Creepy & Crawly... yes, but still COOL to me!

I guess I'll tell everyone up front that this is the blog where I post pictures of snakes, turtles, lizards, and a couple other creepy critters that even I don't like!  So I give anyone who really doesn't want to see this kind of stuff permission to skip this one - but you're missing out!!

Texas, especially west Texas, is pretty well known for having many different species of snakes, turtles, and lizards that are native to the area.  There are several species of venomous snakes in the Trans-Pecos, including western diamondback rattlesnakes, mojave rattlesnakes, rock rattlesnakes, and Trans-Pecos copperheads... just to name a few!  Of course there are even more species of non-venomous snakes found in Texas.  One of these, the highly sought after grey banded kingsnake, lives here in the Chihuahuan desert which brings in snake fanatics from all over the place! Bob has shown me many articles about people coming to this part of the state to look for them - many of them coming year after year and not finding any! I have not seen one myself - which is no surprise because 1) I haven't been looking for them and 2) even if I was looking for them I doubt I'd find one right away.  Of course being in the desert brings out plenty of lizards too!  These are not quite as easily identifiable (at least to me) and tend to run and hide as soon as they are spotted, which makes it even more difficult to figure out what just ran across the road in front of me!  Still, I even have a couple pictures of lizards.  Turtles and frogs are a little less common in the area since it is so dry, but there are a few species that live in certain places where there are ponds or rivers (like the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park).  Anyway... that was just a little intro to TX herps.  Last semester I took a herpetology class which is how I saw a lot of what you'll read about in this blog.  If not for that class I'm sure I wouldn't have seen as much as I have so far (at least in the way of herps) since I've been down here in TX.

Ok, here come the pictures, turn back now if you don't want to see them :)

This was one of the labs I went on for my herpetology class.  We went to a few "ponds" to look for mud turtles.  As you can see, there was not much water left in the pond.  We didn't find any mud turtles in this tank, but we did go to another one where there were quite a few turtles buried down in the mud - hence their names, mud turtles.

Here is a picture of a yellow mud turtle.  How can you not love a face like that??  There is another species of mud turtle, the Big Bend mud turtle, that is only found in one small area in the Trans-Pecos.  We spend another lab setting turtle traps (which were basically just big hoop-like nets that the turtles can swim into, but not out of) trying to catch the rarer of the two species, but didn't capture any.

Another one of the herp species that prefers water is this little guy here.  And when I say little I mean little!  I know it is hard to tell scale in this picture, but he could probably fit on top of a quarter or half dollar.  This is a canyon treefrog.  This is another species I picked up during one of my herpetology labs.  We started lab a little later so that we could see critters that come out after the sun goes down.  We hiked down into a very neat canyon that has a little pool of water at the end of the trail.  That's where we found this frog.  A few of the snake pictures further along in this post are also from that canyon.

Here is a lizard that I saw during one of my herp surveys for my thesis project.  Still not entirely sure what species it is.  Maybe a type of fence lizard or tree lizard.

Here is another lizard that I believe is the same species as the one above.  You can see how difficult they can be to spot sometimes.  The only reason I saw both of these lizards is because they happened to move and I caught them out of the corner of my eye.

This awesome critter is a Texas horned lizard.  They are so cool!!  There are at least four species of horned lizards in Texas, but I think this one is the best.  I'm sure you can tell why its called a horned lizard!  This was another herp species that I saw during one of my herpetology labs (actually the same lab as the one during which I took the mud turtle picture).

Here is another look at him.  He was fairly calm sitting on one of the other student's hands.. which worked out nicely for those of us that wanted pictures!  :)  I like these guys because they are pretty colorful!  The other horned lizards are a little more dull looking, but still cool.

