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.

everyone is here!

Well OK, most have left by now, but all the PI's came at the beginning of the week to hold a couple days of big meetings and presentations and whatnot. Monday morning before the meetings started at noon, Candice and I went to finish netting at a site. We caught 10 birds! ... And one was a bunting. Damn bycatch. We had a towhee, a few warblers, a few sparrows, a wren, and a goldfinch. Most were somewhat annoying, but I kinda liked the goldfinch. Striking appearance, very cute, and he didn't struggle much. My favorite kind.

Then began the 1st annual Corridor Project meeting. Even though the project has been around over a decade. It started off with lots of people in the room while the big important PI's talked about the Corridor Project in general, and then people not on the project slowly left as the talks got more specific and didn't involve them anymore. Once just Corridor folks were left we circled up and began discussing some of the larger studies going on. Mostly plant stuff that didn't mean much to me since the only involvement I've had in them is the one day of watering I did. But I sat quietly, contributing nothing to the discussion, trying not to fall asleep, but also learning a bit, so the time wasn't an entire waste. I think that took the majority of the afternoon and then there was a BBQ at Lars's house. It was BYOBBQ so I brought eggplant. Yum! I stayed to long and regretted it when I had to get up earlier the next day.

Presentations were schedule to start at 8, but plants needed watering and birds needed catching. Candice and I were the only ones without watering cans I think. More bycatch, no buntings, so we took down the nets. We got back to station around 9, but we weren't too late comparatively. So we started down and alphabetical list of students/techs working on or wanting to start projects. It was mostly an informal, "here's what I'm doing or here's what I'm thinking about," that everyone else could give feedback and suggestions on. But we had a fancy shmancy powerpoint. Because Julian told us to. Or really, I made a powerpoint because Julian told me to. And I explained it to Candice. And we presented it and it went really well and got good feedback. Several suggestions weren't actually things we could do in our limited time period, but might make a good continuation project... Anyway, after the discussions were done, everyone went out to one of the sites to discuss a bit more, while Candice and I reasoned (slightly guiltily) that they didn't need us there, so we slipped out and went home.

Matt arrived home about when my tacos were done and informed me that everyone was going to the Pizza Joint. So we ate the tacos, planning not to eat pizza, but having that plan thwarted (it looked so delicious). I went to bed too late and then couldn't sleep because there was a crazy thunderstorm and I live in a trailer.

Wednesday was another bycatch day, but with slightly better ratios. 4 out of 14 were buntings. We quickly began setting up nets and Ipods and when I returned to check mine, 7 birds! One bunting, 4 brown birds (probably sparrows, phoebes, etc), a female cardinal, and a great crested flycatcher. The flycatcher was definitely the coolest out of the bunch, and rather snappish. In some of the other patches we caught a chat and some more nondescript brown birds and warblers.

Dr. Levey and Julian came out with us on Thursday to observe, help, experiment, advise, etc. We concentrated on two patches, moving nets around a bunch and trying new techniques, such as putting a male in a cage by the net to attract others. Not sure if this actually did anything or if the Ipod was responsible for the other birds caught. We now have a real taxidermied decoy, which also helps. Julian and Dr. Levey left around noon after discussing some specifics of the project with us, and Candice and I moved the nets to the next site.

Woo Friday! We managed to catch one bird in every patch, and we didn't really hear any more singing, but we didn't want to call the patch done in just a day, so we left the nets. But Julian decided we should just move on, so he offered to take down and move some nets this weekend while he's going to be working anyway. How nice. Candice wasn't too enthused, but I offered my help if he needed it, mostly so I wouldn't feel so guilty about the big favor he's doing, but also because I can't think of much else to do this weekend. I'll probably check out the gardens or something. We'll see. Time to wash dishes now.

my whole week, hopefully condensed into a reasonable length

So here's an abbreviated update of my last week or so. I may post additions later or something...

Saturday:
Matt and I wanted to go climbing in North Carolina for the day, but the forecast called for rain in the afternoon. So we went to the climbing gym in Columbia instead. It was probably better for me that way anyway, because I'm soooo out of shape climbing-wise. My hands and arms were like "Heeey Camille, you know we haven't climbed in a year and a half, right? Yea, just thought we'd let you know, hence the weakness and pain." They continued to tell me this for the next few days. But I'll show them. I'll go back to that gym soon, or maybe even to North Carolina or someplace cool, and I'll open up a can of pwnage on those walls that were kicking my butt. That'll teach those arms.

Sunday: Matt had previously found a local organic grocery store downtown so we went there to shop. It was pretty cool, some things cheap and some things ridiculous, like the dairy section. I liked how they had all the grains, granola, dried fruit, etc in barrels or sacks with a big scooper. It looked old-fashioned or something. I was sadly disappointed with their blueberry granola, however. It wasn't crunchy and it just didn't taste as good as the stuff Beck and I would get at Ward's in Gainesville. I'll probably go back to Old Aiken Market, but my overall impression was that I still haven't found a store as cool as Ward's.

I also played ultimate Sunday, which was pretty fun. A decent 5 on 5 game, though some of the playing was pretty unimpressive. I wasn't terribly impressive myself, either, as I discovered running used (and hurt) muscles I never associated with running. My throwing was also affected by my still weak arms. But I'll try to redeem myself next Sunday.

Monday: Candice and I made the mistake of trusting the weather forecast, so we got to work later than usual, without realizing that Julian was planning to meet us at the usual 5:30 time. So he had already been in the field a while when we got there and we felt really guilty. We also only caught one bird, despite spending the rest of the morning moving nets and Ipods around. Then I honestly can't remember what happened because I think I'm blurring Monday and Tuesday together.

