Accidentally Amagical: Finally!!

We have finally been given the green light to start field season. Actually, that was Thursday. We (Brittany and I) made the 2 hour trip to Merryville, Louisiana early Friday morning. Looking back, we really should have gotten here earlier, but I was unfamiliar with the route and suck driving in the dark so we left a little before sunrise. The reason I said we should have gotten here earlier is I spaced on the fact that there is zero shade in the majority of these stands. Granted the eucalyptus is about 10 ft tall, but they are skinny and offer no shade. Half our pine reference stands (the ones that represent age) are only calf high so there really is no shade in those. The temps thus far have only been in the lower to mid 80's but the sun is scorching when you are carrying so much, trying to avoid falling in holes or chokeing on smilax, and going up and down rows.

I was really surprised how they planted the eucs. It honestly looks like they just ran over everything with a bulldozer, plowed up rows and stuck the eucs in. They did not pick up burnt slash or remove some snags. There are some stands where it looks like they ran out of herbicide and sweetgums and oaks have started to grow in. Each stand is different from the next. One will be full of broomsedge and wild flowers and another will be full of hardwood encroachment. Some have horrible high rows where others don't. Then some might have lots of left over debris while another wouldn't hardly have any.

Although we were in the stand a little later than you would want to be to hear the most birds, we heard a lot of them in the euc stands. Though, I am not sure if it was because they were utilizing the snags or not, but we will document if the birds we see were on snags or not to see if that might be it.

Our second day went much better than the first. We left at 4 am to try to beat the heat, finished this weeks pitfall traps for insect collection, and found out we were cleared for field housing. Granted the communication for this wonderful discovery was anything but ideal, but everything worked out.

So we came back to Nac early, ate an awesome dinner at Buther Boys to celebrate (homemade bacon ranch burgers!!), slept in (sleeping till 8 am!!), did laundry and packed for the week.

We are now settled in, have tomorrow's agenda planned out and are waiting on Game of Thrones (wifi in field housing what?!?). Needless to say, and without going into much detail, it has already been a learning experience. Even though I have already been frustrated and sometimes discouraged, I am very thankful for this opportunity, to have one of my greatest friends go through the frustration, heat, and joys with me, and to have my wonderful husband to support me. I don't know if I could have really got this far with as much sanity as I have without them.

Tomorrow starts bird surveys and insect fogging so I'm off to sleep so we can get up before dawn. Don't worry, I'll go into more detail about housing and fun times in the field later. For now, blessed be and I hope you enjoy some pictures from this week.