They are kinda funny looking from this view - more round than I expected they would be!  One really interesting defense strategy Texas horned lizards have is that they can shoot blood out of their eyes!  Our professor tried to get this one to do it but he wouldn't... too bad.  Bob and I watched a show about it when we were in Florida, and then he said he read an article about it later that said they use it mostly when they are being preyed upon by coyotes and only rarely if they're being harassed by humans or something else.  I thought that was pretty interesting too - guess they're pretty smart - and know when they don't need to waste any blood!

This is another species of horned lizard, the mountain short horned lizard.  We saw this one when we hiked up to Mount Livermore on the Davis Mountains Preserve where I do some of my field work.  Pretty cool looking huh?  See what I mean about them not being quite as colorful as the Texas horned lizard?  It's hard to tell in this picture, but these guys do have a little color on their sides and faces.  And the white that outlines the dark spots on their backs gives them a brighter look - in my opinion.

These don't shoot blood out of their eyes, but they do bear live young (meaning they do not lay eggs) which I think is really cool.  There are quite a few species of lizards and snakes that bear live young, like most of the snakes in the family Viperidae - the rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouth. Had to ask Bob about the snake one to be sure, and I was right :)  There have been scientific studies done that suggest bearing live young is an adaptation reptiles that live in higher elevations have acquired.  Eggs laid in higher elevations where it may be significantly colder are at a greater risk of not developing at all, or developing very slowly compared to eggs that are laid in warmer climates.

I think that is all of the turtles, frogs and lizards that I've seen so far... so onto the snakes!

This is the first snake I saw in Texas and the first western diamondback that I've ever seen.  This was only my second day in Texas after making the drive down from Pennsylvania with Bob.  We had spent most of the day in Big Bend National Park and Bob kept his eyes peeled to the road for snakes on the way home.  We finally spotted one crossing the road and I managed to not run it over.  We got a couple good pictures of it and then left it alone.  It was exciting though!  I'm pretty sure that was Bob's first western diamondback also.

Here is another western diamondback.  This was one we saw during one of my herpetology labs.  Again, we waited to start lab until it was dark and then we drove back and forth down a stretch of road south of Alpine waiting for the snakes to come out and warm themselves on the road.  You can see how they vary in color.  This one is very brown - and blended in well with the road!  The one in the picture above is much more grey and lighter colored.

Here is another western diamondback (obviously the species I've seen the most of!).  This was taken in Black Gap when I was there with another grad student checking some of my trail cameras.  There are a few dirt tanks full of water in the area and I had one of my cameras set up there since the wildlife usually gather there.  This one was moving right along the water's edge when the other grad student spotted him.  He didn't even rattle at us, and thanks to some good zoom capabilities on my camera I got a couple of good pictures without actually disturbing him too much!  This is another light colored one.  You can get a pretty good look at their pattern from this picture too.

Here is a different species of rattlesnake, the rock rattlesnake.  Can you spot him in the picture?  I took this picture and I even have a hard time figuring out where his head and body start sometimes!  This was taken in the same canyon as the canyon treefrog.  Another student spotted him first and even though he and I had both heard him rattle a little and then stop, our professor didn't believe us that it was a rattlesnake until he went over himself and made it start rattling like crazy!  That convinced him.  This one posed for us for a little while and then started moving on, so we did too.  It was cool though, I had never seen one of those either.

A few minutes after we found the rock rattlesnake we found this Trans-Pecos copperhead.  They're so pretty!  These are a little more brighter than the copperheads that you see around home and further east (in my opinion).  This species isn't a rattlesnake, but they are still venomous - although not quite as dangerous as a rattlesnake.  I was so excited to see this one because I had been looking at pictures of the different snake species that would be here in some of Bob's field guides back home and this was one that looked so great and I really wanted to see it!  I haven't seen one since then, but that's ok.  I still have time :)

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but if I remember correctly this is a blotched water snake.  Northeast of Fort Davis there is a town called Balmorhea.  There is a state park there that has some wetlands, and then further into town there is a big reservoir that attracts lots of wildlife - especially birds.  So in that area where there is more water they get some more aquatic species than in other areas of the Trans-Pecos.  We went there for a herpetology lab and saw two of these water snakes, and also some softshell turtles (which I have pictures of, but they weren't very good because the turtles were underwater and moving).  Water snakes are not venomous - but I've heard from Bob and other snake guys that they tend to have a bad attitude and can be mean.

