Internship has started

Monday

5/23/2011

My internship at Alligator River and Pea Island NWR has just begun. I arrived on Saturday afternoon at the refuge housing and met my fellow interns. After getting settled in we went on a "safari" at around 7:30, Marson, one of the other interns staying at our cabin who arrived last Wednesday, had told us he had gone down this unpaved road that loops around through open fields, which farmers working in agreement with the refuge had set aside a portion of for wildlife to feed on. Marson said he drove through there the previous day and had seen more bears than he could count. According to him he counted 9, saw several more and lost count. That was on the Friday before I and the other intern, Mike, had arrived. That Saturday afternoon we drove through those same fields and saw not a one. Marson, surprised and taken aback, attributed the sudden ursine absence to it being a Saturday, which likely had more road traffic, scaring the bears away. We headed back to the cabin, rather disappointed, and to our amazement we finally saw a bear, walking right down the side of the road, not but a few hundred meters away from the driveway of our cabin. The bear didn't even run off or move, he just kept walking past as our car stopped and scrambled to try and get our cameras ready. He just looked at us just as casually and carelessly as any hominid out on an evening stroll would have and walked by, not even stopping himself to gawk back. I managed a short, uninteresting video of a dark bear-shaped silouhette going past the window, and that was the best any of us got, despite me having only a low-budget crappy camcorder from radio shack and my two roomies having top-dollar professional high-scope cameras. I want to upload the video but the stupid file format does not even allow for me to view them myself once uploaded to my computer, and attempts at file conversion have not yielded any good results. Will have to work on that problem.

That was saturday evening, just getting settled in, on Sunday I used the day to its fullest to explore Roanoake island's numerous touristy attractions, and try to learn as much as I could about the area's inredible history, for Roanoake, not Jamestown, is truly the first English colonial settlement. As many may recall from elementary school history, this first colony, comissioned by Sir Walter Raleigh and settled by Francis Drake in 1585 and a few settlers, mysteriously disappeared. Drake, wanting to return to bring supplies and check in on the progress of the colonists, was delayed for 3 years by England's war with Spain, and when he returned, the colonists, even the buildings, were gone. The words 'Croatan' were found carved on a fortification post and 'Cro' on an oak tree, indicating the colonists may have possibly fled to that nearby island, but the ship's captain refused to go there to check. This first colony was unsuccessful, its fate and disappearance shrouded in mystery, and scant little archaeological evidence remains of its existence, but the history is there, not much in terms of real museum artifacts on the history, but there are many touristy things nonetheless. A visit to Roanoke Island Festival Park is highly recommended. I went on the wildlife drive one more time on Sunday evening and saw three bears, two off in the distance, one right in the middle of the road, not moving until my car was close by.

Today, Monday, orientation began. You know how job orientation is, and it will be like this most of the week, so there won't be much to report on in terms of work for a little while, but I will keep posted when it does. We will likely be doing research work on black bears, red wolves and sea turtles, as well as on terns and various other bird species. We will be involved as well in various educational programs-- howl-ins and wildlife olympics with schools. We'll also do lots of maintenance, mowing, office work here and there, etc. It's going to be a busy, exciting summer.


One big setback-- I thought our cabin would have internet-- but we don't. I have to drive to Mcdonald's and use their wifi. But that's okay-- I will still keep this blog going and keep posting.