Friday Night Frog Calls!

     Yes! Friday night! The streets are hopping, the concerts are rocking, and the city night life is just waking up! Should I party with friends? Hit up the non-sanctioned street races? or just cruise O Street with some friends? Nope, I've got a better idea. I'm going to go catch some frogs!!! That's right, I'll be attending the Acris and Anaxyrus party tonight!
      As I load the 230, which is the herpetology department's monster truck of a field vehicle, I think back to last Monday, when I was out doing research at the marsh, and all the frogs were calling. I'm talking about Cricket Frogs, Cope's Grey Tree Frogs, Chorus Frogs, the Leopard Frogs were just starting to call, and most importantly Anaxyrus woodhousii, the Woodhouse's Toad!

The star for tonight! The one and only Anaxyrus woodhousii

     I need Woodhouse's Toad tadpoles for my research, and I must find out where they are calling so I can either collect a male-female pair or come back and collect some eggs after they've been laid.
     We've had a lot of water come in the past few weeks to fill the swamps and ponds where these species call and breed in. And now with the marshes full and the temps producing some warmer nights, these frogs are ready to party and try to find themselves a mate.
     As I pull into the nature park, and turn off the ignition of the vehicle, I sit still for a moment, just to let the dark night air fill back into the area where my head lights used to blaze. It's a balmy 68 degree night, and the moon is shining through some fair weather cumulus clouds just above me. Before I even open the door, I can hear the faint chorus of my amphibian friends all around me. I load my pack, strap up my head lamp, and clip the truck keys to my waist with a carabiner.
     As I open the door, the beauty of the night floods into whole vehicle! What at first appeared as one pugnacious blare of noise, soon turned into a complex medley of individual songs! I could pick out each species within! Acris blanchardii and Pseudacris maculata were keeping steady time as Hyla crysoselis, filled some harmonious transitions in the song, and our featured soloist tonight was Anaxyrus woodhousii! The Woodhouse's toad!
      Check out the frog call video I made from the night's adventures! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5gRc7_0dRk
     I wasted no time getting down to the swamp! This whole place was an over grown, over sized garden of aquatic vegetation! Every leaf was covered with the starting of dew, I was already soaked before I even got to the water. I dropped my shoes and pack and B-lined it toward a pair of waling Woodhouse's Toads. As I neared the two Anaxyri, their eye's shined back the white light of my head lamp, and I remembered just how easy it is to sneak in close to these frogs at night!
     The Woodhouse's toad is usually a tan or grey-brown color with dark blotches and warts to give it a camo pattern to blend in with the ground cover. They are very similar to the American Toad, Anaxyrus americanus, but the Woodhouse's Toad has a narrower, more elongated, parotoid gland, which touches the posterior part of the cranial ridge. They eat insects and other arthropods, and their eggs are laid in one long strand instead of a clump of eggs like other frogs. The Woodhouse's call sounds like a nasally WAAAAAAAAAAAH! So now you can listen for it next May/June.

This Woodhouse's Toad is one from the lab.

      After filming the toad's call and and checking to see if any were females (I need females for my research.... Actually I need eggs, and the females are where the eggs come from) I replaced the toads back to their prime real-estate right on the water's edge and off I went to the next calling frog species.
     As I work my way down the bank, I spot a pair of huge eyes, and then I saw the huge body they belonged to! The Bullfrog! What a beast! sitting, in all his predatory might, on the swamp shore, just waiting for something he could fit in his mouth to wander by. Bullfrogs are an invasive species here in Nebraska. Bullfrogs were introduced to much of the West and Midwestern US via frog farmers, and they are commonly harvested for their tasty back legs. Bullfrogs are 7+ inches of lean, mean, frog eating machines! 80% of their diet consists of other frog species (Collins 2010). They are absolute tanks! and they sure do cause quite a problem for our native species! And while I'm all for progressive management of invasive species, I never take a life without a purpose, and since I'm not planning to eat this bullfrog, I reluctantly let him go.

This Plains Leopard Frog is closely related to the Bullfrog in that they
are both Lithobates genus, but the Leopard frog doesn't posse near as much
predation threat around here as the Bullfrogs do.

     Not long after I released the Bullfrog, I tuned into another beauty of a frog song! This sensational exotic sounding tune singled the presents of a Cope's Grey Tree Frog! This being Nebraska's arboreal frog, I was excited to showcase his climbing abilities!

