I'm home!

Yep, I'm back in Raleigh for the week. I meant to post again before now, but oh well. Guess I didn't get bored enough last Sunday, though I don't actually remember what I did. Oh that's right - my parents came to visit! Yay! They were down in Gainesville helping my sis close on and move into her new house, which I will also be living in. So they stopped in Aiken on the way back to see where I was spending my summer. I didn't see much of them since I had work, but they took me out to dinner Sunday and Monday nights. Sunday was some fancy little cafe and I had an amazing salad with smoked trout and roasted peaches. All the other dishes were too salty. Monday we went to TakoSushi which is a half Mexican half Japanese place. Most of their dishes are one or the other, but a few are fusion. We just got sushi and a raw tuna appetizer. It was yummy. Afterwards we bought some funky sodas and candies at the Old Aiken Market. Mom found this spiced apple soda that she really liked and we got some super spicy Blenheim ginger ale. Don't inhale when you drink it or you'll be sneezing and choking for several minutes.

As for work, Candice and I managed to make it through the 75s alive on Monday and Tuesday. It actually wasn't quite as bad as we had imagined, but the chaps were definitely a life saver (but they made us SUPER sweaty). A few patches were jungle-like and we couldn't make our way inside, so we may see some edge effects when we analyze those samples. The rest of them were at least semi-navigable, but I definitely got a leg workout stomping down chest-high blackberries. There were also lots of BIG spiders to look out for, and they always seemed to make their webs in the best pathways. Yuck. I don't really have anything against them as creatures, they're just super creepy and I'd rather not be near them. I walked through a few webs, but luckily they seemed as eager to avoid me as I was of them. Don't you love it when things work out that way?

We spent Wednesday collecting additional samples from 52 for Julian's project. Thursday we went out with sweep nets to catch bug samples for the isotope catalog side project we're helping out with. Every damn time I looked in my net there were either green spiders or green grasshoppers. And while everything else was in a hurry to get out of the net, these guys were just chillin. So annoying. But we got a lot of samples anyway, though I bet a large number of them are duplicates. All of these days worked out so we could sample half the day and then sort the other half. On Friday, we were just planning to sort, but after talking on the phone with Julian and Dr. Levey Thursday night, I learned we needed seed samples for the isotope catalog. So I called Candice and told her, and she informed me that her hair appointment that was supposed to be Thursday afternoon had been postponed to Friday morning. It took every ounce of control in my body not to yell at her. And I seldom yell at people. So I went out by myself Friday morning to collect seeds and more bugs, grumbling the whole time. Candice showed up to count ants at noon. And I have to rely on her to help me write a publishable paper.

My last weekend in Aiken was a bit disappointing because everyone was out of town. I had ice cream on Friday with a few people, but my Saturday and Sunday were spent packing. No one showed up to ultimate on Sunday which was quite depressing. But I had Beck to talk to =). On Monday I drove to SRS for the last time to say goodbye to folks in the office, then to transfer the frozen bugs and berries from my freezer to the freezer at the research campus. Got back home, put all my stuff in my car, cleaned a bit, and got on the road around 2. Made it home around 8.

Now I'm unpacking from SC, packing for the Netherlands, semi-packing for college, and trying to fit in some fun times and relaxation before I leave Sunday. SUNDAY! I'M FLYING TO EUROPE TO SEE BECK ON SUNDAY! I'm excited, in case that wasn't obvious. I saw the 3rd Mummy movie on Tuesday with some friends. It had Yetis in it. I want one. On Wednesday I went to play ultimate at Hat League, but that didn't work out too well. About 2 points in, I attempted a layout but my toe got caught in the grass so it was like a flying trip which resulted in me landing hard on the top of my right knee. The rest of the night my knee hurt like hell and I couldn't really bend it, which was worrisome. This morning it's a bit better, still sore and stiff and a little swollen, but more mobility. I'm hoping it's just a severe bruise, but I may end up seeing a doctor just in case. Hopefully, whatever it is will heal by Sunday... Anyway, back to packing and whatnot.

