Florida Ecosystems Class Trip - Day 3, Tall Timbers - Archbold Biological Station

We rose before the sun and met up with the tall timbers ornithologist to attempt a Red-cockaded woodpecker capture on the Wade tract.  The Wade tract is one of the few remaining large areas of long leaf pine / wiregrass ecosystem left in the southern US.  In my mind, the Wade tract was the textbook example of a southern quail plantation even thought it was not primarily managed for quail.  The Wade tract has a large breeding population of Red-cockaded woodpeckers as well as many Henslow's sparrows.

HDR image of the Wade tract.  This photo is a composite of three images, all taken at differing exposures, and merged.  This image is less than sharp and illustrates the need for a tripod when shooting images that you plan to merge into an HDR photo.

Our morning began by trying to net and band a female Red-cockaded woodpecker.  The tall timbers ornithologist used a long net to guard the nest hole while we tapped the bottom of the tree to coax the bird into the net.  This female was educated and flew the coop just after the net had been brought down.

Red-cockaded woodpecker (birders call them RCW's) banding, Wade Tract.

The net guarding the RCW nest hole in a longleaf pine, Wade tract.

 After our attempt to band an RCW, we moved on to mist netting for Henslow's sparrow and Backman's warblers.  This mist netting experience was much different from previous times I have used this technique.  Instead of setting the nets and checking them every hour or so, we would walk in a line and flush out target species.  Once flushed, the ornithologist would expertly deploy the mist net in a matter of seconds while the rest of the group headed the bird off and flushed it back into the net.  There was always this moment of anticipation as the bird flew towards the net that was no less exciting than watching a dart fly towards a bull elk.

Tall Timbers ornithologist removing a captured bird from the mist net for banding and data collection, Wade tract.

Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania ornithology students bagging the bird so it can be weighed, Wade tract.

Henslow's sparrow after removal from the mist net, Wade tract.

The Tall Timbers ornithologist setting the mist net, Wade tract.

The Tall Timbers ornithologist discusses the Henslow's sparrow, Wade tract.

Jim jots down notes in his trip journal on the Wade tract.

A squirrel's view up the trunk of a longleaf pine, Wade tract.

Florida Ecosystems Class Trip - Day 2 PM, Tall Timbers Research Station

Our morning bird hike yielded a good list of birds - some of which will be additions to my life list.

Bachman's warbler
Purple martin
Wood duck
Carolina chickadee
Pine warbler
Blue gray gnat catcher
Red shouldered hawk
White eyed vireo
Eastern towhee
Red-headed woodpecker
Fish crow
Swallow-tailed kite
Brown-headed nuthatch

Just before noon, our group met up for a wagon tour of tall timbers.  As we drove, Ph.D research scientist Theron Terhune made it clear just how important fire was for quail management.  Tall Timbers has fire plots ranging in age from one year to approx. 75 years.  With side by side plots, it was possible to tell exactly why quail preferred the two year burn interval.  It was also fun to see large coveys of quail flush out of the grass as the wagon drove by. 

One of the highlights of the wagon tour was our stop at the Jones Tenant house.  This African American family had worked the land near Tall Timbers for many generations.  On southern quail plantations such as this, it was the African American tenants who guided hunts, handled bird dogs, and practiced wildlife management.

Red-cockaded woodpecker nesting hole.

Detail shot of door hinge at the Jones Tenant house, Tall Timbers.

Corn crib at the Jones Tenant house, Tall timbers.

An old bottle in the Jones Tenant house, Tall Timbers.

A lizard on the metal roof of the corn crib, Jones Tenant house, Tall Timbers.

Prescribed burn for quail management at Tall Timbers.

Florida Ecosystems Class Trip - Day 2 AM, Tall Timbers Research Station

With the time change last night, we found ourselves up an hour earlier than we had planned.  We were dressed and ready to go two hours before the sun.  Our plan was to get out a look for a few birds prior to getting a wagon tour of Tall Timbers.  As we headed out in the darkness, I put my 50mm 1.8 lens on my camera and put my new 80-200 2.8 in my backpack.  It only took a couple hundred yards to realize just how beefy my new-to-me but old style 80-200 really is.

