Tracking Transect

Friday, I headed to the Anza-Borrego Desert to spend the night, and then meet some trackers from the San Diego Tracking Team to do a quarterly transect in Grapevine Canyon.

 I camped in Little Blair Valley.  The wind was really whipping, with gusts of 40 MPH.  I thought my tent was going to cave in during the night.

 Camp Bob

As evening approached, the wind died down quite a bit.  However, by dark, it started up with a vengeance.  There wasn't another soul for miles.

 The moon setting at 5 AM.

 Our transect followed this dirt road and then up a wash.  Unfortunately, the wind had blown out most of the tracks, but we did find definite tracks of deer, coyote, kangaroo rat, jack rabbits, and cotton tail rabbits.  We also found scat from bobcats, Big-eared Woodrat, Desert Woodrat, Roadrunner, and the animals listed above. The couple on the left is Micky and Evalyn.  The transect leader on the right is Dick Chadwick.  He and I share a big interest in reptiles, but he is by far the more knowledgeable and experienced.  The data collected from the transect is used by various entities to see how animals are moving through corridors and how their populations are doing.

 This pretty plant I found out is a Prickly Poppy.