Down-pour While in the Field

My day started at 5:00 am this morning. We had to meet at the lab at 5:30 am to go on a bird survey at 6:00 am. We were recording the number of wading birds we observed in the Ballast Narrows, a small distance away from Wallops Island. We also measured with a laser how far away the birds were from our position on a boat. The birds we saw were egrets, ibises, herons, and oyster catchers. As a class, we put the data in an excel sheet, and will be doing something with it at some time this week. The survey itself was great. I was able to learn a few more bird species. However, when flocks of around 15-35 birds start flying away from a massive black cloud, you sort of get the feeling you should also vacate the area. Around 7:30 am it started down-pouring while we were still out on the boat. This would not have been too bad except for the fact that some birds don't really appreciate the rain and so retreat back to their nests. It is really hard to survey the birds if we can't see them.

Upon returning from the bird survey, we had a short lecture, and then I went to take a nap. The nap was great and helped me be ready for my presentation right after lunch. Then, after presentations, we took a quick peak at the cameras we had placed at the Wallops Island National Wildlife Refuge. There were not as many species as we had hoped. We caught a raccoon, possum, white-tailed deer, and a crow. Tomorrow we go to retrieve the cameras we set up around the conservancy we had visited. Hopefully, we will capture more on those since those cameras have been in the field longer than the others were.

Also tomorrow, my classes joins up with my friend's class to meet a biologist who is apparently really hard to get a meeting with.