Dr. Cox pointing out a wood duck in the bird guide.

Montana Cox double checking his dad's wood duck identification on Tall Timbers.

Dr. Jeff Larkin and students look on through a bird window at tall timbers.

Burning is a key management tool for pine ecosystems.  Many species of pine tolerate, and even require fire.  

Dr. Cox, Jim, and Hillary investigate Spanish moss on Tall timbers.

Florida Ecosystems Class Trip - Day 1

With vacations few and far between while in graduate school, my best chance of relaxing has been on what I have termed "education vacations."  My adviser has developed a set of three hour classes where the majority of class time is spent on location studying the local ecosystems.  Last spring we spent two weeks in Southwest Texas, visiting Big Bend NP, Guadalupe NP, and Carlsbad Caverns.  This year we are headed to Florida over Uk's spring break.  This is guaranteed to be a run-and-gun style trip in which we attempt to pack in as many ecosystems as the week will allow.  We might also wear out a few pairs of binoculars in search of such birds as the red-cockaded woodpecker and the rosette spoonbill.  My only request is a dozen oysters on the half shell eaten on a porch overlooking the ocean.

Day 1 was spent primarily surveying the varying ecosystems, both urban and rural, along three states worth of Interstate 75.  We pulled into Tall Timbers Research Station well after dark and hit the racks soon after.

Last years ecosystems crew on the highest peak in Texas

New Years Eve Striper Fishing

We spent the last day of 2011 on Lake Cumberland trolling for stripers.  May 2012 find you with your lines tight and gun barrels warm.

Anthony with his first striper

The Quants with their first two stripers 

Kentucky Rabbit Hunt

There is absolutely no better hunting experience than watching beagles take the trail of a rabbit.  As a boy, I remember more about being walked right out of my knee boots while aching under the heavy load of a full game vest than I do about the sights and sounds of the hunt.  My grandfather and his hunting buddies were, and still are, relentless rabbit chasers.  Year after year they would put, on average, 300 rabbits in the bag.  This meant hunting hard and leaving no thorn thicket or honeysuckle clump un-tromped.  I, of course, should have well ridden in the dog box.  There was no taking the easy route on the field edge, as it was one briar patch to the next for the younger people in the hunting party.

Just before Christmas I was able to join the usual crew for some rabbit hunting.  Not ten yards away from the truck, the first rabbit was jumped and I was back to being 12 years old holding a 20 gauge single with a sawed down stock.  Aside from the memories of the briar stomping, my first rabbit stands at the top.  I stood braced against my grandfather's waist - the single bead of the 20 gauge waving wildly in the space in front of my eye.  As the beagles howled in the distance, we saw the grey blur of cottontail bearing down on our position.  With some form of luck never seen again, the wildly waving bead was following the wildly running rabbit just as the hammer fell on the high brass load of #6 shot.  The rabbit was dead even though I had promptly jumped ship on the recoil and dropped the gun.  I proudly laced the rabbit's neck under my belt and wore it the rest of the day.

My grandfather and his trusty Browning 20ga.  It is impossible to say how many miles this gun has been carried or just how many rabbits it has brought to a stop.  On this day, it accounted for two of our dozen.

Watering the dogs and unloading our vests.

Phillip and Peanuts at the end of the hunt.

The two men who walked me out of my boots and taught me the value of a cleanly shot rabbit

Fall at the Hast Ranch

Deer season used to be a time reserved for male bonding.  In the very early days of the Hast farm, a canvas tent set up in a flat spot near a few out-dated oil tanks served as base camp.  I was lucky enough to miss the "tent years" and got to stay in a neighbors cabin on an adjacent farm where showers were free, but towels were $25.  After our cabin was complete, it took a few years for my mother to feel welcome even though we were quickly won over by the marked improvement in camp food and general cleanliness.  The last few years have seen the addition of my sister, who used to avoid a hanging deer at any cost.  As the women folk have been integrated into the hunting season, these few weekends at the cabin have become more about visiting with family over great food than about sitting in the woods all day - maybe this is one reason we failed to bag the big buck observed over the late summer!

