Late Nights and early mornings

So the deer censusing is going well. As I thought, it is not as fun as it was when I did it at the OU biological station. That's just to be expected, I suppose. For the first night, Monday night, I was the record keeper so I sat in the front with Ron and we bounced our way along the north area of our census. Lightning and thunder and ominous clouds showed over head. I asked Ron, who had checked the weather before we left, if the storm was headed our way and he said that he didn't know and was really surprised. Before things got really bad, however, Shelby radioed us to tell us that yes, in fact, the storm that looked like it was upon us was actually upon us. Go figure. So we headed back to headquarters and called it quits at a very early 11 p.m.

Something I was not expecting about the deer censusing (as perhaps I should have) are all the many hairy, ugly, big brown spiders that like to make their webs spanning the trees on either side of the roads we drive. Luckily for me, the first night, I was treated like the girl of the group (which I was) and put in the front seat. So I didn't have to deal with them as much as the spotlighters in the back of the truck did. However. I was the appointed gate opener. As Ron and I were the only ones with gate keys, and Ron was driving, it fell to me to open the gates. No big deal. I'm a big fan of keys and locks. Used them for the majority of my life. What did upset me were the many hairy, ugly, big brown spiders that made their webs on the gates, above the gates, beside the gates, probably under the gates. To my utter dismay, I found myself doing the helpless-girl-who-hates-spiders dance. Maybe I even squealed... It's hard to recall the exact moment when all the burly men (most of them game wardens or farmers) in the back of the truck started chuckling.

I tackled the dance and the squeal, if not the fear. As they say that courage is not having no fear, but mainly not letting that fear rule you, I would say I'm pretty damn brave girl. For, realizing that going back to the truck, flitting my eyelashes at one of the said burly men, and getting them to rescue the distressed damsel was completely out of the question, I unlocked the gate and pushed it open - with my booted foot, of course. Not like I was gonna touch the thing. But I wasn't done. After opening the gate, I had to wait for the truck to pass through and then I had to shut the gate - which definitely takes more time and gate/lock manipulation. Luckily for me, the kick that opened the gate dislodged many of my would be killers.

*I thought about putting a picture up of what these beasties look like, but realizing I'd have to look at them again, I'm not gonna. You're just gonna have to use your imagination.*

Aside from the gate issues (and really, the first one was the worst - none of the others were nearly so covered), it was a really interesting couple of hours. Aside from lots and lots of deer, we saw a skunk, several raccoons, and 4 coyotes. Yep. First time I've ever seen coyotes in the wild. It was wonderful, even though they were really far away.

Making our way back down the hwy after Shelby informed us that the lightning, thunder and ominous clouds were not just in our imagination, I see a baby raccoon in the road. I've spent time with raccoons. They're a pain on the best of days. Too curious and too intelligent for their own good (or maybe too curious and intelligent for our own good...). Nevertheless, seeing a baby raccoon still causes me to coo. I thought surely Ron was going to swerve. Surely....but no. I didn't hear a bump, and the next day I didn't see any remnants of raccoon road kill, but we did, in fact, drive over a baby raccoon. I call this to Ron's attention who sheepishly tells me he was actually watching the spotlights in the pastures rather than the road. I don't say anything to this, just make sure I'm still buckled in. :)

Last night was more of a success in more ways than one. First of all, we had an extra guy in the back, so - to give him something to do, Ron tells me - he gets my keys and gate duty. It was surprising the amount of relief that went through me. Secondly, it didn't storm on us so we got to do the full census. Thirdly, in the spot on the hwy were we drove over a baby raccoon, I looked to the side of the road, and what did I see but a baby raccoon. :) There's no way to tell if it is the baby raccoon, but I look at it as a good sign nonetheless.

Fourthly, I got out of my girly position as co-pilot/record keeper (secretary) and spent some time actually spotlighting. "What about the spiders??" you may ask. Well, I planned for this and remained as co-pilot for all our woodsy areas. When we took our break between north and south, I hopped up in back. This left me with a lot of pasture land with no trees in sight - hence no spiders making webs spanning the width of the road, hanging on to trees. Now, before you congratulate me on a plan well formed, I need to say that I did, in fact, forget some of the wooded areas on the south. And we did run into some spiders. Normally one of us (or Ron) was keeping an eye on the road for spiders, and would give us a heads up. It was like someone saying "HIT THE DECK!!" during a naval war - we all ducked down behind the cab of the truck as quickly as we could - other peoples' body parts and spotlights connecting and jarring. But it didn't matter, we didn't want a spider on us. I felt extremely sheepish doing this until I realized that, really, I wasn't the only one. And all these burly game wardens, deputies, and farmers didn't like spiders either. Hah. Now who's chuckling??

The strangest thing about this week is that my days actually start at around 6:00. It is then I go out and set my mammal traps (ooh. And do I have stories about yesterday's catch, but I won't tell until I get the pictures from Emily). Then I eat a quick dinner and head over to HQ to meet everyone and get started on the census. That ends around 1:30 - 2:00. Then I go home for a 4 hour nap. Get up, eat something, and wonder why my eyes are so bloodshot. I check the mammal traps and the drift fences around 7:30 (can't do it any later because if I do have animals in the traps, they'll bake in the sun), maybe do some other type of work. Then I go home, eat something, and crash for the whole of the late morning and afternoon. I suppose that since this is when I'm getting the majority of my sleep, this is why it feels like my day actually starts at 6 pm instead of earlier at 7:30 am. It's very odd.

But keeping in line with that train of thought, it is very late for me, and time for me to get some shut eye. Hopefully I'll get to tell you about the mammal traps experience tomorrow.

ps - I didn't take any of the pics in this post. I'm falling behind, I know. But it's hard enough to combat spiders, record numbers, look through binoculars, and look at the road for Ron, let alone take pictures!