Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
9/21/2009 La Selva Biological Research Station, Costa Rica
Wow, I'm behind. I think it would be impossible to fully catch up on recording here, so I'll give a brief summary of my bioexperience since last post. I've been to Las Alturas farm and private reserve and Cuerici farm and private reserve, missed seeing a quetzal my 10min (@Cuerici), seen a paramo in all it's splendor (@Cuerici), seen a troop of spider monkeys (@Las Alturas and since multiple times @La Selva), Camped out on the top of the mountain @Cuerici; seeing awesome stars before going to bed and perhaps the most amazing sunrise, save one in Haiti, I have ever seen, and in general enjoyed life. That was all just before getting to La Selva. Here, one of the group has commented that it's biodiversity on crack. I prefer to think of it as I've died and gone to a David Attenburough film. All matter of amazing wildlife fly/run/hop around one just moving through the central compound. Iguanas habitually hang over the central bridge and spider monkeys swing past the window of the computer room while we work on our projects. I've seen an eyelash pitviper twice; once with our guide on our orientation walk and once since after fellow herp enthusiast John willed (and perhaps, though no proof exists, chased) a lizard into the snakes path, leaving him with a large bulge in his stomach. Seen two different sp. of basilisk, got pissed at by a howler monkey (at least this guy missed, unlike the lemur @St. Cat's), caught and bled dart frogs, seen more sp. or birds, frogs, lizards, and arthropods than I would have thought possible, and I've barely been here a week. Life is good.
Paramo
Wow, I'm behind. I think it would be impossible to fully catch up on recording here, so I'll give a brief summary of my bioexperience since last post. I've been to Las Alturas farm and private reserve and Cuerici farm and private reserve, missed seeing a quetzal my 10min (@Cuerici), seen a paramo in all it's splendor (@Cuerici), seen a troop of spider monkeys (@Las Alturas and since multiple times @La Selva), Camped out on the top of the mountain @Cuerici; seeing awesome stars before going to bed and perhaps the most amazing sunrise, save one in Haiti, I have ever seen, and in general enjoyed life. That was all just before getting to La Selva. Here, one of the group has commented that it's biodiversity on crack. I prefer to think of it as I've died and gone to a David Attenburough film. All matter of amazing wildlife fly/run/hop around one just moving through the central compound. Iguanas habitually hang over the central bridge and spider monkeys swing past the window of the computer room while we work on our projects. I've seen an eyelash pitviper twice; once with our guide on our orientation walk and once since after fellow herp enthusiast John willed (and perhaps, though no proof exists, chased) a lizard into the snakes path, leaving him with a large bulge in his stomach. Seen two different sp. of basilisk, got pissed at by a howler monkey (at least this guy missed, unlike the lemur @St. Cat's), caught and bled dart frogs, seen more sp. or birds, frogs, lizards, and arthropods than I would have thought possible, and I've barely been here a week. Life is good.
