Birding in Alabama

Brown Pelican on AL shore

On January 12th 2013 I went birding with some of my 4 of my bunkmates, Jared, Eamon, Matt and Phil. We went to Alabama in search Sprague's Pipit  along with many others. Our first stop was some random field in AL looking for the Pipit's. We did not find the Sprague's Pipit, but we did find a lot of American Pipit's. There were also a ton of Killdeer in the field. Our next stop was the AL shore in search of a Razorbill but it was not clear enough to see out over the water. We saw a Brown Pelican and a bunch of Laughing Gulls.

Laughing Gull  

We made a trip to Dauphin Island, we did not get over to the Gulf shore due to the Mardi Gras parade. However we did go to a park and then we made a stop near the bridge that lead to the island where were saw some shore birds.

Bald Eagle Pair, Dauphin Island AL

Live Oak covered in Spanish Moss

Great Blue Heron near Dauphin Island

Killdeer near Dauphin Island

Bufflehead near Dauphin Island

Willet with Brown Pelican photo bombing

Overall, it was a great day. It was very interesting to go birding with people who know a lot of birds. I have a Nat. Geo. field guide that I keep track of the first time I see a bird. I was able to make several entry's knowing that it was a correct ID since I was birding with knowledgeable birders.

Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge

My 5 month Student Conservation Association (SCA) internship at Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge (MSC-NWR) began on January 7th 2013. The Mississippi Sandhill Crane is and endangered species. The MS Sandhill Crane is a non-migratory subspecies of the Sandhill Crane. The Refuge has a captive breeding program in place to help increase the number of cranes since there is only a small number of successful breading pairs at the refuge. The MS Sandhill Crane lives in the constantly shrinking wet pine savanna that is dominated by Longleaf pine and Wiregrass. This habitat is a fire dependent habitat, if it does not burn every few years it will be take over by slash pine and many shrubs including Yaupon Holly and Gallberry. When these species establish themselves then the area is no longer suitable for the MS Sandhill Crane. The refuge has a large prescribed (Rx) fire regime to help keep the habitat suitable for the cranes. My job is to help monitor the effects that the fires are having on the environment so that the staff that do the prescribed burning can make sure that the fires they are putting on the ground are doing what they are meant to do. Ali, my fellow fire effect intern and myself do this several different ways. We do CBI's also know as Composite Burn Index's which allow the Rx fire staff to know the intensity of the burn. This can help them in future burns by knowing if they have been burning at the right intensity to kill back the understory shrubs and Slash pine that they want cleared out. We also do Fuel Loading inventories which help the Rx people determine the amount of fuel on the ground and how long a fire  is likely to burn. This is important because the refuge is surrounding by development and smoke management is very important. I-10 runs right through the refuge and the refuge is also very near the towns of Gautier (pronounced GO-Shay) and Ocean Springs. We also monitor the moisture levels in plants like Yaupon Holly and Gallberry to help the Rx fire staff determine how well they would burn on a specific day.

Mississippi Sandhill Cranes almost always stay together in pairs, in the photo below the two specks in the air are a pair of Cranes, however at that distance it is impossible to tell if they are MS Sandhill Cranes or not, since other Sandhill Cranes are migratory and spend the winter season in this area.

Sandhill Crane Pair

Longleaf Pine

The Gopher Tortoise is an endangered species, as of now there are no know tortoise burrows on the Refuge. However there are several on property owned by The Nature Conservancy that adjoins the Refuge, and which at some future unknown date may very well belong to the Refuge.

Gopher Tortoise burrow

 My internship is based at Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR, however I can work anywhere in the Southeast region. My boss is actually based at Big Branch Marsh NWR in south east Louisiana. Since it is very likely that we will do work in that area Ali and myself went to spend a day with our boss, Sue at Big Branch. Due to weather we did not get to go out to do any monitoring, so instead we got a tour of the refuge. It was different from MSC so it was interesting to see the area. We got to see 3 different 9 Banded Armadillo's (they are invasive) and a few shore birds, including the Willet that is pictured below.

Willet

Nine Banded Armadillo

Road trip to Mississippi

 On January 3, 2013 I began my road trip to Mississippi where I working as a Student Conservation Association intern doing fire effects monitoring for Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife refuge. On January 4 I stopped at Mammoth Cave National Park while I was driving through Kentucky. This was an unplanned stop, but the signs on the highway indicated that it was only about 10 mile from the highway. I spent about 3 hours at the park, including a 2 hour tour of the 'new entrance' which was actually created back in the 1920's. I enjoyed my time at the park a lot and I will stop there again if I am in that area again.