Hyla chrysoscelis  or the Cope's Grey Tree Frog has a beautiful trill call and can occur in this grey coloration or a green coloration seen to the left.

Hyla chrysoscelis  or the Cope's Grey Tree Frog has a beautiful trill call
and can occur in this grey coloration or a green coloration seen to the left.

     He had stretched his body out, nice and long, to allow maximal expansion of the vocal sac. What a champion caller! And loud too! After I filmed his call, I caught the little stud and let him climb on my hand and arm. The Cope's Grey Tree Frog has special mucus secreting sacs on the pads of their digits, and this is what gives them the ability to climb on almost any surface. The neat thing about tree frogs, is their legs are relatively skinny compared to the legs of other frogs that end up doing a lot more jumping to evade predators. No, the Cope's Grey Tree Frog isn't the most ambitious when it comes to active defense strategies. It usually just sits still, and relies on it's cryptic coloration, to avoid predation. And believe me, the natural camo pattern on this frog is a work of art! Mossy Oak and Real Tree camo clothing makers could learn a thing or two from this guy!
     As the night rolled on, the beat was grooving just as sweet as ever, and then I heard a heavy swish through the grass on the bank! I was not alone in the swamp tonight; something, or somebody, else was just 60 yards away, in the tall growth. I had never thought about other humans coming back here to this special access area. What could they be doing? drug dealers? love birds? burglars? The grasses shivered as the swamp intruder advanced towards me, and then he appeared! It was a masked bandit! I caught the glint of his eyes as the raccoon stood up, and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing I only had a raccoon to photograph rather than a potentially difficult human to deal with.
     As I drift back to where I had left my shoes, I'm felt well satisfied with my findings for the night. But as I pick up my shoes and socks, I recognize one more species of frog out of the orchestra of calling. It was the Chorus frog. Admittedly, the Chorus Frog's call was the underlying heartbeat to the sweet song tonight, and every night, even during the day time too. Chorus Frogs are the first to start calling very early in the spring time, and they're more than likely the classic frog call you'll hear throughout spring until early summer. Their accelerating "Creee, creee, cree, cree, cree" call can even be heard far from water in a low land tree thicket.
     As a boy, I used to fall asleep with my windows open at night, so I could listen to the frog calls as I went to sleep. It was a sweet reminder of what I'm so passionate about. Wildlife! And now as I visit swamps at night to conduct the research I dreamed about as a little boy, I can whole-heartedly say I'm living my dream! But there's a whole world of wildlife out there, and I'm just getting started.
     I hope you'll enjoy my wild adventures all around the world too! Check Wildimpact's Facebook, Twitter, or G+ pages for more awesome adventures!

Friendly Faces in New Territory: Virginia Part 2

     On day three of our Virginia adventure, Jenae and I went for a morning hike up in the rocks just outside of a small town near Meadow View. I must say, Jenae is a pretty amazing friend, because not only does she put up with me always catching wildlife, she's willing to go just about any place I want to go.
      What a beautiful morning! In humid forests like Virginia Appalachians, a fog like steam is very common in the mornings, and many of the large waxy leaves of the undergrowth are coated in water and glisten in the morning sun. A lush forest like this would be unusual if it didn't have the morning songs of many different bird species to light the atmosphere for the day.

This skink was our first of many animals of the day!

      So as we geared up to go bouldering and flip a few rocks, I spotted a familiar flicker across a rock. Maybe it's just me, but I think the way a skink moves is very easy to notice from afar; that quick, jerky, start-stop motion was all I needed, and I jumped off the tail gate and power walked right over to the log it was on. I was able to snap a few decent pictures before he bolted off.

       I sure was jazzed by this early sighting! Hopefully there would be many more to come! Jenae and I took off up the first trail we could find. It was actually quite a steep little climb! I was stoked because these were excellent rocks for climbing, and this particular portion of the hike produced some spectacular views!

