Finding Frog Eggs

 A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to help the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) look for frog eggs in the West Desert. Above is a photo of a typical road in the West Desert. Actually, this is an excellent road in the West Desert. Many roads are just two-tracks. Wondering where the pavement is? There's a short section, about 100 m long. That's it. If you travel much in the West Desert, you invest in good tires. And you plan on a new windshield frequently.

I followed Kevin and Vanessa out into the marsh. We all wore hip waders and carried basic supplies in our packs.

We didn't see many frog egg masses at first, but I did like this snail shell.

The marsh alternates from alkaline soils to thick vegetation to springheads and channels. It makes walking a good workout.

While we were in the marsh, we heard aircraft. Dugway Proving Grounds is not too far to the north, and various military planes fly over this area.

Finally, some frog eggs! After frogs mate, the female lays a mass of eggs. Counting egg masses provides an estimate of the frog population. Each egg mass means two frogs. It's always amazing how many frog egg masses we find, because we never see or hear nearly that many adult frogs. Each egg mass has about 100 or so eggs. It takes a few weeks for the eggs to hatch into tadpoles.

We saw a number of these structures out in the marsh. The little white pipe holds a measuring device to measure the depth of water. Utah DWR is concerned about the water levels in this marsh because Southern Nevada plans to pump extensive amounts of groundwater south here.

Here's a view looking south. The highest snow-covered peaks are Jeff Davis and Wheeler Peak, part of Great Basin National Park.

The marsh is fascinating, with winding streams, a variety of vegetation, and quite a few birds. We also saw some fish: least chub, Utah chub, and speckled dace.

At lunch time I wandered over to a nearby spring. The water was an amazing color. Even more intriguing were the shifting sands on the bottom of the spring. The spiral soon changed into another shape. I could have happily sat in a lawn chair, drink in hand, under a sun umbrella, and watched that spring all afternoon.

I had forgotten to pack a lawn chair, so instead we headed to a different marsh to continue looking. Ahead of us was Gandy Salt Marsh Lake. Right now it has water, but by late in summer it's pretty much dry. Along its edge are numerous springs and marshes. It is an extremely hostile place, but even so, a remarkable amount of life can be found there.

We saw numerous northern leopard frogs.

We were mostly interested in Columbia spotted frogs, but we kept count of these guys, too.

I love being out in the West Desert. It is such a remote place, and I feel like I am in the wild. It is freeing, exhilarating, and just a little bit scary.

We had no problem finding frog egg masses in this area. One cluster had over 40 separate egg masses. That must have been one big frog orgy! (Or maybe they just all prefer the same habitat and feel the odds for their progeny to survive are best there. But that sounds a little boring.)

I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day, but it was well worth it. Hopefully these frogs and their offspring will be able to continue to enjoy the wilds of the West Desert for a very long time to come.

A Trip to the Beach

The other day I had the urge to go see some birds. I figured the beach would be a great place to go. Of course, the nearest beach isn't what most people might envision. We'll get to that in a moment.

Hundreds of mallards like hanging out near this beach, but they took off as I approached.

The Canada geese were quick to follow. It didn't help that I had Henry with me and he likes to chase birds.

I also had the kids with me, but they were content to start the hike to the beach with a snack. Desert Boy had packed everything in a big ziploc bag.

The geese on the other side of the pond were still hanging out.

Then it was time to hike. Desert Girl had some difficulty navigating the willows.

She made it, though.

That's when I noticed she still had a juice pouch in her hand. No wonder it was so hard to get over the branches.

Desert Boy was looking forward to this adventure with a lot of enthusiasm.

We were almost to the beach!

Can you see what's coming?

Desert Girl wanted to get to the other side.

Oops, maybe not this time.

Time to try again. Obviously Henry wasn't so shy about getting wet.

Those black boots were just the right footwear for this day.

If Desert Boy was on the other side, Desert Girl had to go too.

Henry was in heaven.

He did a lot of running.

Meanwhile Desert Girl was showing me her muddy hands. She seemed a little perturbed.

But then she went back to playing on the beach. Apparently a little mud was okay.

But a little more mud was worrisome.

Or maybe not.

What's better than a late afternoon on a muddy beach? Alas, it couldn't go on forever...

Eventually that mud got a little too cold.

Well, at least we had some time at the beach! Some day maybe we'll try for a different kind of beach!

Snow Survey

 Yesterday I helped do a snow survey up in the mountains. The snow survey measures the amount of snow at three snow courses. It's been done since the 1940s so there's a nice, long dataset to see how the years compare.

The snow survey is done twice each year, at the end of February and the end of March. Last year I went up to the first site in February and did the whole course in March. In March we could drive a couple miles up the road, which made for a shorter course that we all appreciated.

 The forecast was for 90% chance of precipitation and windy. We hoped that it would snow enough to cover up the crusty snow on the road and we would have some fresh powder for the ski down.

Five of us headed up to the first site.

 We made it off the road, knowing we weren't far from the first course. The snow wasn't all that deep, so we had to negotiate around bushes.

 Here's our group (except for me). It's still early in the day so we're looking strong!

 Jennie is fairly new to skiing, but she did an awesome job.

 We finished the first site and set off for the next site just before noon. We were able to travel fairly quickly because there wasn't too much snow. We took turns breaking trail and trying to figure out where the trail was.

This is an avalanche chute that had a major avalanche in 2005. The young aspen are now a few feet tall. As you can see by the lack of snow at the top of the chute, we didn't have any avalanche concerns on this trip!

My fancy skis. Like the duct tape? The skins just wouldn't stay on without them, and skins were critical to add extra friction to go up hill and slow me down going down hill.

Here I am with the snow tube on the third snow course. We use the tube to measure the depth of the snow and the water content. The snow wasn't super deep at any of the sites, but we'll have to wait for the numbers to see what percentage of normal we are.

We left the uppermost site at 4 p.m., which meant that we finished our ski in the moonlight. Yep, moonlight. That 90% chance of snow gave us a few flakes, but nothing measurable, and the snow clouds blew right over us.

We were all whooped by the time we got back to the vehicles. I think that's the longest ski trip I've ever been on, and my body felt it in many places! Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable day and I'd do it again.