So I'm gonna throw in Tuesday now and hope it's about right: Eventually, with a total of 2 buntings in 4? days, we just decided we were sick of site 52, so then we had to take allll the nets down that we had worked so hard to put up in the rock hard soil. Then we moved all 8 of them (Dr. Levey mailed more) to the next site down the road. After the 6th, we decided that a 12-hour day was a bit too much, and left the last 2 nets for the next morning. I could hardly stay awake to put my feet in a bucket of ice water.

Wednesday: A record success day! 8 Indigo Buntings! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8! It was ridiculous. I set an Ipod in patch A, while Julian and Candice did the same in B and D, and then we planned to meet in Patch C to set up a net. I turned around, walked to the matrix, looked back at the net, and a male had just hopped right in. So I took him out, hung him in a pillowcase, and went to patch C. When I returned to A, a female had been caught, and while I was getting her out, Candice appears from the corridor to tell me she has 3 in her net. I radio Julian and tell him to go help her. I get my girl in a pillowcase and and discover there's now another male in my net. Finally I've got 3 flapping pillowcases hanging from a tree, as does Candice, and somewhere in the meantime, Julian had caught one in D and another in C. Patch A actually had 5 birds, but 2 were bycatches, a prairie warbler and something else. Patch E had a yellow-breasted chat bycatch.

Anyway, we eventually got to processing the buntings. One in A already had bands from a different study, including a pretty silver Forest Service band with numbers on it. Bird bling, essentially. We didn't have to bother putting our own bands on it. After A, we went to B and in our hurry, Candice and I stepped within about a foot of a snake! Luckily not a venomous one - we're pretty sure it was a coachwhip, and Caleb, who knows a ton about herps, agreed - but it was somewhat defensive. It had a hole/burrow nearby, and it probably smelled the birds in pillowcases. It was also about to molt. We kept an eye on it while we processed.

Julian left for something else, Candice and I finished processing, we took down the nets from A and B, and we drove to the next site to put them up. The end.

Thursday: One bunting in C. Male and female cardinal bycatches in D. Too damn many horseflies. If someone was watching us who wasn't aware of how annoying they are, they'd probably think we had Tourette's. Seriously, we must look ridiculous cursing and flailing and slapping ourselves. Anywho, we took down the rest of the nets and put them up at the next site.

Friday: This was a good and bad day as far as buntings go. We set up in A, C, and D, then met at E to put up another net. Upon returning to D, I had 3 males. And no one to help me. But I got them all out pretty fast, hung them up, and went to check on Candice. In the time it had taken me to get 3 out, she had gotten one and was just starting on a prairie warbler bycatch. After that, all we got was another warbler, so we started processing and took down the nets in D. Brenda, who was watering, radioed me to check C. I got excited and thought we had another. We did, but here's the bad part of the day: she was dead. We shouldn't have left the net up when it was that hot unless we were constantly watching it. She probably died from the heat, or perhaps strangulation. We named her Deddy (Dead-y, I thought of it) and buried her.

We decided it was lunch time and meanwhile Julian had arrived to do ant stuff. I think almost everyone on the project was in that one site: Me, Candice, Julian, Lars, Brenda, Nash, Becky, Lauren, Nadia. Only Matt, Melissa, Caleb, and Dirk were missing. Feeling guilty, we told Julian about Deddy. He asked where she was so we could pluck her feathers and put them on a decoy. Oops. Didn't think about that. I would've felt wrong desecrating her dead body anyway, since I felt partially at fault for her death. Rest in peace, Deddy.

Candice came home with me to get ready for the potluck that night, where we were supposed to dress up like our radio call-in name. I'm Mike, she's Tango, needless to say her outfit (which was actually mine) was way better. I tried to pass off as a microphone by wearing all black and a black hat. Didn't work that well. But the potluck was fun, especially when 13Kilo came looking like a drug dealer. 13Alpha had helium nuclei (alpha particles) all over his shirt (super nerd), 13Charlie looked like a classic hick, 2Golf and 13Golf looked spectacular, and 13Hotel was in a short pink bathrobe under which he wasn't wearing much else. Other people were boring and not dressed up, but it was a delicious and fun party.

Saturday: I was bored all day and did virtually nothing. Finally I decided to go to a show at the USCA planetarium. I learned how to find constellations, nebulae, double stars, and a few other things, most of which I forgot. But I was reasonably entertained, and at some parts, totally entranced like a little kid. Space is pretty sweet. After the show we went up to the telescope and the fat guy up there showed us some stuff. Unfortunately the heat and the light made some things hard to see, but I had never looked through a telescope like this before. The moon was pretty cool up close, and it was pretty sweet to see the different colors of the double stars of Alberio (one is blue and the other is yellow). The best sight was definitely Saturn because you could actually see the rings! It looked like a tiny photograph, minus the colors because it's so far away. But I could see 4 moons and even the shadow the rings make on the planet. I'm definitely going back there, maybe next month to see some more stuff, and maybe the trippy laser show.

Sunday: Equally boring. I washed dishes and wasted time on the computer while I should have been working on my presentation for tomorrow. It's almost done, just needs a little extra. The only exciting thing was talking to Beck when he got back from his weekend in Amsterdam. I can't wait to go. I'm not even sure if I'll play ultimate today, as it's 100 degrees outside. I'm not lying. 100 degrees. Blah. Time to waste more time.

I'll get around to it...

This is just to say I haven't died and I haven't been doing nothing, in fact the problem is that I've been doing a lot. Hence, no post in five days, but that's better than Beck's blog. =) Anyway, someday this week I'll update my adventures in climbing, shopping, birding, hurting, thinking, eating, sleeping, breathing, existing, etc. But not today because it's past my bedtime.