James Pittman
Journal Entry #6
11/1/2024
It was nice to come back to the Southern Eights property after a second week-long break. The trees are already turning red and yellow, and the plant life in the prairies is adopting a spectrum of brown. This week was fairly straight forward, we were beginning to set up for our individual research. This is something unfamiliar to me, considering my last internship out here , but I’m sure it’ll go well. We went out to Fireworks, Steele Prairie, and a few other locations to aid each of us in beginning our research. My goal is to understand the irregular sightings of Striped Skunks on the game cameras, so we looked for potential skunk dens around the game cameras they have been seen on, and there were a few decent leads, but none were currently occupied. We also searched for certain grassland birds and butterfly host plants for Sasha’s and Charles’ respective topics. We found some captivating sights while setting up, like an enormous Great Blue Heron flying into and away from a small pond; you never truly realize the scale of the world until you see it up close and personal. It’s hard to believe that there are only three more meetings before the internship ends this semester, and sooner than later we’ll be presenting our findings. I’m not the best at public speaking, but I’ve been up there once before, so I’m ready for what’s coming. Not much data was collected today, but we’ve got a good foundation for our first independent portion of this internship. I’ll have to find papers on skunks to give direction to my research, which isn’t too difficult, as I have a nice fall break to relax and pick and choose which one works and which won’t work.
Journal Entry #5
10/25/2024
This week at Southern Eights was pretty important. This was the first week that I was able to set up the game cameras at potential Striped Skunk den sites, which I will have to check back next week to see if I can find any movement. The purpose of these cameras being placed was so that I could monitor the movement of Striped Skunks on the property, something that has been of interest for a while. Being able to better understand the movement of skunks on the property would be useful in allowing us to better understand the intricacies of the local environment.
Charles seemed to have had success in Fireworks prairie with his pursuit of tracking butterflies, but Sasha didn’t seem to get a visual on her desired grassland-nesting birds. After we had run some data collection/preparation, such as the placing of the game cameras in my case; Brad told us the importance of having plenty of questions to ask, since those are how you find answers and begin to learn. He also mentioned the story of why he says “swinging for the fences” and “I was born ready”, it was interesting to hear how he was inspired by his 7th grade woodshop teacher (he had mentioned that he himself wanted to teach shop). The teacher had attitude, and mentored Brad in his younger years. It just goes to show how even someone in the local community can have such a profound impact on others.
Journal Entry #4
10/18/2024
Only three more meetings until the internship is over, and this was the second to last meeting before we will be giving our presentations. I unfortunately did not find any skunks on the cameras I had placed the week prior. Morgan and I were able to move them to different locations where skunks had been seen on the other game cameras, one being in France’s meadow, the other being near BJ’s pond. The latter camera stand was bent at its base, so we had to get creative and use a pile of sticks to support the stand. I’m really banking on these cameras giving me some results, if not, then I won’t have much new field data for my research. But then again, no data is still data. Setting up the cameras didn’t take much time, so most of this meeting was dedicated to Sasha and Charles’ respective research projects. We all pitched in near the graveyard to help Sasha in finding her Eastern Meadowlarks . We walked in a line about five feet apart from each other for about 200 meters; this was repeated about five different times, but no Meadowlarks were seen from this. One of those attempts was near Fireworks in a prairie filled with thorns, where I got pricked pretty badly, my legs look like they’ve been ravished by mosquitoes. Charles was mainly looking at the insects that were on the Awl Aster and he seemed to be doing pretty well with that, despite having to tweak his project throughout the previous weeks. I wish both of them luck on their presentations, and hope their research yields usable data.
Journal Entry #3
9/27/2024
This week’s meeting for our internship was a bit different than usual. We didn’t meet at the Southern Eights property in person, rather we were forced to meet in a Zoom meeting due to the edge of Hurricane Helene coming through. Anna was not at the meeting due to her losing power, which is really unfortunate. Charles even mentioned that he had temporarily lost power at his home; meanwhile on campus and at my family home, there were no real issues caused by the storm, so I’m pretty lucky. I’m not the biggest fan of zoom meetings; it feels unnatural when trying to have a conversation, but then again it is easier than driving through flooded roads. On the Zoom call, we discussed what our research would focus on, and I took interest in the scarce and irregular sightings of skunks on the trail cams of the property. One hypothesis I have for this could be that skunks tend to live in underground dens, and their diet is quite diverse, so they may not have to travel far or often to find food. Morgan had also shown us images of various animals caught on the trail cams from the week prior, like Eastern Coyotes, Wild Turkeys, and
White-tailed Deer. She then went on to mention the fall and spring equinoxes, along with the summer and winter solstices, which was pretty neat to learn about. I am a bit bummed we didn’t get to do anything hands-on this week, but sometimes that is how it has to be; I’ll be looking forward to the next meeting and being able to observe how the storm affected the property, my guess is that the streams will be deeper than before, with a few branches missing from the trees.
Journal Entry #1
9/13/2024
It had been exactly one year before I was a fresh intern at Southern Eights, now one year later I am returning for another semester of research. The property on the surface had not changed much; the trees and grasses were still vibrant, and the buildings intact. The focus on shadowing this semester seems really interesting. I do hope this gives me an opportunity to learn more about the research process, and see what life is like after university for environmental biology majors. My peers are environmental majors as well, which should allow me to better relate to and grow with them. Orientation was mostly the same as the one I first went through, though it was nice being able to go out and observe all the artwork out on the property, as well as the drive; it’s pretty peaceful around there. The prairies were as healthy and lush as ever, I honestly missed seeing the diversity and bounty of plant life; since I have lived on campus and my family’s home which is located in the suburbs, I have only been met with a monoculture of the same front-lawn grass, and maybe a few trees that were lucky not to be cut down. The forest area was looking more or less the same as since I had last seen it, there was a decent variety of oaks, with a few pine trees in the mix, an interesting thing we found while looking were antler markings on one of the trees, I knew male antlers would rub their antlers after mating season, but I never knew they left such deep markings into the bark of the tree. I didn’t get a great look at the stream due to an untimely rainfall, but it appeared that the water was further back than I remember, though this could be a case of me thinking about a different area or a different part of the season. It was a shame to hear about the neighboring landowner that has a habit of violating environmental laws and soils whatever nature he happens to own for the sake of profit; the impact that he is having on the environment must be tremendous, but the most the authorities will be willing to do is give out a measly fine. To conclude, I am feeling very optimistic about this semester, and hope to learn and experience.
