Clear days...

Today was another day of conducting Engelmann oak surveys for me. Engelmanns are very rare in Western Riverside county and we are interested in keeping track of survivorship and recruitment of individual trees from year to year. Our points today were at the Santa Rosa Plateau, which consists mostly of oak-grassland habitats. Unfortunately, our points were along a creek bed that was in a canyon full of poison oak. So in a few days I may be itchy.

I'm looking forward to next week because we start training for conducting carnivore surveys at work. From what I understand we will be clearing out plots of land (several meters squared in size) so all that remains is a patch of bare dirt or sand. We'll probably then smooth out the dirt (with a rake?) and come back the next day to look for signs (e.g., tracks, scat, etc.) that mammalian carnivores have passed through. Some such surveys will bait the plots with attractive scents, but placing the plots along clearly used game trails will almost guarantee that carnivores will pass by. The species we will hopefully get some tracks from include mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, weasels (including badgers), and gray foxes. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of tracks once the study starts next month.

Weather here is really nice. Not only are the temperatures great (in the mid-80s), but we have blue skies and very clean, clear air. You can't beat that down here.