May 22-29

Tuesday, May 22

- Marmot at Wildcat! On the sandy side of the beach, but high-tailed it to the rocky side when disturbed. You can just barely see him here.

- No small toads evident at Wildcat. Only found two snakes.

Wednesday, May 23

- Found snake at Marina with large chunk of flesh missing.

- Meeting with Tom (USFS). Mentioned there is a proposal to fill in the 6 foot ditches in Papoose (apparently left over from the Dairy Farm?), so that the meadow will re-flood instead having a lot of its water diverted to Papoose creek. Thought we might like to know, since it may affect our snakes in some way.

Thursday, May 24

- Scouted out Dean’s at 4:30 PM. Found no snakes, but startled one juvenile and one pre-adult (balding?) bald eagle on snag. These started circling in sky, and were soon joined by three other eagles. Maybe part of the same crowd we saw at Mahogany the other day?

Friday, May 25

- Tom surveyed the bald eagle nests. Eight out of nine nests on the West shore (including Wildcat) are occupied this year.

- We have also noted that the osprey and bald eagle nests at the Marina are active, as well as the osprey nest at the Osprey Overlook, and the red-tailed hawk nest near Aspen Campground.


Saturday, May 26

- Went to Eagle Lake Field Station. Didn’t find a ton of garters, but caught two Coluber constrictor (have we seen them there before?).

Sunday, May 27

- Scouted out Ashurst at 10:30 AM. Found 12 T.sirtalis, but no T.elegans.

- Scouted out Colman at 4 PM, but found no T.elegans on East or West shore, or on fabled Island of Gravid Females (but there was one T.sirtalis there). Hyla tadpoles abundant, adult chorus. Adult bald eagle flying low over water.

- DOR: Adult female T.elegans ¼ mile south of Papoose turnoff on A1; also found large Pit. cat. on A1 near Brockman flats. Both killed in middle of day.

Monday, May 28

- Jeremy departed, after catching many snakes, and several fish (the other three fishermen in the boat caught a single fish among them; Jeremy caught these four).

Tuesday, May 29

- Did predator survey at Pikes B. Saw lots of raptor activity--bald eagles and osprey. One osprey landed on shore near group campground, but appeared to be drinking (?). One bald landed on the shore at Pikes A and stole a fish from a seagull who had been picking at it for about half an hour.

- A veteran hunter/fisherman from the area apparently stumbled over a rattlesnake buried in the pine needles at Christie Campground. According to the camp host (whom I personally interviewed), he described it as a large snake (up to 5 feet) with several rattles. It was next to a “grinding site” (i.e. where sewage is processed). It looked to me like it could have come out of holes in the cement.



Miscellaneous Notes/Word on the Street:

- Talked with ranger in charge of recreation and “land” for USFS. Says there are proposals into the BLM and USFS for wind farms around Eagle Lake. USFS property of interest is Blacks Mountain. He says proposals are likely a “slam dunk”.

- Long-term head of this ranger district, Bob Andrews, is retiring this summer.

- Owners of private property across A1 from Merrill want to have it zoned for agriculture; logical next step (according to the grapevine) is development. Causing some consternation among Eagle Lake devotees.

- Forgot to mention that at the meeting of the Fish and Game Commision the other week, we met an 80+ year-old man who is thought to be the best fly fisherman in the region. When he heard we studied snakes, the first thing he said was, “You know who eats your snakes? Osprey! I seen ‘em lots of times.”