Our first week together in the field!
You can be as prepared as you want for field season, but there are some things that you just cannot plan for. We learned that the hard way on day one! Standing in the middle of a swale that was three feet deep after finding two turtles with no solid ground in sight to set up our supplies…. we had to get creative. We ended up finding a down tree just a few meters away from where we found the turtles, but it definitely was a balancing act.
Week one in the field went very smoothly! We tracked a bunch of the telemetered turtles and even got a few hand captures, which is what its called when you find a Blanding’s without the use of a trap or telemetry.
If you find a new turtle, you get to name him or her! Kirsten found a sub-adult female and decided to name her Mystic.
(Pictured below is Kirsten with hand capture Mystic)
Sam also got her first hand capture this week! While tracking Elle Mae, she pulled her out of the water only to find her mating with a male named Cooley. This is exciting not only because we got an extra turtle to sample, but its good news to see an endangered species mating.
(Pictured below is Sam with Elle Mae and Cooley)
Getting the hang of things means longer days in the field and therefore later nights in the lab, but it has already been an amazingly fun week.
Stay tuned for more adventures, more falls, and more creativity!