After stopping in Kentucky I continued on to Nashville TN. My only stop in Nashville was at Antique Archaeology. This is Mike Wolfe's shop from the History channel's show 'American Pickers.' It was interesting to see his shop, even though there was nothing there I wanted or could afford. There were even things for sale in the shop that I remembered from watching some of the episodes.

I arrived at Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge on January 5th and my internship began on the 7th.

Prairie Appreciation Week and Night Skies



View of the prairie looking east, including Heritage center

 Last week was Prairie Appreciation Week at Homestead National Monument. As part of this event I was asked to go and take pictures of the prairie. Homestead National Monument has shared these pictures on facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/HomesteadNM/photos?ref=ts#!/media/set/?set=a.10151273007560242.518673.129335150241&type=3

View of the prairie looking west

Fall colors

    The National Park Service has a program through the Natural Sounds and Night Skies division that helps parks and monuments monitor the effects of light pollution in their area. Homestead National Monument had monitoring done back in 2008 and I was asked to write about the Night Skies program at the Monument for the website, the write up can be viewed at: http://www.nps.gov/home/naturescience/night-skies-at-homestead-national-monument.htm

National Public Lands Day



Volunteer stirring up deer

 Today, September 29, 2012 is National Public Lands Day. Homestead National Monument of America hosted a Deer Survey and encouraged people to come and volunteer. We had about 21 people come to this event, everyone who participated got a certificate that allows them free entrance to a National Park Service site as a thanks for volunteering. The event started with a briefing at the Education center and then everyone moved to the east end of the prairie, up near the Heritage Center. The volunteers, SCA's (Molly, Nicole and myself) and the staff formed a line from the north boundary of the prairie to the south boundary. The line of people then began to walk toward Cub Creek on the Western end of the monument. The point of this was to count the number of deer stirred up, each person would count and deer that ran between them and their neighbor on the right. There were also some observers posted on the boundary of the monument to count any deer exiting the area. After the prairie and the woodlands had all been covered, everyone returned to the education center to compare notes. The results of the survey were that 24 deer were sighted in the monument. Past yeas results have been a low as 8 and as high as 25, so this year the number was amongst the high.

It was a great event attended by all ages, and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves!


Paperwork

Discussion of results with Ranger Jesse Bolli

Homestead holds Naturalization Ceremony

      September 17 is Constitution Day. On Constitution day 2012 Homestead National Monument of America hosted a Naturalization Ceremony. During the Ceremony 43 people became new citizen of the United States. There was a good sized crowd present at the ceremony including many family members of the new citizens and some school groups, including a group from Wisconsin viewing the ceremony through a distance learning computer connection. Some of the countries the new citizen were from included Mexico, Sudan, Germany, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, China, Somalia and many others. The ceremony was a very nice way to welcome the new citizen and it seemed to be enjoy by all in attendence.

Superintendent Mark Engler

Historian Blake Bell

New Citizens

Soundscape, Labor Day weekend, Artist in Residence, and Tall Thistle

On Sept 14 with the assistance of fellow SCA intern Molly Watters, I set up the soundscape equipment again. This time at a site much further from the road; I will be interested in seeing what the difference are. I thought I would share some pictures of the actual equipment and the set up process. 

Fellow SCA Molly Watters assisting me with setting up
the Soundscape equipment

The whole soundscape set up

 On Labor Day weekend the monument hosted a living homesteaders reunion and living history extravaganza. The monument had many programs running throughout the weekend, including living history activities such as pioneer toys, hand sewing, butter churning and many others. One of the programs was given by Ken Deardorff, who is the last person to receive land under the Homestead Act. There was also a discussion panel including 3 other living homesteader. It was a great opportunity to hear their  first hand stories of homesteading in Alaska.

Ken Deardorff- The Last Homesteader

Historian Blake Bell

Living Homesteader Panel

I was lucky enough to share living quarters with Artist in Residence Emily Melhorn. Emily is a writer living in LA and originally from Gettysburg PA. She did two programs while she was here, one about the American Dream and the other about Squatter's Rights. Emily was at Homestead for two weeks and during that time I was able to enjoy all of the bits of information that she gathered while doing research for her programs.

Artist in Residence- Emily Melhorn

I have also had a chance to write about the Tall Thistle for Homestead National Monument's NPS web page, you can read it here: http://www.nps.gov/home/naturescience/tall-thistle.htm