View from paramo
Paramo
Eyelash palm pitviper
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
9/2/2009 Las Cruces Biological Field Station, Costa Rica
Possibly the freakiest bit of arachnid behavior I've seen. Big guy was already firmley in jaws of little one when I stumbled across them, so I don't know if the little one found the big one dead or killed him. This was a slightly cloudy day, on a pair of concrete stairs going down from dining hall terrace within the central compound of the botanical gardens, right before noon. The smaller spider basically just sat sucking out of the bigger one, did not respond much to human presense.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
9/1/2009 Las Cruce Biological Field Station, Costa Rica
Crud, I've let my journal go for over a week and now have much to catch up on. So: 8/27 was by far the most eventful day, or at least evening. First of all, early in the evening we went herping in the gardens and nearby jungle trail. Not much seen by way of herps, excepting the common rain frog of which a picture was previously posted. On jungle trail, however, an amazing assortment of arachnids was seen, including what might have been a member of Ctenidae and what was definitely a Thelyphonid. At the end of the trail, however, was the coolest sighting, some form of large arboreal mammal of cat-like appearance. It being high in the tree, we cannot currently be sure of the identification. The two most likely IDs are either a kinkajou or a tayra of unusual color. Videos of kinkajous really show different movements, though, and tayra's just don't seem to have as light coloration as what we saw. The final option, extremely unlikely according to experts around here, was a young puma. Problems: extremely rare in this part of Costa Rica, only occasionally arboreal (described as "usually ground dwelling though very comfortable in trees"), and not likely to be as small. Also, one of the group is certain he saw a fluffy tail, ruling out kinkajou and making puma less likely. Finally, both the tayra and puma tend to be diurnal, though some characteristics indicate a possibly diurnal animal hanging out for the night. Observed characteristics: light brown or tan color, maybe lighter around jaw. Squarish snout shape, possibly with normal sized eyes for head (as opposed to over-sized eyes often seen in nocturnal animals). about 1 meter, give or take a quarter. Possibly fluffy tail. Behavior: mostly calmly sat in tree. After first fiveish minutes made a sudden move to nearby branches, otherwise showed no signs of being bothered by our present. Seemed to move with catlike-smoothness at times and jerky, rapid movements at others, plus I could have sworn I saw in cleaning itself (could have been head jerking movements of a tayra, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbWm3aD59vk&NR=1). Would sit close to tree, like in a crouch. As mentioned, mostly unresponsive to us, but the clicking noise of moving headlamp position invariable provoked response; it would immediately jerk its head toward us upon hearing. That's allot of writing about one animal, but not knowing what it was I want to get down all that we observed so it won't be forgotten. What made the night even more memorable, however, was what happened immediately afterward. A little after we returned to the field station, another pair of students (Tony and Dusty) ran back in telling us they saw what must have been a jaguar near the dining hall area. They were very convincing, and having just seen ourselves what we at the time took to be a large cat we got excited and followed them back out to get a better look. I should mention that they had fled immediately upon hear growl and seeing eyes. Assuming we would have strength in numbers, Tony, Dusty, Eyes, Jono, John, and myself went back to where they saw this creature. I don't think I can accurately describe the seen of us approaching the site; six grown men, in an outward facing huddle, flashlights sweeping the garden around us. John was carrying a 1m piece of rebar I found sticking in the ground, and Tony ended up picking up a huge woody branch, while I have tactical flashlight in defense position- a firm reverse grip held by my head. At one point Jono slipped and went down and the rest of us suffered an instant of terror as we hear him fall and yell and turn to see him slipping into a bush as if something had his feet. Finally we approach the spot where the beast was sighted, and in a bundle huddled down and looked around. Then- a pair of eyes; terror, exhilaration, then the realization that they were inside a fenced-in yard and finally a good look at the German shepherd, and everybody broke down laughing. I need to get to other things, but I do need to quickly mention the birding trip I took 8/31 in which we saw/heard 77 sp. of birds. Leighton Reid, a Sewanee alumn and co-founder of the great and noble Sewanee Natural History Society (of which I was patricial last year) led this epic expedition, and I can tell you he is an awesome birder. His knowledge of bird songs and ability to ID many sp. at a glance saved us great deals of time, as did his intimate knowledge of bird habitat in the area and where to try to call in certain birds. The most awesome birds seen had to have been the Great Tinamo, a flightless bird which resembles a cross between a turkey and a pigeon, and the white whiskered puff bird. Eventually I'll get around to posting the entire list of sp. seen to date, but don't have time now. Also seen but not of avian relation was a huge pack of coatis, which was absalutely awesome although Leighton says there almost a pest in abundance. These were my second identified non-US mammal, however, so I was exited.
