This is a photo of my fresh start at the “crying plot” from my last blog post, Highs and Lows. I had oriented myself to face east when I quickly realized I would be walking towards the sun. In the photo you can see the dragonfly I walked around (I know I don’t like to be stirred up in the morning). You can barely see the waterlogged path I was going to take to conduct the transect:
Before leaving home this time, I tied my hiking boots tight (I never wore my rubber boots again). Nothing was going to stop me from conducting a transect this morning. Hopefully I was also going to avoid falling. Most of our equipment hangs from our neck. If you fall forward, everything will get wet. A few of our things are waterproof like our Garmins, but some are not, as Katy found with our walkie-talkies one day.
To conduct transects for the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow Project requires field technicians to carry (for photos and a full list of all of our equipment, check out What’s in My Bag? by my colleague, Laura Young):
-Binoculars
-a Garmin
-Compass
-Clipboard with datasheets
-Walkie-talkies (that are not waterproof and are kept in Ziploc bags)
-Pencils
Conducting transects is important for the project, but keeping ourselves safe and happy matters as well. To do this we wear/carry:
-Boots that fit (Hiking or rubber boots)
-Light-weight pants and long sleeve shirts
-Hat (or sunscreen)
-Water
-Snacks
There’s one piece of equipment that we added today that really did the trick for walking in this plot. Take a look at the photo below and see if you can spot it: