Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Switching parks soon!
I've enjoyed my summer here at Montauk State Park, but they're not going to be able to keep me on through the fall as we'd hoped. However, I found out that Sam A. Baker State Park was looking for a full-time naturalist to work through the fall, and today I found out that I got the job! I'll be starting there next week - although I will be coming back to Montauk one more time, as I already promised to help with programs during the holiday.
Hognose snakes – such drama!
Hognose snakes are known for their dramatic performances.
Specifically, the lengths they go to in order to persuade whatever has
frightened them that messing with them is a bad idea. They have several
variations:
First, they will shake their tail very hard so that it
rustles the leaves and might just make you think they are a rattlesnake. A lot of nonvenomous snakes do this
particular trick, actually.
They will pretend to strike, but instead of biting they just
head-butt you. If you saw a snake dart out at you and you felt something, you’d probably be fooled!
They will flatten out their neck and rear up like a cobra!
(This is the one from the Naturalist office here at Montauk State Park – Steve sometimes
takes it out and provokes it into doing this. I do not, as I have no confidence
in my ability to keep it from heading for the hills.)
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Tiny snakes
Earlier this summer, my coworker Azmyth brought in a brown
snake that she caught in her yard on her day off when she was moving boxes. She
had read that they do well in captivity, and this one did. Not all snakes do.
She was not much bigger than a pencil, and that’s as big as they get – one of
those things that produces the tiny rustle when you’re out hiking and then you
can’t see anything. They eat worms, slugs, things like that.
We suspected she was pregnant, but didn’t know for sure. Then, on August 6, I went to show her to a visitor and realized she was not alone! There were several baby snakes in there!
Showing the park off to family
On July 28, my sister Joanne and her friend Amanda came to
visit the park! They arrived a little before lunchtime, so we started with a
walk at Montauk Spring. It was as lovely as ever, although I was disappointed
they didn’t get to see the muskrat. Or even a snake!
This is one of those pretty little flowers that is too small to make it into the flower book.
A close encounter at Montauk Spring
On July 21 I was scheduled to do a nature walk at Montauk
Spring. Sadly, no one showed. However, I walked out to the spring anyway, and
was glad I did!
Bellflowers at the trail entrance.
Friday, August 19, 2016
Feeding another snake
Most of our snakes eat mice. Our cottonmouth eats fish. The
plains hognose snake eats mostly toads in the wild, so when Steve saw one next
to his tomato plants, he grabbed it and told me to go give it to the hognose!
He must have been hungry, because the second I dropped the toad in he was
attacking it.
Warning: pictures below!
A better look at Montauk Spring
I have been writing and presenting programs here at Montauk
since my first weekend. Several of them were the result of watching Steve give
a program and then writing my own version of the same topic. However, the goal
is to keep a good variety, so I kept trying to think of something different. I
decided I wanted to plan a nature walk at Montauk Spring – it’s an easy walk, a
clear trail, and a good possibility of seeing wildlife in the spring. I decided
to go and walk the trail and plan my program. This was on July 10.
The first thing I saw at the parking area was a big bunch of
pokeberry bushes. Any program I did here would have to start with a PSA about
how extremely poisonous they are.
Temporary residents of the Naturalist Office
People sometimes bring us critters. One of the people who
works at the hatchery frequently finds frogs and other small animals trapped in
the intake pool. These are two of our temporary residents, both brought in
during the first week of July.
