flushed. My water was dwindling and very warm. Yum! I'm turning back to head towards the car and I spot a super rare turtle partially hidden under the tussock curtain, as I call it. He appears to be standing motionless and all appendages are out. I grab him and realize that another turtle was below him. I think we all know what was going on here. I grab her and she's mad as hell. All appendages are flailing and he's completely pulled in and motionless. He could have been asleep for all I know. The happy or unhappy couple is pictured here. I think you can figure out who's the girl. That's my second two for the price of one this season. I seen to have the rated r turtle luck.

So in all, I believe that most things in life require 50 percent skill/knowledge and the other 50 percent is luck/karma/x factor. When I'm searching for turtles, it's that x factor of finding them. I always feel like I'm zigging when I should be zagging when I can't find them. What if I went to the left when I should have gone to the right! But that luck eventually has to change.

Trying to make lemonade

This week was mostly spent outside. My hand tan is unfortunately already in full effect . Most of the week was turtling. Things didn't go quite as I had hoped. The first two days were spent in allergy hell. I guess it was the location and having to kick up a lot of pollen by bushwacking the skunk cabbage. I was exhausted and had a non-stop sinus headache while outside. Thankfully I had a reprieve by the Wednesday, but I paid for it by falling on a rocky slope. I got a bruised ego and skinned knee out of it. Who knew that binoculars bounce? Apparently they do. Did I mention that I seem to be tick magnet this season? Yup that's still going. I just love pulling them out of my hair after I brushed and checked my head.

Even though the quest for the super rare turtle has been a tough go, I was able to find a less rare larger turtle. Of course, they are huge and pretty easy to spot. I'm just glad I didn't totally skunked (finding no turtles) as we say in the biz.

Just another weekend

Super rare turtle quest continues. Things have been slow considering the wacky weather we've had this spring. This weekend was gorgeous and I tried to take full advantage. I headed to the swamp to check on the spotted and painted turtles. The few turtles I did see were chowing down on the veg. No a single turtle was out basking. I saw this water snake who took extreme measures to find a spot to bask. It's hard to tell from this angle, but this guy was basking on top of a shrub with like a foot drop to the water. Don't move otherwise you'll fall in! Following the swamp visit, I tried to check out a new turtle site. Unfortunately it was along a brook that was completely flooded out from the extreme rain. So mission was aborted.

Then today I headed out to three sites that don't have many rare turtles, if any at all. I wasn't 100 percent sure I wanted to make the effort today, but then I got word that a co-worker found a super rare turtle there yesterday. So I immediately bolted out the door and scrambled there. I saw another co-worker had beaten me to the punch, but he didn't find any. He reluctantly left and thought I would find the turtle as soon as he left. I ended up spending a long time, but I came up empty handed. I headed to another site that I love, but it only has one lonely snapping turtle, which is the not the object of my search. I greeted snappy and went about my thing. Again, I came up empty handed. The third site I had never been to. I thought I had found the best place to park and walk in. I battled my in and went about my search. Nothing! On the drive out, I decided to do an immediate drive by and of course there was a fantastic place to park right next to it. Rats! Well there will be a next time.

A Tale from turtling

I've been out turtling as much as I can...weather permitting of course. The weather this spring has been whacky to say the least. We've had possibly record breaking heat followed by near freezing temperatures. It's now raining and cold and more of the same is predicted for most of the week. Not good turtling weather.

