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Andrew, Matt, and I tracked down CHO so that we could paint her transmitter to match her shell. After getting covered in many spider webs and getting cut up by many thorns we found ourselves walking in a small circle unable to find CHO. We were all getting more and more frustrated as the receiver indicated CHO should have been right there. Matt excitedly shouted “she’s right there!” and pointed to CHO walking right in front of my feet! Lucky for us the receiver works remarkably well. We took CHO back to the center and I painted the transmitter to match her shell. After the paint dried we returned her right where we found her. Check out this video of us putting her back! (Link will be inserted soon!)
The next day Andrew and I went back out to find CHO. Again we found ourselves frustrated and walking in a small circle unable to find her! The receiver had us walking over a fallen tree and then turning around and walking back over the fallen tree. Then we realized that CHO must be inside the tree! Excited we pointed the receiver at it and walked along the tree until the receiver was beeping unmistakably loud. Then we began to dig! And dig and dig and dig! CHO was buried deep inside the tree. Andrew and I could not believe it! After recording the GPS units and taking a picture (unfortunately we only had a cell phone camera), we reburied CHO and rushed back to share our story at the center.
-Trudie
This will mark my last week as a Wildlife Conservation Intern at the Piedmont Wildlife Center. My time here can best be described by classifying my accomplishments and work as they relate to the knowledge and appreciation of the natural world and its conservation. In my mind, the position has been dedicated to the acquisition, application, and proliferation of this knowledge and appreciation.
My work has helped to develop an understanding of the importance of wildlife conservation through research, interviews, and observation. These activities have made me more aware of the consequences of environmental neglect and given me an education concerning the significance of conservancy of the natural world. My literature reviews and research on the rehabilitation and release of native species such as the Eastern Box Turtle and Black Rat Snake have led to interviews with partners in organizations that both hinder and help the support of these species and the PWC’s rehabilitation efforts. The Nature Walks have provided a direct means of observing and learning about the wildlife the PWC strives to protect; they have also supported my abilities to observe events of the natural world and thus appreciate them. The Wildlife Conservation Internship focused on the acquisition of such knowledge, but it also promotes its application.
My acquired appreciation of wildlife conservation has induced me to take steps to apply such knowledge in order to encourage preservation and alleviate harm caused by neglect or ignorance. My interviews with organizations that share or lack the rehabilitation goals of the PWC were prompted by my new-found education and resulted in preliminary steps to quantify the influences of humans and isolated landscapes on Eastern Box Turtle population health. I was also able to estimate the feasibility of rehabilitating captive snakes (in particular, Black Rat Snakes). My landscaping and grounds development projects resulted in the mending and improvement of an aquatic habitat, raptor enclosures, and garden partitions. I further applied my appreciation of conservation during every Nature Walk, better observing and noting the surrounding ecosystems. The Wildlife Conservation Internship position empowers the individual to become educated, passionate, and active in matters of wildlife conservancy and protection; it also strives to spread this understanding.
A large part of my activities as a Wildlife Conservation Intern supported the expansion of environmental awareness in the local community. I collaborated to create an educational notebook for use in North Carolina classrooms designed to give students the tools to appreciate the diversity, importance, and beauty of indigenous birds – especially birds of prey. I also updated the labels on the enclosures of the educational wildlife in the PWC’s building to better reflect the goals of the center and to provide more accurate and comprehensive education for interested visitors.
The Wildlife Conservation Internship focused on obtaining, using, and spreading an appreciation of nature conservation and advocacy. The most important characteristic of the position was the variability of the work. The underlying goal was always to promote the protection of indigenous flora and fauna, but the activities evolved and changed based on the project at hand and the input of the intern. I earnestly recommend the experiences as a Wildlife Conservation Intern at the Piedmont Wildlife Center to anyone with an interest in the natural world and especially to those with a passion for preservation.
While I was interning, I was able to spend two hours training with Otus, Piedmont Wildlife Center’s Eastern Screech Owl.
I read once that practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect, and that’s what I had the opportunity to do today: practicing owl handling technique with Otus the Eastern Screech Owl. While there was practice, it was not always perfect. The conditions were less than ideal. I had chosen to primarily work with the animal inside a back room of the cabin and minimize our time outside, where it was hot and we were both sure to be uncomfortable. Unfortunately, construction noises outside the cabin did not exactly make the backroom an oasis of peace and tranquility for the bird either.
But ideal situations tend not to present themselves in the real world, which actually made this practice session pretty perfect. I practiced placing Otus on and removing him from an A-frame perch, with varying degrees of success, and tying knots and untying them in order to secure his leash to the frame, which I did well. I observed when he was going to bait and tried to get his attention in order to prevent him from doing so. I noticed when I was rushing him and when I provided an unstable perch. I made minor corrections on my handling technique as I took Otus for a walk, away from the noise and the stress of the surrounding environment, by relaxing my shoulders and resolving to take smaller, more sure-footed steps.