This is a bullsnake.  They also are not venomous.  This one was crossing one of the roads that leads to where I have my bear traps set at Black Gap.  We were driving down it one morning and this guy had come out to warm himself on the gravel.  We had to encourage him quite a bit to move off the road before we could drive past.

Here is another view of the bullsnake.  He was pretty big!  He almost stretched completely across the road.

Ok, that is all I have for the snakes.  These last couple of pictures even I don't like!  But in order to accurately represent the wildlife in Texas, I owe it to them to include them in the blog.  For some reason, a lot of people who are interested in snakes and other herps, are also interested in spiders and other truly creepy critters.  That's why I figured it was appropriate to include these next couple of pictures in this post - because I am definitely not writing an entire blog post on just them!  

I will admit something...  I know that I am supposed to be a wildlife biologist and love and respect all kinds of wildlife... but I really don't like bugs! I don't mind them so much in the wild and outside because that is where they naturally reside and belong, but when I see them in the house I instantly turn into a 12 year old girl that runs and gets her daddy to come kill them - ask him, it's true, and he makes fun of me for it :) Unfortunately many of the bunkhouses that I stay in while doing my field work have quite a lot of resident spiders living in them, and since Dad isn't with me all the time I've had to learn to set my fears aside and get over it (or grab a whole box's worth of tissues to kill them with).  That still doesn't mean that they don't creep me out!

This is the kind of stuff that gives me nightmares!! Now, I know that it is hard to tell how big this is in this picture so I'll tell you - this many legged scary creature that in my opinion shouldn't even exist was at least 8 inches long. That is way to big for a bug. If I had one of those in my house I'd probably sleep in the car until I knew it was gone.  Ugh, I'm getting all itchy just thinking about it!  Anyway, this is the only one of these that I've seen so far and it was last semester, also in the canyon where we saw the treefrog and other snakes.  Hopefully I'll never find one again!

If it came down to having a tarantula in my house or one of those giant centipedes in my house - I'd definitely settle for the tarantula!  This was down at Black Gap again.  I had seen several run across the road in the evenings but had never stopped to try and get a picture.  I was there with another grad student and told her that if she saw one to let me know so I could get a picture.  Well we didn't see one for the rest of the day, but the next morning I went to walk out the door of the bunkhouse (and was actually paying attention to a different rather large spider that was hanging out on the wall in the house) when this guy scared the crap out of me!  Obviously he was MUCH larger than the spider I was worried about in the house, so I quickly got over my fear of that one and slammed the door!

Here is a picture of the door from the outside.  For some reason looking at this picture makes him look smaller than he was in real life.  But that is still a huge spider to find on your door!!  So, as you can see, I got my pictures of a tarantula...  Since then I have also seen a few tarantulas running around on some of the sites where I set my mammal traps.  I'm dreading the day I open a trap to find a big one trapped inside!

I think the tarantula's are growing on me (although that doesn't mean I want to keep any in the house... Bob).  But I want nothing to do with those centipedes!!

Well that's all I have for this blog.  I know they are not always the cute and cuddly kinds of animals most people (including me) enjoy the most, but reptiles and amphibians really do have some amazing adaptations that make them awesome creatures.  I have Bob to thank for most of my knowledge and respect for them.  If not for him I don't know how much interest I'd really have in them.  I actually really love salamanders... but since they do require water for at least part of their life, they are not at all common in this area.  Still, the herps that are here are pretty cool and I'm glad I've had the chance to see some that I definitely wouldn't see back home in PA or NJ.  I hope I helped some of you reading this also gain a little more respect and interest in them :)

Thanks for reading!!

Laura

TX continues to burn...