But given the hectic work schedule, I've had to make lemons out of lemonade. That's why we had to go out turtling at a very large site on the insanely hot day. We started out early to avoid the heat, but that didn't matter considering we had to spend about 3.5 hours out there. The vegetation was very dense shrubs peppered with swamp rose. I forgot my garden clippers so getting through was even more difficult. To add to the mess, every once in awhile you would stumble upon a bottomless open pit, which had to be carefully navigated. Boredom and exhaustion came early. No turtles were spotted. I did spot a couple water snakes and a newt....that was my excitement. To add insult to injury, dozens of ticks were continuously invading me. Each time I crashed through and even brushed up against a shrub, at least 5 ticks would hitch a ride on me. Of course, I was the only one in the group that had this problem. I did spray myself with bug spray, but since I didn't wear hip waders (opted for the lighter and cooler rubber knee boots...if you can call them that), I was the object of their affection. A few hours in I hear a co-worker yell to another "mumble mumble bear heading mumble mumble." I immediately jump out of my heat/boredom coma and come rushing towards the action. From what I learned is that all the skunk cabbage had been eaten in one area. I know exactly what that means....beartown. My co-worker then spotted a boulder and thought it was a good spot to rest on. Turns out the bear was resting on the other side! My co-worker did a silent and quick retreat and another co-worker unknowingly came upon the scene. Other co-worker made some noises and whistles and the bear took off.

So I am borrowing my hedge clippers from the family for the next visit....if that happens. If it does happen, you can all guess where I will be heading towards first. Don't worry, I won't be bringing it any snacks. I just want a peek....after all 3.5 hours is a long time for turtling.

Death cometh

This week marked the beginning of the super rare turtle quest for the year. The weather was awesome on friday and saturday. On saturday, I hit the local area which was also known for a lot of spotted turtles, which are super cute. The wetland is remote and I have a cross a river, which makes it even more challenging. Plus, the wetland is most likely bottomless. So you are basically walking upon a network of plant and tree roots with no solid ground for quite a distance. I hit the area quite late on saturday. It was hot and the sun was starting to set. All was pretty quiet and then I spotted a large dead snapping turtle. It was sad to see, but I didn't think much of it. I was slowly making my way around the perimeter and I see what I think is a glistening blackened leaf. Then I realize it's a turtle belly. I see another proper side up turtle near it. I'm thinking woohoo although why is the turtle upside down! I slowly amble my way over since walking is difficult and I try to correct the belly up turtle. It doesn't move. It's stone dead. Then I poke the other turtle. It's dead too! Both are marked spotted turtles. I really don't understand. I then sadly continue on and see another medium sized dead snapping turtle. So it was a pretty sad journey and it seems like they deaths were pretty recent since they didn't smell or almost looked like they could be alive. I did see a live painted turtle on the river,

On my way out, I saw this carpet of wild leeks. I've never seen so many leeks in one spot.

A good start to spring

Update: My coworker went out to the site with the "root cellars" (actually old wells) and that bitten up tree. He ran into two bears, which quickly ran off when they spotted him.


This past week I got to spend two beautiful days alone out in the field. The beauty of being alone is that you can go at your own speed and enjoy nature as you go. Tuesday was the best day of the bunch. Unfortunately it was one of those days were photo opportunaties didn't quite work out. I spent the morning searching for salamanders, turtles, and other herps. Things were going relatively normal until I decided to walk back to the car along the edge of the pond. It had recently rained and I was surprised to have not seen any spotted salamander eggs, especially since my co-worker had found an adult on the shore the past week. Then bam, I spotted an egg mass and then another and another (see horrible pic above...all those clumps are egg masses). Then I spotted a pile of egg masses. They looked freshly laid since they hadn't had a chance to absorb water and grow so big. The pile of egg masses looked like coral. Then I shifted my focus under the water and I saw at least three big adult salamanders running/swimming like hell away from the pile. I grabbed one and it was the skirmiest, biggest, and slipperiest salamander I ever held. My snake stick was in the other hand so I had to handle it with only one hand. I battled my way back to shore, but I eventually lost the battle and the salamander dropped out of my hand and into the water. Mind you when I had first spotted the first egg mass I was at capacity with the boots. I had about an inch from the water line to the top of my boots. Well that all went to hell and one foot got quite wet and my arm sleeve was drenched once the commotion started. I tried to go back and get another salamander but the water had become so clouded and the salamanders were wise to the invasive giant.


