"El Sauz and Back Again: A Birder's Tale" by yours truly

     Updates (from the person who cannot pass up a semi-obscure Lord of the Rings reference)...I went to El Sauz two weeks ago and did some birding. I've probably said this before, but it's a pretty cool place, but it's definitely some hard work just getting around. The marshes are slightly drier, but it still was hairy in some places driving the work truck. This might go without saying, but driving a little Toyota Tacoma on a muddy road-less-traveled at pitch-black 5am is not exactly ideal. But I also got have a change in scene, some new bird species, time with the herp crew, and some delicious BBQ.
     Back at the main ranch point counts proceed per usual. The summer heat is starting to dial up, sometimes getting up to highs of 99 degrees, and we're getting less in the way of rain. In between bird surveys, we now are setting up and checking bat detectors. The equipment itself is pretty nondescript, consisting of a black box recorder the size of a DVD player, a microphone, cord, and a toolbox to stow the black box out of the rain. At certain points, we secure the microphone to the top of a painter's pole and then lash the pole to a tree. After formatting the storage card, replacing batteries, and some fiddling with the recording settings, the whole apparatus is up and running, ready to record anything in the bat sound register during the night hours.
     The bunkhouses nowadays seem full of people, which as can be imagined causes occaisonal friction and drama. With our fearless crew leader with the herpers at the other ranch, issues are bound to come up. Questions like: is it worth it to call someone out because they used your shampoo without asking? What about if they leave all their dirty dishes in the sink for days on end? Why is it nobody thinks to get firewood? The hazards of living in close quarters I guess. Still, it means I have plenty of people to talk to and hang out with on the weekends.
     Anyway, probably closing in on the last month here in Hebbronville. Birding surveys are slated to wrap up by the end of July, although admittedly they originally were supposed to be done by now. Currently searching for new jobs and looking forward to a little time off to explore and visit home. New and exciting things are sure to come!

Abandoned car at main ranch

Open grasslands at the main ranch

Possibly: skeleton plant (Lygodesmia texana)

Mexican burrowing toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis). Why are they awesome?

 

"The only species, within the only genus of the family Rhinophrynidae, and with over 190 million years of independent evolution, the Mexican burrowing toad is the most evolutionarily distinct amphibian species on Earth today; a fruit bat, polar bear, killer whale, kangaroo and human are all more similar to one another than this species is to any other amphibian."

http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=1355



 

 

New species:
-Northern beardless-tyrannulet (Camptostoma imberbe)
-Gull-billed tern (Gelochelidon nilotica)
-Black-tailed gnatcatcher (Polioptila melanura)
-Mexican burrowing toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis)

Ordering at a restaurant after a week of field work...

Let the proofing begin

(Dated from June 12)
     Spent a mind-numbing week doing computer work at the bunkhouse. Now that we have only five birders and have to do surveys in pairs, it unfortunately leaves one person a week as the odd person out. There's always something to do, that's certainly not the problem. The problem is that the priority is proofing data.
     The activity sounds innocent enough. For those not in the know, handling data goes through a process. You collect it during a survey, writing everything down in a notebook or datasheet. Then everything is transcribed into an electronic copy for the computer, which is "entering" it. The last step before actually analyzing it is a necessary and arduous process called "proofing." Going back and forth between the field notebook and the computer, you make sure every in the computer file, every keystroke, every observation, is legible, consistent, and makes sense. Checking back and forth is mind-numbing, it requires listening to background music and some caffiene to get through it with sanity intact.
     Standard proofing for the mammal data had been done. But now it needed to be checked again, focusing on the color codes for the recaptured mice. The task was to make sure that no two mice had the same color codes, that certain mice that had died did not mysteriously reanimate the next day, and to be sure that the mice did not spontaneously change species, sex, age, or reproductive condition. If they did (and they certainly did), I had to figure out what the faded colors on the mouse could have been and then change the code to the code that made the most sense.
     And that's what I spent my week doing. Now to El Sauz...

Not being able to stop birding...

Quiet week

Another week, some more birds. Business has been pretty good, with cooperative weather, not so terrible brush, and no crises. Pretty quiet on the whole, not much to report aside from some side stuff like applying for other jobs.
Probably the highlight of the week was the birder's impromptu potluck event. Although most of the vegetation crews leave for their magical 3-day weekends and the herping crew has departed for El Sauz, we managed to make a ridiculous amount of food for a decent turnout. Burgers, pork, sausauges, deviled eggs, cornbread, salsa, apple bread, cake, and even some nilgai meat made an appearance. The end result was favorable: we all got stuffed and have glorious leftovers.

Birdwatching?

A confusion of scientists, an unexpected day off, and avoiding the hedges of peril

     It's been a couple of weeks since coming back from El Sauz. So what's been going on? Well, first off we have a ton more people working out here now. When me and my crewmate got back from the other ranch, we were greeted by almost completely full bunkhouses. It's hard to say how many we have at one time with some people coming every couple of weeks, but at any one time we might have our vegetation crew (4 people), another vegetation crew (3-4 people), another herpetology crew (2-3 people), and various interns helping with birding or working with cattle. It was a bit cramped before, but now I'd say we're bursting from the seems. We all cook our own meals in one kitchen, and we're a little short on fridge, cabinet, bunk, and every other kind of space. I admit I can't get everyone's names, but it is good to have some new faces around here.
     We also miraculously got a day off for Memorial Day, making it an unexpected 3-day weekend. Didn't know until a few days before, but I did manage to go somewhere interesting. Four of us made the trip to coastal South Padre, where things went well if not as expected. The event that we went to see turned out to be sadly lacking on the live music, food, and general entertainment, but at least it gave us an excuse to get to the ocean. We were not prescient enough to bring swimsuits, but the weather was good and I got a walk on a real beach. Well, something I could call a beach: the "beach" at Port Mansfield by the other ranch is rather pathetic. Ate some seafood, scouted out some places to go next time around, had a good time.
     On the birding front, I think I'm getting all right with the identification. Of the birds that are out here I can identify most by song alone. There will always be a few unknowns, from only hearing bits of the song, just hearing contact calls, or seeing just the tailfeathers of some flying far away from you, but the process is certainly not as overwhelming as it was a little over a month ago. Collectively we're pretty familiar with our sites, and the new topographic layer on our GPS units helps us figure out the trouble spots in moving from point to point. Basically, it shows us an aerial view of where we are, which is pretty useful. Evils like impenetrable hedges show up like shadows and might as well be marked as "here be dragons", and shortcuts like cattle trails and unmarked roads appear like light threads. The weather has been with us, so far. Fortunately none of the major flooding other parts of Texas are seeing.

New species:
-Groove-billed ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris)
-Audubon's oriole (Icterus graduacauda)
-Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula)
-Yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)
-Western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)
-Long-billed thrasher (Toxostoma longirostre)