We arrived at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge on May 10 after stops in Austin and Dallas. We were assigned a 1986 Army Truck (M1008) acquired from Fort Sill.
Our job here at the Refuge involves using a hand-held Trimble running ArcPad to collect GPS features along the boundaries. After a day of field work, we have learned how to upload the data to the server and reconcile it using ArcMap and ArcCatalog. We also correlate the pictures we take with the appropriate GPS features. It has been very interesting defining our project maps, downloading to the handheld GPS unit, gathering new data points and photos, and then uploading back to the desktop server to see the revised aerial maps in the GIS database.
Traveling North from Santa Ana beginning April 28, we seem to be experiencing Springtime over and over. This is our first visit to the Wichita Mountains in the Spring. The Mountains are adorned in green and covered with wildflowers. We have seen many of the animals tending to their newborns. We will work here through the month of June at which time we plan to migrate further north into Colorado.
We have seen several copperhead snakes besides this one. They are quite common here on the Refuge, along with several types of poisonous rattlers.
