Memorial Day Weekend

Well my weekend wasn't much of a break as I drove 15 hours back down to Alamosa to get the rest of my stuff from my apartment. I also looked at some cars but nothing. Then I pretty much headed back to Idaho to where 2 of the fire crew showed up. Which that is the bunkhouse that I am staying at right now is the Wildland Fire Fighters. One is from Masachusettes the other from Iowa

First day solo

Yesterday was my first time solo doing scans. I took the south side which is called Wayan Loop.
It was not to bad, all though I doubt I got all of the vegetation my boss is looking for (it will come in time). Other then that it went ok I just double checked to make sure I put the points in the correct field so that took a little time.
It was also an overcast day with light rain luckily no snow.

Well I am off this weekend to head back to Colorado to fully move out of my apartment. My rent was already paid for the month so rather than trying to cram everything into my car blocking my rear window completely I decided to keep some stuff in the apartment.h

Evening

Here are some sunset shots this evening, as you can see no snow. These were quick picks and not the greatest but it gives you an idea of the sunsets around here.

Day

Here is a photo taken around 3:30pm after doing some training. It snowed off and on all day until around 7:00pm but of course is melted now. So for those in the Sanluis Valley nothing new.

Ah Nothing Like Snow in May

Yup you read correctly it started snowing around 10:30am and is continuing on. Not a lot has stuck so far but I am sure if it keeps up it will.

So needless to say we didn't do scans today. So I have been working on vegetation identification then going over the protocol with ATV's which I took the one out to get familiar with.
I am on break until 1:00pm to where I will head back down to the office to work on more veg identification and other protocols.

My camera battery is charging so hopefully the snow will still continue falling until I am done this afternoon to take a picture and post it. According to the weather it is supposed to snow again tomorrow so there is a good chance.

Blue Goose Lodge/View from partway up Caribu

Week 2

Well I just started week two of training/work.

My day started off around 9:30am starting vegetation identification. So I sat in the office looking at plant books, dried plants in a folder, and the list of vegetation around the area. I started with grasses. This lasted until 11:30am when we looked out at the overcast and decided to try and beat the rain to do afternoon scans. We were able to get the south and most of the west side of the basin done (I will try to scan a map of the area)

This ended around 4:00pm then I headed back to the bunkhouse and relaxed a little while before heading out with Bret driving around looking for critters and so he could find the 4x4 trail up Caribu Mountain.

Neighbours

Well I went out driving with Bret (one of my bunk mates and a masters student working on a project) and we ran into some of our neighbours about 2 hours ago. The top picture is of a grouse (I believe it is a Ruffed grouse), the bottom is of a beaver that we were a few feet away from.

Grays lake

I am now currently working for a doctoral student in eastern ID. I am at the Grays Lake Wildlife Refuge located near the town of Wayan ID I am not sure of the population but it is low, the elevation is around 6000 feet above sea level. I am in a beautiful basin surrounded by mountains/hills and green. The bunkhouse I am staying in is on top of a hill with a large window in the living room that looks out to the west with beautiful sunsets (I hope to have pictures up soon).

My job is pretty much driving around in a truck for 5 hours a day scanning the basin for sandhill cranes (birds) then recording their numbers and the vegetation that they were in. Then after the 5 hours if there is an questions about the vegetation I physically go to where they were to take a closer look.