Life on Big Pine Key, FL

SUNY Cobleskill graduation 

May 10, 2014

Whoa!

Life has been crazy this past month! On May 10th, I graduated with my Bachelors degree in Wildlife Management from SUNY Cobleskill. Rewind back to the week of Thanksgiving last fall, I started applying for jobs and internships to begin immediately after graduation. I watched my friends and classmates snag awesome opportunities all over the country, and I felt left out and disappointed. I felt like I was lacking somehow, and that all this work and energy was for naught. I know, kind of dramatic, but 6 months of rejection will make you think the worst of your abilities!

Finally, finally, FINALLY I got the call: Would you like to come on board??? And lucky, lucky, LUCKY me, it was for an internship in the Florida Keys! The Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex Ranger, Kristie, interviewed me on a Thursday, and hired me on a Monday. Within 5 days, I was on the road and I made it down here on June 9th. It was a quick transition from hanging out in my college town, empty of friends, trying to figure out my week/summer/life, and trying to budget my limited funds to stuff whatever I could into my car, and heading 1,500 miles South!

I’m working as a “Visitor Services” intern in the Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge office on Big Pine Key. This is the most commonly visited refuge, out of the other 4 refuges in the Keys. Key West NWR, Great White Heron NWR, and Crocodile Lake NWR are the remaining refuges that make up the complex. Hey, check us out and “like” us on Facebook! You’ll see some of my pictures and writing from time to time as well as some awesome wildlife pictures –> Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex .

Ok, you’re all here for pictures. So I will post pics of the critters I’ve run into so far, and in subsequent entries I will elaborate on the natural history of some. I hope you enjoy!

The first animals are the famous Key deer. These guys are the same species of white-tailed deer found in Northern/Eastern United States and Canada. They are a subspecies. I’ll get into all of that later, but for now: notice their SIZE and how TAME they are!

A Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium) buck checking me out. You’ll notice how close I am to these deer. They are very conditioned to be in close proximity to people, unfortunately, but they do make for nice photos.

Key deer fawn

I was exploring the refuge the other day, and sat on a stump when these two walked right up to me, to check me out.

No zoom. They were looking for a hand-out, which unfortunately many people have probably fed them before. This makes them less “wild” and more susceptible to getting hit by a vehicle, because they’re often fed from cars.

This is a refuge vehicle I was using the other day, and as I was walking to the car, the pair followed me and cut between me and the car. Begging for treats!

Signage is EVERYWHERE to warn visitors and residents to watch their speeds, and that it is unlawful to touch or feed the deer.

A Florida box turtle (Terrapene carolina bauri) found rummaging in the yard in front of my house.

A six-lined racerunner (Cnemidophorus sexlineatus), a VERY speedy lizard!

An anole lizard, specific species unknown. Likely a brown anole (Anolis sangrei). This guy is probably a male, and he’s showing me his dewlap trying to scare me off!

I found a Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) in…the house! The poor guy was very easily caught because I think he was dehydrated and starving, but also slowed down because of the AC. I released him outside, but I found him dead later. This is an introduced species to the Keys.

Mediterranean house gecko

Sea turtle nest site on Bahia Honda State Park beach.

Sea turtles nest along the shores of the Keys, and nests are taped off. I hope to be able to see live sea turtles and hopefully snorkel with them while I’m here!

This is an interesting bird. I believe this is a Würdemann’s heron. This is a controversial bird-nerd topic, and I’ll be sure to discuss more in a later entry. For now, this is a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) with a white head :)

Assorted shore birds. To be honest, I’ve not taken the time to ID them. I just thought I’d share, as they are happily feeding in the sea grass at low tide!

This was a *SPECTACULAR* capture, I thought. I believed I had photographed a rare species, the Bahama Mockingbird (Mimus gundlachii). After submitting my sighting to eBird, and conferring with some people here, and my orno professor from Cobleskill, everyone agreed this was in fact a juvenile Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) that had yet to molt into it’s adult plumage. Not as exciting as I had hoped, but neat nonetheless.

And my final picture to share, the Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)! I believe we have a nesting pair at a popular visiting location on the Key Deer NWR, which is really neat! These guys more often hang out in the Everglades than the Keys.