Crud, I've let my journal go for over a week and now have much to catch up on. So: 8/27 was by far the most eventful day, or at least evening. First of all, early in the evening we went herping in the gardens and nearby jungle trail. Not much seen by way of herps, excepting the common rain frog of which a picture was previously posted. On jungle trail, however, an amazing assortment of arachnids was seen, including what might have been a member of Ctenidae and what was definitely a Thelyphonid. At the end of the trail, however, was the coolest sighting, some form of large arboreal mammal of cat-like appearance. It being high in the tree, we cannot currently be sure of the identification. The two most likely IDs are either a kinkajou or a tayra of unusual color. Videos of kinkajous really show different movements, though, and tayra's just don't seem to have as light coloration as what we saw. The final option, extremely unlikely according to experts around here, was a young puma. Problems: extremely rare in this part of Costa Rica, only occasionally arboreal (described as "usually ground dwelling though very comfortable in trees"), and not likely to be as small. Also, one of the group is certain he saw a fluffy tail, ruling out kinkajou and making puma less likely. Finally, both the tayra and puma tend to be diurnal, though some characteristics indicate a possibly diurnal animal hanging out for the night. Observed characteristics: light brown or tan color, maybe lighter around jaw. Squarish snout shape, possibly with normal sized eyes for head (as opposed to over-sized eyes often seen in nocturnal animals). about 1 meter, give or take a quarter. Possibly fluffy tail. Behavior: mostly calmly sat in tree. After first fiveish minutes made a sudden move to nearby branches, otherwise showed no signs of being bothered by our present. Seemed to move with catlike-smoothness at times and jerky, rapid movements at others, plus I could have sworn I saw in cleaning itself (could have been head jerking movements of a tayra, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbWm3aD59vk&NR=1). Would sit close to tree, like in a crouch. As mentioned, mostly unresponsive to us, but the clicking noise of moving headlamp position invariable provoked response; it would immediately jerk its head toward us upon hearing. That's allot of writing about one animal, but not knowing what it was I want to get down all that we observed so it won't be forgotten. What made the night even more memorable, however, was what happened immediately afterward. A little after we returned to the field station, another pair of students (Tony and Dusty) ran back in telling us they saw what must have been a jaguar near the dining hall area. They were very convincing, and having just seen ourselves what we at the time took to be a large cat we got excited and followed them back out to get a better look. I should mention that they had fled immediately upon hear growl and seeing eyes. Assuming we would have strength in numbers, Tony, Dusty, Eyes, Jono, John, and myself went back to where they saw this creature. I don't think I can accurately describe the seen of us approaching the site; six grown men, in an outward facing huddle, flashlights sweeping the garden around us. John was carrying a 1m piece of rebar I found sticking in the ground, and Tony ended up picking up a huge woody branch, while I have tactical flashlight in defense position- a firm reverse grip held by my head. At one point Jono slipped and went down and the rest of us suffered an instant of terror as we hear him fall and yell and turn to see him slipping into a bush as if something had his feet. Finally we approach the spot where the beast was sighted, and in a bundle huddled down and looked around. Then- a pair of eyes; terror, exhilaration, then the realization that they were inside a fenced-in yard and finally a good look at the German shepherd, and everybody broke down laughing. I need to get to other things, but I do need to quickly mention the birding trip I took 8/31 in which we saw/heard 77 sp. of birds. Leighton Reid, a Sewanee alumn and co-founder of the great and noble Sewanee Natural History Society (of which I was patricial last year) led this epic expedition, and I can tell you he is an awesome birder. His knowledge of bird songs and ability to ID many sp. at a glance saved us great deals of time, as did his intimate knowledge of bird habitat in the area and where to try to call in certain birds. The most awesome birds seen had to have been the Great Tinamo, a flightless bird which resembles a cross between a turkey and a pigeon, and the white whiskered puff bird. Eventually I'll get around to posting the entire list of sp. seen to date, but don't have time now. Also seen but not of avian relation was a huge pack of coatis, which was absalutely awesome although Leighton says there almost a pest in abundance. These were my second identified non-US mammal, however, so I was exited.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
8/26/2009 Las Cruces Biological Station
Just hopped down here from San Jose, took my first walk through the rainforest so far. Not much fauna seen, thought there was a couple of cool spiders. Lots of plants, though, including my first view of a strangler fern, which I of course climbed up inside. The actual buildings part of Las Cruces is in the middle of the Wilson Botanical Gardens, a really sweet place. While walking the gardens before the rainforest walk I saw my first central American mammal, what I'm almost certain was an agouti. Not particularly afraid of humans, these guys, though maybe it was just these particular individuals. Had my first lecture this evening, this may be difficult for me. Outside of guest lecturers, I'm not used to being lectured at for over an hour as class. While he did ask for questions at the end, it was certainly not the discussion format I'm used to. Even in the hated lecture courses at Sewanee there's a lot more interaction during class between students/teachers, hell even in my 50 person chem and bio intros that was the case. Still, it has been the hands on parts of this program I've been looking forward to, which we start out with tomorrow morning. Writing now from the Wilson house where we're staying at the field station, a rather nice set of accommodation in my opinion. This should be a fun couple of weeks here, I'm looking forward to it.
