Well, time seems to be going so fast, I already only have about 5-6 weeks left! Since my last post we have begun only one new project: counting juvenile sucker vertebrae (using the x-rays of specimens collected from 2006-2008), to determine if there was a presence of Lost River Suckers spawning in rivers above Upper Klamath Lake. You can figure this out by counting the spinal vertebrae and if there are 45-47 this means that the fish is a Lost River Sucker, the other non target species will have less than this, and the majority of what we counted only had counts of 41-42.
The time is now approaching to finish up our sucker rearing projects and we will be collecting the fish to be relocated to a separate pond for future study in the next 2 weeks. We have been discussing how the office would like us to write our final reports and will be jumping on that very soon as well.
A small side project my co-intern, Molly, and I have been doing is raising monarch caterpillars to butterflies. When they transform into butterflies they are being released with a sticker on them so that they can be monitored and tracked during their migration. A sample of scales from their abdomen are also being collected to test for a nasty protozoan parasite called OE, which exist as spores. Also, if a Monarch Caterpillar has this it can cause deformity of development in the chrysalis stage, thus making the butterfly who emerges weaker and less likely to survive. This information is being collected for Washington State University.
In the last weeks of summer I have been trying to take every opportunity that I can to explore as much of the region that I can. I recently spent four days in the Redwood State parks in Northern California, one day at each park I was near including the Jedadiah Smith, Del Norte, and Prairie Creek. This trip was absolutely magical and I never imagined that anything like these parks existed in the United States. Even the sheer amount of vegetation on these areas amazed me (I have developed a strong interest in ferns since being in the Pacific Northwest). I also had an interesting experience happen while in the Jedadiah Smith. While coming back from the Boy Scout Tree trail I was alone with no one around and started to hear a flute. I looked around and did not see anyone nearby still and continued to keep walking, it was almost like the trees were singing to me. After walking a little over half a mile or so I then saw a woman standing behind a tree with a Native American flute. When i saw her I told her what I had thought and she replied that the trees were in fact singing to me because she was playing a flute made from the Redwood trees. I believe she was a member of the Yurok tribe in the area.
I have gone many other places with my time off but should probably not list them all for this would be too long of a post. All I know is that each day seems to be going by too quickly and I am not ready for either the summer or my position with the USFWS to be over. This has been such a great experience and I am so happy to be learning so many different things and see so many beautiful places in the region.
Shilah Allen
with USFWS, Klamath Falls, OR