Joshua Flat, Piper Mountain Wilderness

I took a trip over the Inyos along Death Valley Road into the territory of BLM's Ridgecrest Field Office. The road is almost surreal as the pinyon-juniper forest transitions into some of the most dense Joshua trees I've ever seen. The above picture doesn't quite capture it, but all of those specks on the alluvial fans in the background are Joshua trees! Something about them just makes me happy...

Old 4x4 roads have been closed to vehicle access, but allow you to hike through the area with relative ease. I headed up into one of the washes and climbed my way up and up...I was hoping to pop out on the other side and see Deep Springs Valley, but didn't quite make it. Bird highlights included a single Canyon Wren's song echoing in the rocks and a flock of 15 Pinyon Jays noisily escorting me out at the end of my day (shown below). I hope to return in the spring for wildflowers, herps, and rumored Scott's Orioles!

Small Mammal Trapping at Fish Slough

Not knowing much about what small mammals are present in Fish Slough, I set out some Sherman live traps to see what I could get. It has been demonstrated that 84% of the species present in an area can be captured over the first three trap nights, but a fourth night only increases the estimate by 2%, so I left the traps out for three nights and two days. Since the weather isn't very hot during the day this time of year, I left the traps open during the days as well as nights. The traps were baited with peanut butter and oats and cotton balls were provided for bedding.

I ended up capturing 10 individuals of 4 species: Sorex vagrans (vagrant shrew, 2), Microtus montanus (montane vole, 1), Reithrodontomys megalotis (western harvest mouse, 3), and Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mouse, 4). Not a bad selection for the middle of winter! The shrews were a particular surprise, since they're not often captured in box-style traps.

Sherman trap	Sorex vagrans
Microtus montanus	Reithrodontomys megalotis
Peromyscus maniculatus	cute mousey face

Midwinter Bald Eagle Count

Today we helped cover some survey routes for the Midwinter Bald Eagle Count, a national effort currently coordinated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The 2 feet of snow along one of our three routes turned what we expected to be an easy drive into an unexpected 6-mile hike through the snow, but it beats sitting at a desk all day! We ended up seeing two striking adult bald eagles and one juvenile.

There's one! Adult bald eagle at Tinemaha Reservoir viewed through a spotting scope

cool rodent tracks in the snow

Guzzlerpalooza

Wildlife guzzlers collect water so it's available to wildlife in arid areas. They are normally installed to attract and increase game species, but all wildlife benefits. A number of different designs have been utilized through the years, making maintainance interesting.

an original "walk-in" design, with its apron covered in snow; these guzzlers are being converted to prevent unintended issues of animals becoming trapped in the tank

this walk-in (installed in 1966!) has been converted, with a drinker installed below (not in the photo)

	this photo shows a typical drinker, installed below "flying saucer" collectors
	looking down on the "flying saucers" and me hard at work!
	yet another design, this one simply collects water on the top that funnels into the tank

Pinyon-Juniper Removal

I'm sorry I haven't kept up with the blog! A number of factors have contributed, including a busy time of year, not as many new tasks now that I've settled in a bit, and less time in the field. I doubt you'd be entertained much by descriptions of cleaning up GIS data or updating mailing lists. But I'm trying...

A few weeks ago we had contractors removing single-leaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla) and Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma) in portions of our resource area. Both species naturally occur here, so why are we removing them?

Although the species historically occur in particular places, both pinyon and juniper have increased their ranges by invading sagebrush and other plant communities. This invasion is believed to have been facilitated by grazing, unnatural fire regimes, and climate change. The conifers displace sagebrush and shade out forbs and grasses, decreasing biodiversity. They also provide perches for raptors hunting Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), and the grouse have been shown to avoid invaded areas.

before (after a snowy weekend)

after (with most of the snow melted)

Bonus Jackrabbit!

While we were letting down fences in the Bodie Hills today, we came across a new species for me, the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii townsendii). Considered a pest by many farmers in the Midwest, they have a limited distribution in California, associated with sagebrush habitats and considered a State Species of Special Concern. Like snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus), their fur is brown in the summer and white in the winter. It looks like we caught this one somewhere in the middle.

Despite the name, the white-tailed jackrabbit is a true hare. Remember the differences? Hares are generally larger and faster than rabbits, with larger ears and feet. Their young are born precocial, with fur and able to see. In contrast, the young of rabbits are born altricial, blind and hairless. But both are lagomorphs, not rodents.

Always exciting to find a species I haven't seen before!

Grouse Trapping

Last weekend I had the opportunity to assist the crew of a USGS researcher trapping Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in the Virginia Mountains north of Reno, NV. Two nights previously, they saw 80 grouse, but by the night I was there we only saw 6. Slightly disappointing, but at the same time it was exciting to be in the middle of their transition to winter range. A Nevada Department of Wildlife employee is going to be flying the area to find out where the grouse actually spend their winter, one of the things that this study will tell us.

So how do we trap the grouse anyway? Honestly it's one of the more bizarre wildlife-trapping methods I've experienced. We worked in teams of two. I had the relatively simple job of following the team leader through sagebrush by headlamp, carrying a long-handled net. He did everything else. Using binoculars and a spotlight, he scanned the area to try and catch eyeshine from the grouse. As we snuck closer, he would spotlight the bird and turn on a speaker hooked up to a radio tuned to static. The grouse will flush at the sound of footsteps (walk without rythym...), so any loud noise disguises our steps and keeps the poor bird disoriented. My boss says they used to use chainsaw motors, and some people play music, although the regular beat in songs may not be as successful as noise. Many people use three person teams, with two netters behind the spotlighter. We only needed two because we had a pretty slick net gun. The leader shot the net over the bird, then I followed in to put the long-handled net over it to keep it from escaping.

Normally they take a lot of measurements on the bird, but the focus was to get radio collars on as many birds as possible before the winter. We took pictures and some blood, but the rest of the measurements will be taken when the birds are recaptured next year. We were only able to catch one bird that night, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to do so!