{"id":11680,"date":"2012-05-09T10:02:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T17:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=11680"},"modified":"2012-05-09T10:02:55","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T17:02:55","slug":"memoirs-of-a-clm-intern-part-3-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=11680","title":{"rendered":"Memoirs of a CLM Intern–Part 3: Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

In addition to the valuable career experience gained through the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Conservation and Land Management (CLM) Internship program, there are plenty of good times to be had as a CLM intern! Although my work focuses primarily on botany, one just can’t avoid\u00a0encounters with the animal side of wildlife when working in the field.<\/p>\n

DEER–HERE, THERE, AND…ALMOST EVERYWHERE.<\/strong> In some areas in and around the Pine Hill Preserve, it is not uncommon to see deer.<\/p>\n

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Caught on camera: A buck pursuing his dear doe for a date<\/p><\/div>\n

SMALL CREEPY, CRAWLY CREATURES.<\/strong> I am fascinated by spiders (there are so many kinds, some with beautiful coloration and patterns), and I like to\u00a0observe and photograph them. BUT the thought of just one\u00a0crawling on me creeps me out. Thus,\u00a0I am generally\u00a0attentive to what is\u00a0in front of me when I walk through any type of grass and\u00a0herbaceous vegetation where they tend to build their webs.\u00a0During the spring before conditions turn hot and dry, ticks are typically abundant so it is important to always do a tick check when leaving the field.\u00a0And in the aquatic habitats, one may be able to watch a slinking slug move effortlessly and\u00a0gracefully, leaving a trail of slime behind itself.<\/p>\n

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Black and yellow garden spider, a common orb web spider typically found in gardens and fields<\/p><\/div>\n

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Green lynx spider on sticky rosinweed<\/p><\/div>\n

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Watch out for these little suckers (literally!)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Slimy stealty slithering slug<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

BIRDS AND FLYING INSECTS.<\/strong> By participating in bird counts at the Cosumnes River Preserve, I am beginning to learn how to identify some of the waterfowl and wetland bird species. Interestingly,\u00a0one of the Pine Hill Preserve neighbors has a couple of emus (he had a few more but supposedly they were taken as a meal by a mountain lion). Although wild turkeys are relatively common, there are a few peacocks which roam a residential\u00a0neighborhood bordering the Pine Hill Preserve. When wildflowers are\u00a0blooming in the spring, butterflies flitter about, moving from flower to flower playing a critical role in pollination. Near aquatic habitats, dragonflies can be seen darting around. Every now and then, I\u00a0encounter a praying mantis; now these guys can be\u00a0fascinating to watch if they begin\u00a0acting aggressively toward other creatures (including pestering humans).<\/p>\n

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A neighbor's emu<\/p><\/div>\n

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Wild peacock on a neighbor's lawn<\/p><\/div>\n

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Dragonfly<\/p><\/div>\n

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Praying mantis<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

FROGS. <\/strong>Every now and then we’ll come across a tree frog while collecting seeds or conducting botanical surveys.<\/p>\n

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I'm by no means a herpetologist, but I believe this is some type of tree frog<\/p><\/div>\n

SNAKES.<\/strong> Having grown up in an area of Iowa void of poisonous snakes, it has been both a bit nerve-racking and thrilling to conduct field work in rattlesnake territory. A few rattlesnake sightings occurred either in the BLM office parking lot or just outside the shop garage door, but I didn’t personally see them. Another CLM intern and I did\u00a0come across\u00a0a young snake in the parking lot one afternoon; the pattern looked like it could be a rattlesnake, but it’s head wasn’t the right shape and it lacked a rattler…the snake expert of the office confirmed its identity as a gopher snake. We also\u00a0had the privilege of first hearing then seeing a rattlesnake in the wild! The snake actually warned us from behind with its rattle. We were walking along a trail and stopped to look at the map on the GPS unit when we heard it. When we turned to look, we saw the tail end of the snake disappear from the trail into the vegetation about 10-12 feet behind us. Exciting! And I’m so grateful it wasn’t any closer or any more of a surprise than it was!<\/p>\n

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No worries--just a gopher snake<\/p><\/div>\n

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Young rattlesnake coiled up just outside the shop garage door of the BLM field office<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

HERP IN CAMO. <\/strong>The horned lizard is appropriately named; the distinguishable pointed “horns” above their eyes and along the back of their neck can make this little lizard look\u00a0a bit like a\u00a0dangerous dragon, downsized. Due to their coloration, they are not so easy to see in the reddish, high-in-iron gabbro soils in and around the Pine Hill Preserve.<\/p>\n

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The horned lizard blends in well with the gabbro soils of the Pine Hill Preserve<\/p><\/div>\n

THE PROOF IS IN THE PRINTS. <\/strong>As much as I would like to see a bear in the wild (but from a safe distance and not as a surprise close encounter), sometimes I have to just take what I can get. Like a paw print providing evidence that yes, a bear has tread the same trail as I.<\/p>\n

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Bear print near the South Fork American River<\/p><\/div>\n

HEE-HAW.<\/strong> Like the plants,\u00a0some of the animals we meet are\u00a0not native but have been domesticated. This neighboring donkey gets a little curious about what we’re up to every now and then when we work on the Pine Hill Preserve parcel\u00a0across the private road from his stomping grounds. One time he even tried to distract us by making funny faces and noises at us. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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"Whatchya doin'?"<\/p><\/div>\n

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Neighbor's donkey making funny faces<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In addition to the valuable career experience gained through the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Conservation and Land Management (CLM) Internship program, there are plenty of good times to be had as a CLM intern! Although my work focuses primarily on botany, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":572,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/572"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11680"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16248,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11680\/revisions\/16248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}