Mudpuppy dissection!

WARNING: The included pictures may be considered graphic or offensive by some.

You know what’s great about being hosted by a major newspaper like the Times Union? Last Wednesday I had 21 hits on my blog. A sad, lonely, 21 hits. Thursday, after being featured on the front page of the TU website brought me 536 hits. And today, 317 so far. That’s pretty awesome exposure for me. So, thanks for stopping by!

As I’ve mentioned in recent entries, I’m enrolled in a Herpetology course. Herpetology is a branch of zoology which focuses on the study of reptiles and amphibians. I’ve never been really into the “herps”, mammals and birds are more my forte in the world of wildlife, but I’m interested to know more about them. They are sensitive to environmental changes, they are abundant in New York (we have snakes, frogs, toads, salamanders, turtles, and lizards!), and they are fairly easy to come across. Especially in the few months as they are emerging from hibernation and beginning to breed.

Check out the NYSDEC’s website for

 more information: 

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7485.html

The class is 4 hours long: 2 hours of lecture, 2 hours of lab. Friday’s lab was really fun for me, as we did a dissection of a mudpuppy! Mudpuppies are large salamanders that spend all of their time in fresh water. They have external gills, and can be found all over New York State. The only time I’ve seen one in the wild was while using a “gill net” (a type of sampling equipment for fish) in the middle of Canandaigua Lake in late May. They’re really cool!

The following pictures are kind of a walk through how my group conducted our dissection. The mudpuppies that we had to dissect came from Ward’s Natural Sciences, which is located in Rochester, NY. These animals were raised in captivity and then humanely euthanized for educational purposes. This is also true for the rats, frogs, pigs, etc that we’ve all dissected in general biology courses.

Our mudpuppy of choice!

Before cutting into our mudpuppy, Dr. Losito wanted us to do an external examination of the cloaca. All herps have only one opening for defecating, urinating, and reproduction. That’s what you see here. The males are supposed to be very puffy and swollen looking, and to us, this looked that way. We would receive our definitive answer once we cut it open.

Upon cutting it open, we immediately saw the ovary, which are those small yellowish balls.

Photo credit to lab partner: 

Lauren Richardson

Depending on the sex of our mudpuppy, Dr. Losito wanted us to follow and identify all digestive organs, and then the reproductive system. The digestive system was laying on top of the reproductive organs, so we had to get through that first!


The path of digestion is as follows: mouth > esophagus > stomach > duodenum (which contains the pancreas which creates insulin) > small intestine (nutrient absorption) > large intestine (water absorption) > colon > excretion through the vent.

We also identified the lungs, spleen, liver, gall bladder, and urinary bladder.The digestive organs that we identified include: ostium, oviduct, ovary, and the archinephric duct. Our female was considered “gravid”, because she was full of eggs. Other groups also had females that showed these parts, but the body cavity was not nearly as full as ours was.

Below my lab partners Lauren Richardson and Chelsea Gendreau are trying to sort through organs so that we can find everything. In the picture below that, you can see a nice upclose picture of what a truly gravid female mudpuppy looks like.

Lauren (L) and Chelsea (R) examine our mudpuppy.

 

A gravid, female mudpuppy.

A final shot: mudpuppy skin is full of mucous ducts that keep the skin moist and lubricated for water travel. They’re not scaly, but feel like frogs. They are really cool animals, and ARE found in NY, so if you’re lucky enough to see one (or catch one while fishing) consider yourself lucky!

I hope you enjoyed this brief entry, and I’m glad I got to finally post a longer entry sharing what I get to do in school. This is my LAST semester of my undergrad! I couldn’t be more happy, but I’m also a little nervous. Wish me luck this last semester and while I continue on this job hunt!

What have I been up to?

Sunset at SUNY Cobleskill on 1/27/2014.

The holidays have come and gone, winter break has ended, and I’m now back at SUNY Cobleskill taking classes. Over my “winter break”, I was hardly relaxing. I was taking an online statistics course and finishing up the last hundred or so hours of my internship at the DEC! It’s been busy for me and I haven’t had much time to update my blog. But today I found time!

