All is well, except the receiver.

All the turts (presumably including 6) are tucked up in the res. KP and I took the afternoon shift, which was fairly ho-hum. Tag 6 was acting up as usual and the 2nd receiver is still having issues, but I re-set all the cords and chargers, so if that doesn't work, then we send the receiver back and go off one for awhile. The angry ewok was still perched in his oak with the parent/s nearby. No sign of the ducks or killdeer. I did, however, see this dude. So REMINDER: Don't show up for telemetry wearing sandals.

Coluber constrictor

Yes. It's true. In my 4 years of tromping around the range, I had yet to come across these guys despite intensive searches. We come across their cousins, Masticophis lateralis lateralis fairly regularly, but, as nature likes to play it, today as I was out checking tad traps, completely unexpectedly, I came across my first one ever on the range. A young juvenile/yearling that was off like a shot when it spotted me. Thank you, herp gods.

Smooth Getaway, dude.

Random pics for those students in need.....

Beware the angry ewok.

'tis indeed out and about. Don't mess with the fuzzbucket.

Strap on yo chap on!

I brought out the Pentax 20-60x scope today to watch all of the action. The "up close" turt viewing was pretty awesome, however the dot marking system is not working out to the point that I can id all individuals from afar. When Joe and I first arrived, four turtles- one with a transmitter and another marked, were basking on the log. Shortly thereafter, a Sierra garter snake (T. couchii) was spotted heading for the basking log loaded with turtles. It slowly swam over to the log and posted up less than 25 cm away from a basking turtle. As the snake rested its head on the log, the turtle stayed in place seeming to look at the snake which was looking back at it. After a moment, the snake was gone and was not seen for the rest of the survey. I looked at the entire basking log and noticed a fifth turtle had hauled out while we were watching the action.


As for our transmittered turts; all are in the reservoir. The transmitter of turtle 6 is working again, but weak. The beast, whose transmitter is also pretty faint, was triangulated to the shallows. Most of the tagged turtles triangulated to the willow or in the vicinity of the basking log. Some itty-bittys were seen near the shallows and at least four unmarked turtles were present. As for behavior, most of the turtles were basking on the log or at the surface in open water (after they were scared off the log by two big humans waving shiny things in their direction). We noted some foraging and two marked turtles, a female with a transmitter and a turtle with non-readable dots were courting in open water and taking it to the shallows. Copulation was not seen.


Other wildlife- On our way out to the reservoir, we flushed the Great-horned Owl who was not on the nest. She flew behind the levee into a pine and hooted. Starlings scattered and squeaked as she moved. On our way back in from the res., we flushed her again from a location off of the nest and she hooted as she landed in another pine behind the barracks. This behavior suggested of her having branched young somewhere nearby, but out of the nest. Upon scoping the nest, no nestlings or adults were seen. In addition, a tom turkey came by for a drink and forage in the swale above the reservoir and the Killdeer's behavior suggests they are laying or on eggs somewhere on the west end of the reservoir.







And for the finally... Joe- you missed the rattle snake (C. oreganus) you so wanted to see. As you were driving out you passed the snake on the road just north of the barracks. I did get a photo before directing it off of the road. It was coiled and non-aggressive, taking a couple of pokes with a stick to get it to buzz and move off of the road into a rock outcrop. Since this is my second encounter with a rattlesnake on the Range in one week, I think it is a good idea that the crew begins wearing the snake chaps provided in the store room. In other words: strap on yo chap on!

Not so fast, tag 6

And tag 6 is blown out again. Kim and I took the morning shift and located 7 out of the 8 in the reservoir (actually I made Kim do all the work). Tag 6 was non functional and no visual on that guy, although it is presumed he's still in there. The 2nd receiver is having issues and is non-functional (I think the rechargeable batteries are not recharging). I'll take some new batts up next time to see if that alters the equation. Doh. Still no sign of the ducklings or momma.

Tag number 6 on again

So yesterday Steven and I had the evening shift with all 8 turts in the reservoir, tag 6 was giving off a nice signal, although one of the receivers is not charging, so we only had 1 functional set up. Not a lot of action on the visual side. No sign of the mallard momma or her ducklings.