Oh, right, the fire ants...

I kinda just left ya hanging on the last post. Oops. Well, the fire ant thing is going rather swimmingly, I'm happy to report. We've collected and processed at all but two sites, so we should finish up the sampling stuff next week and be able to go home as scheduled. We had trouble finding enough colonies at a couple sites, so we may have to revisit those, and the power in my trailer keeps blinking on and off. Dammit. OK storm, you've had your fun, now go away. There we go, OK power, please stay on? Anyway, I've only been bitten/stung about 7 times and without any adverse reactions, so I'm pretty happy with the project. I'm really not looking forward to sampling at the 75 sites. These were abandoned several years ago and 2 new sites were created. Now, they have 10 foot tall blackberry stalks. Not kidding. One of the PIs has offered me his chaps and recommends carrying something to beat back vegetation with. We're gonna die. And now for your entertainment, here's a video of fire ants swarming:


Notice how my camera becomes possessed by Satan at the end of the video.
It's been doing that since I took it to Mexico.

It occurred to me recently, that I've never fully explained the Corridor Project. It can probably be gathered from the name that the project has to do with habitat corridors. The experimental landscape is pretty sweet, though. There are 8 sites with 5 patches: a square central patch (A), connected by a corridor to patch B (also square). There are three more patches (C, D, and E) surrounding A, but not connected. These patches are either rectangular or winged (they have half a corridor extending from 2 sides). C and E are always the same shape, and D is the other shape, and which is which varies between sites. The square patches are 150m X 150m, and all patches are separated by 150m of matrix. The matrix is the forest (mostly pine) between the clearcut patches. The patches are meant to be a restoration of longleaf pine savanna, a natural community in this area maintained by fire disturbance. Thus, prescribed burns are conducted at the sites every so often. Here's some pictures, because my explanation is probably confusing:

From center, then clockwise from top right: A, B, C, D, E

I think this is patch D at site 8 (could be wrong)

So this project has been around at least 15 years, with tons of experiments conducted and papers written. My project is only one of at least 10 going on right now. The original landscapes were a bit different from this, but this landscape was designed to test for more factors than just connectivity. Patch shape and edge effects can also play a role in explaining various environmental phenomena, and I'll get to see if they affect my project results in addition to connectivity. For its size, this particular experimental landscape is the best replicated in the world, so it's actually kind of exciting to work here. Who knows, maybe I'll come back here...

As for the people on the project, they're pretty awesome. I've been having a lot of fun with them, and I'm sad that it's getting to the end of the summer and people are starting to leave. Including people on other projects at SRS (they're awesome too), I think 6 or so have left, and it sucks that I'll probably never see them again. So we've done a lot of partying and going out in the last few weeks, which has been a kind of bittersweet fun. Anyway, I'm the next to go, so I'm expecting at least one more good party before then.

Since I feel bad for not updating much lately, if I'm bored enough tomorrow I might post some random stories, photos, etc that I've been meaning to all along. But only if I'm bored enough.

Abandon Ship!

The U.S.S Bunting shall sail no more! She carried us a long way, but her journey has ended. Alas, she's run aground on the Rock of Low Testosterone, and the Nesterly Winds are not enough to keep her going. We must board the SIA lifeboats and hope for rescue ship. Otherwise, our journey will have been in vain. Ahoy! The U.S.S. Fire Ant has responded to our S.O.S.! We're saved! The Generalist has offered to carry us to our destination, the Trophic Tropics, and it can do so much faster than the bunting could. Hooray!

See kids? Science is an adventure!

Yeah, Candice, Julian, and I had a conference call with Dr. Levey and decided that we weren't going to be able to collect enough blood samples to conclude anything about trophic niche. So in order to stay with the stable isotope analysis and trophic niche premise, we decided to pick another generalist species that would be easy to collect. Fire ants are everywhere and eat everything (almost). Fire ants it is, then.

