DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY

So I got my mussel survey data in this morning, and pending my advisor's approval, my project (minus the writing phase) is complete! Which means sadly that this may be one of the last posts I make here. Never fear, though, for I'll likely update tomorrow night or so with the rest of today's adventures, and I'll probably make one final post explaining all of my findings later when I've had time to process data a bit more.

But yeah, the rest of today is reserved for adventures, like I said. I'm planning on doing some packing, checking out the north end of the island, hitting the roost and maybe the Nanny Goat Trail one last time, and getting in some quality time with my labmates before I leave them. More to come (and probably pictures) tomorrow!

St Simons, also snaaaakes.

So today we went to St. Simons to make some final adjustments to the Die Off project there. It was alright; didn't get to do much else. Apparently those terrapins are super common there.

When we got back I packed up my Range project and took it out of the marsh. Crazy to see something that basically ate my whole summer away coming to a close.

Yesterday was kinda noteworthy. I did some more survey stuff and after we hit Cabretta Beach which is gorgeous. Sadly I do not have many pictures of it, but I do have some pictures of a water moccasin we nearly ran over!

For those of you inclined to worrying, I was not actually that close to this snake. Thanks to Mom for my ridiculously long range telephoto lens. I loves it.

So maybe a few beach pictures.

Anyway, tomorrow I do one final survey, and then I plan on hanging out and maybe getting some last minute scenery in. Wednesday around noon I plan on leaving. Definitely would like to come back at some point, but this summer's chapter is coming to a close.

More Surveys

So yesterday I took rads on die-off and some other minor data. The rads came out a bit weird; I think the snails had been climbing on the cages themselves a bit too much, so our natural (no cage) plots actually had more damage than those. The no crab cages were still less than the crab cages, though, so it worked, but not perfectly. That's all okay though because it's still okay data, and our St. Simons project is basically doing all this stuff over just more elegantly. Was a relatively slow day, though.

Today on the other hand was too fast. I took Dispersion out of the marsh, which meant removing all the cages and bamboo and stuff and freeing the crabs. That took a bit. Then I took my second survey, looking at the area of effect that the crabs have in short vs. intermediate Spartina areas. The data looks okay but the densities are really, really low. We'll see what my advisor says. Tomorrow I do the same thing for mussels vs. short grass.

That data should be more interesting - lots of crabs on the mussel mounds, usually. We'll see. In the meantime, have some pictures.

 

Starting to feel really weird about my imminent departure from the island. It's weird to leave behind a place that's been such an integral part of the past few months. Not to say that I don't miss being in Tallahassee, of course, it's just... weird. Not really sure what to make of it, at the moment.

Surveyor

So I did my first (of three) surveys today trying to tie my research into the natural picture of things. This one consisted of finding 10 crab burrows and taking a set of data (snail climbing heights, radulation damage, foot down, etc) for each one, and then comparing it to the same data from 10 other small areas without burrows. The data looks pretty fantastic and I'm glad to see it turned out.

Other than that I took a little other data today and against my usually stellar judgement took my DSLR onto the marsh. I have some really good pictures that I'll post later when I get the chance.

Things are really winding down here for me. I have my surveys and a little extra data + taking down experiments to do, and I should be done here. It's crazy to think the end is in sight, finally. I will definitely miss this place though. It's been a crazy experience and has really taught me a lot.

More Baby Animals, More Cages, More Blood

So the lab-wide die off project is up and running. We woke up super early to catch the first ferry out and rocked it into the marsh by 2 PM. It was good, solid work and I'm looking forward to a veeeery good night's sleep. This was all over at St. Simons Island, in case I hadn't mentioned.

We're following up on my initial die-off project, looking at how snail climbing response to crabs and the subsequent grazing vary in a die-off context. Basically, we put my tiny crab cages in, and then we put bigger cages around them to exclude snails.

It's what's called a "factorial" design. Some plots have nothing. No crab, no snails. Some have snails but no crabs, then crabs but no snails, and then both. It's a fancy way of showing what happens with nobody, just one species, and then the combined interaction of the two. We're expecting lots more grazing in the both species treatment, none in the no snail treatments, and mild in the no crab treatment. Sorry if that's a bit confusing on paper, it's really pretty simple.

On a sidenote, though, while we were out there, we saw baby diamondback terrapins! Two of them. I have a third that was dead when we found him. I kept the shell, but it's a bit meaty still, so I'm going to let the fire ants and nature have at it for a bit.

 

Cute little fellas. On the way back I stopped by our visitor's center finally and picked myself out a shirt and got Jenn a medallion for her hiking stick. They're neat. Tomorrow? Data, data, data! Getting down to the last little hustle.

More babies!

So just a quick update. Tomorrow we set up the stuff from yesterday. Today, I took a bit more data, and also found out what that chuck will's widow was up to.

Nesting! Adorable!

Oh yeah and there was a green anole. I was amazed. Literally the second one I've seen on the island all summer. We have skinks and racerunners aplenty but almost none of these guys.

Cool stuff.

Cages and Blood and Baby Birds

A mid-day post, oh goodness! And on time, too!

So I'm in the midst of a break in cage building. My advisor leaves in about an hour :( There's been a rush to get some cards and stuff together to see him off. I'll let y'all know how that goes.

But on a lighter note, I have wildlife to share!

I found this little guy on the wall outside of our trailer. Adorable.

This morning after taking some cages out of the marsh, I went for a walk to the roost. The roost was pretty empty, but I did spot this little guy on the way. He's a chuck-will's-widow, so named for their call. They're nocturnal, so this guy was pretty sleepy.

More of him.

But the capstone to the experience was this. These are baby egrets, or possibly great blue herons. They're thoroughly adorable. We may go back later. I'll post more pics if I get any! And as always, high res shots on my flickr