Today was our first real day working a transect for this whole froggy business (we had a practice run yesterday where we searched without recording or following protocol). There are 6 of us collecting data: Kayla, Lucy, Paul, Josh, Rosy, and myself, and we work together to count, measure, and record the frogs (we each write our own paper and are working on our own project, but we gather the data together). We're eventually going to cover 48 transects (20m long each) over the next 6 days as a group, sleeping in the Hunua Ranges in these mountain huts half the nights, and coming back to campus for the other half.
Our trail leader, John, is the most hardcore guy I've met here so far. He's mega old, but SO wiry and in shape. I think the best way to describe him is angular; everything from his cheekbones to his calf muscles simply juts out in a way that looks almost fake. The tattoo on his right forearm has bled so much from age and sun, it's impossible to see what it used to be (he says it's the steering wheel to a ship. If you say so...) He is around to make sure we don't get lost in the deep bush, and he kind of goes and does his own thing when we're frog-huntin'.
We divided up into teams of 2 to cover each transect, with one person wearing a headlamp searching for frogs and the other recording. Rosy and I searched 2 transects, wading through streams that were sometimes up to our mid-thighs (my hiking boots will NEVER be dry after this week) and found ONE measly frog all afternoon. I guess this should have been expected, considering they're endangered and whatnot, but jeeze. This project is going to be a lesson in patience.
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