Just hopped down here from San Jose, took my first walk through the rainforest so far. Not much fauna seen, thought there was a couple of cool spiders. Lots of plants, though, including my first view of a strangler fern, which I of course climbed up inside. The actual buildings part of Las Cruces is in the middle of the Wilson Botanical Gardens, a really sweet place. While walking the gardens before the rainforest walk I saw my first central American mammal, what I'm almost certain was an agouti. Not particularly afraid of humans, these guys, though maybe it was just these particular individuals. Had my first lecture this evening, this may be difficult for me. Outside of guest lecturers, I'm not used to being lectured at for over an hour as class. While he did ask for questions at the end, it was certainly not the discussion format I'm used to. Even in the hated lecture courses at Sewanee there's a lot more interaction during class between students/teachers, hell even in my 50 person chem and bio intros that was the case. Still, it has been the hands on parts of this program I've been looking forward to, which we start out with tomorrow morning. Writing now from the Wilson house where we're staying at the field station, a rather nice set of accommodation in my opinion. This should be a fun couple of weeks here, I'm looking forward to it.
Monday, August 24, 2009
8/24/2009 Charlotte, NC on way to Costa Rica
Yeah, kind of let the end of Saint Cat's slip, needless to say it was awesome and lemur behavior and social organization is awesome, though there is currently a raccoon that I will go to my grave hating for letting itself get trapped (24 hours constant tracking, need I say more?). Currently in Charlotte, NC airport preparing to fly to San Jose, Costa Rica for a semester of tropical biological awesomeness, will try to post with fair regularity. This will be my first time seeing a rain forest; I was in the tropics before but the country was Haiti, not the place to go for forests of any sort. I will be visiting five research stations while down there, in order according to the itinerary Las Cruces, Cuerici, La Selva, Monteverde, and Paloverde. While I'm currently beyond exhausted due to early morning connecting flights, I'm incredibly excited and ready to fly.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Inverts o' St. Cat's
6/23/09 Saint Catherine's Island, GA
Today is day five of the invert section; just started my project today, which I'll get to shortly. Invert has been incredibly fun, especially the aquatic and marine labs. Among the amazing diversity I've seen so far are (roughly by taxa) bryozoa (encrusting and dead mens fingers), assorted sponges, sea pansies, sea whips, anemones, some hydroids, ctenaphores, all sorts of oligatchaetes, a host of bivalves and gastropods, squid, sea cucumbers, star fish, brittle stars, sand dollars, blue, hermit, lady, speckled, mud, mud fiddler, sand fiddler, and spider crabs, white, grass, and ghost shrimp, amphipods, copapods, and isopods galore, various coleopterans and thier larvae including toe biters and water tigers, at least six different dragon fly varieties, golden silk spiders and all sorts of other arachnids (including of course plenty of mites and ticks), tunicates (yea, their cordates but not part of subphylum vertabrata so still inverts, right?), and I'm sure plenty that I'm leaving off. We also did marine vertabrates in this section just because we were allready trawling and seining for inverts, so we've seen spot, croakers, silver perch, whiting, atlantic herring, silver anchovies, florida pompano, file fish, lookdowns, hogchokers, flounder, a bur fish, toadfish, sea robins, a southern stingray, and I'm sure more I'm forgetting. I also saw the second sea turtle of my life, thankfully not in the trawl but rather out in the open ocean from the Sewanee boat. We were jetting from the north to south somewhere near McQueen's inlet when he stuck his head up just off the bow, looked around, realized there was a boat incoming at a unnatural speed, and shot back underwater. Even though it was just a brief glance it was awesome. We also got to hang out with some gopher tortoises, which are niether inverts or other marine things but the envirovet program happened to be on the island and they were catching the tortoises to practice taking blood, etc. We got to learn about them and return them to their burrows after the envirovets were done with them. The gopher tortoises are not native to the island but relocated here by the New York Zoological society, which operates some research and breeding programs on the island. Awesome creatures, glad I got to see them. Coming up on the animal behavior section in a few days, will write more.
