Phinizy Swamp

After a day of unceasing rain, Sunday morning looked sunny and promising. I made my way to Phinizy swamp, a local nature preserve Southeast of town. The place was deserted, just how I like it and bird calls filled the air. With binoculars in hand, I walked the boardwalk crossing over baldcypress swamp and was overwhelmed by the number of bird species flying, swimming, and wading about. This was a place I could spend hours in, reacquainting myself with Eastern birds and taking in the Southern, moss-covered charm of the scene. After crossing the swamp, a series of trails and roads surround a patchwork of open ponds and canals. On one of these land bridges stood a great blue heron with a mouthful: a huge freshly caught fish for breakfast. I anticipated turtles and was not disappointed - an adult pond slider basked on a patch of flattened cattails at the pond edge. Another leathery face popped in and out of the water nearby. Though I would have liked to continue this meandering through wetlands full of activity, the rain returned in heavy streams. I took my time getting back regardless and was rewarded with a red-shouldered hawk fly-by and close-up views of an Eastern bluebird and yellow-bellied sapsucker. I was at least grateful I had left my camera in the car which would have been soaked, but next time I will capture the essence of the place.

The Phantom Tortoise

Let me give you an idea of what is going on here in Georgia:
We leave in the morning for Fort Gordon where each day we wait in a ridiculous line to enter the base. That is, we enter the base after they make us get out of our truck, brandish ID's and allow them to engage in a laughable search of our vehicle (laughable becase we have in the back seat three large black Pelican cases of equipment which doesn't seem to attract their attention whatsoever and have never asked us to open them...but you better have the hood up for engine inspection!). Next, we head to range control to make sure the training areas we plan on working in are closed so as to avoid any unwanted gunfire and the like. Then we commence with the searching. Unfortunately our high-tech gps equipment has been malfunctioning from the get-go, so that means line-transects the old fashioned way. See what happens when you depend on the latest and greatest technology? Surveying on Fort Gordon is like a walk in the park: Flat, generally non-brushy land with long-leaf pine stands, sunny skies and helicopters?...we came across a random helicopter in the middle of the woods today, which I will say was a first for me. The only problem, and it's kind of a big one- no tortoises! We've come across one occupied burrow and a handful of unoccupieds during our pilot surveys. Depending on the goal of the project, low turn-out can be expected, but seeing as our goal was to use line-distance theory to estimate tortoise population size on the base the lack of tortoises means no data with which to calculate an estimate. The calculations simply don't work with a small sample size. Time for a new plan...we're going to concentrate our efforts on the historically active areas of the base next week and see what we can come up with. If we get more no shows, no more project. Eeek, sounds scary, but not so much. This would mean a relocation to the Jones Center in Newton, GA where I would help out with any other projects they currently have going. Could mean some amphibian work which is something I would LOVE to get experience with. I'll find out more next week after we searh our little hearts out for the phantom gopher tortoise.