Two DSL in one trap

I can’t keep track of time anymore because it seems that I wrote my last blog only a couple days ago. Even though all the other interns from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have left, the wildlife biology department is still keeping me busy with multiple different projects.

Last week I finished pitfall trapping for the New Mexico State endangered Dunes Sagebrush Lizard.  I had originally set a goal to set traps at 30 different pitfall arrays, but because of help from other hires, I was able to set 34 pitfall arrays. I was very happy that we were able to catch 16 different Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, all in areas where they had never previously been captured before. All of the new capture locations will be downloaded onto the BLM Carlsbad GIS and no development will be allowed within 200 meters of a DSL capture location. I feel great accomplishment knowing that because of my work, the BLM will be able to better protect this endangered species and its vanishing habitat

I am now going to be shifting my focus from pitfall trapping to a number of different projects including Yellow-Billed Cuckoo surveys, aquatic macro-Invertebrate surveys, and funnel trapping in known heronry locations. I have started the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo surveys. Specifically, we are trying to see the presence or absence of another state endangered animal (Yellow-Billed Cuckoo) along the Delaware and Black river. We survey along both rivers in areas where there is good tree cover and write down all the birds seen in a 20minute window. We then move another 100 meters down the river, or to the next available dense tree area, and survey again. A recording of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo call is used, in an effort to attract any nearby individuals. Although we have not seen any Yellow-Billed Cuckoos, we have seen some other riparian obligates including summer tanagers, blue gross beaks, belted kingfishers, and Vermillion Flycathers.  In a effort to arrive at our location as the sun is rising and maximize our chances of spotting a Yellow-Billed Cuckoo I have had to wake up at 4 am the last week, and my sleep schedule has been a little out of whack.

I am still enjoying myself hear in Carlsbad and the job never seems to slow down. This week I participated in a local radio show explaining what the BLM and I were doing trapping the DSL and to help raise awareness of the lizard and other BLM projects occurring in the area. I am keeping active on the weekends and trying to see as many places as I can in the Chihuahuan desert. I have attached a few images of me doing bird surveys and pictures of the last couple of Dune Sagebrush Lizards I caught and me talking on the local radio station.

Local radio show trying to raise awareness on conservation efforts

Yellow Billed Cuckoo surveys