A visitor brought us a tiny box turtle. The girl really
liked looking at all our animals, and holding the snakes, and telling the other
kids who came in about the snakes before I could – it could have been annoying,
but I just kept reminding myself that I
was exactly like that when I was her age… It’s just that now they pay me
for it! Anyway, she came back to the Naturalist Office several times, and the
last time it was to show us her turtle. She had found it, but was worried
because it wasn’t eating, so she agreed to let us keep it. We kept her name for
it, which was Blackberry.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Spotting the Bald Eagle nest, and first visit to Montauk Spring
It’s been fun working here at Montauk State Park. I’m one of
three naturalists – the other two are Steve, who is here permanently, and
Azmyth, who is a seasonal like me. The position includes not only presenting
interpretive programs and providing visitor information, but also resource
management, like trail maintenance, invasive weed eradication, and working on
the unfinished part of the historic mill. Luckily, I prefer to do more
programming and Azmyth prefers to do more outdoor work, so she and I get along
pretty well! Steve does programs, and resource management, but also has to do a
lot of other administrative-type stuff, including driving out to help at the
new state park that got established earlier this summer, so he was glad to have
two of us helping to divide the labor. That also meant that I had to start
doing programs right away!
On July 1, after making sure the three of us would all be
in at the same time, Steve drove us around the park to several different areas
he wanted us to see. The first was to a spot where we could access the Pine
Ridge Trail where it crosses the road – much faster than doing the entire
two-mile loop! We walked a little way along the trail, then he led us off-trail
to where we could see the eagle nest that has been active every year for a long
time.
Can you spot it?
Feeding the Snake
The house I've been staying in this summer in is actually one of the
old cabins built by the CCC – although it’s got electricity, and plumbing, and – thank goodness!
– air conditioning. It’s a duplex, with two bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom on each side, and since there was only one
other seasonal using it, we each had a side to ourself – with the understanding
that someone else might get moved in at any time, and we would have to double
up. It was a pretty good accommodation.
Unfortunately it also had a high cricket population. Every
night I would come in and when I turned on the light there would be crickets
everywhere! I started catching them and putting them in an old orange juice
bottle, and bringing them in to the Naturalist Office to feed to the fish and
the frogs. Apparently I really put a dent in the population, because now I only see
one every once in a while.
Then there was a mouse. And it kept raiding the mousetrap
without getting caught. Steve gave me a “tin cat”, a live trap, and that did
it. He told me to bring whatever I caught in to the office, and we would feed
it to one of the snakes.
WARNING: snake pictures below the cut!
First time on the job site - Montauk State Park
I’m going to be posting a series of entries with photos of
Montauk State Park, where I’ve been working as a seasonal naturalist this
summer.
I found out about the job opening at in June, and on June 10
I went in for my interview. My dad drove out there with me – any excuse for a
road trip! But it was nice to not have to try and find it by myself.
It’s a bit of a drive, almost three hours – southwest from
St. Louis to Rolla, then straight south, then up and down and around on back
roads. After the first section, we needed a break, and Dad knew to look for a
place called Lane Spring, just south of Rolla. It’s part of Mark Twain National Forest.
We took a short walk out to the spring, and saw something very unexpected.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Hummingbirds!!!
Last weekend there was a special program here at Montauk
State Park. Lanny Chambers, a master bird bander who specializes in
hummingbirds, was set up in front of the lodge on Sunday and spent the morning
capturing,measuring, banding, and releasing hummingbirds, while his wife Linda
recorded all the information. They were here a month ago, but I didn’t get any
pictures because it started raining shortly after they started, and handling
hummingbirds with wet fingers can catch on the feathers and injure the birds.
So, happily, I was able to watch Lanny in action again!
The bait for the trap was a hummingbird feeder, with a cage set up around it and a trapdoor attached to a string. Once the birds got inside, the door came down. Now all that was left was to catch them!
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Sorry, I disappeared into the woods
I’m still alive! I had gotten behind in posting about the hikes I was
doing all spring, and then I finally got a job, which distracted me further.
This time it is a state park – Montauk State Park, which is only a few hours
from St. Louis. I got the job pretty suddenly – I was waiting to hear back
about a bunch of national park jobs, but that system had gotten backed up. I found
out that Montauk SP was looking for a seasonal naturalist, so I emailed a
resume. I talked to someone on the phone and he said they were interested and
asked me to come in for an interview – but when I got there it turned out that
they had already decided to hire me, and the interview was more of an overview!
