(no subject)
Oh me gosh...so have not updated in a long time, here goes:
This last weekend I had a field trip for my field methods class. It was a lot of fun, I was hungry, and sleepy, but it was fun. On Friday we drove up through some very beautiful country to the McLaughlin Reserve. When we got there we set out some small mammal traps before dinner and then when it was dark we went out to listen for owls. We played them recordings and sometimes we got them to hoot back, but mostly the owls were quiet and we just looked at the stars. It was nice though, I haven't been out where I could really see the stars in a long time. We also played around with the night visions goggles, I swear, my major has the coolest toys. ^.^ We ended up sleeping indoors, because of the rain. We got up early saturday and set out mist nets to catch birds. We ended up catching a black phoebe, very pretty little thing:.jpg)
Then we checked the small mammal traps. We caught some deer mice, nicknamed "death mice" because they carry honta virus, and the UC is a little overly cautious. But they are very cute. Also caught a wood rat. To finish off the day we did some radiotelemetry and worked with a GPS unit for a while, and then went back to the field station and fired off the net gun at a meandering sleeping bag (See what I mean about cool toys!). The bag was caught and placed in the truck with the rest of the lugguge, and we returned to Davis. It was really great to finally get to know some people in my major who aren't graduating this quarter. Note: all animals were released into the wild after capture.
Saturday night wee took Sean out to Thai food for his 21st birthday and he had a mojito as his celebratory drink.
Sunday I slept and generally relaxed before going to the Grad for Swing night, which was wonderful. Much better crowd than the last few times that I've gone.
Monday I had lab for my field methods class, and we went fishing! I remember the first time I went to the arboretum here at UCD, and saw Putah creek, and I thought to myself, "No one would ever go in that! It's worse than the Mississippi!" Well, Monday I went in. We put on waders and first we went seigning, which is where you drag a net through the water, and then we went electrofishing. The electricity isn't enough to hurt the fish really, just enough to attract them, for fish can detect and are attracted to strong electric fields. We caught some crayfish, minnows, and green sunfish. I'd put up some pictures but all the fish we caught were small - between 1 and 4 inches in length, and look much different ( and much prettier in my mind) then the fish that google has images of. Anyway, the green sunfish were very pretty, kind of flat body, that shimmered green, basically. We put them in buckets and then pulled them out one by one to identify their species, before throwing them back into the water. Holding a fish is a very odd feeling, I must say. Anyway, I came to the decision, after all of this, that I would like to have, in addition to my curremnt fish tank, a fish tank that has only local fish. I don't care if their native species or not, so long as they're local.
Teusday I went to tango class, it's nice to be dancing again.
Well, I think that's plenty long, I'll be surprised if people read it all, so be now!
This last weekend I had a field trip for my field methods class. It was a lot of fun, I was hungry, and sleepy, but it was fun. On Friday we drove up through some very beautiful country to the McLaughlin Reserve. When we got there we set out some small mammal traps before dinner and then when it was dark we went out to listen for owls. We played them recordings and sometimes we got them to hoot back, but mostly the owls were quiet and we just looked at the stars. It was nice though, I haven't been out where I could really see the stars in a long time. We also played around with the night visions goggles, I swear, my major has the coolest toys. ^.^ We ended up sleeping indoors, because of the rain. We got up early saturday and set out mist nets to catch birds. We ended up catching a black phoebe, very pretty little thing:
Then we checked the small mammal traps. We caught some deer mice, nicknamed "death mice" because they carry honta virus, and the UC is a little overly cautious. But they are very cute. Also caught a wood rat. To finish off the day we did some radiotelemetry and worked with a GPS unit for a while, and then went back to the field station and fired off the net gun at a meandering sleeping bag (See what I mean about cool toys!). The bag was caught and placed in the truck with the rest of the lugguge, and we returned to Davis. It was really great to finally get to know some people in my major who aren't graduating this quarter. Note: all animals were released into the wild after capture.
Saturday night wee took Sean out to Thai food for his 21st birthday and he had a mojito as his celebratory drink.
Sunday I slept and generally relaxed before going to the Grad for Swing night, which was wonderful. Much better crowd than the last few times that I've gone.
Monday I had lab for my field methods class, and we went fishing! I remember the first time I went to the arboretum here at UCD, and saw Putah creek, and I thought to myself, "No one would ever go in that! It's worse than the Mississippi!" Well, Monday I went in. We put on waders and first we went seigning, which is where you drag a net through the water, and then we went electrofishing. The electricity isn't enough to hurt the fish really, just enough to attract them, for fish can detect and are attracted to strong electric fields. We caught some crayfish, minnows, and green sunfish. I'd put up some pictures but all the fish we caught were small - between 1 and 4 inches in length, and look much different ( and much prettier in my mind) then the fish that google has images of. Anyway, the green sunfish were very pretty, kind of flat body, that shimmered green, basically. We put them in buckets and then pulled them out one by one to identify their species, before throwing them back into the water. Holding a fish is a very odd feeling, I must say. Anyway, I came to the decision, after all of this, that I would like to have, in addition to my curremnt fish tank, a fish tank that has only local fish. I don't care if their native species or not, so long as they're local.
Teusday I went to tango class, it's nice to be dancing again.
Well, I think that's plenty long, I'll be surprised if people read it all, so be now!