Managing Wildlife Populations
Martin: Biologist Tirhi, Volunteer Sheridan and Pt. Defiance partners put martin boxes up at Chambers Bay. Volunteer Sheridan will monitor the boxes annually.
Elk Surveys: Biologist Murphie recently participated in composition surveys for elk in the Clearwater Game Management Unit (GMU) 615 along with Biologist Ament and Quinault Tribal Wildlife Program Lead Phillips. Digital images were taken during the survey of encountered elk groups. From these images, biologists can get an accurate tally of elk and determine the number of bulls, cows, and calves in each group. A preliminary tally from this survey was 323 elk with some known or marked groups located in cover and not counted.
Western Pond Turtle: Biologist Murphie conducted site maintenance at the western pond turtle recovery site in District 15. Additionally, he built and deployed a basking platform. Later this summer, the platform will be fitted with a passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag antenna array from which we hope to identify which turtles we released into the pond are still there. Biologist Murphie will build and deploy at least two more platforms in May.
Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly: Biologist Murphie has been preparing for this season's butterfly survey work in District 16. He conducted the first surveys of the season on April 27 and 28, when weather conditions were ideal. However, he reports that no Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies were seen. More to come, as these surveys will be conducted over the next few weeks.
Sooty Grouse: Biologist Murphie reports that persistent snow along several higher elevation roads in the district continue to delay work on the sooty grouse survey effort. Biologist Murphy reports hearing/seeing male sooty grouse courtship displays/calling this period on April 24 and 26. Murphy deployed one audio recording device, as part of the effort to better document the timing and extent of this behavior.
Conserving Natural Landscapes
Lands 20/20: Biologist Novack and Cent worked on developing proposals for the upcoming Lands 20/20 process.
Providing Education and Outreach
Snowy Plover: Public Service announcements focused on Snowy Plover protection were broadcast over the radio during Earth Day weekend when recreationists were visiting the beaches to harvest razor clams. Shellfish staff members surveyed diggers and found that 11-12% of recreationists within the broadcast area heard the radio ads before going out to dig.
General Wildlife Inquiries: Biologist Murphie responded to inquiries received by phone, email, or in person. Including:
- Deer with hair loss
- River otter
- Elk hunting
- Western pond turtle
- Turkey hunting
Conducting Business Operations and Policy
Aircraft Safety Training Course: As an instructor for this course, Biologist Murphie did some planning around the next course to be held in Port Townsend in May.
Other
Other planning/prep work: Biologist Murphie also spent time planning upcoming bat and bear work.