     Towards the middle of our hiking day, we weren't really in any special habitat,; just the usually hiking trail with a few rocks here and there. I told Jenae I was going to go check a few rocks up by a seepage, a little ways off the trail. Upon my return, just before I met up with Jenae, I spotted a small movement of blaze orange that seemed to appear out of the end of a small log. I froze in my tracks, not daring to possibly spoke whatever it was! As I looked down, I was elated to see the Red-spotted Newt, the eft stage too! What a treat!
    The Red-spotted Newt, Notothalmus viridescens viridescens, is easily the prettiest colored amphibian in my opinion. This newt has three different stages in it's life. It starts its life as an aquatic larvae. At this point, the newt cannot travel from water and relies heavily on its branching network of external gills to breath. The gills soon disappear, and a blaze orangish red coloration covers the terrestrial eft stage. During this stage, the eft is fully able to travel over land, and often times travels quite far. This serves as a dispersal method, and ensures diversity in the gene pool. Finally, after about two years as an eft, the Red-spotted Newt reverts back to a fully aquatic breeding adult stage for the rest of its life. The Red-spotted Newt commonly lives 13-15 years in the wild. It feeds on insects, mulluscs, crustacians, and eggs. And even though, this Newt will release a toxin when attacked or injured, only about 2% of the larvae will make it to the eft stage. Which is why I'm so pumped to have found this little gem!

      The trail continued to skirt the inside of this pocket in a mountain side. The cool thing about the mountains here is with every inward curve, water funnels into a small stream that skips across the rocks and through most of these hiking trails. This makes for some very convenient salamander habitat!
      Further up the trail, as a small stream cut across, the rocks on the downhill side of the trail had formed a mighty little cliff with a sweet waterfall. And it just so happened that our trail took us right to the base of the waterfall. How convenient! After exploring this beautiful master piece, I decided to walk this drainage down to the road instead of taking the trail back; it was only a couple hundred yards down the hill anyways, and the drainage was full of pools, rocks, and some fast water spots too. It had all sorts of great habitat I couldn't pass it up.
      On my descending climb through the drainage, I saw several other Salamanders, mostly Black Mountain Salamanders, but I got to observe them in their natural routines. They seemed content to relax on a moss covered rock as the water occasionally splashed up on them. Though, when they were hunting, they would swim through the crystal clear pools, searching the cracks and hide hole of small arthropods. Many times they would mouse around rocks, only to slip into a hole to check the underside of the rock for food items; this behavior reminded me of the way a weasel or mink busily searches the rocks on a lake shore, slipping under and over each rock to find their food.

      I was slightly surprised I had stayed mostly dry coming down the drainage, as I jumped from one slippery rock to the next. I guess if you spend enough time in the outdoors you understand your limits pretty well.

Friendly Faces in New Territory: Virginia Part One

     The whole school year, I was determineed to keep my summer schedule free. Why? you might ask. Well, because I then I fill it with chance opportunities like this!! A trip to South Western Virginia, to the humid hills, and Appalachian country, and to a region which, I would say, offers the most salamanders a wildlife biologist like me could ever dream of!!
     Back during the school year, my best friend had asked me if I would accompany her to visit her horse trainer, who now lives out near Meadowview, Virginia. How could I say no to a cross country trip Appalachian country? Well, I couldn't! and so at 6:00am one summer Sunday, we loaded her truck and headed East! Both her and I were seasoned road trippers, so driving the whole 16 hours in one whack was a piece of cake for the two of us!

     We arrived at Jim and Jan's house around about 11:00 that night and stayed up until night-noon (that's midnight for you normal people) just talking and catching up. Jim was an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and professional horse rider himself, so we clicked pretty well together right off the bat, sharing hunting stories and close calls in the field. Jim and Jan were two of the nicest people I ever did meet! Very gracious and accommodating, as they put my friend, Jenae, and I in our own rooms in for the week.

     Jenae is an amazing horse rider herself, and it's easy to see why with a coach like Jim to teach her! I even got to ride around a little bit, as they both taught me the basics of horse riding. It's amazing to understand the connecting and learning capabilities of horses! They're sharp as a wit! But this strapping green bushman will stick to his own two feet for venturing through the bush at least. And what a strike of fortune! Tomorrow we'd be going for a trail ride!! And by we, I mean Jenae, Jim, and another student would be on the horses and I would be on foot. This sounds like I'm the slave labor here and don't get the easy way up the trail, but that's the exact opposite! I had the easy option here! I could go at my own pace, flip all the rocks my heart desired, and catch all the critters I could find!