Fortunately, our collection method of grabbing a handful in a ziploc bag, then throwing them in a freezer at the end of the day, will minimize the potential for bites/stings. Once they're dead from the freezing, we'll pick out however many we need for SIA, label them, and hand them over to SREL, essentially. Best part is, we don't have to set up a net and wait for them. We just walk right over, piss them off, and grab some of the swarm. Seems pretty doable in the 3 weeks or so we have left. Julian's gone home now, which leaves us on our own, but I think we'll be fine.

We also have a side commitment of collecting fruits, seeds, and bugs from patches to make a catalog of stable isotope signatures, but that's easy enough.

So things are looking up, I've been having fun (but not too much) with the other researchers, I'll be in the Netherlands in less than a month, and ... yeah that's pretty much it.

R.I.P.
U.S.S. Bunting

It's been a while...

I suppose not much has happened, but I figure I should update. Um, netting birds has still been pretty slow, not many blood samples to show for the past couple of weeks. I think we might have about 6 by now, definitely not enough. We would have one more, if that stupid bird from patch B in 52 hadn't wigged out. I swear, he wouldn't bleed! We poked any vein we could find, but could hardly get a drop before the flow stopped. I think we poked him a bit too much, though, because he started closing his eyes. So we busted out the sugar water. We heard on the radio that Julian had come to the patch for his own project, so we called him over to help. He suggested poking veins on the leg, but still no blood from those either. And the bird was looking worse. So Julian proceeded to practically drown him in sugar water, and we put him back in the pillowcase to chill out for a while. It came time to leave the patch, and zombie bird wasn't much better, so Candace and I took turns with him while the other took down nets. Eventually he seemed pretty revived, but he wouldn't flap his wings. Figuring we'd poked him too much, and following Julian's suggestion, we took him back to station and put him in the cage there. (I made it all nice and comfy for him.) We decided he could get the soreness out of his wings overnight and we could release him in the morning... And then he wasn't there in the morning. Most likely Julian took him home, but we never did ask. Maybe the solution to this mystery will appear in a later blog.

Anyway, most other days weren't so exciting. Nest searches still suck, though we're now doing them in the morning once we set Ipods at nets, which makes them suck less. Usually they don't yield much, just old or questionable nests. A couple times, however, they've actually rewarded us with a mommy bunting, so I guess we'll keep doing them. Also, now that we've learned how soon the babies fledge once they've hatched, we know to keep a better eye on them. (We missed our opportunity to collect feathers at one site.)

We've also had another tragic death, but not a bunting. And it wasn't from any negligence on our part. The warbler just hung itself in the net. Got caught in one layer, stuck its head through another layer or two and twisted itself around. We tried to cut the net before it was too late... I called him P. Deaddy (P for pine warbler). Candice liked Deaddy P better. We stuck him in the cooler because maybe a museum would want him or something. Then we left him in the office for Julian to maybe practice taxidermy on...

And that pretty much sums up bird stuff. In other parts of my life, I had a wee bit too much fun at the 4th of July party. Spent Saturday recovering. Wanted to play ultimate on Sunday but there was a crazy storm. There's probably been another Sunday since I last updated, and it was probably a decent game. Though I think I remember getting annoyed at some people for being obnoxious and making bad decisions. Oh well.

As usual I've been talking to Beck almost every day. I'm getting really excited for my trip to the Netherlands! We've made reservations at hotels and started writing out a rough itinerary. Only a month left! It's gonna be the bestest trip everrrrr!

Second round data collection

is very frustrating. We've gone back to the first site we netted at, and now we're trying to recapture the buntings we caught before (or new ones). This time we're also taking blood samples, so on Monday, Julian told us to come in a bit later (7 AM) and net some small birds around the office so we could practice bleeding them. The sparrow went well, but we discovered nuthatches are a bit too small. Candice and I did a couple nest searches at site 8 and called it a day.

Due to a lack of communication, Candice and I started trying to net buntings in 2 patches on Tuesday. And we recaptured every one from the first round. JUST KIDDING. We got nothing. Well, actually we got some bycatch, but that doesn't count. Julian came by later that day for his ant project, and that's when we found out he just wanted us to practice bleeding that day. Oops. We moved some nets, went back to station, ate lunch, and set up a net for sparrows. But it was too late to catch anything. So no harm done, really, but it was just a useless day.

