Training Day 4

Today was again a lot of basic island info. The morning started with a salt marsh hike through BHI's pristine marshland. Mainly designed for the education interns (myself included), we walked along identifying plants, discussing basic ecology and catching the various amphibians and crabs that crossed our path. My favorite was the glass lizard. Apparently forgotten in the evolutionary chain, this lizard has no legs and acts just like a snake. Long and thick, they slither along the ground with the body of a hognose snake and the face of a anole. Strange combination for sure. Another amusing member of the marsh are fiddler crabs. Those little buggers crawl around everywhere, seemingly unencumbered by the mud they have to wade through. The males have it especially hard as one of their claws can grow to be the size of the rest of their body while the other is tiny. The large claw serves as a weapon and way to woo the ladies, size does matter I guess.
Anyways, after the salt marsh tour we were briefed on basic fundraising goals and the new Barrier Island Study Center. This complex, hopefully to be built by next summer, will be a unique venue where scientists and interns from all over the world can come together to try to better understand barrier islands. BHI serves as a perfect location for the center as it is one of the only islands that still maintains its basic ecological form (dune system, maritime forest, salt marsh etc). Pretty cool stuff, its our job to help fundraise for this summer though in their final fundraising drive. Fun fun, another thing to add to the checklist.
The final scheduled activity of the day was a birding adventure to Middle Island. BHI and the Smith Island complex is broken up into several different "islands" based on the location of the river. Bald Head is the most developed, while Middle Island and Bluff Island, both to the north, are much less so. We traveled to Middle Island, to the shores of the marsh and of a small, manmade lake. There we saw a great blue heron, dozens of white ibis who roost all together in one tree and possibly a bald eagle. More importantly, however, it was really nice to be away from civilization, even just for a little while. Middle Island has very few houses and is mostly comprimised of the large salt marsh that runs directly through it.
After our birding adventure it was time to head back to the house. On the way, however, Brett caught a rather mean spirited Black Racer snake. About the size of a black snake, Black Racers are fast and generally even-tempered...apparently not this one though. We took it back to the house to mark it where the fun began. While trying to measure the snake, it wriggled out of Brett's grasp and chomped his finger, leaving a nice bloody mark. It wasn't done and really didn't like getting branded. In an attempt to survey the population of snakes on the island, Brett has been capturing and marking all different species, basically a really hot piece of metal. By marking on a specific scale on the underbody, we can make sure that if its ever caught again we will know exactly who it is. This snake really didn't like it though and once again tried to get out, with Brett's finger recieving the short end of the stick. Didn't look pleasant. Oh well, it was finally time for the beach.