Today is day five of the invert section; just started my project today, which I'll get to shortly. Invert has been incredibly fun, especially the aquatic and marine labs. Among the amazing diversity I've seen so far are (roughly by taxa) bryozoa (encrusting and dead mens fingers), assorted sponges, sea pansies, sea whips, anemones, some hydroids, ctenaphores, all sorts of oligatchaetes, a host of bivalves and gastropods, squid, sea cucumbers, star fish, brittle stars, sand dollars, blue, hermit, lady, speckled, mud, mud fiddler, sand fiddler, and spider crabs, white, grass, and ghost shrimp, amphipods, copapods, and isopods galore, various coleopterans and thier larvae including toe biters and water tigers, at least six different dragon fly varieties, golden silk spiders and all sorts of other arachnids (including of course plenty of mites and ticks), tunicates (yea, their cordates but not part of subphylum vertabrata so still inverts, right?), and I'm sure plenty that I'm leaving off. We also did marine vertabrates in this section just because we were allready trawling and seining for inverts, so we've seen spot, croakers, silver perch, whiting, atlantic herring, silver anchovies, florida pompano, file fish, lookdowns, hogchokers, flounder, a bur fish, toadfish, sea robins, a southern stingray, and I'm sure more I'm forgetting. I also saw the second sea turtle of my life, thankfully not in the trawl but rather out in the open ocean from the Sewanee boat. We were jetting from the north to south somewhere near McQueen's inlet when he stuck his head up just off the bow, looked around, realized there was a boat incoming at a unnatural speed, and shot back underwater. Even though it was just a brief glance it was awesome. We also got to hang out with some gopher tortoises, which are niether inverts or other marine things but the envirovet program happened to be on the island and they were catching the tortoises to practice taking blood, etc. We got to learn about them and return them to their burrows after the envirovets were done with them. The gopher tortoises are not native to the island but relocated here by the New York Zoological society, which operates some research and breeding programs on the island. Awesome creatures, glad I got to see them. Coming up on the animal behavior section in a few days, will write more.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Birds o' St. Cat's
6/18/09 Saint Catherine's Island
Bird day today on St. Cat's! Morning was spent on land looking mostly at pond breeding birds. First stop was Greenseed pond where we saw woodstorks, little blue herons, tricolor herons, black headed night herons, great egrets, and snowy egrets, plus the occasional boat tailed grakle and red winged blackbird. Even saw a flock of white ibises briefly flying over head. All the birds but the ibises were nesting and we saw tons of juvenille tricolors and tricolor eggs. After this we poped (as in travelled in the pope mobile, our sawed off 60's model chevy bus-convertable, will include picture soon) to Wamassee pond were mostly the same set of birds were observed. We swung by several bird habitats on the way back, but nothing much notable except for seeing the painted bunting at king new ground dock. This thing was amazing! Possibly the most awesome north american bird I've ever seen. After taking an after-lunch snooze on the porch of Bradford Hall (our eating establishment), I shipped out with the group on the sewanee boat to grass island, which I believe is a slight misnomer as as it must go completely underwater at spring tide. Anyway, there we saw a couple of american oystercatchers, tons of black skimmers, a couple of royal terns, some ringbilled and laughing gulls, a brief glimpse of a stoneturner, and some stray shorebirds whose names I'm not remembering. Another of the most awesome sights of the day, however, was in the early evening when we went looking for rails. First of all, we did see a rail (clapping rail, to be specific), but what really rocked was an alagator fight. A smallish (1.5-2 meter) alligator was hanging around seaside dock when a masive old guy, had to be more than 2.5m, came swimming down the tidal creek. The small guy hurried (relatively speaking, these are