Bears and Wolves; Destination Danger!

I'm back in Coos Bay, this time with John Schaefers, our lab tech, handyman, truck mechanic, cameraman, storyteller, and accomplished mud walker. We went out on the South Slough NERR (National Estuarine Research Reserve) boat to do some recon for an eelgrass monitoring site up-estuary. Steve Rumrill, the science director for the reserve showed us where we could find a potential site where they've worked before bearing the name of Danger Point. He assured me that it wasn't really dangerous, just that some field work mishaps had previously occured at the site, but I still can't help but wonder just how cursed this spot will be.... I already have one marine site, and one site halfway down the estuary, but need another site with more riverine influence to compare with the others. If you zoom into this map, maybe you can get a sense of where I was headed:

We couldn't make it to the desination in boat becuase the tide was still too low, so John and I decided to hop ship and head to Danger Point by foot. Unfortunately, the going was rough... I mean soft... super soft mud that was impossible to get through. John, having just gotten off a mudshrimp experiment with Sally was well accustomed, but this was my first real slog of the summer, and the stuff was deep - I kept sinking up to the top of my hip waders (mistake - chest waders for tomorrow!). I eventually had to give up and crawl.... We eventually made it out of the mud and into the fringe marsh, where the going was much easier. En route we found some bear tracks, which John swears are huge, but being only the size of my hand, I think are quite small or average for a black bear. We mentioned this to Steve who said, oh yeah, that must have been a Black Bear Crossing - their favorite spot for getting across the slough.

Checking out Danger Pt.
(looks like working here is going to be fun!)


Eelgrass Boa
(already so dirty I couldnt' resist)

We made it to the site, and it looks like it has potential, so we marked it out and will return tomorrow to set things up. Then we phoned for a rescue from the other side - it had taken us almost 2 hours to walk from the boat, so its a good thing reception held and we could coordinate a pick-up from the other side - a quick 30 minute walk through as amazing marsh that they've been restoring for almost 20 years now.

While we were waiting for our ride, we made friends with an Arctic Wolf! Yes, that's right, this lady was hanging out with her "dog", and although it first growled as John approached it slowly befriended us. It was huge - 175 pds, with the most gorgeous fur. Beautiful, just like its name Beau (although I think to be fair to the dog it should be spelt Bo), but also pretty scarry, especially as its owner, this petite older lady kept telling us about how crazy it has been of late at home - that's why she was hanging out at the slough!. She adopted the wolf after a shifty up-bringing and it still has some eccentricities, but seems ok for an animal that never needed to be domesticated. She said that there's a wolf rescue group that have made shawls out its fur - we were left with our own personal fur (and smell) covering after our visit.

Action Shot; Thumbs Up!

Back to the lab we made a stop to pick up some kayaks at the reserve. I was pretty excited to find out about the boats..... much easier that walking in the muck, and a good excuse to go for a paddle. So a great day, with plenty of adventures and exotic animal sightings amidst the rural clearcut lands of Oregon.

"Ciao", from Margot, seen here posing with a native rhodo.
All headshots coutesy of John and his pursuit of a good field pic of me. This one ain't bad.