Diario de lyndsayrodriguez

Monday October 23, 2017
Milford wind farm
Travel on Minersville hwy (130) until you reach the hwy 21 junction (approx 36.7 miles) and turn left (west) onto hwy 21. From there travel 13.6 miles into Milford. Continue straight through Milford on hwy 257 for 4.4 miles. Turn right (east) onto a dirt road with a sign that says geothermal plant. From there drive 5.5 miles until you come to a fork in the road. Take the left fork (north) and drive 3.6 miles. There will be a smaller dirt road to the right (east), take it and go about .2 of a mile. The pronghorn was on the south side of the road.
I saw this pronghorn after picking up a bat monitor for work. She was standing and staring at our vehicle while we passed. We were located in a grassland. The height of the grass/forbs were no more than two feet tall and was relatively dense in the area. There was no slope.
I was with my friend and coworker, Kalli Tyler.
We arrived at the spot around 8:48 am. I made the pronghorn observation at about 8:48 am, but found the scat about 8:54am (according to my photo time stamp...it took us a minute to actually find the scat spot). I spent about a minute observing the scat because I already knew what the animal was. It was fresh. We saw the pronghorn do it's thing and then run off. She stopped and stared at us awhile, though.
It was slightly windy, around a 2 or a 3 the Beaufort scale. The temperature was really nice, around 55 degrees Fahrenheit and it was not cloudy. The elevation of the spot was about 5000 ft.
We spotted this female pronghorn (Antilocarpra americana) not too far off the road (about a 2/10 of a mile). She was the only one in the area. I know it was a female because she was lacking the dark patch that occurs on the male face.
No further comments at this time.

Sunday October 15, 2017
Three Peaks recreation area, off Midvalley road.
From hwy 56 turn north onto Lund hwy and travel 6.9 miles until you reach a four way intersection. Turn west at the intersection (there should be a sign that says Three Peaks Recreation area). Travel on that road for another 3.2 miles. The trail head parking lot will be on the north side of the road. Take either of the trails and walk about .3 miles until you come across a wash.
I found this in a dry wash in Three Peaks. The wash was in a sagebrush steppe area. There was pinyon juniper around, but not where I found the scat in the wash. The height of the sagebrush was no more than three feet tall and there wasn't much under story there. There was no slope, it was just a flat area with a wash. The density of the sagebrush was pretty high.
I was with my brother, Brent Rodriguez.
We arrived at Three peaks at about 1:50 pm. I made the observation at about 2:09 pm (according to my photo time stamp). I spent about 2 or 3 minutes observing the scat because I wasn't sure if it was jack scat until I observed the deer scat near it.
It was not too windy, around a 1 or a 2 on the Beaufort scale. The temperature was really nice, around 56 degrees Fahrenheit (perfect light jacket weather) and it was not cloudy. The elevation of the spot was about 5800 ft.
There was so much scat around this spot where I decided to take my picture. It was literally a sea of scat pellets. My brother and I were kind of in awe of it all. It's hard to tell how many individuals were involved with this sea of scat. There were many different species scat present. I chose these ones because they were brown (fresher), but as you can tell from the photo there is also some older scat mixed in. I would assume that this scat belonged to an adult jackrabbit. Sex unknown.
No further comments at this time.

Sunday October 1, 2017
Duck Creek Pond, off HWY 14
Drive up HWY 14 for 29 miles, Duck Creek Pond is on the north side.
I found this in a riparian area, next to the pond. The riparian area was surrounded by conifer and deciduous trees and was pretty dense. There was no slope, it was just flat. The heights of the trees varied between 10 and 40 feet. Riparian veg was pretty standard ~1-20 inches.
I was with my brother, Brent Rodriguez.
We arrived to duck creek about 4:45 pm and I made the observation around 5: pm. I observed the scat for probably two minutes.
It was not too windy, around a 2 or 3 on the Beaufort scale. The temperature was pretty chilly, around 36 degrees Fahrenheit and it was not cloudy. The elevation of the spot was 8,500 ft.
I spotted two sites of scat which I believe to belong to Elk (Cervus elaphus). I would assume they were adults based on the "milk dud" size of it. (I challenged Dustin to eat one once because he said he would...he never did!! I'm going to have to remind him about it... :D)
No further comments at this time.

September 25, 2017
-Cedar Mountain off HWY 143 and FH050
-Take HWY 14 for 13 miles or until you reach the junction to Cedar Breaks-HWY 148. Turn onto HWY 148 and drive 7.6 miles until the next junction to Brian Head/Panguitch Lake-HWY 143. Turn off onto HWY 143 and go 9.6 miles. FH050 will be on the right.
-The habitat is mainly conifer with aspen trees interspersed. This is a treated and burned area, so there is no underbrush. The trees range from a about a foot to probably 100 ft tall. The slope was between 5-10%.
-I was with Jamie Smith and Mariah Porter.
-We arrived to the burned area about 3:00PM. We were making observations at 3:30 after everyone had separated into their groups. I made my observation at 4:40PM and I looked at for about 2 minutes as I was taking pictures.
-The temperature was nice. It was probably around 57 degrees Fahrenheit with could cover of about 10% (the sky seemed relatively clear, at least from what I remember). The wind was between a 2 and 3 on the Beaufort scale. It was nicer on the mountain than it was in town!
-The elevation was around 7000ft.
-There were several Elk (Cervus elaphus) tracks and around the burned area we were in, but I only noticed one set of tracks where I found this one. Elk scat was also present in the area. Some were actually pretty fresh!
-No further comments at this time.