The times that Otus baited I did handle pretty perfectly, feeling more confident than when asking Otus to perform when all was well. The final test was putting all that practice to work when I placed Otus back into his cage. Singlehanded, I removed the leash from his jesses. I lowered my body and his toward the ground in order to approach his perch with nary a flutter from the bird. I turned my hand towards the perch and opened it up, placing the owl smoothly on its perch. Perfection.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The wildlife conservation interns, accompanied by education coordinator Sarah Haggerty, explored Leigh Farm Park in the vicinity of the new owl, kestrel and black vulture cages.
The natural world is full of signs that can reveal many things about our environment. These markers can identify passersby or give us insights into the world of animal communication. These marks can also be things of beauty or a call for help.
Jess, Fritz, Sarah and I found lagomorph tracks in the foundation of a raptor cage in the process of being built. Lagomorphs include hares, rabbits and pikas. Because the cage’s base is filled with sand, it resembles a shallow sandbox and acts as an inadvertent tracking box. Before I took a Piedmont Wildlife Center tracking intensive class last Sunday, their telltale sign of big back paws in the front of the track and smaller front paws in the back would not have been “telltale” to me.
We also saw the bark of a young red cedar scraped two feet off the ground and on one side of the one inch-thick tree—a buck rub of a young buck. We looked around to see if we could spot anymore since buck rubs usually occur in a line. Bucks like to mark their territory with buck rubs. They also urinate at the tree’s base and scratch in dirt. If the rub were higher and on a bigger tree, it would likely indicate an older or adult buck. The young bucks appreciate the springiness of the young trees because they provide resistance against its velvet. Velvet is the highly vascular skin that supplies oxygen and nutrients to growing antlers.
We saw cross vine, which we could identify by its purple underside, opposite leaves, and the lobes it had on its leaf bases. Its underside is not always purple, but the color can be a useful field marker. Cross vine is a vine native to the area that competes against the invasive honeysuckle. It spiraled around the trunk of a buckeye tree marked by heart-shaped leaf scars. A leaf scar remains on a stem after a leaf falls and is a means of tree identification.
Sometimes, the most powerful cries are silent. We witnessed a diseased white oak that looked jagged and misshapen, its white bark looking almost like fire-hot white ash with a bit of black edging. It was dying from the top down, and we could see twig-thin distress shoots emerging from the base of the tree. Tree branches tend to grow from the top, where their leaves can access more sun for photosynthesis.
We spotted limb scars on trees where branches will never again grow, cyst-like growths indicating viruses or diseases in trees, and various other markers. These signposts can demonstrate the natural order of things or be red flags for unhealthy elements in the environment.
By Margaux Escutin
Thursday, February 10, 2011
This semester, the wildlife conservation interns will work on a variety of hands-on, engaging projects, including working on a box turtle connection research project, creating a wildlife-friendly pond, constructing wildlife gardens, and participating in a biological inventory program. Despite all the projects going on, we still have the opportunity to explore the woods and learn field natural history. Today, we took a turn from more widely traveled trails on Leigh Farm Park and opted to take the less-traveled Merganser Trail, making observations and asking questions about the natural world and learning, always learning, from our environment.
The Merganser Trail’s namesake is that of a large diving duck found in the Northern Hemisphere, but we were not on the lookout for species of the billed variety. Our goal was to clip branches in bud in order to be able to identify wintertime trees denuded of leaves. PWC emphasizes that its interns find the time they spend here enriching and that interns work on projects that challenge and interest them, as well as build knowledge in areas where we are deficient.
What I love about these woodsy rambles is that Sarah, PWC’s Education Coordinator, addresses the random questions I have or that we are allowed to stop when we observe something of interest and ask a question. We also have to opportunity to delve into topics we want to explore more. These enrichment walks allow participants to shape this time into something relevant and meaningful for them.
Nature is in constant flux, and the woods are a teacher with an ever-changing syllabus. We stop to look at the various trees we observe and find a variety of tracks in the woods, a good deal of which I can identify. I know I probably would not been able to before I started my internship at Piedmont Wildlife Center.
We admire the pale gold leaves that cling to the branches of the Southern Sugar Maple. We marvel at a gall in a tree that an insect created as she laid her eggs. We see rows of holes created by the yellow-bellied sapsucker and learn how the bird revisits the sap wells for trapped insects. We see what might be the native crossvine and learn about how it sometimes has a purple underside as a field marker. We examine trees with opposite branching and learn a pneumonic device to remember their names: MAD CAP HORSE, which stand for maple, ash, dogwood, Caprifoliaceae, horse chestnut, followed by Paulownia and Catalpa. We find vernal pools inside the forest, prime real estate if you are an egg-laying amphibian, and the less desirable ephemeral pools, which can evaporate, beyond its edge.
It’s amazing how much you can learn just by keeping your eyes and ears open during a pleasant stroll in the park.
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