Although it is mostly under control, the areas in and surrounding Fort Davis are still having to deal with what they are calling the Rock House Fire.  Apparently a house caught fire on Saturday, and due to the extremely dry weather conditions (humidity levels were in the single digits!) and high wind speeds, the fire spread from Marfa to Fort Davis.  I thought these pictures really showed just how huge an area this fire burned.  Although it looks just as terrible, if not worse on the ground, I think these images provide a good visual of how far the fire spread.  (I copied both these pictures from facebook)

The main part of town is what is unburned in the center of the photo.  A little northeast of that area is all Fort Davis State Park, which you can see was also burned some.  

This is a more zoomed out view of the whole area.

The fire here in Alpine was contained by Sunday afternoon I believe, so it no longer seems to be a threat.  I did hear some rumors that the Alpine fire started because of someone throwing their cigarette butt on the ground - real smart!  Apparently they were in town for some kind of rodeo - type event?? Not really sure if that is what it was, but whatever the event was, this person was supposedly not from Alpine... so I've heard...

Someone posted a pretty detailed video on facebook of the aftermath of the fires in Fort Davis, including some animals that didn't survive.  If I could post on here I would, but they already have it blocked from youtube - not sure why.  Anyway, figured I'd give you all this little update.  It gets pretty smokey here in Alpine depending on the direction the wind is blowing.  I also heard there is a pretty good sized fire in Mexico about 50 miles south of the Big Bend area, so I guess they are getting smoked out too.  Hopefully we get some rain soon!  I know you're all getting plenty of rain up north - send some down this way!!

I promise my next post will be less depressing :)

Thanks for reading!

Laura

Fires in Alpine and Fort Davis

In my earlier post I talked a little bit about the fires here in Alpine, and the one in Fort Davis.  I've been reading up on them and thought maybe I would include a couple links to the articles here.  The fire in Fort Davis has claimed somewhere are 50 houses so far and they are not completely out of the red yet!  As far as I understand there are still firefighters and U.S. Forest Service people working to make sure it does not spread any further than it already has.  I heard on the news earlier today that there were bad storms - tornadoes and what come with them - up north in the tornado alley area... it's amazing how much damage weather can do! (Not to mention everything that happened in Japan last month!)  There is nowhere to hide when it comes to nature - further proof that as much as we may like to think we do, we have absolutely no control over weather and the destruction it can cause!  Anyway... on that depressing note, here are some articles if anyone is interested... When you read the articles they talk about fires in other counties too.  The counties near me are Brewster Co. (Alpine is in this county), Jeff Davis Co. (Fort Davis is in this county), and Presidio Co. (Marfa, which is a town about a half hour west of Alpine is in this county).  I'm not sure where the other counties are in relation to Alpine.


Alpine Avalanche (Alpine's local newspaper):
http://www.alpineavalanche.com/front/article_eef2867c-6303-11e0-a4f8-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=story

Houston Chronicle:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7515488.html

Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/04/10/hot_dry_weather_stokes_raging_texas_wildfires/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+Boston+Globe+--+National+News

Here are some photos I copied from a facebook group called Fort Davis Fires.  The photos were taken by locals who live in Fort Davis, Marfa, Alpine, and other surrounding places.

Fort Davis Fire

Alpine Fire

This kind of stuff makes me feel bad that I ever complain about the desert (like I did in my last blog!).  Seeing these pictures was so devastating.  Fort Davis and the surrounding mountains are by far my favorite place down here.  I can't image what it looks like in person.  I'm going to be going up there in the next couple of weeks to do my field work at the Davis Mountains Preserve and I'm sure it will be a real shock to see how it has changed.   I've heard that no one was killed or injured in any of these fires, which is great, but I can't imagine how people who have lost their homes must feel.  I'm not used to this sort of 'disaster' and it has been interesting to see and hear how people are helping out and responding to the events.  As bad as the situation is, it is something that I have never experienced before - especially since it is a relatively isolated area without many people.  You don't have the media running around trying to cause an uproar - instead the media simply presents you with the facts and updates their original reports regularly.  It's a nice change!  Everyone works together to help where they can and get stuff done.  Although I wish it hadn't happened, it was nice to see that people are able to calmly work together to help each other out.

