Getting my Boots Wet - Vernal Pools in May

I love my (day) job. Yeah, it's a "necessary evil" for the time being, but sometimes I really do love it.

Let's go back about 20 years. When I was a kid, I loved nothing better than tromping down to the local pond/swamp to look for frogs. My sisters & I would bottle up eggs or tadpoles and bring them home to raise. We'd try and snag adult frogs in our nets... You get the picture.

Today, I got PAID to do this. (And I got to take photos too - can't beat that!)

Green Frog


A co-worker and I spent the day inventorying the vernal pools on a project site. Vernal pools are where most amphibians (frogs, salamanders, & newts) breed. They're typically seasonally flooded depressions with no fish, and no streams in or out. You can read a lot more about them here.

While our main job was checking up on the vernal pools, we got to see some other interesting things while at the site. Like this sundew, a carnivorous plant usually found in bogs. At this site, there were several sundews growing on a sandy bank about a foot above the water level.



I also spotted this dragonfly in one of the vernal pools. He had somehow gotten stuck in the water - I helped him onto a leaf, but he was too wet to fly. This made snagging some close-up photographs pretty easy. I hope he was okay after drying off for a while. I haven't figured out what species he is, but if I find out I will let you know.



So, yeah. Today was a good day. Fieldwork is definitely not always this fun (and I have the scratches and poison ivy to prove it), so I like to savor the good days when I get 'em. Thanks for enjoying this one with me!

Redeeming Qualities of New Jersey

Watching the Waves


Another image from a lovely morning at Island Beach State Park.

Unfortunately I'm not feeling very well today, so I'm going to keep this post short. I would, however, like to stick to my promise of telling you more about wetlands. Did you know that beaches are a type of coastal wetland? Yep - everything below Spring high tide is technically considered a wetland. To learn more, check out these links:

Marine Intertidal Zones (Wikipedia)
Cowardin Wetland Classification System (USGS)
Wetland Types (US EPA)

Is there anything specific you're interested in learning about wetlands? If so please let me know in the comments section!

Woohoo! National Wetlands Month!

This morning started out fairly normally. I mean, I spent too much time picking out what to wear (I'm photographing a 1st Communion today and don't want to flash - no pun intended - the congregation when I squat down to get the right angle for the shots), but all and all it was pretty typical.

Then, I stopped on Twitter and learned from dendroica of A DC Birding Blog that May is... *drumroll please* ...National Wetlands Month! (According to the US EPA)

I then proved my nerdiness by becoming extremely excited and exclaiming, "OOH! OOH!", much to my husband's confusion. (To clarify why I was so thrilled, I work as a Wetland Biologist for my day job, and was taught by the very amazing Dr. Frank Golet. Once you take a class with him you will never be the same.) I told hubby it was National Wetlands Month, and the following conversation ensued:

Hubby: Well, Monday is National Eat Paste in School Day.
Me: Really?
Hubby: No, I just made that up.
Me: Ohhhh. But National Wetlands Month is real - the EPA says so! It's a Federal agency!

Still Pond


The EPA suggests three things you can do to participate in National Wetlands Month:

1) Learn about wetlands. I'll be making a special effort this month to share information about wetlands on the blog.
2) Explore a wetland near you. May is a great month to explore wetlands, as it's still amphibian breeding season and you're likely to find egg masses, tadpoles, and adult frogs & salamanders!
3) Take action to protect and restore wetlands. In Rhode Island, check out Save the Bay or The Nature Conservancy to get involved. You could also organize a trash cleanup at a nearby pond or something similar.

Wheee!

Latest Etsy Favorite #1

You've been to Etsy, right? (And if not get on over and check it out!) Amazingly talented artists, right? Yeah, I think so too.

I've been wanting to share some of my favorite artists, but couldn't think of a good way to go about it. In the past I've spontaneously come out with an "Oooh! Look at this!", but I want to have something more regular to keep the inspiration and excitement flowing.

So - I'm doing a trial run of a new series here on the blog: "Latest Etsy Favorite". We'll start out with a 4-week stint. If we like it, we'll keep it! Sound good? I'll post at least once a week, but I've gotta warn you that I might shift days here and there while I figure out what works.

