Well, we made it through the first week. As always the first week is challenging as we settle in and orient ourselves to both the area and the refuge. All refuges are similar yet each is unique.
Monday USGS came out to assess the effectiveness of drone surveys versus fixed wing aircraft surveys of Trumpeter Swan nesting. This is the first time a drone has been flown on the refuge. They assembled the army surplus drone and tested it by flying quadrants for about three hours. We were invited to observe the test.
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| Drone Assembly |
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| Launch |
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| Flight Operations |
Each Tuesday we follow a specific route through the many miles of refuge two-track roads surveying large mammals and certain birds of interest as well as any newborns. This is also a good time to check on two Bat Monitor stations, changing the batteries and flash cards that record the bat echoes.
Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons we are responsible for setting 45 small mammal traps. These traps are laid out in grids of nine each. The five 100 foot square grids are placed in areas of the refuge as determined by the biologist. These grids are moved each week. Wednesday and Thursday mornings a group of local volunteers come to open each trap, identify the small mammal captured, record data gathered, mark them with White-Out, and release them.
Daily we read gages and record water levels in the ponds, which are maintained by ground water pumps.
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| Female Elk has Seen Better Days |
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| Small Mammal Survey Results |
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Checking Pond Levels
Sawtooth Mountain Range in the Background |
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| Nesting Trumpeter Swan Pair |
3 comments:
It sounds like you are involved in a nice variety of projects. We like that better than doing a single thing all of the time.
This is just the first week. We are on a three day trip to Yellowstone NP.
looks like the perfect jobs for you guys. have fun.. Kathy and Eric
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