In the Field — Part 1
It is one thing to describe an interview with a gorgon or a griffin, a creature who does not exist. It is another thing to discover that the rhinoceros does exist and then take pleasure in the fact that he looks as if he didn’t.
— G.K. Chesterton, writer and philosopher
When people ask me, “What made you want to study wildlife?”, I never really know how to answer. I usually give some response like “I love animals” or “I love nature/the outdoors”, and those statements are true. But that’s only a part of a much larger picture. The reason I chose this path, went to school and conducted fieldwork around the country for close to a decade, is hard to put into words. It’s almost ineffable. The feeling I have when I’m working outdoors, hands-on with wildlife is so fulfilling and feels as if there is nothing else worth spending my time doing. Additionally, the natural world is this insane playground that we are a part of, and to learn and understand the insanity is what drives me. As G.K. Chesterton says above, it really is a pleasure to see a creature that looks as if it doesn’t exist.
The past nine years of my life have had their fair share of ups and downs, both in the field and out of it. In 2015, I obtained a bachelor of science in wildlife and fisheries science from the University of Tennessee. In 2019, I obtained a master of science in biology from Pittsburg State University where I researched the effects of logging on songbirds. Also, I have lived in six different states working in deserts, grasslands, mountains, and forests. I guess you could call me a working vagabond, never settling in one place for very long. But that is the life for someone doing fieldwork in wildlife research. We work these jobs to gain experience so that we may continue our education at the graduate level or get that biologist position with the state or feds. At least, that’s the path I took and am still currently on.
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
— Aldo Leopold, father of wildlife management
I write this article to provide insight to my experiences over the past six years. Insight for those thinking about pursuing a career in wildlife research and to people who are curious about what it’s like to DO science. I’m particularly interested in reaching the latter group. People today have a large disconnect with nature and that makes me sad. All around us are these otherworldly beings and processes that are occurring. This disconnect results from people seeing land and nature as a commodity. But as Aldo Leopold says in A Sand County Almanac, if we can see land as a community that we are a part of, we will begin to gain love and respect for it. By writing this, I want to inspire people to go outside and be aware of this bizarre and magical world. This will be Part 1 of a multipart series which is organized around the states that I have lived and worked:
Part 1: Tennessee
- There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills
Part 2: Tennessee
- Bat Blitz
Part 3: Kentucky
- Bat Blitz 2: Electric Boogaloo
Part 4: Oklahoma
- Where the Wind Goes Sweeping Down the Plain
Part 5: New Mexico
- Land of Enchantment
- Wait, Was that a UFO?
Part 6: Kansas and Missouri
- Grad School Days
So join me as I take you on a journey across the United States experiencing the diversity of life and land that this continent has to offer.
Tennessee: There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills
In the summer of 2014, having just finished my junior year of college at the University of Tennessee, I found myself with my very first field job — a testament to the dedication and hard work put into my ornithology class that year. Having done well in that class, a graduate student of the ornithology professor offered me the opportunity to help work on his research for the summer. I was on cloud nine. Finally, I get to do what I’ve wanted to do the entire time I’ve been in school and get paid for it to boot! I was to help, as a part of team of other technicians, the graduate student collect data on how juvenile Golden-winged Warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera; a species of conservation concern) use habitat, how they survive from day-to-day, and how they move across the landscape in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee.
Known as a “telemetry study”, many research projects use this type of study when they want to ask questions about how animals move, behave, and use their environment. Telemetry studies involve capturing wildlife and attaching radio transmitters to them. Once a transmitter is attached, the animal is tracked each day using an an antenna that picks up the signal of the transmitter. I don’t want to go in much detail, but there is a kind of art in being able to track an animal using this method. The antenna is attached to a receiver which emits a beep when it receives the radio signal. As you get closer to the animal, the beep gets “louder”. It’s almost as if the sound becomes more forceful as you approach the animal (I still hear beeping to this day…). The differences in sound can be subtle, so it takes practice to become consistent at tracking.
You might ask, “But how are you able to get the transmitters on the birds?”. It’s a great question. During the beginning of the field, we would find male birds (not too difficult, just follow the singing!), find their respective females, and then follow those females to their nests.
Once a nest was found, we would record an estimate of the age of its eggs, its nestlings (babies), or both. We would also estimate an approximate date that nestlings would fledge which means to leave the nest. On that date, we would go to the nest, remove the “fledglings”, measure biometric data (weight, wing length, foot length,etc.) and attach transmitter harnesses around their backs. It was then the responsibility of the team to track each fledgling that had a transmitter daily to a locations. Fledglings are pretty easy to spot once you know what general area they’re in, especially when a very angry momma is flying in your face. Once we were able to determine the location of the birds, a GPS point was taken. This would allow us to go back to the point to conduct vegetation surveys. Vegetation surveys involve laying out a grid around each point and measuring things like species composition (what species are present), the coverage of those species (how much of a given area does each species occupy), canopy cover (if you look up, how much above you is occupied by empty space), and various ways of measuring visual obstruction (how concealed was the point at which you found the individual). It also involved a fair amount of pain.
