After gathering the day's supplies and sneaking back to the house to grab my brown rubber boots, I downed the last of my hazelnut roast coffee and when the day got going, I managed to follow.
The first order of business was boppin' on down to the state park, which is wedged along the southeastern corner of the refuge. It's actually in North Carolina, and we headed down to talk to the Superintendent and biologist about a few structures and monitoring plans that are currently in the works.
So Fred and I got to business. He demonstrated how to install a staff gage from the very first step. We had to determine a known elevation point in relation to sea level to tie all of the gages together. To do this, Fred picked a spot just off the road with clear, open skies and drove a piece of rebar into the ground as a marker. Then, he positioned an antenna and gps atop the point to create a known reference. We left the equipment to collect data as we moved onward.
Down the road, as the antenna sent out its mystic beams to the satellites, we moved onto a different site where he already had a reference point. We then spent three long hours taking land surveys to get the gage staff positioned in the perfect place relative to sea level. We got it pretty close, coming within hundreths of a foot of the actual elevantion.
The most difficult part of the day was trying to make sure the elevation was correct. We must have done it five times, in five different spots, leveling the scope, positioning and measuring the set of markers. It was precise work, but I didn't mind staying to make sure we didn't have to come back later.
A good way into our afternoon, the Park Ranger stopped by to see how our work was going. She was the biologist, which was evident by the way she would pick out the differences between bird calls and explain the difference between a dragonfly and a damselfly. I wish I could say I had the ability to identify birds by their calls after her visit, but I was too busy running away from the yellowflies that seem determined to destroy my delicate hands. Really, next time around I'll actually talk to her.
So that was my day, later this week and next I'll be headed to a refuge in Delware called Prime Hook. We'll he helping to establish a water monitoring system there. It's a salt water refuge that had been turned made freshwater for water fowl upon establiahment, but is being driven back into a salt water marsh by Nature herself. From what I understand, it's a tidal system, and there is plenty of work to be done.
I'm really, really excited to work at a new refuge- it's a chance to see how much I've learned about water so far, and try out the information I've been chewing on in my spare time.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I saw a rattle snake today. When we went to retrieve the gps equipment it was just feet away from where we walked. A loud rattle and the scurry of the snake into the bushes caused us to leap backwards with startled, loud noises. It was probably between two and three feet long, and a park visiter called it a timber rattlesnake. I also saw a helicopter today, they were spraying for invasive species. Pardon my sideways pictures, for some reason blogger turns them around when I upload them from my phone-but see if you can find the snake.
No comments:
Post a Comment