First Week!

My first week as a wildlife biologist was an exciting one, for the most part. On our first day out in the field, we had to clear a site of a future wind turbine. The energy company is about to put up a test tower on BLM land, so we went out to check for raptor nests and other concerns we might have about how the test tower might affect wildlife. It was all clear, so we gave the go-ahead for the test tower. Oh yeah, and we surprised a rather large rattlesnake on the way back to the truck! It was hissing and coiled up, ready to spring at me. Luckily, it didn't, and I got my first lesson on what to do when you encounter a rattlesnake. The next day we went searching for red-tailed hawks. There was reportedly a nest with nestlings in a recreation park, so we went out to find it. After journeying through the forest, we eventually found the female, then the male, but we couldn't find the nest, although we knew we were close, since the parents were squawking at us and circling around. While searching for the nest, we saw a third hawk flying with the parents and realized it was their offspring. The BLM likes to keep track of the reproductive success of raptors by counting the number of offspring to fledge, so although we didn't find the nest, we knew at least one hawk had fledged. We also checked up on a site where golden eagles were known to nest, and sure enough, there they were, and they had one nestling in the nest, almost ready to fledge. Our final project for the day was to locate a red-tail hawk nest that the division of wildlife had found. We found the gigantic nest in a juniper tree, with signs of ealier use, but no recent use. Today we went on a tour lead by the forestry service of an area that has been managed with prescribed burns for the last five years. The area that was burned last year showed little signs of succession (new growth), but the foresters were expecting good recovery next spring.