A Day at the Refuge

I have been trying to get my very own research project off the ground dealing with Ord's Kangaroo rats. (I would put a picture here, but as I haven't caught any yet I have no picture to put up. Grr.) I was loaned 77 Sherman Live Traps (of the large 15 inch variety - to accommodate for the long tails) and last Thursday I set up 39 on the South side of the refuge (by Jet) and the other 38 up North of Hwy 11, where I have, in fact, seen a Kangaroo rat. And then I smugly waited, more than sure that the next morning I would have 77 Kangaroo rats to weigh, measure, and photograph.

And then Nothing! By Tuesday morning, I had caught a total of 5 deer mice. So yesterday morning, when one of the maintenance men came to me with some new locations, I took him up on it. Basically, where I had the 39 South nests were by some farm fields that were about to be cultivated. So I was going to need to move them anyway. And I was told that there were lots and lots of them in this other area - right along Hwy 11. Yesterday morning, therefore, was spent moving and re-setting up traps. I even sacrificed some blood and skin to the cause when I tried to walk through a barbed wire fence hidden by lots and lots of overgrown grass. Last night, while I certainly was no longer smug, I was very optimistic. Expecting 39 Kangaroo rats this morning. And what do I find? Nothing. Well. I guess that isn't true. A fence lizard ran into a trap as I was checking it.

Speaking of, I now know exactly what a fence lizard looks like. I thought I had a good idea, because this little brown lizard kept getting trapped in one line of drift fences. But, the holes in the wire were big enough (and he was small enough) for him to fit through (which makes me wonder what he was doing in the trap in the first place) so I could never catch him to identify him beyond any shadow of a doubt. Well, yesterday I did manage to finally get him (and he is a him because he's more brown; females are more gray), and after confirming my suspicions, I took lots of pictures...

But I digress. Kangaroo Rats! I suppose I'll just try to be patient, but I don't like it. If worse comes to worst, I'll take a picture of a live trap for you. Not as cute as a kangaroo rat, though.

Yesterday afternoon, I went with Emily to Northwestern University to pick up a mounted golden eagle for our display. The museum they have there (viewed by appointment only) is really interesting. The coolest thing, though, was a mammoth tusk found in the Reservoir during the 1940s. You know, you always hear that mammoths and the like were here in present-day Oklahoma, but you don't really think about it. Or at least I don't. And then I see something like that, and it really amazes me.

This morning, after being mocked and laughed at by the hundreds of Kangaroo rats too good for my traps, I hitched up my first trailer and loaded up a 4 wheeler and headed out to the salt flats. I learned that hitching up a trailer isn't so bad, and driving a trailer is easy, and backing a trailer is ridiculously hard. Luckily, I didn't have to back that much. At the Salt Flats, I checked on one of our last unfinished tern nests. No eggs, and nobody in the nest, but 6 adults screaming at me. They really gave the game away with their aggression - I knew there had to be chicks nearby. So I used their changing level of their aggression to guide me around the natural debris, and came upon a little piece of driftwood. Instead of looking around it (these chicks are so hard to see sometimes!), I picked it up and Voila! an adorable little yellow speckled chick wobbled a bit and looked at me as if to say "What did you do with my shade?!" I gooed and gushed and took lots of pictures. At one point, tired of the sun or my shiny canine teeth, the chick wobbled back under the stick. The adults, completely certain I was about to devour their investment, pooped on me. Sigh. It was only a little, so I suppose I should count my blessings. I found the other chick without too much trouble, and he didn't get any photos taken of him (he can blame his parents, I didn't want more poop decoration).

I was out at the flats just last Wednesday, and as I did last week, I took a little tour around the Salt Flats - to try to get myself knowledgeable about where things are. I took a picture last week of a marsh with a bridge. This was actually man made. Once upon a time, they were digging for fresh water out there, and all they found was salty water. So dug a hole and put the salty water in there. Then it became a marsh. Last week it was full of shore birds and plants. This week, with this heat, it was completely dry. Here are my before and after shots:

Other than that, my afternoon has consisted of calling for volunteers for our spotlighting deer census that will happen every night next week. I'm signed up to help out Monday through Thursday. I hope spotlighting is still as fun as I remembered. Haha. Maybe I only think it's fun because a certain friend of my sneaked in some punch and vodka. Don't think that will happen this time...