The Ducklets make an Appearance

Turtle Stacking

Turtle Soup

It's Official. All 8 Tagged Turts are hobnobbing in the reservoir. Our brush burrowed girl (turt2) apparently made the trip back last night or this morning and was the hit of the party (if the number of males chasing her is any indication). I also had the distinct pleasure of seeing a wee tiny hatchling (overwinterer from last year) basking on a floating cow pie under the willow. and I mean Teeny Tiny little booger. Chip was caught bumping uglies with a girl (turt5) in the shallows and mamma mallard and her 7 wee duckletts were hanging out under the willow with the baby turt. On my way out I though I saw another teeny turtle head in the weedage, but it turned out to be this little bugger (a baby T. couchii, awwwwwwww). So, in other words, it was a good baby day.

Where you been Chip?

I have to say the east reservoir is jumping. All except one of our eight tagged turtles (including the formerly terrestrial turt 3) are in the east reservoir. Turtle 2 is still terrestrial and hopefully thinking about getting out of the heat sometime soon. In addition, transmitter six has apparently repaired itself and is now emitting a normal signal. Further, several non-tagged and non-marked juveniles were also part of the pool party this afternoon.




We had two surprises on this afternoons telemetry circuit. Turtle 4, a female who was tagged in the horse pasture swale last Friday, has made a 190 meter trek (as the crow flies) to join her former swale mate (turtle 1) and the rest of the turtles in the east reservoir. In addition, Chip- an old beat up male and former resident of the horse pasture swale who has not been seen for several weeks, has suddenly appeared in the reservoir as well. It looks like the beast has some competition as he was not seen in the res, but his signal suggested he was there.

As for other reservoir wildlife, a female Mallard was seen with at least seven ducklings hunkered down beside her. We have been seeing the pair of adults on the reservoir, but this is the first sighting of their chicks. We also flushed a lone male Wood Duck who has also been hanging around. I can only assume the female is in some nearby tree cavity waiting for those chicks to hatch. Hopefully we will soon have some more additions to the shrinking reservoir. As if the pool is isn't crowded enough.

C'mon Turt3! Get truckin back to the reservoir.

So my 10am shift was fairly eventful. Turt4 is still tucked up in the swamp at the north end of the HP swale, hard to tell if she is aquatic or terrestrial since it meshes together right there. Scanned the area, but saw no sign of any other turts, so I headed up (stealth style) to the reservoir for a look through the binocs.

First thing I notice is our single dot pink (turt1) that got tagged in the HP swale last friday is now in the ERes basking on the old rock area (previously the best basking site in the pond, now second best to our new addition). She's pulled up there, pink dot showing up perfectly and enjoying the sunshine when The Beast (turt8) emerges onto her rock and rams into her a few times. She gapes and postures, but he just roughs her up a bit more and tries to mount her. At that point, she flees for the water with the B right behind her and he turns on the charm (swimming over the top of her and fluttering his claws). They disappear into the murk and that's that. go beast.

Next I catch turt6 (the other tragged male - whose tag has been decimating unsuspecting eardrums for a few days now). He's parked up on the big log with turt 10 (the other marked male who does not have a tag) and a juvie whose dots I cannot see. A short while later Turt5 (the girl who was burrowed under an oak near the barracks) emerges onto the log, as well. She looks good and in the weaker morning light her dots (and their colors) are clearly visible and easy to read, so I take back some small portion of bitching about not being able to use the dot system.

Next I go to check on turt 3 (burrowed in the back of the berm) and find her about a foot out of her burrow, although when she sees me, she retreats back into it, facing outward.

The signal from turt7 is coming from the water under the big willow and turt 2 hasn't moved an inch from her thicket, so there you have it.

Bullfrog Tadpole Bulletin

So the trapline to catch bullfrog tads is working beautifully, but one area with 3 traps has seen a pretty dramatic reduction in the last week and I could not figure out why, when it has been such a good location. Well, today when I went to empty the traps I observed a definite non-bullfrog emerging from one end of the trap with a large bullfrog tad clamped in it's jaws (which it immediately dropped, upon seeing me). He retreated a short distance and we sized each other up. It was definitely a good looking T couchii. Glad to see he's enjoying my all-you-can-eat bullfrog tad buffett.

Females.....sheesh.

Well, the late shift last night was entertaining in that I got to watch a little bobcat stalk a rabbit up close. Here is my terrible picture (it was 11pm, cut me some slack).

Also, one of the girls that we tagged in the HP swale decided she had enough of country living and is now back in the reservoir. Everyone else was where Hawk left them and transmitter 6 is still blowing out eardrums.

