Oh! Hello!

Ha Ha! I bet you thought we were so over this blog. It's not really that we're over it, it just that at least my excuse is that I've been very busy since school got out. That's right, no summer 'break' for me, instead I'm getting up at 5am most days of the week to collect data for my project.

And let me just update you with how that's going. If you remember from the spring, my project this summer was to compare stress-hormone levels in the feathers of Northern Cardinals to the brightness of their plumage. So I set out to catch cardinals by use of mist nets, use a spectrophotometer (a device that shines full spectrum and UV light onto a surface, and measures the wavelengths that are reflected back) to measure color, and then collect a feather for hormone analysis this fall.

Well, I set out to do all this in May after some final training sessions with Don to get me fully independent and a pro at getting birds out of the net (this is probably the most difficult part of it...if you think getting knots out of necklaces, or umm shoelaces is hard, try it with some even finer string, with a live bird thrashing about in it. It took some practice for sure.

So I got the hang of things, and then started things on my own, but one major thing seemed to be missing. Cardinals. Yep, I just wasn't catching any. So I quickly began to collect data on a back-up species, the Gray Catbird:
Aren't they cute? And see that little patch of rusty color under it's tail? That's the color I'm specifically focusing on. Work with these birds won't be as simple as with Cardinals, because of the mechanism behind their pigmentation, and because practically nothing is known about whether this color acts as a signal to other birds, or whether it is important for them at all. So I definitely have my work cut out for me with these guys.

So I get up at 5am to head out to my field sites, set up nets, and catch birds. It's fun, but it sure is hard to get out of bed that early. Even for a morning person! I still constantly worry that this project will lead to no interesting discovery, and that I'll somehow fail, and I'm always full of self doubt, but I've heard that this is what graduate school is all about and this is why it is so difficult.

So that's the news with me. When I'm not catching birds, I like to work on my sewing projects, clean the house, hang out with Yonce, and play the Sims 3. Hopefully George will update soon with his goings ons. I won't ruin the surprise, you'll just have to be on the edge of your seat!