![\"One](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2493\/3951984566_8252b2b741_m.jpg\")
<\/a>Devil's Tower- one of the more scenic locations in northeastern Wyoming<\/p><\/div>\n
As you can imagine, resources here are spread thin, so I am on my own in the field. I unfortunately haven’t had the opportunity during my internship to work with others during fieldwork. To say that I am not occasionally terribly lonely would be untruthful, but I’m naturally independent and often find the solitude enjoyable.<\/p>\n
I’ve been tasked with a variety of things over the course of my internship. I started off by surveying for northern goshawk in the Black Hills, traversing surprisingly steep hillsides and gorgeous canyons, then followed that up by checking on known raptor nests in cottonwoods growing along drainages to see if they were utilized this season. At various times I’ve deployed a nifty system called Anabat, which records bat echolocative calls. The patterns of the calls can be used to determine the species in an area.<\/p>\n
I’ve surveyed prairie dog colonies for burrowing owl and mountain plover (dismayed to find many colonies nearly devoid of dogs… mostly due to<\/p>\n
![\"THIS](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2639\/3952048870_edcb3b5a50_m.jpg\")
<\/a>THIS little guy, however, seemed to be doing pretty well for himself.<\/p><\/div>\n
poisoning and hunting, although somewhat as a result of\u00a0sylvatic plague).\u00a0And for the past few weeks, I’ve been completing sage-grouse habitat vegetation surveys, much like Nelson and Michelle in Cedar City, UT.<\/p>\n
In July, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in an environmental education program held by the Newcastle BLM for local middle school students. For three weeks, small groups of students were hosted at a campsite in the Black Hills in South Dakota, and I was in charge of teaching the kids about various wildlife\u00a0species in the Hills, their habitats, and pertinent conservation issues, all of which mandated hikes in the forest and evening sessions watching bats feed over a pond.<\/p>\n
By far, however, my favorite experience has been tracking radio-collared sage-grouse in Thunder Basin National Grassland. We have only four collared grouse, three females and a male, but I go out and find them all at least once a week, every week, and over the\u00a0last four months\u00a0they’ve grown to seem like close, familiar friends. (As a tragic side-note, I used to have five collared grouse, with a fourth female, but she was\u00a0killed last week by a hunter : (\u00a0 What are the odds, really?)<\/p>\n
Radio telemetry isn’t for everyone, as it requires a special brand of patience, but I find it extremely rewarding. It’s always comforting to me to visit one of my bird’s favorite haunts, tune the receiver to\u00a0the indented\u00a0frequency, and her the soft, steady pulsing beeps indicating that the grouse is nearby. Even though a\u00a0couple have frustrated me to\u00a0no end\u00a0by taking off at random intervals, travelling miles, and then moving around sporadically week to week\u00a0(e.g. I “lost” them), I’ve always had the pleasure of sleuthing out where they ended up, triumphantly finding them again, reassured that at least a few members of this potentially-endangered species are still living the way they should be, wild, in the seemingly endless seas of sage in northeastern Wyoming.<\/p>\n
Rachel Wheat, BLM, Newcastle, WY<\/p>\n
![\"Completely](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3384\/3661468278_57d2629215_m.jpg\")
<\/a>Completely unrelated to my post, Badlands National Park, in South Dakota, is only about three hours from Newcastle. Absolutely gorgeous.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greetings from northeastern Wyoming! Most of you have likely never heard of Newcastle, much like myself when I accepted my internship to work at the Bureau of Land Management for a wildlife biologist. Newcastle lies on an ecotone between sagebrush … Continue reading