My Summer Internship: Megan Ellis

Megan Ellis is a WEC undergrad in her junior year. She completed a summer internship with the US Fish and Wildlife Service at St Marks National Wildlife Refuge last summer.

We asked her about her experiences there.

During my time at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, I worked with three endangered species and a plethora of others.

For most of the summer, I assisted in monitoring and managing red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) populations across the refuge.

As soon as we arrived, we began checking cavities with peepers (a kind of camera on a long, extendable pole that lets us look into the birds’ high nest cavities). This allowed us to check for nest trees, eggs, chicks, nest parasites, and predation. When checking for nest trees, I learned to look for trees drenched from fresh sap wells made by RCWs. After choosing the most likely tree, we would use a peeper to check the overall quality of the cavity. We looked for very clean nests with fine wood shavings which typically indicate RCW inhabitants. If we saw sticks or other debris in the cavity, we knew a different species moved into the cavity. Sometimes we would find flying squirrels, which looked like a mass of fur on the monitor. We learned to age chicks we found in the cavities based on size, coloration and feather development then scheduled our trip to band them when they reached 7-10 days old.

“I even got to band my own bird!”

I aided in the banding and scoping of birds across the refuge–eventually seeing the first surviving fledglings in the St. Marks unit! I even got to band my own bird.

We traversed the refuge to find adult woodpeckers and identify them by their colorful leg bands. Adjusting to using scopes and determining the color of the bands took some time, but by the third week we found birds and reported color bands more regularly.

We would leave for the field at 5:20am during fledge checks so we could arrive and set up before sunrise. We always wore our bug jackets and found Thermacells (bug-repelling smoke machines) were life-savers. When the sun started to break through the morning mist, we would listen for the sounds of waking RCWs through the choir of mosquitoes around our ears.

Once heard, we could find them in our scopes and gather as many color bands as possible in a glimpse, then follow them as they left for foraging grounds. We speculate it is much easier to fly over palmettos, wiregrass, sawgrass and swamps than it is to walk, though St. Marks’ beautiful sunrises were definitely worth the early rise.

Throughout the summer, I also had the opportunity to work at St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge. Here, I worked with the refuge biologist, Bradley Smith, and other volunteers on the sea turtle nesting surveys. We learned how to differentiate between a “confirmed nest” and “false crawl”, how to identify sea turtle species based upon the tracks left behind, and how to properly search for the nest and build the protective enclosure around it. At St. Vincent, not only was I able to participate in the sea turtle nesting surveys, but I also got experience using radio telemetry to track the Red Wolves on the island to find their location.

I had an opportunity to take two fire training classes, S-130 and S-190. These classes are required to obtain a Red card, among a few others. It was neat to experience the classes in person rather than online, as I was able to participate in a fieldwork component. The fieldwork involved a prescribed burn where I learned to use new tools and a drip torch to safely set the fire. After the course, I took an exam and received a certificate of completion that I will be able to use in the future.

I participated in invasive species management by setting up camera traps to pattern feral hog movements and spraying herbicide on invasive cogon grass. Spraying days declined when thunderstorms picked up, but we covered as much ground as possible during the dry, hot days.

I had a few side-jobs during my time here. I helped with one of the summer camps by teaching children how to set up camera traps with scent stations. The kids seemed to enjoy the presentation!

I also helped flag potential future trees to receive cavity inserts on the St. Marks unit and had the chance to take the pack test, which I passed! I helped with equipment maintenance and, on rainy days, worked on other fire courses and data entry. I went through notebooks from the 80’s to the present while searching for historical RCW data and covered about the same time periods while entering hunt data.

We helped check flatwoods salamander pond depth for future temperature logger installation.

I tromped around ponds in the Wakulla unit to look for vegetation that could support flatwoods salamanders. This always meant wearing waders, and usually involved a lot of bushwhacking! We also had the chance to go to Smith Island and surrounding islands–the first to survey for many different species of birds and the latter to count oystercatcher pairs.

What a great summer it was! I want to thank everyone who made it possible. I had a blast working at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and was sad to be returning back home so soon.

~

Thanks to Megan Ellis for speaking with us about her experiences!

To learn more about St. Marks NWR, click here.

To learn more about Wildlife Ecology at UF, click here.

Header photo of Megan with pitcher plants by Scott Davis.

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Posted: February 26, 2018


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