Anyway, thought I'd let you all know what's going on down here.  Keep everyone in your prayers - people who have lost their homes, and those that are still continuing to fight the fires that are currently burning and the fires that are sure to begin elsewhere.

Laura

Elephant Mountain - minus the elephants!

I'm still not entirely sure why it's called Elephant Mountain.  I have heard that it was named that by the Native Americans because the mountain resembles an elephant laying down on it's side.  But the question is... How would Native Americans know what elephants looked like??  It remains a mystery... at least to me!

Elephant Mountain is an area that is protected and managed by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD), making it a Wildlife Management Area (WMA).  This is one of my study sites - the closed one to Alpine.  It only takes about a half hour to get there from Alpine, which is nice compared to the hour long (plus some) drive to my other sites.  That may not seem that far either, but when I'm leaving after classes and trying to get back at a reasonable time on Sundays in order to prepare for classes on Mondays, only having to travel from EM is pretty nice!  Anyway, that's beside the point.

I spent the past two weekends at EM starting my second season of trapping.  This also included beginning to do herp surveys in addition to small mammal trapping and bird surveys, but I'll get to all that later.

I have to admit... lately I have been REALLY missing home - and kind of hating the desert.  I go through times when I am selfishly tired of the heat, dryness, and lack of trees... I've been feeling this way pretty strongly the past couple weekends as I was doing some of my fieldwork.  What usually happens during times like these is that I witness some natural event or scene that reopens my eyes and mind to how truly beautiful it is down here - despite the differences from home - which I am still getting used to.  Maybe it's just God's little way of reminding me that I'm blessed to have been given an opportunity to learn about a completely different ecosystem (one that He created!) than what I've been exposed to for most of my life.  Seeing the vast expanse of the desert, lined with mountains that even though may not be the biggest I've seen, still manage to take my breath away when seen in the right light or from the right angle, make me feel very small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  It's very humbling, and usually puts me back in my place fairly quickly.  This time, the 'natural event or scene' was revealed to me by way of a simple sunrise and sunset.  Something I've seen many times in my life, in many different places, but for some reason this weekend it really touched me.  And the pictures don't do any of it justice at all!  Still, I figured I'd share them :)

First was the sunset...

As I set out to begin one of my nighttime road cruises looking for snakes and lizards on the road, I walked out of the bunkhouse and had this for my view.  In real life everything is much bigger than how it looks in these pictures!

As I travelled further down the road, the sunset was behind me.  I couldn't help but stop and get out to take some more pictures.  Even after the sun had disappeared behind the mountains the colors of the sky were still bright and beautiful.  It's amazing what a few clouds can do to create a truly amazing sunset!

...Followed by the sunrise!

The next morning I went to my site to begin my bird survey and start checking small mammal traps.  Soon after I started looking and listening for birds at my first point, I was distracted by this scene.  It was fairly overcast that morning but the sun might as well have been shining directly on my face!

As the sun continued to rise the color spread out across the whole sky.  It was so beautiful!

This is the east side of elephant mountain which is directly behind me in the picture above this one.  That is the amount of light that the sun shining off of the clouds was giving to the area around me.  That's pretty bright!  And the funny this was, once the sun rose above the clouds - it was a pretty dull and dreary morning without any color at all...

