Days Three and Four: Gathering Gear/ Gopher Frogs

June 8, 2015

 

 

            After a weekend dominated by sleep, waking up at 5:00AM on a Monday was very difficult.  But, I did it and thankfully my legs had stopped complaining. My ride to the office was more pleasant, and after the excitement, I was a little bit relieved that day three was going to be an office day. I got to the office, changed out of my riding clothes and joined my mentor Jennifer to get ready for the day.  We got right to work gathering the things we would need for the fish sampling trip. I helped her pack, unpack, and carry things until there was a good sized pile of gear in Jeff’s office.

As we gathered equipment, she explained the uses of each piece.  She also taught me how to be safe around them, and shared some personal experiences that might help me in the field. The more equipment included the back-pack shocker, jars for preserving fish, labels, a clipboard with data sheets, and various kinds of nets. We had three dip nets and one seine net to be used for the trip.  Unfortunately, they needed mending, and we could not find the twine to repair it.  Being a biologist sometimes means improvising.  So I found an alternative, and I spent what seemed like forever mending those nets.  I must say I think I did a fairly good job.

After lunch we continued to gather the rest of the odds and ends for the trip, we ended up finding the correct twine after the fact. We also compiled a short list of the things we could not find, and Jeff offered to take care of it.   After that, I made travel arrangements because Jennifer would not be going with us on this trip and I needed my own room. We still had awhile before it was time for me to go home, so I studied a book on freshwater mussels so I could prepare for the mussel sampling trip. The next few weeks were going to be action-packed and I was looking forward to it.

Day Four: The Dusky Gopher Frog

June 9, 2015

            After a day in the office, I was excited to be going out in the field again.  So I almost did not notice the sullen pain in my legs as I rode to work bright and early for another day of adventure.  Today I would be going out in the field with biologists Matt Laschet, Dianne Ingram, and Tim Mullet, who usually deal with more terrestrial creatures. However, today they were going out to take a look at some ponds that could potentially be suitable habitat and reintroduction sites for the endangered dusky gopher frog which was thought to be extinct in Alabama. There has not been a sighting of one in years, but they are hopeful that they might return naturally or be reintroduced into ponds.

So we got the gear together that we needed, and Dianne, Matt, Tim and I left the office. The pond’s location is called the Laurendiene property and is owned by the city of Mobile. As we drove down one of the dirt roads on our way to the pond, Matt spotted a freshly dug gopher tortoise burrow on the side of the road.  We all jumped out of the car to take a closer look and see if the tortoise was around. Sadly it was not, so we called one of the property managers and flagged the burrow so no one would accidently run over it. That was pretty exciting because the gopher tortoise is a threatened species that needs longleaf pine habitat to survive and it’s always good to see a new burrow from one.

We drove through the bumpy dirt roads and eventually came to the first pond which resembled the type dusky gopher frogs need to breed and hatch eggs. We got out and Matt waded out into the pond to take the depth measurements.  While we waited, I appreciated the beauty of the area. Dianne identified bird calls and Tim took a recording of the natural sounds for possible use.  Once we were done, we got back into the car and went on to the next pond which was not as suitable as the first.  On the way out, we stopped at a pitcher plant bog. 

 

Unfortunately, a downpour cut our trip short—that’s Mobile weather for you. We ended up getting back at around 10:20AM and Jennifer really had nothing planned for me. I discovered that paperwork also plays a huge part in biology.  I watched as Jennifer completed paperwork for her Endangered Species Act consultation projects.  It was actually pretty cool. I ended up learning a lot about what they do with the Endangered Species Act, and how they review federal projects to see if they have any impacts on nearby endangered species. If the project has negative effects, biologists propose a way to do the project that would have less or no impact. They determine the possibility of impacts using a combination of Global Information System (GIS) technology, surveys, and prior knowledge.

I spent the rest of the day reading about more fish and mussel stuff and learning a bit about GIS. All in all, it ended up being a fairly productive day despite the interference of the rain, which conveniently stopped in time for me to go home—no catching I cool car ride for me.