Here goes... my first featured fav:
Forester's Wife scarf by EveldasNeverland


(Source of images: EveldasNeverland)

What made me pick this particular piece? Well, I spent a looong day today in wetlands, where the ferns are really starting to come up in abundance. I had swamps on the brain, and decided to browse Etsy to see which artists out there were inspired by wetlands. The moment I saw this piece I knew I had to feature it. So delicate and lovely - it really does look like a fern in fiber art form.

By the way, did you know you can eat ostrich fern fiddleheads? They're delicious - remind me of asparagus, actually. Read about how to select, handle, and cook them up here.

Bogslogging

Hi all! Did you have a good day today? If the weather where you live was as beautiful as it was in Southern New England today, I hope you got outside to enjoy it. I spent most of my day flagging wetlands near Borderland State Park.

Wetland


I've found that, though I keep my "day job" in order to help pay the bills, it also provides me with balance. As a wetland biologist, I go to an office (granted, an office with stacks of maps and plant specimens and the occasional pet turtle) or out in the field with a specific task, and I work with people. As a photographer, I've got a lot more freedom in what I choose to do and where I choose to go, and I often am alone. The balance between structured and "unstructured" and between social and solitary are good for me, I think.

Painted Turtle


Through my day job I also get to see some pretty cool places that most people don't get a chance too - perhaps they're on private property, or maybe folks just don't think of crashing through tick-ridden brush and thorny bull brier to reach the edge of a particularly dramatic marsh. Getting to see this hidden natural world is really inspiring. Both wetland science and photography hone the eye and teach me to notice things I may have otherwise passed by. I hope my concentration and observation come across in my photography, they sure are useful when marking the edge of a wetland!

To learn more about wetlands in Massachusetts, visit the Department of Environmental Protection's website, here.

From a Ramble

Lakeside Pine

Fort Nature

On Saturday morning (before this weekend's rain) I went hiking with my husband and some friends at Fort Nature Wildlife Sanctuary. I believe my favorite part of that hike is the hemlock grove you walk through, soon after crossing the electrical right-of-way. It stretches down the hillside to the shores of a pond, where the tree roots are draped in Sphagnum and the light streams into the otherwise very dim and quiet forest.

The Hemlock Grove


As often happens when working on photographs, I am reminded of Robert Frost: "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep."

You can find some of Robert Frost's work on Project Gutenberg, by the way. It's well worth reading.

Warm Sunny Goodness

I had a wonderful day today. It was warm enough yesterday for my hubby to roast some coffee, so we had fresh coffee to enjoy this morning (incredibly superior to the bland beans we had been brewing - didja like that alliteration *nudge*). After church, we drove southward and found a lovely consignment shop in North Kingston that actually had mid-century furniture! (A rarity in this state populated with "country style" aficionados.) Their selection included an Eames lounge chair knockoff (like this one, sans ottoman) for $79. Not too bad of a bad price, I thought, but the particular shade of brown wasn't for us.

Next, it was off to the South County Art Association to drop off my submissions for their annual photography show - wish me luck! We then met up with my sister, brother-in-law, and adorable nephew for a short hike in the woods. He's about 2 1/2, and can now identify Sphagnum moss. (What can I say, his auntie is a wetland biologist by trade.) We found three redback salamanders and a pickerel frog as well.

When we got home, we found the first petals on the forsythia beginning to peep out.



We ended the day with a delicious asparagus/red pepper/potato fritatta and the last of the bottle of Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin (my fav).

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.................. :-)

Misty Morning

The Bog 3

Bogslogging

Another shot from college that I've now been able to scan in. Who wants to go back there with me some morning? Dunkin Donuts stop on the way, I promise! BYOHW (That's bring your own hip waders, people!) :-)

The Bog 2

Swamps

I apologize for my infrequent posts lately. I've recently started a new part-time job, and I'm still adjusting to my new schedule. Today, I spent a long, rainy day doing fieldwork at UCONN, where my company is involved with a large wetland mitigation project. We monitored water levels and vernal pools, helped plant some wetland shrubs, and I, at least, came home smelling of swamp. A day that made me truly appreciate proper rain gear and long, hot showers.

Nearly three years ago, I was at this same site, while things were still in the planning stage. I took several photographs of the Great Blue Heron rookery there. Since then, an owl took over the area, and the Great Blue Herons moved out. Today, we saw one lone heron return.

Here's a photograph of one of these bizarrely beautiful animals, from back in 2005 when the rookery was full of them.