“Oh god! There’s so much Rubus! Why is there so much Rubus!?” You might be wondering, “What’s Rubus?” and why is it such a bad thing? Rubus is a genus of plants in the rose family that include blackberries and raspberries. Blackberries are delicious, one of the best fruits there are, and are very abundant during the summers in the southeast United States. However, getting to that fruit can be very painful. Species in the genus have a special defense. THORNS. Oh god, the thorns. I can only describe it like being the scratching post of an overzealous cat. But shouldn’t I just be able to avoid them? Not really. In order to take accurate measurements during vegetation surveys, we must “play it as it lies”.
That means if a bird goes into a large blackberry bramble, you bet your ass you’re going in that bramble too. During one particularly challenging vegetation survey, Justin — the graduate student — was forced to crash through a large patch of blackberry. As you could imagine, being stabbed by hundreds of thorns wasn’t very enjoyable. However, there’s a silver lining. From this unfortunate scenario, I received a little nugget of wisdom from Justin. As he was crashing through the barbed wire of nature, he said, “Pain is temporary, science is forever”. It was silly and we all had a good laugh, but I liked the sincere gung-ho attitude behind it. Because, when you think about it, what a crazy thing to do willingly. But that’s what people in this field do, they are passionate about the work that they do even at the expense of some minor scratches. And hey, you get to snack on some wild blackberries. At the end of the field season, Justin gave us shirts with a cartoon Golden-winged Warbler printed on the front and his quote printed on the back. This was almost six years ago at this point; and I still wear that shirt and tell that story often.
Pain is temporary, science is forever.
— Justin, said while crashing through brambles
I learned a lot during that first field job. To begin with, fieldwork keeps you in shape — hiking five to ten miles a day keeps the weight off. Next, discomfort is the name of the game. Getting poked, scratched, bitten, falling down, drenched in sweat or water from the morning dew, etc. is going to be a regular part of the job. Get used to it. The faster you do, the more enjoyable everything else will be. Furthermore, I had a lot to improve upon. I wasn’t the best and chances are, you won’t be either. There’s no way around it. You’ve never done this before. Don’t expect to be some field research prodigy. Get out there and make an active effort. Ask questions. LEARN. Finding nests is an especially difficult skill that I wasn’t great at during that job. Many of my field experiences since then have involved nest searching and I’ve gotten better and better with every job. That’s the point of these field jobs. To build those skills. The skills I learned while in the Cumberland Mountains set the foundation for every other job I worked in the field.
And last but not least, snakes. Yes, snakes. Particularly rattlesnakes. One of the more common threads to my experiences. Timber rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) are a common snake in the Cumberland Mountains and were no stranger to our field sites. They are also a common predator of the species that we were working with. On several occasions, we would track a bird to the stomach of a recently fattened rattlesnake. By the end of the field season, we could tell which birds were in the stomach of a snake by the sound of the receiver alone. Also, on more than one occasion, I’ve been given the warning to STAY AWAY. If you’ve never heard a rattler a rattlin’, watch the video below. One of my very first rattlesnake encounters. If you’re particularly observant, you might actually see the snake.
Nothing like that sound to get your heart racing! The feeling is strangely exhilarating. Especially when you aren’t expecting it! Over the years, I’ve ran into countless rattlesnakes. Have had several rattle at me, but they have never EVER struck at me. People are scared of rattlesnakes, and rightly so. They are very dangerous animals and should be respected as such. But, they are not at all aggressive as some people may think. The likelihood of a rattlesnake chasing after you is low. In the animal kingdom, energy is the commodity. You don’t get it, you die. To spend that energy is a major choice. It has to be “worth it”. With this mentality, striking you is the last thing it wants to do. Again, these are very dangerous animals. I’m not suggesting you go out, and look for them and bother them. Rattlesnake venom is lethal. Do not take that lightly. But you can still observe its beauty. If you run into one, make sure you keep a safe distance and admire it from afar.
Aside from the rattlesnakes, I saw a vast diversity of wildlife species during my time there. Snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina), Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) and American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) that would scare the hell out of me when I’d flush it off a trail or nest (it’s much louder than you would think), plenty of amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders), and of course, plenty of beautiful and melodic songbirds.
This is definitely one of the biggest, if not the biggest, highlights of this job and any field job that I have worked. Being able to see all of this. Being able to see the crazy and wacky forms that life has taken on earth. All different forms of energy running around looking for food and mates.
I’m not going to lie. By the end of the field season, I was a bit burnt out. Despite this, the job was amazing. I learned a lot and finally got to experience that thing I was trying to do for so long. But also, it was difficult. Getting up at 4 a.m. every morning was challenging. If you’re thinking about conducting bird research, keep that in mind. Most jobs will have you waking up that early. Being a novice was frustrating. I let the not being great at nest searching thing get to me more than I would have liked. However, through those experiences, I learned to be a better field scientist. And that’s what it’s all about. Learning.
One last thing. This was my living arrangement for that summer:
For the summer, we stayed in this trailer at Cove Lake State Park in Caryville, TN. It didn’t get too much fancier as I went from field job to field job. So be prepared to get really intimate with people you barely know!
Stay tuned next time for Part 2 — Bat Blitz. Join me as we explore the hills and hollers of Tennessee in search of one of the most elusive and mysterious creatures of the night, the bat.