     As we rolled into the trail parking lot the next morning at 9:00, and I was as jittery as a sprinter at his first Olympics! I get this way when I'm about to explore new territory :) As the riders were saddling up their horses, Jim gave me the go ahead to hit the trail. "Meet back here at 10:30", he said. No problem!  One hour going in and a half hour coming out! I lit out like a hound off his leash, eye's wide, ears keen, and nose sniffing.

     The forest was gorgeous! Just like the rain forest only at a seasonal latitude! Mosses and lichens grew everywhere, and the ground was covered with a moist blanket of leaf litter. And the rocks! There where rocks everywhere! These mountain looked like regular dirt hills, but under the veil of the forest, there were tons of rocks to provide habitat for some of my favorite critters!
As I advanced up the trail, I came to a small water flow that cut across the trail. The water here was crystal clear! Not like the muddy milk that fills Nebraska's lakes and streams. I began to flip a few rocks in this flow, hoping to find some amphibian action. And by golly, I'm getting spoiled! With the second rock I flip I find an Black Mountain Salamander! I'm far from a pro when it comes to salamander ID, since Nebraska only has a few species. I was thrilled to have caught the first of many animals for this trip! A few choice pictures and I replaced the little fella under his rock, and I continued up the trail


The Black Mountain Salamander, Desmognathus welteri, belongs to the Plethodontidae family. It's habitat includes temperate forests, rivers, freshwater marshes and springs. They forage mostly at night and eat flies, beetles and other insects, as well as their larvae. The Black Mountain Salamander looks a lot like other similar looking species of dusky salamanders. Its range includes eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee in wooded mountainous countryside where it hides under rocks and logs in swift flowing streams, pools, or anywhere else there's reliable water. Reproduction occurs in the spring or summer. The female lays clusters of about 25 eggs in or near streams. The larvae are aquatic and take almost two years to complete metamorphosis. The average life span is about 5 years for the Black Mountain Salamander. One thing of concern is road building and strip mining, which turns up a lot of silt in the water ways and has a bad effect on these as well as other salamander populations.

     This hike was just ecstasy for me! My Merrill Trail Gloves made zero noise as I glided up the trail, feeling every step as the trail came to my foot. Various song birds filled the jungle with a beautiful tune, one of the advantages of morning hikes. I was also stoked to see so many different bugs and insects. Talk about biodiversity! If I was a more devoted entomologist, I would be filling specimen jars right and left out here.
Towards the middle of my hike, I spotted a backpacker's camp sight (these are common up here, as the Appalachian trail travelers need places to stop each night.) But I usually do pretty well flipping the rocks around fire rings. I think it might be because ants and other small insects come to clean up any food particles left behind, and the herps come to eat the bugs. Classic camping food web here! And as par for the course, my last rock housed a nice little Black Mountain Salamander!

     After leaving the salamander back at his humble abode, I hiked another half mile up the trail before turning to gallop back down. I wonder how my horse riding friends faired on the trail?
As I waiting in the parking lot, I found a crap ton of Tiger Swallow Tail butterflies, enjoying..... yep, a pile of horse crap! Jim said they like the moisture in the horse poop. I reckon they might take some nutrients from their smelly buffet too.

     I have the utmost respect for my horse riding friends! Not only can they connect with these horses after many years of training and hard work, they must also be constantly aware of how well the horse is reading their commands in order to keep both horse and rider in tip top shape. Not to mention, Jenae said she got a face full of spider webs being on the tallest horse :P
     A bushman like myself can certainly enjoy a good hard hike, especially when I can sit here with my shoes off while my friends must unsaddle their horses both covered in sweat and hair. I sure do love this life! It's going to be a great week!

The Common Snapping Turtles

     Here in Nebraska, one thing is for sure... The lake water is always murky. In fact, if you can see further than a foot deep, you must be swimming in a Colorado lake that just happened to fill up in Nebraska! Murky water, and fairly poor water quality makes Nebraska not the world's best fishing destination, but we still keep ourselves entertained here. At any lake, in the summer time, the locals are usually found wake boarding, skiing, sail boating, or playing plethora of odd beach games that usually involve beer bottles and PVC piping. But for the fellow bushmen and herpetologists like myself, we usually just enjoy the wildlife and catching some of the interesting few as we hike or paddle through these lakes.