My good friend's wife took her first deer on opening morning

Breakfast, fresh from the woods

Dad handling the fryer as the rest look on with beverage in hand

The turkey emerges from the hot oil.  This was officially the best turkey I have ever eaten

East KY from the Sky

See the full blog at:     http://hastwildlifeadventures.blogspot.com/

Fog blankets Robinson forest 

Interesting Kentucky Elk Harvested

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Myself, and my good friend and elk biologist Will, spent a good amount of time recovering a downed bull elk last weekend for a Bowling Green hunter after filling his Kentucky bull elk tag.  This recovery required about 300ft of rope, all of my winch cable, and at least a few months off my work truck's life.  In the end, the bull was safely brought off the mountain.

By the time you throw a tool box, two massive coolers, spare tire, water jug, elk recovery winch, and ramp into the back of the truck there is little room for the reason why you carry that gear in the first place.

The two most interesting parts to this elk harvest are that Will was able to photograph this elk four days prior to it being killed as well as what was wrapped up in its antlers.

This great 7x7 Kentucky bull had at least 50 feet of high tensile fence wire wrapped up in its antlers

KDFWR elk biologist Will Bowling took this photo of the above elk four days prior to its harvest.  A photo like this shows why it pays to get out before the sun.

Florida Wildlife Corridor Blog

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Two good friends of mine are embarking on a 1000 mile hike from the Everglades to Northern Florida in the name of habitat conservation.  Prior to entering the world of wildlife biology at UK, I only knew Florida as having beaches and Disney World.  While I was conducting my master's project on Kentucky black bear, our lab was also running a project in the wilds of Florida.  For habitat conservation in Florida, a black bear wearing a GPS tracking collar has become the best method for delineating key habitat areas.  These bears are forced to navigate fragmented patches of swamp and timber hammocks while finding the best paths between safe cover.  As they move, their GPS collar tracks every step and allows researchers to plot these points on a map to illustrate the areas that bears use most often.  It just so happens, that other species also use the same areas as the black bear.  In ecological terms, the black bear has become an umbrella species for Florida wildlife conservation.

Joe Guthrie and photographer Carlton Ward are in the planning stages, but plan to set out for the hike in January.

Please check out Joe's blog at http://joeguthrie.wordpress.com/author/joeguthrie/

Below are a few photos that I took while in Florida on a education vacation.  We were lucky enough to spend time on a few local ranches which have become key habitat for the black bear.

Florida scrub jay taken at Archibald Biological Station in Venus, Florida

White-tailed deer with a backdrop of palmetto on a ranch in Florida

Florida black bear wandering the trails of a ranch in Florida

CORN, BEANS, AND BUCKS

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Our "crop" food plots at the farm have certainly paid off.  A few good deer have been seen late in the evenings over the last week.  If anything, the food plots and deer sightings will heighten the excitement as we get closer to the season.

Deer food.  Also notice the coyote scat in the background that is full of corn.

My grandfather's penthouse.  This may seen extravagant, but at age 90, this give my grandfather a safe, warm, and dry place to hunt deer.

Good stand of corn near the penthouse.

Turkeys are dusting on the edges of the corn field.  This is one stop shopping - dust the bugs off and get a crop full of corn.

Nice  young buck in the bean field

The buck on the left is most certainly a shooter.

Five bucks in one field.

The second elevated blind I have built for less than 100$.  We ended up loosing the roof on the move from the barn to the field, but it was quickly repaired.  This blind, with the steps removed, can be lifted and moved with the bucket on our tractor.  The next step will be outfitting the blind with camo material and painting the wood structure.