Week Six: A Week of Notable Mentions
Hello, and welcome back to the blog!
This week was mostly dedicated to continuing projects from previous weeks, so this week’s blog will be used to provide an update on the notable bits of progress I’ve made. Among these projects are my field journal that serves as a final product for my Senior Project and the continued surveying of nest boxes for Black-Crested Titmice. In addition, I have begun a new project that will be discussed later in the blog.
The most important progress I have made this week was compiling research about Texas’ different bat species to include that information in my field journal. As part of my Senior Project’s final objective, I aim to learn more about Texas’ many bat species, which includes 33 different species. Over the past week, I have been researching each of the 33 bat species’ visual characteristics, diet, habitat range and characteristics within Texas, conservation threats, and life histories (the characteristic stages of development that lead to reproduction and survival). During this process, I have been conducting a literature review of both scientific papers and other scholarly sources. However, the biggest challenge that inhibited this process was that so many scientific articles that could have been useful were hidden behind a paywall, and while I did my best to provide in-depth information, I ultimately had to attempt to create a comprehensive field journal entry without certain articles that may have enlightened my journal. Nonetheless, my research provided a lot of insight into Texas bats that helped me address one of my Senior Project’s primary goals, and in the coming weeks, I will persist in illustrating all of the bat species I researched.
Additionally, I continued work on surveying nest boxes to observe the development of Titmice young. At this point of the year, the young are beginning to sprout pinfeathers (which were pictured in my last blog), and for some, those pinfeathers have developed into feathers that will soon allow many to leave the nest. Due to this development, I was able to see fledglings with feathers for the first time and learn the difficulties that are posed by handling young at this stage of development. The primary difficulty is that the young now have semi-developed talons, and they can now grip on to nesting material within the nest boxes or even your hand. As a result, this made both removing them from the nest and placing them back in it particularly challenging. Moreover, while in hand, some of them will beat their wings if not secured properly, making them more difficult to grasp without dropping. Coupled with being larger, this makes birds at this stage more difficult to handle, but with practice, I was able to learn how to handle them in order to combat these issues.
A Titmouse with Feathers and a Developing Crest
Me Holding a Titmouse Fledgling with Feathers
During the surveying, I also learned how to drive the Mule, a vehicle that’s suited for field work and off-roading. Gaining practice with this vehicle was needed since it’s commonly used at various outdoor workplaces, and it will serve me well as a skill that advances my experience with tools for field work.
Me Driving the Mule
Finally, I ended this week by working on a new project: the creation of a comprehensive spreadsheet of all the plant species found on the Bracken Cave Preserve. For this project, I am using iNaturalist, an app that allows you to view a collaborative photo album that interprets photos of specimens, identifies them, and compiles a list of the plant species that were observed on the Preserve and were able to be identified. I am organizing this data into a spreadsheet that will be utilized in the Preserve’s records to help make better land management decisions. During this process, I have gained a better understanding of the land’s species biodiversity and developed field knowledge that has improved my ability to identify plants in the field.
In closing, this week allowed me to develop knowledge of Texas bat species that helped advance my final product and enhance my knowledge, improve my wildlife handling skills, increase my expertise in driving the Mule as a vital tool during field work, and gain greater confidence in field identification of plant species.