The classic murky Nebraska water way

As a busy college student, I was quite happy with my plan to block out a whole Sunday afternoon for a kayaking trip around one of my favorite lakes. In mid May, I figured the water would be a tad bit too cool for our snakes to be out for a swim, but I soon found our turtle species were just warming up for the season! As I hiked my 9.5 foot Swifty kayak to the water's edge, memories of some of last year's best adventures flew through my mind. This being our maiden voyage for the year, I had to dust off the seat before sitting down for a summer full of many new awesome adventures!

This big brute was floating near a log jam I climbed on
but he saw me before I could get the camera set up to film!

As I paddled along the grasses, I spotted a suspicious looking branch nub sticking out of the water. And then it was gone! I raced forward, and knowing the depth of this common lagoon, I bailed from my kayak to chase the snapping turtle before it found deep water! And granted, the Nebraska mud makes our water murky, it also makes it easy to see where my snapping turtle was swimming off to, as he left an obvious trail of kicking up mud clouds in the water. Then, as I neared the turtle, one chance glance of his tail, and I grabbed him! What a beast! I heaved the healthy snapping turtle up and supported his body weight with my other hand on his plastron, which is the belly halve of the turtle shell. Here is the video for today's adventures!-->>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZM6wgfsa2E

Turtles are tons of fun for me! They fascinate the heck out of me! A snapping turtle can be totally docile and calm in the water, yet once raised out of water the aggressive nature kicks in and those jaws get to snapping. And what a reach on that neck! I noticed, on another outing, when a snapping turtle is just bee-bopping along in the water, they stretch their necks clear out 7-10 inches away from the body! But that same neck can curl around the sides and top of their shell (not the bottom, thankfully), and this creates a danger zone that your fingers do not want to be caught in! Another testimony to the snapping turtle's docile nature is when you accidentally step on them! And bare foot is the only way to go for me! 

Painted turtles like to climb up onto logs to sun themselves
but snapping turtles generally do not, as their heavy bodies
make any movement out of water a real chore!

For instance, I was out filming frog mating calls one night in a swamp, and I knew this body of water did contain snapping turtles. But when looking for frogs, I just walk through the shallow water with my head lamp beam focused along the water's edge. I'd rather be able to intercept a frog headed for deep water, as well not have to walk through thick brush while searching for my query. And as many of you know, you can't see much outside of the beam of your head lamp either. So in one step, instead of feeling the mud and silt squish through my toes, I felt the rough points of the marginal scutes (the side part of the turtle's shell) on the shell and the moist leathery skin of either the leg, tail, or head. Naturally, I retracted my foot, and watched a nice sized snapping turtle swim earnestly away from me. And of course, I proceeded to reach down and grab his tail. I had to give my new acquaintance a proper greeting and tell him not to eat too many of the frogs before their lay eggs. Then, I let him go.

Even though I'm out researching frogs, I never past up a
chance to catch some cool wildlife in the process!

It used to scare the pants off me when people would warn me about swimming in a farm pond because, "Them snapping turtles will take your toes clean off!" Well, after realizing I do not even know of any person loosing a toe to a snapping turtle from an under water bite, and after accidentally setting on turtles with my bare feet, my scared pants just turned into swimming trunks and I feel there's nothing to be scared of anymore :)

I put this to the test today. Towards to tail end of my kayaking expedition, I spotted a snapping turtle head sticking out of the water next to a stump. So I padded straight for the spot and the turtle head disappeared under water. As I drifted up to the stump, I stuck my hand into the water where the turtle was (that was stupid, I should have stuck my paddle down first...) my arm was only 8 inches into the water when BOOM!!! I felt the turtle's shell (haha what? Did you think I got my hand bit off?!) I kept my hand lightly on top of the shell to feel if he started to move. I really wanted to film this catch, but the only possible place I could put the camera was wedged up in that stump. So with the other hand, I whipped out my camera, set it to record, and wedged it in the stump. I then felt carefully along the marginal scutes to find the back end. I knew the turtle would bolt once I grabbed the tail, so I lunged down for a handful of turtle tail and held on! The turtle jerked under a good sized branch, with my arm on the opposing side. He wasn't stupid, because while my hand was stuck on one side of the branch, he was cranking and pumping with his legs against the other side, and very, very strong too! I look up at my camera, and the recording light isn't on! F--(bad word)~!!!! I could barely reached the camera with my other hand as this turtle torqued my wrist against the underwater branch, and my camera says "memory full." Oh, mother of pearl!!! This is worse than having to go pee really, really bad in a store with no bathroom, on an empty stomach! As I deleted the slack out of my memory roll, I was making all sorts of funny faces trying to hold onto this turtle who seemed determined to dislocate my wrist. Okay! that better be enough! Record! Stretch! Wedge! Compose myself! Switch hands!! Ahhhhhh, much better! And out of the water I hoist a nice, strapping adolescent snapping turtle from the water! He wasn't yet old enough to start accumulating a coat of moss on his shell, and had beautiful cream colored skin. What a feisty little guy! Very strong, and very snappy. But you know how teenagers are, they think they're invincible ;)

