feeling confident and savvy

I'm with the Forest Service this week, and I have to say I really enjoy the work, and I feel totally at peace with and capable of what the job requires. Everyone here is totally geared toward protecting the forest habitat (because it's on the federal level, state protects wildlife specifically) and it's nice to see what they all do to collaborate in the name of conservation.

Sunday night I arrived and got settled in at the bunkhouse (where all the seasonal employees live) in my very own room in an awesome new, warm, comfy bed. Everybody else is two to a room, so I can't believe my good fortune! Everybody has been really nice and welcoming so far, except one guy, who was really cool on Sunday night and we ended up having a lot of things to talk about, until he started kind of putting the moves on me. I wasn't receptive or non-receptive; I'm just not interested in anything like that, but it did come as a great compliment! Well, the next morning and ever since, he's been a complete jerk to me, so whatever. He's got all his own crazy-person problems.

Monday morning we all had to go to an employee meeting, where everybody went around and gave an update of their most recent successes and projects, which was really cool. We all had to introduce ourselves, too, because there are so many new seasonal employees, and then I got a second introduction from the Wildlife Department head, who mentioned the work "I'm" doing with hummingbirds and how that related to a new project they're starting with hummers. It was cool to get a little spotlight in the midst of so many awesome, hard-working people. Then I went out with the wildlife crew and did some transects in the Canyons of the Ancients at Riley Mesa looking for the rare Long-nosed Leopard Lizard, which we didn't find. We did see three Collard Lizards, a Desert Spiny Lizard, and a buttload of Whiptail and common lizards (I saw the spiny and a collard myself!), and then we marked the four big lizards with GPS, since they're probably all territorial and wouldn't have leopard lizards nearby.

Monday night we went camping with a wildlife biologist working on a marsh protection project. The girls split off from the guys, and we camped in separate parts of the forest (so we could each do some waterfowl surveys at separate marshes the next morning). Boy was it nice to sit in a car with TWO FEMALES for a change! One was the wildlife biologist and one was a seasonal employee, and they were both so nice and interesting. I like women.

Anyway, the next morning, I woke us all up at 5:15am, and we drove out to this glorious marsh with the golden sunrise glittering on the surface of the water. There were a ton of ducks, coots, and grebes out there, and we set up a scope on the back of the pickup and attempted to identify the different species, count males and females, and especially look for ducklings as a sign of nest success. We saw three clutches (one mother had 11 ducklings following here in the water!!), and mallards, which are an indicator species for decent nesting areas in a forest where browsing livestock destroy EVERYTHING. The wildlife biologist has a plan in place to have a huge fence built around this area to keep those pesky cows out and maintain suitable nesting habitat for all these migratory waterfowl. Since there are a bunch of domestic laws protecting migrating birds and their habitats, this is a big deal, and getting its protection approved is a huge accomplishment for her career, so it was really cool to be involved in that!

Then we were driving down the road to meet the guys for a goshawk nest survey, and a hawk flew in front of our truck, so we hopped out and found a NEST with two Cooper's Hawks, right off the side of the road. We couldn't tell if there were chicks in there, but we did see the signs of feeding and plucking (a bunch of feathers stuck to a big dead bull snake draped on a branch right below the next), so it was cool to catch an active nest site. COOL. I keep using that word, but it fits the moment and I'm tired so whatever.

So then we met the guys and our wildlife biologist went off on another project she had to do. We went to this area and looked for a goshawk nest in an established territory (but with six-year-old information and directions), but we couldn't find it. We walked and walked, and used this goshawk call on an mp3 player that blasted it across the forest, but we got no response from any hawks. Then we came back to the truck, and spotted a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a smaller, equally territorial raptor that would probably indicate that there aren't any Goshawks nearby. Oh well.

I had a lot of time to kill back at the bunkhouse, but mostly I sat around and watched TV (I know! I hate TV usually, but it was literally the only thing to do besides go hiking again and my feet and legs are usually pretty tired after work).

Yesterday I went with another guy to help a lady from the Colorado Division of Wildlife (so, they're state folks so they work directly with animals) who is doing a Gunnison's Prairie Dog monitoring project in order to determine their potential need for an increased conservation status (from Priority 2 to Endangered) because of rarity and loss of habitat. So yesterday was the most fun I've had in ages because we set all these little metal traps around this prairie dog "town" with handfuls of bait (horse oats and sweet feed), then we sat far away and waited for them to come out of their holes. We were so far we needed binoculars to even spot the little blue flags waving above the traps, but we could see the little guys investigating these curious things. We caught four juveniles, so they were pretty small, and we couldn't draw blood samples from them. I did the anesthesia, so I had a tube with some isoflorane-soaked cottonballs at the bottom that I held over the nose of the dog while I held its scruff tightly in case it kicked or tried to bite or whatever. I was also watching the little sleepy eyes and breathing to make sure I didn't kill it or put it in a coma or something devastating, so I'd give some fresh air periodically. The other guys put flea powder on the dogs and picked off fleas as they surfaced, took tiny tissue samples from their ears with a punch, and collected data on each animal. It was a great team effort and I learned SO MUCH. Plus, baby prairie dogs are so friggin' cute! Then we released them back out, and they scurried into holes and cursed noisily from the safety of their dens. Adorable.

On our way back to the Public Lands Office, the other guy and I did some radio telemetry on the one bat the wildlife biologist from the waterfowl thing had caught a couple weeks ago. We found the bat roosting in a tree on the bank of the Dolores River, and his collar was putting out a strong signal. So now I've managed to mesh my radio telemetry experience with my bat experience, if ever briefly. That feels pretty good.

Then, that other guy and his roommate drove me down into town so I could buy a few groceries (because there's a freakin' refrigerator at the bunkhouse! why shouldn't I take advantage of that??), including a tube of cookie dough...I'm thinking I'll bake cookies tonight. :) I walked the mile and a half back and looked for the chorus frogs singing in the river by the side of the road, but they kept shutting up as soon as I got close, so no luck.

So then today we went out in the morning with a plant biologist who has a vested interest in a rare plant called Triteleia grandiflora, and she showed us where the local (and probably only) population of these flowers was. We walked around and took pictures and noted what kinds of distribution the flowers had, in hopes of coming across more on our individual projects. For me, I think it's great because I can keep an eye peeled during our vegetation surveys when I get back to working with Richard.

After that, a group of us went to look for some Goshawk nests in established territories (they tend to return year after year to the same 500 or so square meters). We found two nests right where we thought they'd be, and they looked like fresh construction, but there were no obvious signs of activity, like feathers or bird poop or animal bones anywhere nearby, and we didn't get any response to our blasting mp3 calls.

So, now I'm sitting in a very quiet cubicle in the Forest Service office, prevented from accessing MySpace, and searching out some potential job opportunities for the very near future.

It has been really, extremely nice to have a change of pace and a change of faces.

Also, I updated my CV and I feel pretty good about the contents. I think my confidence is back where it should be for me to land a sweet gig really soon. HOPE HOPE HOPE.