I spent quite a while thinking this little guy was dangerous. And aside from the cyanide, they aren’t really, as long as you’re old enough to wash your hands and not put it in your mouth.

He even got her flowers. First (worthwhile) photo of the season!

Or possibly just I’ve gotten to new stage in life. Went out for a night of mildly illicit herping with Angus & Co. No getting stopped by police this time though! Angus always says he’s a professional herpetologist (which, yes, true, but it doesn’t come with a card or badge and give him access to all parks). He always brings nice enthusiastic friends. Why do I only attract the crackpot, creepy, or asshole herp enthusiasts or naturalists?

I wanted to bring some friends, but everyone who would enjoy such an excursion was busy. I told Angus it’s probably because they all either work harder than I do, or have more of a life. He replied, “It depends on how you define life. What are you going to do, sit in a shitty bar, drink shitty beer, and talk to the same old people? Or go outside and find some herps?!” I doubt his parents ever had to wonder in which field he would end up.

I developed an aversion to working with volunteers last year. I never realized just how flaky people can be until I had to depend on them. It’s frustrating when you’re collecting data and some two person thing needs to be done, but you’re lucky if you get a 1 hour head’s up that the other person can’t make it. However, I must admit what made last year’s season possible was a couple dedicated and unflagging volunteers who gave me an incredible amount of their time, but they were 3 out of 15+.

So last season I got kind of arrogant and didn’t want to deal with anyone who wasn’t serious. Just plain enthusiasm was nice, but annoyed the bejeezus out of me if it was just the veneer on top of flakiness or enthusiasm without desire to learn. This last one is the strangest to me: people who define a part of their identity as being so enthusiastic about a subject, but happily wallow in ignorance. I like to teach people about what I love. I don’t understand enthusiasm without curiosity.

But there’s such a joy in introducing enthusiastic (and curious!) people to something you love. The key is when you don’t have to depend on them, and instead can look at the experience the same way they do, a fun adventure. It’s revitalizing to see what you do through the eyes of someone else.

These are all southern leopard frogs hoping to get lucky:

Amplexus up close and personal (should note that I wasn’t the one to take this picture):

I love these little guys. We found several of them wandering towards a breeding site I hadn’t known about.

On the less awesome side, we got pulled over by the police after we left the park. Herping’s such a suspicious activity, you know.

For those not in the know, the Beaufort wind scale is used to quantify weather data. NAAMP protocol calls for surveys to only be conducted from codes 0-4 (the latter only in the Great Plains). My particular protocol’s author felt it best to clarify this by writing “DO NOT CONDUCT SURVEY AT LEVEL 5 IN ALL REGIONS.” Because all caps makes sure you really get your meaning across.

Thus I almost replaced the lower caption with “fucking Great Plains.”

In the spirit of the return to field work have something I wrote down in a journal last year:

This spring has been my first experience balancing fieldwork, schoolwork, and life. I’ve done fieldwork before, but only for shorter set times where I was just one cog in the wheel. This time? I’m the truck!

I’ve learned I well and truly hate sandwiches. If you don’t like something freshly assembled in a deli, chances are sitting for 5 hours in the sun in a backpack that smells of moldy mud won’t improve it.

The hardest lesson is how to deal with people. Call me naive, but when I started I did not expect to be juggling people. Coordinating schedules, handling the flakes, energizing the lazy, smoothing between conflicting personalities, etc all takes a tremendous amount of energy and patience. It’s like herding cats and I have no tuna.

This year I’m still the truck, I still hate sandwiches, but I’m doing much of my fieldwork alone. It’s part choice, since it is easier, part necessity, since most of last year’s volunteers are busy. I’m much more familiar with my field sites so it doesn’t bother me to be alone in the woods so much. Last year the park people didn’t really want me to go alone at all. This year they just said, “At least try to carry some mace.”

However one of the downsides to doing all this alone is that it’s fucking boring. Like whoa. So now I’m using twitter.

I am currently entering and proofing data I should have dealt with MONTHS AGO. I am about as happy doing this as that toad above looks. I have no idea how anybody did this before computers. I don’t want to know. :{

Though I kind of enjoy this photoblog thing.