Other morning highlights was seeing a spotted turtle, a painted turtle, and hearing a pickerel frog call. The the lowlight of this site was getting a deer tick biting into my belly. That would be two deer ticks bites this year and from this same site! Thankfully I seem to be ok.




The afternoon I headed to another site, which was part of a state park. It had beautiful woods and a nice stream. Also there were two old structures along the stream, which I imagine were used to keep food cold....or something like that. I also found an old homestead and piles of junk. All of this was again time suckers.

When I had first stepped foot on the site, I noticed what appeared to be porcupine poop. I also noticed this action on a tree, which was right next to some old bear poop. So I was on medium alert for some bear action. I'm pretty sure this is gnawing from either squirrels or porcupine. I guess they like birch beer as well.

Serenity Now!

This week and most of last week has been devoted to these massive super rare turtle reports for a proposed pipeline in southern Pennsyl-tucky. Don't worry, the pipeline is being scrapped for some reason unbeknownst to me, but they want everything asap. Last week, I was told they were due at the end of next week (end of first real week in August). I had enough time in my mind to do it all myself. I could do the lengthy annotated photolog (126 photos out of like 500+ photos to choose from) which includes a) figuring out what site each photo is from; b) cropping and sprucing up each photo; c) placing photo in photolog; and d)adding a note about each photo. It took me an hour just to crop and spruce up the photos last week. Then there's the 45 11"x17" maps that need to be put together with various dots, labels, lines, etc. It can take up to 20 minutes just to print out one of this maps...even if it's just a test run. Of course, there's the reports which include data that I'm not familiar with since it's not New Jersey. I have to find each zip code and township for each stretch of the pipeline. Thankfully I got two helpers on these reports plus my supervisor so things seem achievable again. I just need to manage the helpers and make sure they keep on track while trying to do my own portion of it. So here's a couple pics that I liked from my endless hours of viewing pics taken by others.

To top things off, on my drive home on tuesday, a piece of gravel hit my windshield. It made a nice silver dollar sized star chip. This morning I see that the star has expanded with two fingers coming out of it to like a foot across. Good times! I knew as soon as the golf sold, all hell would break loose on the Toyota. Lets hope this is it and that it can last until my inspection is up in spring of 2009.

Turtle Last Call

Work has not been so exciting on account of the heat wave and the plethora of office time. The heat broke two nights ago and I got to spend the day outside. The day was pretty much uneventful except for this box turtle my coworker found. It's amazing how they can complete shut themselves inside.
This weekend marks the end of the super rare turtle search for this year. Nesting season starts so that's when we have to stay out to avoid disturbing the eggs. Besides it's been so hot and the vegetation is very dense it makes it difficult to search anyway. But I'm motivating most of my co-workers for a final turtle search bright and early tomorrow morning. Everyone is going....even birdman who is not a fan of turtles.....except......mr. insanely competitive. Now these two sites we are going to aren't amazing, but we were given access by the state so I feel like we have to really make an effort. That way the state will give us more great sites next year to search. Plus its actually a group bonding experience. Makes you wonder when the most competitive person doesn't want to go.

Hot enough for you!

Say that in a smirky old man voice. Even before this mini heat wave we are in, field work was generally boring aside from the discovery of a baby woodpecker nest. Sorry kids. No good photos. I discovered that the flash on my new work camera doesn't work at all. I just have a pic of a dark hole in a tree. No peeping baby woodpecker pics.

To recap our local weather, it's been 90+ degrees fahrenheit each day since saturday. Tomorrow will be more of the same. I got home and the temperature outside was 95 degrees at 6 pm. Plus add in the humidity. Thankfully what makes my place so cold in the winter keeps my place reasonable during the summer even without the air conditioner on. But rest assured, it's going full blast now.

