07/09/08

Arrived at the camp of Roger Anderson and Co. at around 11:00. Got the ovipositorium and incubator situated then chatted for a bit. Roger takes a field ecology and ecological methods (two different classes) to a site in the Alvord Desert just south of Borax Lake (yes, THE Borax Lake of 20-mule team fame). They spend three weeks camping on the hard pan studying leopard, horned, and whiptail lizards. This year class size was small and only had 7 undergrads and 4 grad students. In the PM we took the afternoon to drive up the Steens since the road just opened (snow finally melted). We stopped and took a swim in the Little Blitzen River, which was surprisingly warm. Then stopped for another swim in a glacial melt pool at about 8000'. One of the undergrads had serious issues with the high altitude so Roegr and I headed back with the student. Stopped at a couple places to look for stuff on the way and found some nice quartz encrusted lava on the road just up and out of the Catlow Valley. Had a couple eggs from WP hatch this afternoon.

07/10/08

Got up early since it was hot, hot, hot on the hard pan...ugh. Roger and I left at 7:40 to drive to Long Draw. Drove up Bog Hot Road and then up onto Railroad Point along the power-line road. That put us at about 4300'. Then got as close to Oregon End Table as we could...maybe 1/4 mile. Oregon End Table is a lava flow that has a nice south-facing point and sits on top of RailRoad Point, which sits in the south Alvord Basin. Oregon End Table is at about 5200' at the top so the idea is that elevation may limit lizard distributions. As we hiked we saw a Aspidoscelis (whiptail lizard) and a Uta about halfway up on the slope (just as it was getting steep). Just above that we found an ungulate skeleton pretty much in tact. I took the skull. Hiked up to the top and kept seeing Sceloporus occidentalis, but nothing else. Saw near 15 fence lizards on top and only saw only one femlae Uta. On the way down saw several more whiptails, but no Uta. On the drive over RP and down the nasty canyon we saw several Uta (4-5). Drove to LDT and hiked up so I could release the last of the lizard garden females. Saw 7 collared lizards and one whiptail and not a single Uta. Was getting warm, but we saw them along the road...hmm. The collared lizards were hot (40.4*C for one big male). Also caught another striped whipsnake (Masticophis). Headed back so we could be back for student questions by 15:00. Found them at the Fields Station, where they had had lunch. Had a few more hatch this evening. SO far the first two hatch were from LDT and the rest from WP...hmm. Windy this evening...really windy. So that the dust from the playa blocked out the Steens and filled the south valley. Ugh. Good booger making weather. Ugh.