And I started less than a week later, on June 16!
It’s been a little hectic, because this park puts on interpretive programs every day during the summer, so I had to learn some and write some new ones pretty quickly. But it’s also a lot of fun! This park is primarily a destination for trout fishing, but since all but the most determined fishermen need a break now and then, we have mill tours, and “critter encounters” at the Naturalist’s Office – or they can just come in and look at the animal pelts, and the snakes. I have really been enjoying the snakes – we take them out a lot, for people to touch and hold, or just for fun when we need a break!
There is another seasonal naturalist, Azmyth, and the Chief Naturalist is Steve. Everyone loves Steve – he’s been here for years and everyone knows him. He has been telling me that there are a lot of projects that we will be working on once the school year starts and there aren’t as many visitors – we will still do programs, especially on the weekends, but there is a lot of other stuff to do behind the scenes. It’s going to be interesting to see what – we’ve been doing things here and there all along, but there will be a lot more time.
I haven’t done any hiking yet because it’s been so hot – temperatures in the 90s and heat advisories – but I have walked out to Montauk Spring several times – I am working on organizing some pictures to post. I have also done several night hikes – walks, really, out by Montauk Lake, which is more of a long pond. I did one last night, in fact, and we saw a deer and two armadillos! No other big critters, but in the clear water we saw multiple crayfish and sculpin. And the huge trout in their pool, waiting to be released into the river.
List of wildlife seen since I started working here a month and a half ago:
It’s been a little hectic, because this park puts on interpretive programs every day during the summer, so I had to learn some and write some new ones pretty quickly. But it’s also a lot of fun! This park is primarily a destination for trout fishing, but since all but the most determined fishermen need a break now and then, we have mill tours, and “critter encounters” at the Naturalist’s Office – or they can just come in and look at the animal pelts, and the snakes. I have really been enjoying the snakes – we take them out a lot, for people to touch and hold, or just for fun when we need a break!
There is another seasonal naturalist, Azmyth, and the Chief Naturalist is Steve. Everyone loves Steve – he’s been here for years and everyone knows him. He has been telling me that there are a lot of projects that we will be working on once the school year starts and there aren’t as many visitors – we will still do programs, especially on the weekends, but there is a lot of other stuff to do behind the scenes. It’s going to be interesting to see what – we’ve been doing things here and there all along, but there will be a lot more time.
I haven’t done any hiking yet because it’s been so hot – temperatures in the 90s and heat advisories – but I have walked out to Montauk Spring several times – I am working on organizing some pictures to post. I have also done several night hikes – walks, really, out by Montauk Lake, which is more of a long pond. I did one last night, in fact, and we saw a deer and two armadillos! No other big critters, but in the clear water we saw multiple crayfish and sculpin. And the huge trout in their pool, waiting to be released into the river.
List of wildlife seen since I started working here a month and a half ago:
Deer – and fawns!
Raccoons
Woodchucks/groundhogs
Beaver
Muskrats
Opossum
Skunks
Skunks
Armadillos
Little Brown Bats
Big Brown Bats (they are still small!)
Barred Owls
The owls flew into the campground amphitheater in response to a CD of
owls calling. They thought they heard a party starting up and wanted to know
where everybody was! I’m going to be doing that program tonight, for the first
time – but I’m fairly certain the owls will show up, and that’s all anybody is
going to remember, whether or not I flub the first part!
I still have not yet seen a mink or an otter. I really want to see an otter. I mean, I REALLY want to see an otter. Multiple otters. Fortunately, it looks like I will be here all the way through October, so I have plenty of time to hope to see them!
I still have not yet seen a mink or an otter. I really want to see an otter. I mean, I REALLY want to see an otter. Multiple otters. Fortunately, it looks like I will be here all the way through October, so I have plenty of time to hope to see them!
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