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.

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!

They will be here one more time this year, on Labor Day weekend.

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!

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:

Deer – and fawns!

Raccoons

Woodchucks/groundhogs

Beaver

Muskrats

Opossum
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!

Leaving the nest is scary!

The nest may be empty, but the babies are still babies! We've been hearing the distinctive sound of a baby robin that has fledged - left the nest - but still acts helpless and gets fed by its parents. Today Dad spotted one! We're pretty sure that it's not one of the babies that left the nest in the pine tree last week, because it is still too small - it has no tail feathers at all yet, hasn't been out as long as that.

New neighbors!

Two weeks ago I was looking through binoculars trying to spot a grackle nest in the pine tree behind our house. I had seen grackles flying up there with beaks full of grass, so I knew they were up there somewhere! I did find them eventually, but first I spotted another nest - this one occupied by robins! We had a good view from the back door, and could see the robins taking turns on the nest.

A few days ago we suddenly spotted babies in the nest. Big ones! I had thought the parents were still sitting on eggs, and these were practically shoving each other over the side! I stood at the back door experimenting with my new camera, which has an extremely good optical zoom - like a miniature telephoto lens. These photos were taken zoomed in from about 35 feet away.

The very next day the nest was empty.

Fuzzy bird butts!

Feeding time! This worm lasted for only one picture...

Out in the woods - in Missouri!

There has been a bit of a time jump since my last post! I completed my season at Big South Fork and am now back in St. Louis - and have been so busy that I still have to finish sorting through all the pictures I took during my last few weeks in Tennessee! I plan to keep posting them, and I will backdate them so that they go up in chronological order.

In the meantime, I wanted to show some pictures from a trip I took last week, here in Missouri. I drove down to visit a friend near Cape Girardeau, and on the way back I took the scenic route and stopped first at Hawn State Park, then at St. Francois State Park. Most of the leaves were gone, but it was a bright clear day, cool but not cold, and the sunlight was beautiful. If I'd had more time I would have gone on a real hike, but just walking around near the creek and the river felt really good.

At Hawn I drove down, down, down into the picnic area, which is full of pine trees - shortleaf pine, Missouri's only native pine tree. Tall, and really moving in the breeze.

There is a little trail that cuts from the parking lot over to Pickle Creek. I started with that.

Not much color except for the pine trees, but I did find some.