Just a typical 'working' weekend

This past weekend we conducted three nights of nocturnal fieldwork looking for hybrid salamanders (Plethodon shermani-Plethodon teyahalee hybrids). The first night was a bit miserable, it was raining and about 45 degrees. Not exactly ideal weather for humans, but salamanders like it! We found a decent number, spent a few hours processing them (taking measurements and such) and then put them back in the area we found them. The next night was much of the same, (though thankfully it stopped raining), except for a few notable differences; we not only found a good number of our target species, we also saw a couple of other fun species:

an Ocoee salamander (Desmognathus ocoee) with red-cheeks

 a Spring salamander (Gyrinophilus porphyriticus)

Another fun phenomenon (to me especially) is that a LOT of the salamanders were climbing vegetation and downed branches. This behavior is apparently common, but has not been studied or documented for many species (Hello dissertation topic!). It was very exciting to see so many up off of the ground, further inspiring my curiosity to why they might engage in this behavior.

Plethodon shermani-P. teyahalee hybrids

The day before the last night of surveys was absolutely gorgeous. It was sunny and warm, there were butterflies everywhere! To sum up the day, I spent it here:

 where I was surrounded by this:

 and these:

 I took a walk up to a couple of my future field sites:

 where I found this flower:

 this guy:

Desmognathus monticola

and this lovely critter:

Garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)

Plus this cool looking plant:

On the final night of surveys, we still saw several salamanders, but only one was climbing. It was a bit drier than the first two nights which likely influenced the behavior. Some of the notable finds of the night:
An adorable tiny Plethodon hybrid :

and a seepage salamander (Desmognathus aeneus)!

We ended the night with saturn and super bright mars, plus a plethora of stars. :)


Although nocturnal sampling does tend to leave me somewhat sleep deprived and getting cold and wet is a bit unpleasant, getting to experience all of the aforementioned flora and fauna make it 100% worth it! It truly is a beautiful world we live in!

What is a "field biologist" anyway?

Field biology encompasses many topics and sub-diciplines of biology. It is a bit of a catch all that many people don't realize is an actual profession (or part of one anyway). I didn't really know it existed until I started college. As a first year, I got involved in research that involved fieldwork, and I was hooked. The following summer, funding became available to pay for assistance in the field. This amazed me; I could not only go out to a stream and look for salamanders with the purpose of learning more about them, I got paid to do this!?! This opened my eyes to the wonders of field biology.

The idea behind starting this blog is to share my experiences as a field biologist and to increase awareness about field biology (more generally) and salamanders (my study animals). I was inspired to start this blog by a number of incidental encounters with cool creatures and plants while doing fieldwork for various projects.

I am currently a PhD student and amphibian ecologist/salamander biologist/herpetologist/field biologist (take your pick) at the University of Georgia. This year I am starting fieldwork for a few projects in the southern Appalachian mountains. There are many challenges to conducting fieldwork on nocturnal, cryptic species, but there are an abundance of rewards as well.

I hope you (the reader) enjoy reading about these encounters and it inspires you to get outside :)

If any fellow field biologists would like to share some of their fun or exciting field stories, contact me! It would be great to have more perspectives. *Note: only overall positive stories please. I know sometimes things go wrong in fieldwork, but that is not the purpose of this blog.* Thanks!