Wildlife at the Watering Hole

 The days are getting warmer, so the kids asked the other day if they could go to the swimming hole with their friends. Sure, why not?

A little garter snake was hanging out there.

Desert Boy asked if he could catch it, and I said yes. He quickly captured it.

 It wasn't very big.

Desert Girl came over to check it out. Do you notice what she's wearing? It looks like she wants to go swimming.

Ava gave it a try, but it was cold!

Desert Girl's expression is what mine would be if I got in the water! Needless to say, there was a lot more time on the beach than in the water. We're approaching high water now, so the streams are up and dirty. That should give us a nice sandy bottom in part of our swimming hole. We like the sand a lot better than the silt when we're walking in the pond!

Finding Mountain Lion Tracks

 One weekend we decided to go for a family hike. The kids were not thrilled, but my husband and I were so glad to get out of the house. It was chilly, but we really haven't had much snow, so we could go on trails that were higher up in elevation. Desert Boy and I were ahead, and when we left the meadow and entered the forest, we noticed some big tracks in the snow. There are only two animals that will make tracks that big around here and in that shape--big dogs and mountain lions. These tracks were all by themselves (not with a human), and there weren't any claw marks (dogs always have claw marks, cats sometimes do, but usually they are retracted), so I was pretty comfortable saying these were mountain lion tracks.

Desert Boy ran back to tell dad and Desert Girl.

We continued hiking, finding the mountain lion had also hiked on the trail. We stopped to check out the new trail signs. Hopefully there will soon be a map/kiosk at the trailhead so folks will know where these trails go.

The tracks continued along the trail, and we tried to guess when the mountain lion had walked where we were now walking.

Then we got distracted by ice on the creek. We didn't let the kids play there long, knowing the outcome would be wet, cold feet.

Eventually the mountain lion veered away and we got back to the trailhead. We still had some extra energy, so it was time to walk on the walls. And then jump across the gaps. To my surprise, Desert Boy decided to jump across a rather large gap. It had intimidated me a little, and he was much shorter. I didn't say anything, I just let him give it a try.

And he made it! With the jump and the mountain lion tracks, a pleasant hike turned into a memorable one.

Scales and Tails--Close Up with Reptiles

My friend Jenny arranged for Scales and Tails to come out and do a presentation for the elementary schools and community. I missed the first part, but when I arrived, everyone was thoroughly engaged in the presentation. I quickly saw why. Jeremy Westerman was an excellent presenter.

For example, he had Daisy put on huge gloves and prepped her to take out the creature inside the black box. He asked if she had quick reflexes. She said yes. He asked if she was brave. She said yes, a little hesitantly. He told her it was a good thing she was taking the animal out, because he didn't want his fingers to be bitten off. Daisy was a good sport, and although she looked a little uncomfortable, she stayed up there. Finally came the moment of the grand unveiling.

Out came a red-footed tortoise. Not exactly a rip-your-hand off animal.

Then out came Tortellini, the baby tortoise.

If you go small, why not go really big? Here's Twinkle Toes, a 100-pound Suicata tortoise. The kids got to pet the tortoise shell and Twinkle Toes started grazing on the grass. Jeremy pointed out she's the perfect lawn keeper, mowing it in the front and fertilizing it out the back.

Next up was Charlie Brown, a dumeris boa.

And then came the green anaconda, who kept trying to strangle Jeremy. That looked like a really powerful snake!

Meanwhile, Twinkle Toes kept grazing. Some of the kids weren't too sure of it.

Out came one more snake, Nanners, an albino burmese python.

The kids got to pet her too.

Then it was picture time.

This is a monitor, an animal I didn't recall seeing before.

After the show, the younger kids went inside and drew a picture of their favorite animal.

I went back out and saw that the fun was continuing, with a repeat showing of the American alligator, who decided to make a run for it.

This program was entertaining for both kids and adults and we hope to have them back out again.

Bat Banding

 Last night was the last night of the Nevada BatBlitz, a weeklong event held annually at different locations around the state. (I wrote about the 2014 one here.) This year it was held in and near Great Basin National Park, and I participated two nights. This night we headed to Rose Guano Cave in the beautiful evening sunlight, scrambling up the rock with a bunch of gear.

This old sign soon will be updated, as recent studies have found that millions of bats use this cave for a night or two as they fly south in late summer. Where do they spend the summer? Hmmm, well north of Rose Guano Cave probably, but only a few locations have been identified, and certainly not enough for millions of bats. Lots of other questions remain about their migration routes (they don't use Rose Guano Cave on their way north in the spring, so where do they go?) and wintering and summering grounds.