Snapping turtles are a fascinating animal. They eat just about anything they can fit in their mouth. They're totally comfortable in the water, but total fire balls when taking out of their element! If you know what you're doing, you can catch quite a few turtles and have one heck of an adventure doing it. So with two turtles caught and released, after great footage and pictures. I paddled back through the marsh to my truck, and headed home covered in mud and a good time!

Spur of the Moment Bag Packing

The middle of November is right in the thick of almost every hunting season here in Nebraska, and I spend a lot of time in the woods, and cleaning meat at this time of year.

Though, during the last few years, I've been on a bit of a withdrawl from this passion, because college has kept me busy in the city. Not to mention those darn group projects. You know, the group projects were the team always wants to have weekly meetings to discuss nothing important. Yep, you feel me? Well, I was suppose to have one of those meetings tonight. Then, they canceled it about 5 minutes before I was about to leave. Said something about not having a reason to meet..... I love it when people use common sense!! It makes me happy!!!!
So this is what I reasoned: It's almost 8:00pm about 20 degrees F out, Genetics for tomorrow is canceled, and I don't have work until 2:00pm..... I'm going bag packing!!!
So after my wonderful epiphany, I grabbed my sleeping bag, a tarp, and my .22. Then loaded the ol'

Jansport bag pack I found at a garage sale a while ago, and out the door I flew. Some of the Wildlife areas around me close down the park roads, to save on tax money, because then they don't have to pay park workers for winter maintenance. These parks are still open to hunting and fishing, you just have to park on the main road and trek in (just the way I like it).
After locking up my car, I walked until I couldn't hear the road anymore, and decided I was good and lost. First, a little recon to make sure the places was decently safe. Then, pitch the tarp, and off into the dark to see if I could find any coons.
The funny thing about Raccoon hunting is this, all my friends are usually much more successful than I am. But then again, I hunt raccoon the legal way. My preferred method of raccoon hunting is to sit in the bush, all lights off, and call them in with a raccoon squawl or a fighting coon call. This usually works great if the coons are close by, but that's not always the case. Tonight was a peach of a night to be out though! Cool as a cucumber! and calm too; I could hear everything! A few lone mice flipped leaves looking for food around me. I could hear the uneven sound of rabbits loping around through the scrub. And what is more, I could hear the scratch of claws supporting a heavy body scrambling around in the tree tops. That's a good sign! After a good sit, with nothing coming in to my calls, I decided to check out the area where I heard the coons up in the trees. I've found coons will often times hear you coming towards them, then they will find a fat branch, high up in a tree, to hide behind; virtually invisible to the naked eye at night.
I decided to head back to camp around night time noon (that's mid night for all you day time folks). My shelter was a tarp, a sleeping bag, and the clothes on my back. The whole thing was just an idear I thought of on my way out here. I call it, the tarp burrito, you can check it out in the YouTube video here>>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV92sa6Ncb0
The whole shelter actually kept me pretty warm the whole night, granted, the majority of that success comes from dressing properly for the occasion. I slept in all my layers, these include a polyester tshirt as the base layer, then fleece long sleeve and pants, then a tightly woven wind and rain proof coat and snow pants. I was content as a fat coon in a nice den :) As I flipped back the tarp to great the balmy 20 degree F morning, I had to do the full round of stretching to work the stiffness out of the joints. Then, off to the woods I went to collect some chow!
In the day light, I could easily see habitat and what I wish I would have see last night. I saw plenty of narly old coon den trees (oh, I'll be back another night. You can count on that!) And I finally spotted a squirrel dart up a huge cotton wood tree in the distance. As I neared the tree the squirrel was no where to be seen, but I would consider myself as close to a professional squirrel hunter as they come, and I know the ways of the squirrel! (You may laugh, but its true :D ) I parked my hieny about 20 yards away form that tree and worked my magic, which entails a whole lot of nothing. The trick with squirrels is a little patience and know-how. You see, squirrels will climb a tree and hid on top of a branch so you can't see them, but they're curious. They know they didn't hear you leave, so they quietly sneak over to another branch and peak their head out to watch. If they see you, they'll just sit there and watch you, and if they don't see you, after five or ten minutes, they'll start to move again. So I just sat there, enjoying the view, and on the other side of the tree, I spotted the rust-red colored head of my Fox Squirrel peaking over a branch at me, and that's all I needed. You don't have to worry about moving too much as you get into shooting position, they won't move. They think you haven't spotted them. So I raised my Ruger .22 and squeezed off one shot, which is all I ever need, and I had breakfast!

