Trick-o-treat

Hello blogosphere!
Its almost the end of October and we are still feeding prairie chickens! We've been feeding these endangered birds lettuce and frozen veggies twice-a-day, 7days a week for almost 4 months now. Numbers of prairie chickens released this year remain fairly constant despite of the awful drought that Texas has experienced this year. But things have been looking better, we received a bit of rain over the past month and some of the wildflowers here have started to bloom. Some of the chickens that have previously relied on the shredded lettuce that we've fed them are eating some of the new grasses and flowers popping up around the prairie. This is good news and could eventually mean the end of us interns feeding chickens everyday.

On another note, I recently enrolled in and completed a week long firefighting course at the Texas Interagency Wildfire Academy at Camp Swift-Bastrop and am now a certified wildland firefighter! It was a great experience and I learned a lot about wildfire behavior and firefighting techniques. I can now help perform prescribed burns here on the refuge in the winter with the fire crew from Balcones Canyonland NWR.

The end of October also means that my internship here at Attwaters is coming to an end. I have officially started looking for jobs. I have used USAJOBS and the A&M job board. I am not looking for any specific positions although I would like a job with lots of field and wildlife components. So if anyone out there would like to look at my CV and credentials-please let me know :)

Other than that, with the rain the prairie is still as beautiful as ever as plants take advantage of the rain and start blooming. I make a point to go on a bike ride or run every afternoon to watch the sunset.

I recently purchased a bike from a volunteer master naturalist.
I've named it "Bandit" and take it out riding almost every afternoon.

"Boomer" is still hopped up on testosterone and still displaying.
This is probably my favorite pic of him yet!

Beautiful clouds and fog in the morning

A hen hangs out on top of the acclimation pen in the morning
and watches us fill up her food tray with veggies

I saved 3 dragonflies from the acclimation pen mesh,
this one thanked me by landing on my face.

Boomer tries to impress the females-still a bit early for mating season

My favorite chicken in the refuge. I'm already planning on taking him
with me when I leave.