Well, after that my respect and admiration of the desert was reinstated... right up until this morning when it was SO windy that I could barely run my traps!!  I got over it though :)

Anyway, moving on... One thing Elephant Mountain is pretty well known for around here is it's population of bighorn sheep.  A lot of effort has been made in the past several years to increase the number of bighorn sheep in the Trans-Pecos since their population was once overexploited (I don't remember exactly what happened to them though).  Anyway, the project has been pretty successful and they even moved a large number of sheep from EM to Big Bend Ranch State Park, which is right next to Big Bend National Park.  They did that back in December and it even made the Washington, PA newspaper! A couple other Sul Ross grad students helped with the capture, but unfortunately I was flying home for break for one of the capture days.  Apparently they are planning on doing it again December of this year... so maybe I will get to help then!

Here is a picture of a couple bighorn sheep rams.  This was back in January when I did my first round of small mammal trapping and bird surveys at EM.  I was pretty excited to see some!

EM also has cattle on it most of the time too.  I don't know if they lease out the land to other cattle owners or what, but I was able to experience them up close and personal this weekend!  There was one cow on one of my study sites last weekend that seemed to show up out of nowhere when I came out of running my mammal traps.  I didn't think much of it, and kind of enjoyed the company when she was around... She never bothered me, but did take an interest in one of my trail cams!

Here are some pictures of her being curious.

 Of course animals seem to have to put their face right in everything!  Guess she just wanted her picture taken :)  I actually set up this camera right next to a water tank that was on one of my trapping sites.  It's a good place to catch good wildlife photos since water tends to be good gathering places out here in the desert, obviously!

I thought this picture was funny since it's obvious she messed with the camera enough to make it tip forward... so now it's only showing the ground.  Thanks cow!  Luckily I was back there a couple hours later to fix it.

I had a lot of pictures of her on the trail camera.  They were spread out between about 9:30 am to almost 11:00 am!  She must have really been interested in the camera... or just had nothing else to do (I've always seen cows in huge groups - so I'm sure she's lonely by herself!).  But my brief encounters with her were not close to what I experienced this weekend!  Now, I have no idea what they're like to work with - I am no cattle farmer... but I LOVE cows.  If I ever get the chance to live on a farm or own a large amount of property I would really enjoy having some cows there too.  I know they are not the brightest of animals (which I witnessed this weekend on several occasions), but for some reason they really entertain me and I like them :)  I actually really like all farm animals - they always make areas where you get to feed and pet the farm animals in zoos and stuff seem like it's all for kids... but I love the petting zoo part!  Anyway... back to the EM cows...

For some reason whenever I would get to the point in the road where they were standing they'd all start walking towards me.  I never understood that.  Like they were expecting or wanted something from me... who knows... Anyway, that's what they were doing in this picture.  And they would all start mooing really loudly.  Then they'd quiet down once I passed.

Sorry this picture isn't the greatest.  As you can see I was taking it through the windshield.  These cows are stubborn!  They hardly moved at all until I was practically bumping into them with the front of the truck!  Then they'd all turn around and just start running into each other.  They didn't seem to be too aware of their surroundings.

Then, once I passed them they usually just stared at me for a while.  Sometimes with grass sticking out of their mouths.  I was obviously disturbing them from eating and they never seemed too thrilled about it!

Eventually they move out of my way until I would round the next corner and have to dodge one standing right in the middle of the road like this one!

I never really worried about passing by them close enough for them to stick their heads in my window, until I came up to this guy.  Those horns look awful pointy!  Although he mooed and snorted at me some, he let me pass without incident.  I guess we had an understanding :)

Here I came around a corner to a huge group of them!  See that opening there on the road that I thought I could squeeze through? Guess again Laura... nice try...

As you can see, by the time I got closer they had filled in the gap and begin moving in around the truck.  I'll never understand it!

Not only do they have cows roaming the WMA, but burros too!  Burros are like donkeys - another animal that I love! :)

They're also curious, but not as bad as the cows.  And they usually get out of your way right away!  I think the one on the right in this picture is really pretty!

The one in the back was my favorite.  She was the prettiest in my opinion.  She had more brown on her back and sides that made her coloring really cool!