Back at camp I went to work skinning the squirrel and preparing a fire, which you can check out on the video if you fancy that too :) Whenever I cook any meat out in the wild, I prefer to cook it as a stew if I have a metal container of some sort.

First, I just think it tastes a lot better, and second, you will loose a lot of nutrients to the fire if you just roast your food. Essentially, when roasting food, the fire will burn off some of the nutrients your body would normally burn, and out in the wild, you'll need all you can get! I just bring water to a rolling boil, chop the meat into as small of pieces as my cold hands will allow, and cook it until it's not red on the inside. I know, my cooking is really sophisticated. But there's just something about harvesting your own food, cooking it over a fire you started with a spark, and surviving like our ancestors did. It just connects you; it completes a fella and feeds the primitive fire within us all. Don't misunderstand this now, survival really sucks! You're hungry, cold, and aching all over most of the time, and you feel miserable. That's why we all live in houses with heating and plumbing and the works. But knowing you have the ability to make it out there, to survive, well it makes you feel pretty boss, and gives you a new perspective on life. I encourage you to get out there and feed your wild within!

Franklin's Gulls for Fall Break

As any other college student, I was very much looking forward to fall break, and of course, I planned to spend every minute outside, in the bush, and away from the city. I was struck with a brilliant idea of going swimming with some water birds. So Monday morning I was up before the sun peaked over the roof tops around my house. I wolfed down a bowl of cereal, then threw a towel and my camera gear into my pack, and proceeded to the garage to squeeze into my wet suit (I would much rather put a wet suit on in a mildly warm garage as oppose to the brisk beach of a lake) I also threw my work coat and jeans on over my wet suit, so I wouldn't look like a goof at the gas station when I filled up my car. I then shouldered my pack and strode out into the cold dark suburban air. A quick double check in my car's trunk to make sure my flippers and breathing tube where with me, and I was off!

As I rolled into the Wildlife Management Area (WMA) I was pleased to see I would be the only one there (There's just something interesting about a fella in a wet suit that makes spectators out of most Nebraskans). With my swim gear in one hand, camera gear in the other, and pack on my back, I soon realized I probably could have left half of this at home, and with insulation of my wet suit and work coat, I felt like a walrus crawling across the Sahara desert.

Words can't describe the feeling of being a Walrus with too much blubber.

After lugging all my equipment the longest mile in my life, I was greeted with the sight of one of the most beautiful lake coast lines in these parts. This secrete spot consists of a 30 foot high cliff face that extends a good 80 yards along the lake, with a decent silt sand beach below. It isn't much for swimming because the water is only a foot deep for at least 50 yards out. But these shallow mud flats attract a plethora of different water fowl. My hopes were to find some out past the mud flats in the deeper water, so I could swim under and catch one. However, on this cold morning, I found the flocks were holding tight and resting on the mud flats.

As I scoped out the lake shore for hunters or hikers, I realized, it's going to be pretty darn hard to sneak up on these birds if they are in the shallows, as I will not have the invisibility cloak of water to cover my body. I found a good chuck of bark and figured I would where it as a hat to at least break up the outline of my head. I zipped up my wet suit, threw on my wet boots, face mask, and goggles (though I probably would not need them). I left my gloves behind, so I could operate my water proof camera, (HUGE MISTAKE!) I didn't make it 20 yards in my approach before my hands were burning numb and I had to return to my launch point to muscle my wet gloves onto my lifeless hands. Okay, take two! I slipped back into the water like a crocodile, so as not to make any noticeable ripples, and began my second approach. It's important to realize, I'm a log in 8 inches of 38 degree F water, and I have to move at a rate of maybe 10 feet per minute, because I'm a log. It's cold!

