These past few weeks have been filled with lots of fish and plants (specifically milkvetch)! I did some of my first fish night work which involved surveying a stream in northern California with a flashlight searching for Modoc suckers. This turned out to be a pretty difficult task as the fish species that we were looking at were about as big as my thumb! Let’s just say I had to get pretty intimate with the fish to be able to identify them. Luckily, down the line my coworkers and I really got a feel for identifying the suckers based on their overall figure and how they moved in the water. I never really thought that I would really enjoy night work as I have always been a morning person but I have discovered that it is so much fun to be out during the night! You get to see and explore another whole new world and atmosphere when you’re out a night. It seems to keep you on your toes more and for me fills me with a bit of excitement and adrenaline. And another benefit is you can sleep in however late you want and have the daytime to get things done and it’s especially nice to avoid the heat in these hot summer months.
We are currently wrapping up our milkvetch surveys at our last field site. The five year monitoring plan is due this year to give an update on the status of Applegate’s milkvetch and determine whether it should still be listed as a threatened or endangered species. We’ve all been searching so hard for milkvetch this past week that sometimes when we close our eyes we can still see it! One of my coworkers even ended up dreaming about it!
Other than that, we have spent some more time in the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness monitoring the bull trout that we have PIT tagged. We have been walking up the streams with a mobile antenna to detect the PIT tags so that we can assess how far the bull trout travel up and down the stream. It’s always really nice to be working in the Gearhart as we get to camp in a beautiful place with some great hiking and birding opportunities. This past week we hiked up to a lookout in the wilderness where we had amazing views and found an adorable brown bat roosting at the lookout! It has been such a great time this summer with such great coworkers and amazing places to work!
Until next time.
My coworkers and I at the lookout!