It's really hard to see in this picture, but if you look through the bushes to the right of this burro, you'll see another one on the ground with it's legs in the air rolling around in the dirt.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture, but it sure was funny to watch!

Ok, enough of the cow and burro pictures.  Sorry... I told you I liked farm animals! :)  The weekends at EM were fairly successful.  I picked up two new small mammal species and even saw a couple lizards (one of which was in a mammal trap!)  This past weekend was very very windy!  None of the animals I captured were happy, obviously, but once they were out of the trap and I was holding them, they were even more unhappy to be in the wind!  They were so squirmy and difficult to hold on to!  Still I was able to get some pictures.  I'll at least show you pictures of the new species I added to the list.

Here is another wood rat species!  Neotoma albigula (White-throated Wood Rat).  They are so calm when they're being handled! Such a nice change from the little mice :)

This is a grasshopper mouse.  They are easy to identify because of their really tiny tail!  There are two species of them in the Trans-Pecos.  This one is Onychomys arenicola (Mearn's Grasshopper Mouse).

As I mentioned earlier, I also started doing herp surveys since it is warm enough (hah, warm... it's HOT!).  Unfortunately I haven't had much luck with seeing much.  I walk my mammal trap transects looking in every place I can for snakes or lizards.  The first weekend I found two lizards - more by accident I think... I probably would not have even seen them if they hadn't moved!  I didn't see any this weekend, besides the one I caught in a mammal trap.  I also do nighttime road cruising looking for snakes that come out on the road at night.  I do that each of the three nights I am trapping, but didn't have any luck... hopefully that gets better!

Here is the lizard I caught in the trap.  I haven't identified it confidently yet, but I think it is a type of spiny lizard?  I'm not positive, but I know another grad student who likes herps, so I'm sure she can help me.

There have been a lot of fires in the Trans-Pecos lately.  One occurred at EM while I was there last weekend, and yesterday (Saturday) there was apparently a pretty destructive one in Fort Davis, which is just a little north of Alpine.  I heard about it on the radio last night during the road cruising, but haven't actually talked to anyone about it yet.  It was bad enough for them to close the road that leads to Fort Davis, and I heard they won't have power back until tomorrow and are taking bottled water donations from people in Alpine.  On my way back from EM today I noticed a huge burned area right outside of Alpine (there is a big hill that you travel down to get into Alpine, and from there I could see the whole town and some of the outskirts, which is how I saw the burned area).  It was still smoldering in some places, and I know it wasn't like that when I left on Thursday.  Luckily, no one was seriously injured or killed in the fire in Fort Davis, but it did do some structural damage there, or so I heard.  The fire on the outskirts of town looked to be out of reach of any residential areas, and the one at EM last weekend was fairly small and taken control of pretty quickly.  (As I am typing this the power just flickered off... interesting...).  Fire down here is somewhat of an expected occurrence since it is so dry, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous or destructive.  The fact that it has been super windy the past few days does not help either.  I'm sure that has made these fires worse than they would have been if there had been no wind.  Still, people down here are used to them, so they know what to do when one starts.

Here is a picture of the fire at EM.  It was not very big, although it covered more ground than is seen here in this picture.

This picture and the picture below were taken yesterday (which is when the Fort Davis fire occurred).  Now I took these pictures thinking that it was so hazy because it was so windy which caused all the dust to be kicked up.  But now knowing about the Fort Davis fire, I wonder if part of this is from that.  It could also just be dust - I didn't smell any smoke or anything, so it might have nothing to do with the fire in Fort Davis.  If it was dust, you can now see how truly windy it was (and still is) down here! The normally clear blue skies were definitely not clear in these pictures!

Well, I guess that's all I have to say for now.  I have two weekends free before I go out to the Davis Mountains Preserve (which is north of Fort Davis), to do my second round of trapping there also.  Then after that it's finals for school already!  I can't believe how fast this semester has gone by!  It's crazy!  I'll keep you all posted on what I'm doing!

Thanks for reading!  :)

Laura