Adventure Scientists

  • Home
    • About Us >
      • Mission and Values >
        • EIJ Resources
      • Annual Reports and Financials
      • Contact
    • Our Team >
      • Staff
      • Board and Advisors
      • Science Advisory Board
      • Join our Team
      • Our Partners
    • Press >
      • COVID-19 Updates
      • Films
      • Writing
      • Audio
  • For Scientists
    • Our Services >
      • Project Design & Feasibility
      • Project Build
      • Volunteer Recruiting & Screening
      • Full Project Management
    • Scientific Partners
    • Project Reports and Scientific Publications
    • Access Data Sets
  • For Adventurers
    • Volunteer Basics
    • Current Projects >
      • Mexican Coral Reefs
      • Wildlife Connectivity
      • Timber Tracking
      • Wild and Scenic Rivers
  • Our Impact
    • Past Projects
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Home
    • About Us >
      • Mission and Values >
        • EIJ Resources
      • Annual Reports and Financials
      • Contact
    • Our Team >
      • Staff
      • Board and Advisors
      • Science Advisory Board
      • Join our Team
      • Our Partners
    • Press >
      • COVID-19 Updates
      • Films
      • Writing
      • Audio
  • For Scientists
    • Our Services >
      • Project Design & Feasibility
      • Project Build
      • Volunteer Recruiting & Screening
      • Full Project Management
    • Scientific Partners
    • Project Reports and Scientific Publications
    • Access Data Sets
  • For Adventurers
    • Volunteer Basics
    • Current Projects >
      • Mexican Coral Reefs
      • Wildlife Connectivity
      • Timber Tracking
      • Wild and Scenic Rivers
  • Our Impact
    • Past Projects
  • Blog
  • Donate

Welcome to Field Notes

Land of Extremes

10/8/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureYes, those are all mosquitoes.
Story and photos by Laura Hitt

One thing is certain: The prairie is a land of extremes. I arrived two weeks ago—wending down a dirt road beneath a huge cloud-speckled sky—a few days after a storm that dumped more than half the precipitation usually seen in a year. The prairie had turned from brown to green in the course of a few days, the streams were swollen, and the roads deeply rutted.

Next came the mosquitoes (or “mozzies” as our Australian crewmember calls them). They descended plague-like, biting through our clothing, catching in our eyelashes and mouths.

We hike the transects with mosquito nets and double layers, surrounded by a constant hum, trying to spot wildlife through the haze. We wear gloves and hoods, constantly readjusting so they can’t squeeze through the cracks, sweating in the 70-degree days. We start at 6:30 a.m. to beat them, but they swarm by 7:15. At night, they pitter-patter against my tent like rain, trying to get in.

Though I have only lived on the prairie for two weeks, I know this landscape better than some I have lived in for years. Our job here is to pay close attention, to go outside daily and observe. Hiking transects and gathering data is different than hiking or backpacking. You can’t hike a transect while staring at your boots or lost in your thoughts. You must be present.

Picture
Listening to the landscape
You use binoculars to scan the horizon for pronghorn blending into the hills, for a lone bison grazing in a gulley, for elk in the distance. You pay attention to the weather, the direction you are traveling, the water level in the streams, the migrating birds.

By simply observing, we learn things that are impossible to teach in a classroom. We learn how to listen to a landscape instead of talking over it.
PictureKestrel
The past two weeks have melded into a montage of images: a cricket impaled on a barbed wire by a Loggerhead Shrike; bison lumbering through camp, pausing to scratch against picnic tables, leaving tufts of downy fur behind; elk bugling in the nearby hills, a high-pitched nasal howl; and a female black-footed ferret (one of only 1,000 in the wild) hauling a prairie dog twice her size across the road in the wee hours of the morning.

There is something abrupt about the wildlife here—whether it is a rattlesnake in the road or a badger peeking out of a hole, it is impossible to ignore.

One morning last week I woke up to find a dead kestrel in front of the outhouse. I had seen that individual before, a male that glided around camp and perched in the eaves. It got down to 28 degrees that night, and there he lay, a tiny falcon, cold and perfect.

He fit in the palm of my hand, long rusty tail feathers protruding past my wrist. Big shiny eyes hid behind yellow lids that closed upwards and were ringed with tiny black lashes. The pupils reflected my own face, hair blowing in the wind, the morning sun a pinprick behind me.


Originally from the high desert of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Laura Hitt studied creative writing and environmental studies. She has traveled in Australia, Norway, Indonesia and South America, and her passions include natural history, yoga, cooking (and eating) and spending time outside. 

Learn more this and other ASC projects on our website, the Field Notes blog, and by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Read the Landmark Notes blog:

    Picture

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

Donate Now
STAY IN TOUCH
Picture
Adventure Scientists®
​PO Box 1834, Bozeman, MT 59771
406.624.3320 info@adventurescientists.org