Julian came out with us on Wednesday, and we tried again. Still nothing. Argh! We're pretty sure it's a combination of things causing one. Primarily, now that it's later in the breeding season and most males have settled down with a nice girl, they have lower testosterone levels so they're less territorial, and therefore less interested in the "intruding male" (Ipod). Secondly, a previous study on buntings just didn't have much luck at site 8, so it could just be the site. I hope that turns out to be the main reason...

Anyway, around lunch time, after we tied up all the nets, we decided to catch random birds for bleeding practice. We ended up with a tufted titmouse, a brown thrasher, and a downy woodpecker. The woodpecker was my favorite and I named him Rufio, because his hair (feathers) looked like the kid from Hook (awesome movie). Yep, good times.

Another student who had recently joined the project, Lena, wanted to come out with us Thursday morning before she had employee training. I guess she had netted birds for a class once and she was interested in what we were doing. Maybe she was good luck, or maybe we just placed the net well, but we got the mommy from the nest in patch D. We left her in a pillowcase to set up a net in A, Lena left, and we processed our first bunting. I returned to A and discovered a 2nd year male in one of my nets. Yay! Moved a net in D and then processed him. This day gave me a slightly better feeling about the data collection.

Which Friday killed again. It's not that there aren't buntings. We can hear a few, and even saw a couple. They just won't get in the damn net! And this one guy in A, I swear he's taunting me. Anyway, Candice and I have a few theories we might test, and we discussed them as we relocated to the next site, searched for nests, and set up nets. What a crappy week.

Saturday... didn't really do anything significant. I made banana pancakes, read for a while, surfed the web, did pilates, ate lunch, danced around the living room, worked on my beaded raccoon, went on a run, showered, made stir fry, and now I'm wondering why Matt isn't back from work yet... I think I'll call.

one of these days i'll add some photos

It turned out site 10 wasn't so successful, only 2 birds. But Julian and I (Candice was in GA) decided on Friday that 2nd round sampling was way more important, so we headed to site 8 to get ready for Monday. We picked 2 patches out of a hat to do nest searches and set up 3 nets in each. We want those buntings, dammit. Patch A wasn't too bad, since it didn't have a ton of brush to look in. We found a lot of old nests of varying sizes, but nothing was definitively a current bunting nest. So we just picked 3 locations, semi-strategically. Patch C started out OK, but then we got to the wings. One of these days I'll actually explain the experimental design of the Corridor Project, but for now, patch C has wings, OK? Brush removal seems to have been either less successful/effective or more neglected here. Very hard to maneuver and too much to search. We did find a nest, though, so we put a net there. After sloppily making my way through the other wing, I felt on the verge of collapse. There was definitely dehydration involved, hot sun, slight anemia, and just tiredness in general since I was nearing 11 hrs of work. I think some was just mental, as well, subconsciously looking for a way out of Hell. (ha, that rhymed) As tempting as it was, I decided faking collapse was a bad idea, since they'd probably take me to the hospital and then I'd never get home. I got my water and we finally finished, though I know I most definitely skipped some bushes out of laziness or inaccessibility. I had to stop at CVS on the way home and it took forever, but luckily I got to talk (complain) to Beck anyway, which made my day better.

Woke up pretty early on Saturday and made something like an Egg McMuffin with fake sausage. Deliciousness. I thought I might check out the Hopelands Gardens, but I checked the weather forecast and it called for rain, so I made a blackberry tart instead. I picked the blackberries on Friday at Site 10 while I was supposed to be taking down nets. I'm a naughty little scientist. It was a simple recipe, and I might have been able to make better given the right ingredients, but it was delicious nonetheless, just like my breakfast. Beck called after lunch, but left soon to watch the Holland soccer team sadly lose to Russia in the quarterfinals of the Cup. Pissed off at the forecast for lying (it rained for like, 5 seconds), I decided to actually visit the Gardens. It was very pretty, lots of tall, old trees and small ponds with ducks and turtles. I wandered with my camera, and probably didn't see all there was to see, but I needed to stop by the grocery store so I left after roughly an hour.