September 18th, 2017
Cedar Mountain off HWY 143 and FH050
Take HWY 14 for 13 miles or until you reach the junction to Cedar Breaks-HWY 148. Turn onto HWY 148 and drive 7.6 miles until the next junction to Brian Head/Panguitch Lake-HWY 143. Turn off onto HWY 143 and go 9.6 miles. FH050 will be on the right.
The habitat is mainly conifer with aspen trees interspersed. This is a treated and burned area, so there is no underbrush. The trees range from a about a foot to probably 100 ft tall. The slope was between 5-10%.
I was with my fellow group members; Jessie Byers, Jamie Smith, Russel Gardener, Mariah Porter and Alicia Arredondo.
We arrived at the site around 3PM, but didn't start making observations until about 3:20PM.
I spent probably two minutes observing the mule deer track(s).
On the Beaufort scale the wind was around a 1 or a 2. The temperature was around 56 degrees F and no clouds that I could see.
The elevation was around 7000ft.
I didn't actually witness the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), but there were several fresh tracks in the mud indicating there was probably more than one in the area (5 or less).
I unfortunately forgot to put a ruler by the track to indicate the size, but it was about 2.5 to 3 inches long and about 1.5 to 2 inches wide.

September 13th, 2017
In a greasewood vegetation community, near Minersville, UT.
Take SR-130 (Minersville Hwy) until the junction with SR-21. Go for about .5 mile and turn south (left) onto Thermo road. Drive about 15 miles until you reach a power line road that heads directly south. Drive for about 1.5 miles until you reach a yellow cattle guard and a fence. Take the 2 track road that heads west along the fence line. 1/2 mile down is one of the many places Chisel-toothed Kangaroo Rats live.
The vegetation at this particular site was mostly greasewood and either fourwing or shadscale saltbush. I didn't pay close enough attention to which one it was. There was probably about 20-30% vegetation cover. There was no slope to this site. It was a wide open greasewood flat.
I was with Rylan Orton, Dustin Schaible, and Conner England.
We have been observing these mammals for the past 3 weeks. (Originally we have been after trapping Dark Kangaroo Mice, but we have yet to trap one.) This particular one we observed for about 7 minutes taking measurements and sex identification.
We arrived at this site around 7:05am and left about 9:25am.
On the Beaufort scale the wind was a 1. There wasn't much of a breeze going on. Which is surprising because every other day it has slightly breezy and smelly because of the pig farm. Get a wiff of that breeze and you want to die. At the start of our observation, it was 57 degrees Fahrenheit with no cloud cover.
The elevation was 5,182 ft.
This particular day we trapped 10 kangaroo rats (I can't remember how many males and females, but we had both), 3 deer mice (all males, if I remember correctly), 1 grasshopper mouse (male), and 1 unknown mouse (male).
This was a fun day trapping small mammals. I have really enjoyed this part of my job. I'm sad because I will no longer be able to go out and process them in the morning because of school. Kangaroo rats are one of the cutest rodents ever. Being able to handle them is such a fun experience. I was lucky enough to not be bitten by anything we trapped!

Today we went to the Cedar Canyon Nature park to observe mammal sign and to talk to our groups about questions we would ask young children about mammals. Our group talked about telling children what the idea is behind our study of animals. We were the "why" group. Our group would ask "why do you think we are doing this project?" and "Why do you think this project is important?" Other groups talked about drawing mammals and their tracks and describing the "what" of the project. It was interesting to hear other groups point of views on how they would address this project with kids.
After having a group discussion on that topic, we broke off and looked for animal sign and tracks. I was with Sam and Jennifer as we walked around looking for any kind of mammal sign. We saw some chipmunks, but they were too quick to take a picture of and post on here. I'm pretty sure I saw an elk track, but it wasn't distinct enough to take a picture of. I came upon some possible jackrabbit scat and took a picture of that and decided to post it here. I thought it was jackrabbit scat based off the size of the pellet. Cottontail seems to be smaller and more round and deer is larger and more oblong.
The weather was pretty dang hot, around 95 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was minimal, around a 1 or 2 on Beaufort's wind scale with minimal cloud coverage.
Highlight of lab: A drunk, shirtless man with yellow hair walked by and yelled some strange words while we were in our groups - never go on that trail alone or at night. It was interesting to say the least.