ectotherms) to the bank and removed himself from the creek. This wasn't enough for the big guy, though. He (or she) slowely floated down until his head was almost on top of the tail which the smaller one had left dangling in the water. The big guy waits, doesn't move. Were watching in suspense, when almost to fast for the eye to catch the big one shoots out of the water, snapping at (and possibly into, we couldn't really tell at the speed it was happening) the little guy, who flings himself (or herself) into the creek and submerges, not to be seen by us again. The big one sits triumphantly on the bank, maw wide open letting all around know he won and not to mess with him or enter his territory again, then lightly slides back into the creek, leaving us amazed.
We start inverts tomorrow, I should have lots more to write soon.
Bird day today on St. Cat's! Morning was spent on land looking mostly at pond breeding birds. First stop was Greenseed pond where we saw woodstorks, little blue herons, tricolor herons, black headed night herons, great egrets, and snowy egrets, plus the occasional boat tailed grakle and red winged blackbird. Even saw a flock of white ibises briefly flying over head. All the birds but the ibises were nesting and we saw tons of juvenille tricolors and tricolor eggs. After this we poped (as in travelled in the pope mobile, our sawed off 60's model chevy bus-convertable, will include picture soon) to Wamassee pond were mostly the same set of birds were observed. We swung by several bird habitats on the way back, but nothing much notable except for seeing the painted bunting at king new ground dock. This thing was amazing! Possibly the most awesome north american bird I've ever seen. After taking an after-lunch snooze on the porch of Bradford Hall (our eating establishment), I shipped out with the group on the sewanee boat to grass island, which I believe is a slight misnomer as as it must go completely underwater at spring tide. Anyway, there we saw a couple of american oystercatchers, tons of black skimmers, a couple of royal terns, some ringbilled and laughing gulls, a brief glimpse of a stoneturner, and some stray shorebirds whose names I'm not remembering. Another of the most awesome sights of the day, however, was in the early evening when we went looking for rails. First of all, we did see a rail (clapping rail, to be specific), but what really rocked was an alagator fight. A smallish (1.5-2 meter) alligator was hanging around seaside dock when a masive old guy, had to be more than 2.5m, came swimming down the tidal creek. The small guy hurried (relatively speaking, these are ectotherms) to the bank and removed himself from the creek. This wasn't enough for the big guy, though. He (or she) slowely floated down until his head was almost on top of the tail which the smaller one had left dangling in the water. The big guy waits, doesn't move. Were watching in suspense, when almost to fast for the eye to catch the big one shoots out of the water, snapping at (and possibly into, we couldn't really tell at the speed it was happening) the little guy, who flings himself (or herself) into the creek and submerges, not to be seen by us again. The big one sits triumphantly on the bank, maw wide open letting all around know he won and not to mess with him or enter his territory again, then lightly slides back into the creek, leaving us amazed.
We start inverts tomorrow, I should have lots more to write soon.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
6/9/09 Saint Catherine's Island
Good day today, learned lots but nothing particularly blogworthy. I did, however, want to write down for future memory the fact that I actually saw a horshoe crab orgy. Apparantly they come to shore to breed in the late spring (or obviously the early summer), and they were at the shore in droves on the N. beach of the S. side of McQueen's inlet. There are plenty of dead crabs washed up all over the island, but this was the only time I (and apparently Dr. Potter, the geologist who has been running the first nine days of the program since its comensal, some 30ish years ago) have ever seen live horshoe crabs all congragated together, especially in the quantities that were there. It just struck me as neat.