This semester I am taking: Chemistry I, Fisheries Science, Evolutionary Biology, and Herpetology. It’s not a bad schedule, and they’re all pretty interesting. Although, Chem I is going to give me a run for my money!!!


I’m also an officer for our student chapter of The Wildlife Society on campus. We have a great club, and we’re really active on campus and in our community. It takes some work to manage the club because we are so active and our department faculty really impress on us the importance of an active chapter.

Last week in Fisheries Science we began learning about standard methods of “sampling” for fish. This is so an agency, for example, in Nebraska can conduct a research project similar to one running in New York, and we can compare data because it’s been taken in a standard way. Our first lab for the class entailed us driving over to Otsego Lake to conduct ice angler surveys. We’re interested in how much in resources (time and money) anglers are investing in their fishing trips, as well as what kinds/ages/sizes of fish they’re catching. We have the opportunity to go out on our own for extra credit, so my friend Ben and I headed out immediately after class, and spent all day Saturday on the ice of Otsego Lake.

A freshly caught Lake Trout on Otsego Lake, NY

Myself and classmate Ben attempting to measure the total length of this Lake Trout.

In Evolutionary Biology we’re reading this fascinating book, “The Naked Ape” by Desmond Morris.

The first text we’re reading

 in my Evolutionary Biology course, 

The Naked Ape.

Read this immediately.

It’s so interesting to read about ourselves in a totally different way. It was published in 1967, so it’s dated, and theories have changed. Regardless, read it. It will make you think about where we came from, how we got “here”, why we are the way we are.

I purchased it for the Kindle app and have it on my iPad, which is making for a whole new reading experience. Normally I like to read a physical book, but for my last semester, I decided to purchase as many books as I could via Kindle and just tote around my iPad. Six books cost me $63, and the iPad is less than a pound. I wish I had been able to do this from the beginning!

In herpetology last week we learned how to “probe” a snake to determine it’s sex. I have to say, I’m not a “herp” person. I like salamanders and turtles, I don’t mind frogs or toads, but I really don’t like snakes or lizards. It’s not that I’m afraid of them in the sense of getting bitten or scratched, it’s that I imagine them to be crawling with germs. I’m sure mammals have just as much or more germs, I just have this irrational thought in my head that I WILL get salmonella or coccidiosis when handling a herp. SO, when Dr. Losito asked who wanted to probe a snake first, I volunteered right off the bat. I wanted to prove to myself and others that I could do it, and guess what: I’m still alive.

Here I am, with the help of classmates, probing an adult female pine snake.

Here I am, with the help of classmates, probing an adult female pine snake.

To be brief, a small metal probe is inserted in the vent of the snake, and you kind of feel around in there for resistance. If you meet resistance, it’s a female. If not, it’s a male. We have a nice collection of snakes and turtles at SUNY Cobleskill used for teaching and for community outreach. I’m eager to learn more about them.

I’ve had this beautiful Red-bellied Woodpecker visiting my feeders lately as well. I love watching the birds come!

Red-bellied Woodpecker in Cobleskill, NY

SUNY Cobleskill Fish and Wildlife Students at the SCCA Fishing Derby

Wildlife Students at the NYPA

Wildlife Students at the Huyck Preserve

(PS I just set up a camera trap in a really neat spot…hopefully I will have something cool to report in a few days!)

Winter camera-trapping

This is the camera I’m currently 

using: A Bushnell Trophy Cam HD.

If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I LOVE using camera traps, or game/trail cameras. I love sticking them out in the woods and seeing who comes when I’m not looking. This set of pictures doesn’t contain anything too exciting, all common critters, but I got some multi-species pictures. I love it when that happens, I feel like I’ve totally breached the code of wildlife and am a secret agent spy. “HA! I KNEW you all hung out like in Disney movies!” Well, in this case, several members from different species hung out together, because I sprinkled a handful of black oil sunflower seeds on my favorite camera-trapping log.

Enjoy!

(BTW, I had around 1,500 pictures from 3 days. Once the seed was discovered, critters descended and burned up all my battery by December 20th! The camera was set until January 5th, but due to lots of action and/or frigid temps, the camera died.)

