A Warm Day At Hurricane Creek, Finally

We made it out for a telescope shiner collecting trip at the Walls of Jericho yesterday. This was the first warm day in our collections, and three of us waded in the creek without waders on, while Loren opted for waders; the water was a brisk 14 deg. C. It took us about 5 hours of working the creek to collect 25 telescopes, less than our optimal goal of 30, but I think it'll be OK. We found some darters we haven't encountered much before like bluesided (Etheostoma jessiae) and fantail (E. flabellare), both in interesting breeding colorations. There was a threat of rain all day and we could hear distant thunder. I guess for that reason we only saw three other people on the property. Andrew who has been working with us was supposed to be camping there with his dorm mates, but I guess they backed out.

I finally took a photo of the gate into state property. To get to this point one has driven about 3 miles on a badly rutted road, and opened and relocked three gates. The gate pictured below is the most intense of them; notice the spikes sticking out to defend the gate against being opened by a vehicle pushing against it. The spikes are at the height of a typical radiator. The lock itself is in a steel-shielded box on the left end of the gate, making it almost impossible to blast open with a gunshot. And running off downhill on the right of the photo is the beginning of a reinforced fence of round steel pipe about a meter high to block any vehicles from making an end-run around the gate. This fence runs about 200 meters down to Hurricane Creek, which is steep-banked at this point.
On the way out we spotted an owl sitting in a tree right by the road, as shown below. I think the owl is a barred owl, but I could be wrong. I just stuck my camera outside the truck's window and took two shots. The owl just sat and stared.

And speaking of my truck, I finally have magnetic signs identifying who and what I am. This will hopefully head off any more confusion from some of the landowners whose property we must cross to drive onto state lands. I thought the signs look snazziest on the panel to the rear of the doors, as you can see in the photo below. I hope you agree.