Many of the Franklin's Gulls towards the inside of the flock
Take this time to rest, while the birds on the outside of the huddle
 stand watch

My approach brings me closer and closer to a flock of Franklin's Gulls. These are a smaller vision of the classic Sea Gulls we all see in the summer time. Franklin's Gulls are a strong social bird, commonly found in large flocks. In my case, it would seem as though I didn't find just a flock, I found a whole nation of Franklin's Gulls.

Franklin's Gulls are distinguished by the white patched around their eyes,  and the black blotch, that looks like they're wearing a pair of Beats head phones, which spans across the top of there head to each eye. Another unique characteristic of these birds is a red bill. During the summer time the Franklin's Gull's bill turns a cherry red, and changes to black during the fall and winter time; if you look closely you can see a bit of red coloration on the bill of this Franklin's Gull.

I can only imagine how tired these birds must be, flying all the way from Canada to Argentina. What a vacation!! That must be why many of these birds towards the middle of the flock are sleeping. I learned the birds on the outside of the huddle keep watch and constantly chirp to communicate with the other birds, while the birds towards the middle close their eyes and rest before a day's flight.

The interesting part of approaching these birds was that they never flew off. They generally just scooted back away from the oddly shaped log that was crawly through the mud towards them. My approach finally ended as the flock broke into an absolute cloud of birds. There were so many over head that they shaded the sun from shining through.As the birds settled back onto the mud flat, I retired to my shore camp, tore off my wet suit, and dried off, reflecting on the amazing experience of the nation of Franklin's Gulls.

Juvenile Bull Snake

After a successful morning of bush-wacking, and adventuring to new virgin territories. I stopped by my car for a bit of a pre-lunch (a banana and granola bar, if you were wondering). I quick changed into some shorts and my Merrell Trail Glove trail running shoes. These Bareform shoes are the lightest, quietest shoes my feet have ever have the pleasure of inhabiting. I bounced off to the next trail head feeling like my feet had wings.
This afternoon, I planned a quick 3 mile trail run before I would leave the park. Over-pass Trail was the habitat of focus for this trail run. A steep up hill switchback led to a mile stretch across the bluff ridge which over looked the great Missouri River, before the trail ducked back into the woods. The trail was pleasantly littered with walnuts and acorns, and I could feel every bump or root in the trail through the Vibram soles of my Trail Gloves. It was a perfect 73 degrees afternoon.

This little Bull snake was trying to warm up in the afternoon
sun, on the hiking trail.

As I was scanning the trail for any roots or tree branches that might trip me up, I noticed a familiar tan form with black blotches down the length of his slender body. A Bull snake!!! What a marvelous find! He was only a juvenile, I wouldn't put him past 3 years old, in my opinion. Bull snakes at this age can be great filming subjects, because they haven't experienced many human interactions yet.

So I methodically set down my pack and began setting up my filming gear. It's important to remember, snakes react to fast, sudden movements. Snakes can sense your foot step vibrations through specialized sensor organs in their bellies. So generally a snake knows your presences before you are aware for theirs. Yet snakes will often times just stay still; this is because they know they are relatively camouflaged and if they moved they would give away their position. Therefore, by using slow, normal movements, you act like you haven't noticed the snake, and he feels unthreatened and content with staying put. But once you leave the area, you can bet the snake will give up his camo position and find a safer place to chill.  

Here the little champ is trying to act big and mean by hissing.

This little Bull snake posed for a few pictures like a stud, and was generally docile for filming. He even mustered up a few tail rattles and hisses for some awesome talking points in the video. I released the little champ, snapped a few final pictures, and was on my way down the rest of the trail. Check out the YouTube video here  It turned out pretty good, besides the sun glare.
Filled with a sense of enrichment and satisfaction which only the wilderness can provide, I returned to my car and bid Ponca State Park "Good bye." Until I return next year, my wilderness adventures will continue on, and hopefully I can share my adventures with all who are interested via Wildimpact!!!