The normally EXTREMELY territorial red squirrel is shown here sharing the log with another red. They are known for caching food in an accessible hiding spot, and then defending it. If you’ve walked in a conifer stand, and heard someone “yelling” at you from the trees, it was probably a red. I’m assuming because it’s winter, these 2 were able to put aside their differences and munch amicably on the seed within feet of each other.

400 pictures “later” than the duo of squirrels, I caught many pics of these 4 American Crows together. Crows are often seen in groups, but what interests me now, is that they appear to be eating the seed! Crows are opportunists, so they WILL eat anything, but are not typically seen at a bird feeder eating bird seed. Well, I suppose in the winter I’d eat bird seed too, if I had to.

A handsome Blue Jay makes a brief appearance!

Here are two species eating in harmony! The red squirrel and a Mourning Dove.

Another multi-species picture. I see the American Goldfinches and Dark-eyed Juncos.

Here’s Red, looking guilty? Did he just chase off the birds?

 

 

And the last picture I found to be of interest, has 3 different species in it! Can you find them all? From the bottom of the picture up: Dark-eyed Junco, red squirrel, and a Black-capped Chickadee.

Spring! (err- fox urine) is in the air!

Addie thoroughly enjoyed a romp and a friz toss yesterday!

For me, one of the signs that spring IS coming (and I know, it’s only mid-January), is catching a whiff of red fox urine on the air while I’m out hiking. This is a strange thing to recognize and almost enjoy, I suppose, but it’s like the scent of skunk spray, wood smoke, pine sap, etc. It’s a natural smell that is nostalgic for me.
Yesterday, in Cobleskill, it was right around 50 degrees out. Lovely weather to take the dog for a walk at my favorite place in town, the Town of Cobleskill Resevoir. It’s a nice place to let the dog off leash to sniff smells, run, gallop, roll, and just be a happy, young dog.

While I was walking in a field, prime red fox hunting land, I caught that unmistakable scent. It’s musky, it’s acrid, it’s wet dog-like. I can’t really explain it, but you’ll know if you smell it. It means spring to me, because the frequent urination of foxes this time of year, is not because their bladders are full, but they are scent-marking to deter competition, or lure in a mate. It means breeding season is on the way, and then kits are born, and we’re in full blown spring!

Fresh red fox scat found by Addie, photographed by me.

Last week we had FRIGID temps due to the polar vortex. Parts of the state got FEET of snow and 10′s of degrees below 0 in wind chills. Christmas is past, I’m not a skier- I say bring on the spring!

At one point, Addie stopped and found a nice little deposit, left behind by our friend, Vulpes vulpes. I’d love to stow a camera there on the property, but it’s open to the public, and I’m concerned someone might think “finders keepers” with my camera. But, I know they are there, and I know spring has to be on it’s way!

Thoughts on deer hunting: Part I

As most of my readers know, I am still an undergraduate college student studying Wildlife Management at SUNY Cobleskill (but my semester JUST ended, and I only have 1 left!). I’ve always been an outdoorsy kid, and loved animals, and gotten dirty, and been interested in macro level biology. Since I started college back up in 2010 at Finger Lakes Community College, I’ve been inundated by hunters, trappers, fisher(wo)men, rednecks, hippies, tree-huggers, animal-lovers, scientists, nerds (you name it!) as my classmates, friends, and professors. These are labels, sometimes fair and sometimes not, used to describe people in my “field” of work and study.

My first time shooting a firearm: Remington 870, 

at a moving target during my USFWS orientation in Alaska.

What do I identify with?

I’m a young woman who has never hunted, brought up almost in an anti-hunting home, fished when made to, had every pet imaginable, went camping every summer, never wore shoes in the summer… I’m not a “hippie”, I’m not a “redneck”, I’m kind of a blend I think.

This entry isn’t meant to be about labels and categorizing those I learn, work, and play with… but lately I’ve been thinking about “who” I am in this field. Initially, the thought of working with wildlife sounded AWESOME because who doesn’t want to hold a bear cub?

Holding a black bear cub at a 

DEC-chaperoned den visit. 

Almond, NY (March 2013). 

