"Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

Some pics from the Grand Canyon. Weather was... interesting, so it didn't create ideal light for photography but was gorgeous none the less with the snow all over the rim and halfway down the canyon walls.

The rest of the crew

We hiked in through the falling snow, into the rainy canyon.  It was a wet, and slippery nine miles. 

Since this was my first trip to the canyon, I was still wondering if this was some sort of cruel practical joke "you guys are a bunch of liars there's no canyon out there"

Finally below the snow... but not the rain.

Made to within a few kilometers of the mine we were looking for by sunset, so we found a nice ridge line to camp on.  It was a wet night. The rain didn't finally stop until the early morning hours the next day.  However it was a gorgeous view when we stepped out of our tents the next morning.

Then, out of no where, sunshine!

Hiked around the ridge and down the wash, hoping some of our gear would dry out in the morning.

Found our abandon mine shaft.  Most have been fun getting materials in and out of here when it was in use.



After replacing the batteries in the bat monitors, we hiked back to camp and packed up.  There was over a foot of snow on the ground in places making it tricky backpacking.  I was trying to conserve water on the way in since we weren't going to the river, this was a mistake.  The lack of water the day before caused me to start cramping in my quads about half way up the ascent. Just my bodies way of reminding me to get my fluids next time :)



Inner Basin

Hiked into the Inner Basin inside the San Francisco Peaks this fall.  Hit the weather and light just right...

Badgers!

I was fortunate enough to see two badgers this summer.  The first live badgers I have ever seen.  The first one was fairly early in the season, we were driving out to do our normal nocturnal surveys and saw this guy running off on the side of the two track trail.  Chased him down to the entrance of his burrow where he smiled for us.... and by smiled I mean snarled, glared, hissed, and threw dust up in the air!  Cute huh?

I apologize for the crappy pic, but all I had was my little point and shoot.  That, and well its hard to take a picture when you are gently reaching as close as you can get with one hand while keeping delicate, tender and painfully exposed toes away from the snarling badger.  In hind sight a video would have been entertaining.

My second badger of the summer came in the middle of the night while walking back to the truck.  We were in an area where the mountains come right down to the edge of the stream we were surveying, so we were crossing in, over, and around rocky ridges and the sandy washes between them trying to get back to the truck.  As we descended down into this draw we were constantly trying to keep a look out for burros.  The last thing I want is to corner a burro on a narrow trail with the only thing to defend myself with being a net.  As we got down into the draw though there was something else I should have been looking out for....
We started across the sand and heard some brush moving in front of us about 20 feet away.  It was close to the ground, and we had seen many jack rabbits in here before, so I didn't think anything of it.  As we passed that area out of no where a group of about 6 javalinas came storming out of the thick brush! There was no time to react, as they ran within feet of us and straight through some of the thickest brush out there.  No stopping them, they just put there heads down and boom straight through, creating holes as they went.  The noise and commotion and proximity definitely got my heart rate up.  I imagine they'd have the same disregard to my legs as they would to the woody vegetation they just ripped a hole through.  As I turned to keep going down our trail, something moved in the hole in the ground ahead of us

With just enough time to get off this grainy picture, he came out essentially saying "umm, what the crap was all that noise???" before turning back into his hole.

Second Half of Summer Recap

So my summer field season working on amphibians is over.  I had a bunch of pictures to go through, so here are few of the good ones!

First of all, did I mention I seriously kick butt at Wheres Waldo?  I found a Sonoran Desert toad, one of the species of amphibians I was looking for! BOOM! Not only did I find one, I found six! BOOM! No leopard frogs this summer, but finding what you're looking for sure lifts your spirits. 

Not only did I find a target species, but Sonoran Desert toads were a new species for me to see.  I was pretty excited.  The story went something like this, walked up to the sight and noticed this large rock was hopping...  Ya, they are that big. I wish there was some scale with these pictures, think small melon :)

 This actually is the species of toad that spawned the toad licking rumors.  Actually, this toad itself is a controlled substance!  You can be arrested for narcotics if you have them in your possession!  I didn't lick, and don't plan to.  The toxin in there skin and concentrated in those big warts is powerful stuff, enough to knock me over for sure.  Just handling them the little bit that I did works up their glands and they get super slick and slimy.  Definitely made sure to wash my hands when I was done.  Plus do you really want to lick this.......

One of the other biologist was working with Sherman traps (rectangular boxes for rodents; they crawl in, trip the trigger and the box closes around them), and a Sonoran Desert toad somehow managed to squeeze into one and was trapped.  She picked it up first noticing that it was unusually heavy, but the light bulb clicked when a slimy ooze poured out of the corner of the trap. :)

Really happy I at least found one of the animals I was looking for, writing zeros got old after a while.  What was really funny about it all, is after searching far and wide for these guys in some nice desert habitat, I found them in this....

Yup, that would be a bathtub with a drippy sprinkler in it.... I can just see it now as I write my report with conservation recommendations "species requires porcelain and leaky sprinkler heads"

Saw a lot of other cool things as well in the second half of the summer.  Not far from where we found the toads, I was wandering around in some thick Salt Cedar corridors, cursing the tree and its fuzz for going up my nose. Then out of no where I found this guy

 California King snake

I have seen this same species many places else where, but that sub-species was speckled, not banded... I think I like the bands, really pretty and stands out against the rocks and brown of the rest of the habitat.

We've been getting a lot of rain in Flagstaff for the last couple of months.  The monsoons don't mess around up here.  I love it. It makes everything look, feel and smell like an Irish Spring commercial.  Surprisingly I found this little New Mexico Spadefoot hopping around outside my house.  I had only ever seen these guys at much lower elevation in the desert!  I guess he can hike up a mountain too.  He is a really young one, this years eggs.



I made a trip out to Tuscon area for a meeting late in the summer.  There was a large group of us and a bunch of co-workers, so lots of good banter. Ya know the kind, "what you only found 6 toads???"  "Ya, that's six more then you would find!"  We took a field trip out to Sabino Canyon, really just a few minutes outside of the city.  The main objective of the trip was obvious, and guess who found it?!?! I told you I was good at Wheres Waldo.

Gila Monster!  He's like a big lizard tank.

Found some other really cool reptiles down there too.  Check out the colors on this earless lizard.  I chased him around for 45 minutes or so trying to get him to pose. 

We also found some desert tortoises.  This was the second time I had found tortoises this summer.  The first time was randomly in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, with absolutely nothing else around him.  This was also the same night I was stranded :)  Alternators sure do like to crap out on you in the most inconvenient times don't they?  Like when you are 30 miles from anything, without cell phone reception.  At least it was night so I didn't have the sun blazing down on me as I hike the five or so miles out to get cell service.  It was fine, I had my water, I had my bag of potato chips what else do I need?  It was just me and the tortoise.

Long summer, with long hot days. But all in all not bad. Flag is already cooling off, well into the 40's at night. Hmm, so this must be what Fall feels like. I'm not sure Texas has ever had a Fall.

Bat Trapping

Went out last night to do some bat trapping just north of Flagstaff.  We are looking at the species and population characteristics in different forest composition types (ie burned, thinned etc).  Just a few pics of some of the lil guys we caught. I've missed working with these guys.
<colored bands are used to mark individuals>

Measuring ears...

Smile :)

Hope to post some things from my second half of summer soon!