Good day today, learned lots but nothing particularly blogworthy. I did, however, want to write down for future memory the fact that I actually saw a horshoe crab orgy. Apparantly they come to shore to breed in the late spring (or obviously the early summer), and they were at the shore in droves on the N. beach of the S. side of McQueen's inlet. There are plenty of dead crabs washed up all over the island, but this was the only time I (and apparently Dr. Potter, the geologist who has been running the first nine days of the program since its comensal, some 30ish years ago) have ever seen live horshoe crabs all congragated together, especially in the quantities that were there. It just struck me as neat.
Monday, June 8, 2009
6/8/09 Saint Catherine's Island, GA, USA
Free day today and I went canoing out of King's New Ground Dock, taking the falling tide out to McQueen's Inlet and then catching the newly rising tide back in. This in worth mentioning because I made a series of cool finds on this trip. First was a polychaete found on the north side of McQueen's inlet, on the upper beach, inside some pig fecal matter. Roughle 2cm long, I'm curious whether this worm was a parasite inside the pig (parasitical polychaetes are fairly rare) or simply wondered along and found the feces after it was excreted by the pig. What was really amazing, however, was that on the way back Jia Pan, by canoe partner, and I spotted a couple of dolphins entering a small side tidal creek and decided to follow. We canoed with the dolphins for a couple hundred meter, and it was awesome. They were breaching within 2m of our gunnels, and we got to watch them working in pairs herding fish. It would have been awesome to see them all get together and shoal some fish, but no such luck. Honestly I was redicullously awed and excited. This is were I've been hoping I'd end up: canoeing up a marsh with dolphins in the course of my profesion. OK, honest the original plan was to be in a marsh with manatees and swimming with dolphins in the open ocean, but I can compromise. Katie Qualls also brought back a colony of obelia from south beach which I just got to look at under the disection microscope, along with some barnicles that I was actually able to see filter feeding. I believe that I'm in love with the disection microscope, and am going to run away with it. Though I'll need to move to a country where bigamy is allowed so I can be married to the Sewanee boat, too, because I'm also in love with it.
Free day today and I went canoing out of King's New Ground Dock, taking the falling tide out to McQueen's Inlet and then catching the newly rising tide back in. This in worth mentioning because I made a series of cool finds on this trip. First was a polychaete found on the north side of McQueen's inlet, on the upper beach, inside some pig fecal matter. Roughle 2cm long, I'm curious whether this worm was a parasite inside the pig (parasitical polychaetes are fairly rare) or simply wondered along and found the feces after it was excreted by the pig. What was really amazing, however, was that on the way back Jia Pan, by canoe partner, and I spotted a couple of dolphins entering a small side tidal creek and decided to follow. We canoed with the dolphins for a couple hundred meter, and it was awesome. They were breaching within 2m of our gunnels, and we got to watch them working in pairs herding fish. It would have been awesome to see them all get together and shoal some fish, but no such luck. Honestly I was redicullously awed and excited. This is were I've been hoping I'd end up: canoeing up a marsh with dolphins in the course of my profesion. OK, honest the original plan was to be in a marsh with manatees and swimming with dolphins in the open ocean, but I can compromise. Katie Qualls also brought back a colony of obelia from south beach which I just got to look at under the disection microscope, along with some barnicles that I was actually able to see filter feeding. I believe that I'm in love with the disection microscope, and am going to run away with it. Though I'll need to move to a country where bigamy is allowed so I can be married to the Sewanee boat, too, because I'm also in love with it.
6/8/09 Saint Catherine's Island, GA
On Saint Catherine's Island in Georgia. I'll be here for a while studying geology, botany, invert bio and finally vertabrate ecology. I'm including a map so that later posts may make some sense in later years when I look back over this thing. Been here nine days so far and it's awesome!
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