Photo credit: Alicia Walker

That was a dream come true earlier this year. Who doesn’t want to work outdoors (well, only if the weather is fair) and see beautiful landscapes, smell pine-scented air, and get a tan? I’ve learned since beginning my studies, that these things don’t always occur. And sometimes you’re picking up deer poop and putting it into hundreds of vials in a freezing rain storm, so that the DNA can be examined. And sometimes after a particularly fun night out, you have to stand on a boat the whole next day tracking fish. And sometimes, you have to learn how to “sex” geese, and they bite you in rude places and poop in your face!

It ain’t all glamorous and photo-worthy, but I really do enjoy living and working in this field of wildlife management and conservation.

So back to hunting: I am in the Wildlife Management degree program, and I’m interning at the DEC within the Game Management Unit. We talk A LOT about hunting for deer, turkey, bear, ducks, geese, rabbits, squirrels, grouse, you name it. My friends disappear into the woods around mid-November, and reappear mid-December bearded, and happy because their freezers are full of wild game. Hunting is not just a hobby or sport, it’s a way to actively participate in wildlife management, and to provide good, wholesome protein to your family.

I’ve also been very queasy about blood and gore. Maybe that’s why I always put hunting out of my mind as a hobby to get into. The thought of watching an animal die, almost literally feels like heartache. But, I must stop myself, and stop allowing myself to consider every animal to be my pet bunny, kitty, or puppy. These are wild animals, that live rough lives of hunger, sometimes starvation, sickness, competition, and fear. Our species is spreading to every reach of this planet, and in turn are displacing whatever wild being lived there first, which we now refer to as a “nuisance”. We have removed all apex predators from the northeast. Long gone are mountain lions and wolves. So, who controls the deer herd now?

Did you know that if you purchase a NYS fishing or hunting license, firearms, ammo, hunting gear, etc…a portion of that (called the Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (11% tax)), comes back to the state which helps provide resources to the state for wildlife management efforts? In a way, hunters are paying the salaries of those of us tasked with making decisions about wildlife. As a state, we “own” our wildlife, which goes back to how land was ruled and governed in our Mother Land, England. What’s on this land, is ours! Which is ironic, because early colonists left and revolted against England to get away from that way of thinking, yet here we are hundreds of years later, still “owning” the wildlife.


I read Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac” as a freshman at FLCC. Leopold introduced new ways of thinking about the land and it’s resources, including wildlife. All of these things aren’t here for us to just kill, mine, burn, cut, harvest, and eat at will. We must define our personal land ethic, and strive to CONSERVE and PRESERVE, or there will not be any wild anything left for our children. Leopold wrote of a wolf hunt trip he was on (to eradicate all large predators):

“We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.” 

This is a very emotional passage for me. Could I watch an animal die? Could I be responsible for the death of another living being? I may be criticized for being too sensitive or emotional, OR criticized for even considering hunting at all. The fact is, human beings are omnivorous beings, created by whomever with teeth and dietary needs for protein best derived from animal flesh. If I hunt, it won’t be for a huge buck. It will be for meat, and so that I can participate in the circle of life. Hamburger doesn’t come from Price Chopper or Wegmans or Hannafords. It comes from an animal, likely who had lived a not-so-pleasant life, unless I splurge and by free-range, grass-fed beef/chicken/pork. But, I’m a college student. If I buy a steak, it’s the cheapest cut. I rarely eat red meat (unless it’s venison given to me by a hunter-friend!) because it’s so expensive. I respect your choice to be vegetarian or vegan, please respect mine to eat and ENJOY meat, and to want to understand the whole process of harvest.

Coming up, a review of deer hunting this past bow and regular season! I have great picture submissions from around New York State.

Fossa

Today I went to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY with my Mammalogy class.

The reason we went was to observe behavior and watch some enrichment activities going on.

My favorite of the day was the Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox), a strange mythological-looking, cat-like, mongoose cousin. The fossa is more closely related to the mongoose, hyenas, and civets rather than cats! This creature is also the largest predator on (and endemic to) Madagascar.

They are really cool, remind me of cat-weasels and I want to know more about them!

(Not the best pictures- taken with my smartphone in dim light, and through glass.)