The grocer store trip was primarily to get cheese for the quiche I was planning to make for dinner. Miraculously I managed to avoid getting too many extra things, just the ones on my list. I guess I was just in a culinary mood, because the quiche was also quite delicious. I put zucchini, broccoli, squash, and shrooms in it. I kept Beck up waaaay too late on Skype, then decided to write this blog before I went to bed. And you're in luck because I'm putting a few photos from the Gardens in it! Hooray!A sign depicting the labyrinth, which was just a path marked by a different color of brick

Just a general view

A pond with... a duck house maybe?

Big ol' honkin cedar

A nice canopied pathway

Duck/turtle feeder/house? I honestly don't know

Turtle island!
Duckies! They were all just sleeping or preening. So cute.

the dreaded 57

This weekend was a bit more fun than the last, since I actually did stuff. I talked to Beck a bit Saturday morning and we both decided we should go shopping. So I checked out the farmer's market, which wasn't terribly exciting, but I might have just gotten there late. I decided to go back to the Old Aiken Market instead, since I needed more granola (which, as usual, wasn't crunchy). On the way I passed a bead store and a used book store, so I stopped in both. I like beading, and considered buying some to make earrings, but I'm still not done with Beck's raccoon. I got a Stephanie Plum novel (very funny) at the book store. Next I stopped at the Curiosity Shop, determined to actually buy the Spotted Dick. I told the cashier it made me giggle. I haven't eaten it yet, but I'll describe it when I do.

After buying a couple things at the Market, I headed home to make some lunch and talk to Beck some more. Matt came home after lizard wrangling at SRS and told me some people were playing basketball at the park. I felt the need for exercise so I went with him. It was very obvious that I hadn't played since about 6th grade. But most of us sucked anyway, so I didn't feel bad. However, when we invited 2 kids to play with us, we totally got schooled. They were like, 10 and half my height. And of course the 2 of them ended up on the team with Matt, who's super tall and can actually play. Whatever, it was fun, and I found that my ultimate frisbee skills came in handy with defense, since I could read cuts well and avoid picks. After the game, Matt decided he needed to run around the mile track, which made me feel like a fat ass, so I joined him. I abandoned him on the 2nd lap, though.

We were informed of a bonfire at Brenda and Kate's house that night, so after showering and making some dinner, we stopped to buy marshmallows and beer and headed down. It was relatively low key, but fun. The fire was super hot so I had to be careful with the shmallows. Met a few people who's names I don't remember and I probably won't see again.

Went to bed late and woke up on Sunday. (Well duh, like I would have woken up on Tuesday or something). Can't remember a lot from the day except talking to Beck, and then it was time for ultimate! We had an awesome turnout and ended up with a 9 on 9 game (we decided subs are for sissy-la-las, I guess). I had a ton of fun and played decently, so hopefully that many people will show up again.

On Monday, Candice and I got to see for ourselves why everyone hates site 57: Horseflies. Not to mention lots of brush and poison ivy and brambles. But it's been bearable, especially with the flaps on my awesome hat cinched under my chin so I look SUpEr COoL. I think the main frustration was our inability to catch anything in patch E, where we can hear several buntings, but they just won't fly in. We caught 3 in B, though, so not too bad. It also didn't help that Candice's alarm didn't go off, so she showed up at 8-ish after getting lost and being escorted to the site by the police. I'm surprised she wasn't arrested, they're pretty anal.

Tuesday still didn't bring us any luck with E, and no birds in D, either. But I caught 3 buntings in A. I think I'm just magical. Julian did get a couple cool bycatches in D: a Baltimore Oriole and what seems to be a hybrid Blue-Winged/Golden Winged Warbler. We took down all the nets, put some in C, and moved a couple to site 10. Our schedule's been thrown off a bit but we should be OK if 10 is successful enough. Guess we'll find out by the end of the week.