Really enjoy it this time and let me know what you think!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Some Pictures LINK UPDATE!
Word is that the link I posted was bogus. Here's a better one: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=BeanAnne&target=ALBUM&id=5316177701657935089&authkey=Gv1sRgCIijh-SazsidfA&invite=CJLtr-gF&feat=email
Really enjoy it this time and let me know what you think!
Really enjoy it this time and let me know what you think!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
I can do it!
I've been training extra hard for the triathlon this week, and I've managed to have 3 milestones all in one week. On Wednesday, I biked 13 miles straight with Don, then on Thursday I swam 650 meters straight, and today I did a 5Km race. All of these distances represent the distances of each of the events in the triathlon, so knowing I can do them all individually is really great. I have yet to know whether I can do them all back to back, but I'm getting there. It took me about an hour to bike 13 miles, roughly 12 minutes to swim 650m, and 28 minutes to run 5km. Add that all up and I'm at 1h and 45 minutes. My guess is that it will take at least 2 hours though. Just thought I'd share!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Live birds!
Sorry for the lack of postage, Friends. I was on spring break all last week, and feeling pretty lazy about everything and I really didn't do anything exciting enough to report. Apparently, neither did George.
During the break I did some skinning in the Museum...my main project was to skin a vulture. The museum didn't have one in the collection, but it did have one in the freezer so I took on the job of stuffing it. It certainly was a challenge. The hardest part was breaking its wing and leg bones, which were more than 1/4 inch thick. I had to use pliers and brute strength to do it, and my hands were sore afterward. It was also very very smelly. Not because it was rotting or anything, but probably just because vultures eat rotting flesh, and thus probably smell like rotting flesh all the time. It was pretty extreme though. But here's how it turned out:
Pretty good right?
And today, I got to handle live birds for the very first time! Don and I went out to catch some birds and band them. We went to a natural area owned by the university, and set up some mist nets, which have very fine mesh (the holes are about and inch big, but the strings are very fine). The netting is set up fairly loosly so there are pockets, and when a bird flies into the net it falls in the pocket and gets caught. So how do you get the bird to fly in the net? Well the net is very hard to see because of the fine strings, so the birds can't really see it. To attract them, we can use a portable speaker connected to an ipod playing a particular bird's songs. Most male songbirds are very territorial this time of year, so if they hear an intruder on the territory, it makes them really angry and they have to come check it out. So we played the Song Sparrow song, and three song sparrows came over to check it out and we caught two of them:
By the time we had banded them and let them go, there were three Chickadees in the net to take care of! Getting birds out of the net is the most difficult part because their little feet get really caught, and the mesh can get around their wings and head, and they are often very very tangled in it. Also the birds have a tendency to bite a lot, and it actually really hurts! So those five birds were all we managed to get for the day. We almost got a robin, but it was a bit too big for the mesh, didn't get tangled and managed to get out right before I could get to it. Bummer. But we're doing this again for ornithology class Thursday morning, so we'll see what else we can get then!
During the break I did some skinning in the Museum...my main project was to skin a vulture. The museum didn't have one in the collection, but it did have one in the freezer so I took on the job of stuffing it. It certainly was a challenge. The hardest part was breaking its wing and leg bones, which were more than 1/4 inch thick. I had to use pliers and brute strength to do it, and my hands were sore afterward. It was also very very smelly. Not because it was rotting or anything, but probably just because vultures eat rotting flesh, and thus probably smell like rotting flesh all the time. It was pretty extreme though. But here's how it turned out:
Pretty good right?
And today, I got to handle live birds for the very first time! Don and I went out to catch some birds and band them. We went to a natural area owned by the university, and set up some mist nets, which have very fine mesh (the holes are about and inch big, but the strings are very fine). The netting is set up fairly loosly so there are pockets, and when a bird flies into the net it falls in the pocket and gets caught. So how do you get the bird to fly in the net? Well the net is very hard to see because of the fine strings, so the birds can't really see it. To attract them, we can use a portable speaker connected to an ipod playing a particular bird's songs. Most male songbirds are very territorial this time of year, so if they hear an intruder on the territory, it makes them really angry and they have to come check it out. So we played the Song Sparrow song, and three song sparrows came over to check it out and we caught two of them:
By the time we had banded them and let them go, there were three Chickadees in the net to take care of! Getting birds out of the net is the most difficult part because their little feet get really caught, and the mesh can get around their wings and head, and they are often very very tangled in it. Also the birds have a tendency to bite a lot, and it actually really hurts! So those five birds were all we managed to get for the day. We almost got a robin, but it was a bit too big for the mesh, didn't get tangled and managed to get out right before I could get to it. Bummer. But we're doing this again for ornithology class Thursday morning, so we'll see what else we can get then!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
We've got Fleas!
So remember that crazy grant proposal I had a week to write? Well...I got it! I just got an e-mail informing me that not only will I be awarded the $3000 stipend, but they would like to use my proposal as an example. Yay! It's nice to know that I didn't almost give myself an ulcer for nothing.
Christy leaves tomorrow morning...her visit has been entirely too short. We had a lot of fun yesterday and today finding treasures at various flea markets and antiques malls. She got me hooked on vintage pyrex. We found a complete set of primary color vintage pyrex bowls. The same ones my Grammy has, and the same ones Christy herself spent years finding one by one at flea markets. Not only did we find the whole set, but they are in absolute perfect condition. It was unbelievable. It has been wonderful to have Christy here and I'll be sad to see her go back. Maybe the impending snow storm will keep her here and we can go antiquing forever! Seriously though, we love visitors. When are you coming??
Christy leaves tomorrow morning...her visit has been entirely too short. We had a lot of fun yesterday and today finding treasures at various flea markets and antiques malls. She got me hooked on vintage pyrex. We found a complete set of primary color vintage pyrex bowls. The same ones my Grammy has, and the same ones Christy herself spent years finding one by one at flea markets. Not only did we find the whole set, but they are in absolute perfect condition. It was unbelievable. It has been wonderful to have Christy here and I'll be sad to see her go back. Maybe the impending snow storm will keep her here and we can go antiquing forever! Seriously though, we love visitors. When are you coming??
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