Spring in Nevada: Kershaw-Ryan and Moapa

Palmer's penstemon (Penstemon palmeri)

Desert paintbrush (Castilleja angustifolia)

Beavertail prickly-pear (Opuntia basilaris)

Sego lily (Calochortus nuttallii)

Desert four-o'clock (Mirabilis multiflora)

 

Unknown locust

Scarlet hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus coccineus)

Range ratany (Krameria erecta)

 White-steam paperflower (Psilostrophe cooperi)

Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata)

Side trip to Valley of Fire

On one of my days off a couple weeks ago, I took a day trip out to Valley of Fire State Park. The geology is quite striking, with rifts of red-orange, rosy pink, and creamy silica domes. It's easy to see why the park regularly features in film, including Star Trek: Generations, the Stand mini-series, and the corny 80s sword-and-sandals flick Beast Master. Walking along it feels like the surface of Mars. The Mouse Tank trail was particularly interesting, joining wonderful stone, plant life, and petroglyphs.

Mouse Tank trail

End of the canyon of Mouse Tank trail

 

An alien world along White Domes trail

Narrows of the White Domes trail

Banded rock with the creamy silica and the iron-reddened rock

Petroglyphs at Atlatl Rock

The road to Nevada





So after the end of the spring semester, I undertook a crosscountry journey to scenic Nevada. Quite a lot of miles in a short stretch, but I was able to split the drive time with my dad, which was good enough to preserve my brains from going to oatmeal. Didn't have much time to stop anywhere for long, but I did see the Hoover Dam.

 

Well, it's a dam...

So now I work for the University of California Berkeley, helping with a project to survey birds. It's part of the Grinnell Resurvey project, to compare diversity today to records from a century ago. It's a good way to see how changes in land use and climate might have affected different species of birds.

Kershaw-Ryan State Park

So the first stop was Kershaw-Ryan State Park for training and starting the first sites. For the first five days me, another tech, and our boss PhD student were training, birding for 6-8 hours a day in one of the most diverse spots in the state. I had some trouble at first, my fault not looking into the fine print on the birding list, but I'm pretty solid now. In the off time, I was able to explore the park.

Birding in the wash outside Kershaw-Ryan SP

 

Then we started doing the actual point counts. Unlike Texas, these points are done solo, and only for seven minutes. Three days of busy surveys down in the wash in Kershaw-Ryan, then a jaunt down to Moapa.

 

Low, dry country of the Moapa transect 

 

Compared to Kershaw-Ryan, the Moapa site is much more remote and quiet. The campsite's no official site, just a patch near a BLM dirt road to park the car. Unfortunately not much in the way of birding here (mostly black-throated sparrows and ash-throated flycatchers), but interesting new habitat of yucca, cats-claw, and cacti. 

 

Panorama shot from the Moapa campsite

 

After two days surveying at Moapa, the ten days of work turned over for four days off in Logandale. Some time sleeping in a real bed, a place with a kitchen and internet access, pretty nice. I even got to slip off to nearby Valley of Fire State Park, full of curious rocks and mysterious petroglyphs. Anyway to conclude, a bit of a hectic start but getting into the swing of things in a thoroughly interesting set of places.

Limbo land and the classroom return

What have I been doing all this time?
     Well many things, but mostly looking for work. I'd churn out application after application. The stats worked out this way for five months of searching. Less than 20% of the applications would receive a response. Less than 10% requested an interview. Of the interviews? One offer, and certainly not what I was originally looking for. A job as an adjunct instructor, teaching in the spring semester. That's what I get for searching in the off-season.
     Not all was lost. It was the first time in years I actually had something akin to vacation, enough time to walk on the beach, be with family, and occasionally write or do something useful. So I was glad to have it. I was able to take the money saved from the Texas job and put it as a down payment for new vehicle, a shiny red Jeep Renegade with 4 wheel drive. A good thing, because it helped me get my summer job. But it's rough in limbo, not knowing how things are going to turn out.

 

     After the holidays, the search was about a month and a half. Only 11 applications sent out. About 70% of the applications received a reply. About 36% of the applications resulted in an interview. Of the four interviews, I received three job offers. I took one, and am now all set to work in the summer field season. I guess December-January is magic time.

      So, I've been teaching since January. Nice side effect about having a M.S. degree, it qualifies you to teach at a community college level. I've been teaching two classes the basic Environmental Science course at a local college. I like being able to introduce non-major students to a lot of sciences and issues. Biology, chemistry, ecology, energy use, pollution, politics are all part of the course. Maybe my students aren't the most studious (they have lives outside of school), but on the most part they show genuine interest and ask a lot of good questions. It certainly requires a lot of hard work, especially this first time around, but I find it very satisfying. It only comes out to part-time work and it pays peanuts, but I'm all right with that for now.



New Orleans pictures!

Ah yes, been awhile since I've posted. I'm back in Florida now, but I got to stay a couple days in lovely French Quarter New Orleans. I got there in the afternoon and got a sweet hotel room with a balcony overlooking quiet Ursulines Street.

Ursulines Convent from the hotel

 

Looking northwest down Ursulines Avenue

 

Looking across Jackson Square to St. Louis Cathedral the next morning
 

Breakfast: a delicious beignet from Cafe du Monde. Damn now I want one.

 

Walking to the cemetary tour on some of the residential streets in French Quarter. And below, some cool shots of St. Louis Cemetary No. 1:

Travels to Big Bend

     As of about a week now, I fulfilled my promise of six months of work in south  Texas, and am now an unmoored wanderer bouncing my way back home. Of course, my first stop required me to go further west, but the detour was definitely worth it. Thus I came to hike and camp three days and two nights in Big Bend National Park.
     All in all, a very interesting place where a mountain range is an island in the desert. Crowds were manageable since the heat kept most people away. I ended up hiking in the mornings, seeing tiny Mt. Carmen white-tailed deer, Mexican jays, spotted towhees, and all sorts of animals and plants. Anyway, here are some pictures...

Me on Chisos Basin Trail, with the Window behind

Casa Grande formation from Chiso Basin Trail

Another shot of Casa Grande from Lost Mine Trail

A mountain dawn from Lost Mine Trail

Castolon Peak from Ross Scenic Drive

Walking through a wash on the Devil's Den Trail

Leaving the ranch, on to new adventures!