Got home at 1am and, oh, look at that, I have the 10am shift this morning.............grumble grumble

Transmitter 6 BLOW OUT!

Stephen and I tracked the turts on Friday night. Everything went great except that transmitter 6 is emitting a high pitch squeal and there is no directionality it it. Warning: If you have your radio is turned up it will blow out the ear drums :). One of the turtles that was out of the pond and burrowing has returned to the pond and the two new turts that were tagged were huddled up together in the same location on the north side of the bridge. Hopefully, Chip is in the same little honey hole. The water is really scummy and murky on that side of the bridge so it is hard to see, not to mention it was 8:30pm so it was kind of dark too. I will be interested to see if they go back to that spot every night. Stephen is now trained on the whole process and did a great job. If you are tracking at dusk you may want to bring some bug repelent (if that kind of thing bothers you) and don't forget your head lamp. Happy Turtle Hunting.

Quick Check

This was a non-telemetry day, but I swung by to see who was basking on this nice sunny day....

One male turtle with a transmitter, one male turt without a transmitter and one juvenile.

Go ahead, try and read the color coded dots off the carapace of this guy...

Exactly.

Three up - Three down

This afternoon, the honchos (Hawk, Kat and I) ran the telemetry circuit on the east reservoir. In addition to actual data collection, our objective was to work out any existing bugs in the protocol. I am proud to say that there were no cycling batteries or electric fences detected. We did manage to find all of our tagged turts. In all, we had at least five turtles in the reservoir, three of which were tagged. The beast is still running the show and was occupying prime basking real estate on our arrival. His transmitter is not pumping out the signal strength that it should be, but at least it is detectable. In the water were unidentifiable turtles courting and foraging.


On land, we found all three of the females that have gone terrestrial since tagging. One has moved a bit but all are still in the general vicinity of where they were detected the day before.

After evaluating the patterns that are beginning to emerge, we have decided to back off the telemetry for a couple of days. We should be back at it on Friday, just in time for the weekend. Until then, rest easy turts.

12 april 2009 - Kat learns many valuable lessons

So this was my first solo day observing/tracking the turts and it turned out to be a very educational day, indeed.

Lesson 1: 2 people with mad telemetry skills are far more efficient than 1 person with mad telemetry skills.
--> This was a 5 hour day for me.

Lesson 2: The batteries used to 'light up' a hotwire for an exclusion area (in say, someone else's research area) are apparently cyclic and give off a pulse that sounds exactly like the pulse from a turtle transmitter. Exactly.
--> Yes, I spent over an hour stalking the ever elusive all-weather battery. I was not a happy camper.

Lesson 3: Apparently, if you glue on a transmitter upside down, you get a very weak, pathetic signal - even if the turt is 25 feet away from you and completely out of the water.
--> The ultimate failure if you are the doh-head dumb enough to have tagged this particular turt (yep, that would be me).

In other news, the 3 girls we located last night were all still in their burrows. One decided to take a walk while I was stalking the battery and headed ~20m downhill from her original locale. Also, 2 untagged/unmarked turts were seen in the HP swale today, so watch your backs, dudes. I'm coming after you next.

First Telemetry Night

It's after dark, do you know where your turtles are?? RGO and I took the first shift and were suprised to find 3 out of 4 tagged females out of the water, buried in the duff around the reservoir. 1 male and 1 female were still in the water, and (try as we might) we could not pick up a signal from the other male (the beast). I have the pleasure of today's shift, so hopefully I pick him up on a visual today.

This girl likes the steep. *Note that this pic depicts the back side of the man-made berm. The reservoir is up and over this rise.....

More Photos

Thank you to all that helped yesterday! Now the real fun begins.

Inaugural Tagging Day

Well, yesterday was our inaugural tagging day. We recorded 10 turtles, 6 of whom received their new radiotags. Here are a couple of pics until I can get a full accounting up.

This is the beast


getting weighed and measured

Papers

Excellent primer for covering all the basics (dimorphism, size, etc).

Ashton, Lind and Schlick

Gearing up

Alright, so we are less than a week away from our first tagging session. We will be radio tagging 6 adult turts (3 boys, 3 girls) and marking the whole group for easy identification this season. There is a bit of scrambling this week to get everything set up and ready to go, so forgive the limited postings (and wish us luck!).