Adventures!

We had some fun travel & adventure last month - a wedding in NM, Brother's graduation, & fieldwork (for frogs & bears!).

We also experienced our first tropical storm here, which brought some much needed rain. Before we headed off on our trip, we had a nice sunset evening at the prairie with our pals J & K (who are now residing in Berkeley, sniff).

 We love the trees here - the spanish moss is amazing!

 We often see Cottonmouth's right on the trail. We were there this time at sunset and we could see why - tons of very cut, fat (and presumably tasty) Cotton Rats.

 The prairie is so dry right now!

 Gorgeous sunset over the prairie

 This sink is one of the only permanent water sources. The gators love it!

 Can you see them?

 We were watching great blue herons and other birds come in for the night.

Don't expect to see the Bison! They have been exterminated! 

(actually they did remove the males because the territory wasn't large enough & because of conflict with humans).

Prospecting!

We headed out last week to the creek near our house to look for fossilized shark's teeth. (the whole area was underwater about 5 million years ago)

We couldn't believe how easy it was - we probably found 50 in just a few hours. Mostly small ones but amazingly well preserved!

Way down on the Suwanee River...

Last month we headed down the Suwanee River with some colleagues working on a field project. It was beautiful and we got to spend our first night camping with the Pdog. We didn't get much sleep - the next trip will include a sleeping bag & pad just for P. We brought a dog bed for her but she much preferred sleeping in between us on the cushy air mattresses. 

The Suwanee is a Blackwater river and the water is very dark. the first 6 inches or so look yellow, then red, and then dark brown/black. Pretty cool!

We even got towed up river - the best way to go!

TD on the sand bar

Gar & Turtles

Pdog goes for a swim - the fast current & darkwater was no match for Pdog's retrieving skills