Nearby is a beautiful arch. Sometime I'll have to explore it more.

The views into Spring Valley are great. In the distance is a wind farm, Nevada's only wind farm. Wind farms cause a lot of bat mortalities due to the pressure difference as the blades go around. A bat doesn't have to be struck by a blade to die, but the barotrauma (pressure difference) can cause their lungs to burst. Fortunately, the wind farm has tried to reduce bat mortality by turning off the blades when large numbers of bats come out of the cave.

You can smell the cave before you get to it due to the massive amounts of guano in it. That guano attracted attention and a mining claim was filed on it. An adit was built into the guano chamber in 1926, and early miners sold the guano as fertilizer and possibly to make explosives. Guano is high in phosphates and nitrates. The note on the wall below says: Danger Positively No Trespassing Rose Guano Mining Claim.

Located near that wall is this pole with sensors on it. A pole on the other side of the cave entrance looks similar. These sensors send a beam across, and when it is broken, that beam break is counted. There are two arrays on one side so bat egress (exit) and ingress (entrance) can be counted. The data is transmitted real time to the wind farm, so they know when to turn the wind turbines off. These sensors have helped biologists understand a lot more about bat use of the cave.

As some folks were setting up the gear to trap the bats, I ventured into the cave entrance a bit, the first time I've ever done that. We could see a deep pit below us that went down into the dark. The bats go further back into the cave. The smell of the guano was so strong that after a few minutes I was feeling a little queasy, and we weren't even next to the guano! It's amazing that the bats can withstand such high levels of ammonia.

Because so many bats fly out of this cave, only a single trap is used, called a harp trap. Fishing line is strung vertically, and when the bats encounter it, they slide down into the canvas bag at the bottom.

Here's a view of the cave entrance from inside. Before long the bats would start flying and darkness would descend.

Putting some high-tech finishes on the harp trap--pool noodles, to help the bats from getting injured.

Once everything was set up, we just had to wait for the bats to start flying. Folks from Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), BLM, Great Basin National Park, Nevada Natural Heritage Program, Death Valley National Park, and Lake Mead National Recreation Area were helping.

Before long the bats started exiting. One comes out first, circles around, and reports back to the others. Then just a few stream out at a time, and then it can be hundreds per minute. They generally head south, towards the agricultural fields, where they will eat their weight in insects every night. Some will return to the cave for another night, others continue their trip south.

As they fell in the harp trap, those with rabies shots picked them up and determined gender, age (adult/juvenile), tooth wear, and reproductive status. A small metal band was attached to the arm.

Here is one of the banding stations.

It took about a minute or two to process each bat, then it was released.

We banded about 250 bats in less than two hours. This brings the total that NDOW has banded this summer up to 5,000! Wow. Hopefully the bands will help researchers learn lots more about where these bats spend their lives.

First Hike of Summer Vacation

 On Desert Boy's first day of summer vacation, I took the morning off so we could go for a hike while Desert Girl went to her last day of preschool. We invited some friends and started at the gravel pit. The kids ran free and migrated to the steep slopes.

They thought it was so much fun to be able to climb where ever they wanted and then slide down.

I climbed up one side for an overview of the gravel pit and the hill we were going to climb.

When we started off on our hike, it quickly turned into a lizard hunting expedition.

The baby horned lizards weren't too hard to catch.

As soon as they let one lizard go, they would find another to chase.

These collared lizards are really neat looking.

I am always impressed by how well the horned lizards blend in with their environment.

We managed to keep moving uphill despite the numerous lizards.

And then we were all at the top!

Aidan wanted to go check out the nearby peak.

The clouds were building, so we didn't stay up there too long.

We took a slightly different way down and found these neat fossils.

The kids also took the time to stop and smell the desert cacti flowers.

And found bones.

It was a wonderful hike. We got back just in time for the last ten minutes of recess.

The graduating preschoolers stood together with new bags of goodies from their teacher.

And here's Teacher Gwendy with them. She's had such a big influence on them, starting off their academic careers. These three are very well prepared for kindergarten, knowing all their letters and even sounding out words, writing numbers and doing some simple arithmetic. The best part is that they can't wait to do more. And I'm so appreciative of preschool because they've learned how to share and get along with their peers. And only take one activity out of a time and put it away before getting out the next one.

Thanks so much, Teacher Gwendy!