Even with this ridic weather, I attempted to go turtling early saturday morning to my local wetland. After parking in a questionable spot (I thought I was going to get the cops called on me and I'll leave it at that) and hiking over a quarter mile in, I arrived at the location. I was immediately disappointed. It was a sea of cattails and this invasive grass (which i am also quite allergic to). There was a lot of water and the smell that surfaced with each step was something beyond my experience....like no human has stepped here in 100 years. Then I found the floating bog section. That's the area where you don't step on solid ground but are rather walking on a floating mat of vegetation. I half circled around the perimeter and it was total frog nation. So that was a good sign. Then I heard something big fall into the water. I heard a gurgling noise and the vegetation was roughly moved around. Must have been a large snapping turtle. There was no way I could get to it quickly considering I was tentatively walking on the floating part. I gave up pretty quickly and decided that it will have to wait until next year for a real attack. I decided to try to visit Cashew and by 9:30 am most turtles were already in the mud since it was so hot.

So by this time tomorrow night, we should be fully engulfed in some t-storms that will hopefully bring us some relief.

Close but no cigar

Super rare turtle quest continues. I went turtling after Cashew's release even though it was getting pretty hot out. I got a pretty rare unexpected turtle within the first 5 minutes of my arrival. She was big and feisty. She was too big for any of my measuring tools and she started flailing about when I tried to measure her. It made it real tough to take notes, take photos, measure her, and hold her. I had nothing of interest after that but I just got more info on the super rare turtles that may be near my place. This weekend I'll head up an expedition which will probably entail crossing a river and filling my boots with water.

Not a fan of the hemavores

Today we got to do billable rare turtle surveys in combination with volunteer warbler surveys. We hit five sites. Ticks were bad at the first couple sites but it was nothing compared to the last site. Mind you I had sprayed myself with potent deet bugspray a couple times during the day. The last site I must have gotten at least 20 dog ticks on me. A bunch were in my hair even though it was all tucked in my hat. We were done early but I just couldn't stand to go back to the house with a bunch of ticks still on me. I went straight home and I combed my hair out and found another tick inside my shirt. I'm all showered and the clothes are in the wash. I finally can relax and get some work done.


No rare turtles were found. I spotted one large snapping turtle which I named Snappy. No pic of Snappy though. We did spot a luna moth while taking a break in the morning, which was cool. At our third stop which was the most boring of the bunch, a co-worker found this nest of three presumed baby song sparrows. Not so cute yet.

Turtle Insanity

What's that Calvin Klein old school obsession commercial? It's a fine line between love and obsession. I leave for a few days last week for billable field work and meetings and I get back to complete turtle quest obsession. The guys really love to be super competitive at almost any cost. I don't want to be around when they both spot the same turtle. I don't like to be at the back of the pack with the least amount of found super rare turtles so I get swept up in this tidal wave. Their office work suffers since they take extended lunches for the turtle quest. If they could do that everyday, they would. This includes full days of turtle quests on the weekends. So this weekend I was out both days. I also feel guilty for enjoying time off during the nice parts of the weekends. All things aside, I found two super rare turtles on Sunday. I also found another semi rare turtle which I had never found myself. Saturday was a beautiful day and ideal for turtles but all I found was a snapping turtle. I don't understand why the turtles weren't out.
The most insanely competive guy at the office found four super rare turtles, and three other types of turtles. Here's his adolescent box turtle he found. This girl cracked me up with her half eaten grub on her snout and the rest of the grub between her neck and her skin.

I think the competition may cool down a bit now that the higher ups know what's been happening. I suggested a schedule so that everyone can get a fair shot and not go crazy. But I'm sure I'll be out again this weekend...but I am putting my foot down and won't spend all daylight this extended week on the turtle quest. I am tired and my car is so full of ticks its not even funny.

The cutest find on Sunday was made by the only turtle competitive coworker..aka birdman. It was the first fawn that I saw this season. It was underneath a skunk cabbage and was being shielded from the rain by a cabbage leaf.