Cloaca
My class schedule for next fall, as of today, is:
Wildlife Techniques
Conservation Genetics
Invertebrate Zoology
Backpacking
Speech (hopefully will be swapped with Animal Behavior)
I'M PUMPED!
Also, I went to Sapelo Island, one of Georgia's barrier islands, on a field trip for my vertebrate natural history class last weekend. IT WAS AMAZING. I took tons and tons of photos of everything, so I'll go through a photographic summary of the trip under a cut. I'm bummed I didn't get any photos of all the wood storks we saw though :CCCCCC Gosh they're awesome.
DAY 1
We had this great swamp RIGHT behind our dorms! Shortly after getting to the island, the redneck good ol' boys in the class discovered a HUGE 9ft alligator in it!
Then they snared one of it's dorsal scutes with a treble hook and attempted to capture it. Needless to say, it didn't work and ended with a couple of guys falling in the drink.
Then we set up bird and bat mist nets and caught some Lasiurus seminolus! They were ADORABLE! I looove Lasiurans and their furry uropatagiums.
Then we went armadillo chasing! We managed to catch 2. This guy was the first one we caught.
And here's the second one! Pardon my retarded expression, I was clearly overwhelmed with the magic of the beast.
Dillo tummy!
Then the day was over and Emily and I had a shower friend. A very big one, at that.
DAY 2
We opened the bird mist nets early in the morning and snared some pretty songbirds!
This Eastern Towhee was pretty aggressive. He kept biting everyone who handled him.
Common Yellowthroat
Female Ruby-crowed Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Then we went and checked the Amphiuma traps!!!!HJDKLSJHFLKJDSHFLKJFH I LOVE AMPHIUMAS! Favourite amphibian EVER. I'm totally going to capture some when I go home for the summer.
Baby Deirochelys reticularia!
Then we went herping on the dunes.
We caught a Yellow Rat Snake, who's Latin name eludes me...Elaphe something or other...
A UGA grad student met us at the dunes and found all these dropped antlers and skulls JUST on his walk over! I peed myself a little. Little did I know about the skulls I would find later on.
Willets and Sanderlings
Then we came back from the beach and caught a 4ft gator that we spotted in a ditch.
The fruits of the herping! My favourite native Viper, Crotalus horridus <33333333
Agkistrodon piscivorus
And Crotalus adamanteus, aka the ever-popular EDB.
We jumped in the truck and popped the mist net up again at night, turned on some Eastern Screech Owl calls, and 20 minutes later caught a EaSO red phase. (Sorry, crappy photo)
DAY 3
Boring photo, but right behind this was a kill dump where the UGA grad student on the island would drop off his kills when he was done butchering them. It was mostly feral hogs, since they are trying to get rid of them on the island (they dig up the marine Loggerhead nests on the beaches), but I managed to find a LITTLE doe and a really cool half decomposed cow too. I guess the native families of the island dumped their livestock there too. IT WAS AWESOME! I took 2 hogs and a doe home with me! They're drying in the driveway right now!
Then it was back to Athens the next morning :c We saw lots of gannets, terns (Royal and Caspian), Double-created Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, and Laughing Gulls on the way home though.
Caspian Tern. Another horrible photo.
The end!
Wildlife Techniques
Conservation Genetics
Invertebrate Zoology
Backpacking
Speech (hopefully will be swapped with Animal Behavior)
I'M PUMPED!
Also, I went to Sapelo Island, one of Georgia's barrier islands, on a field trip for my vertebrate natural history class last weekend. IT WAS AMAZING. I took tons and tons of photos of everything, so I'll go through a photographic summary of the trip under a cut. I'm bummed I didn't get any photos of all the wood storks we saw though :CCCCCC Gosh they're awesome.
DAY 1
We had this great swamp RIGHT behind our dorms! Shortly after getting to the island, the redneck good ol' boys in the class discovered a HUGE 9ft alligator in it!
Then they snared one of it's dorsal scutes with a treble hook and attempted to capture it. Needless to say, it didn't work and ended with a couple of guys falling in the drink.
Then we set up bird and bat mist nets and caught some Lasiurus seminolus! They were ADORABLE! I looove Lasiurans and their furry uropatagiums.
Then we went armadillo chasing! We managed to catch 2. This guy was the first one we caught.
And here's the second one! Pardon my retarded expression, I was clearly overwhelmed with the magic of the beast.
Dillo tummy!
Then the day was over and Emily and I had a shower friend. A very big one, at that.
DAY 2
We opened the bird mist nets early in the morning and snared some pretty songbirds!
This Eastern Towhee was pretty aggressive. He kept biting everyone who handled him.
Common Yellowthroat
Female Ruby-crowed Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Then we went and checked the Amphiuma traps!!!!HJDKLSJHFLKJDSHFLKJFH I LOVE AMPHIUMAS! Favourite amphibian EVER. I'm totally going to capture some when I go home for the summer.
Baby Deirochelys reticularia!
Then we went herping on the dunes.
We caught a Yellow Rat Snake, who's Latin name eludes me...Elaphe something or other...
A UGA grad student met us at the dunes and found all these dropped antlers and skulls JUST on his walk over! I peed myself a little. Little did I know about the skulls I would find later on.
Willets and Sanderlings
Then we came back from the beach and caught a 4ft gator that we spotted in a ditch.
The fruits of the herping! My favourite native Viper, Crotalus horridus <33333333
Agkistrodon piscivorus
And Crotalus adamanteus, aka the ever-popular EDB.
We jumped in the truck and popped the mist net up again at night, turned on some Eastern Screech Owl calls, and 20 minutes later caught a EaSO red phase. (Sorry, crappy photo)
DAY 3
Boring photo, but right behind this was a kill dump where the UGA grad student on the island would drop off his kills when he was done butchering them. It was mostly feral hogs, since they are trying to get rid of them on the island (they dig up the marine Loggerhead nests on the beaches), but I managed to find a LITTLE doe and a really cool half decomposed cow too. I guess the native families of the island dumped their livestock there too. IT WAS AWESOME! I took 2 hogs and a doe home with me! They're drying in the driveway right now!
Then it was back to Athens the next morning :c We saw lots of gannets, terns (Royal and Caspian), Double-created Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, and Laughing Gulls on the way home though.
Caspian Tern. Another horrible photo.
The end!