Life of a systematist, nomad, and double Ph.D (or a look into the mind of someone who is questionably sane).

06 June 2006

day 8- we went to a bunch of different places. First stop was Castle Bruce Beach. I collected a bunch of bugs from the sea grapes. It was nice looking over the ocean. Then we went to the carrib village, sort of a reservation type deal. There is this cool lava flow that legend says was left by a snake that came and stayed with the carribs for a while. This goes down into the ocean but we couldn't go all the way down since the waves are crazy there and wash people away occassionally. Last stop was Emerald Pool. We set up a malaise trap here, got our permits checked (1st time anyones ever checked any of my permits for anything I do). Theres a small waterfall with a warm pool that we swam in for a while after setting up the trap. There was a small rock to jump off of so I did that, alot easier than the jump at middleham falls thats for sure. Once we got back Cammack and I took a nap on the ft. aggie couch we have claimed as our own. Apparently the rest of the class has decided he and I have to be within 15 ft of Woolley at all times and this is why we take a nap on his porch every afternoon. They also decided we were his robots he could send around to do his bidding and between 1600 and 1800 he turns us off for our daily nap since we instantly fall asleep and wake up at bascily the same time. They took pictures ill have to post them sometime.

Day 9- set up 2 malise traps- one ground and one aerial. Aerial traps are pretty cool theyve got a pvc frame and you hoist them into trees. Nifty little traps thats for sure. We went to town so I could pick up our FedEx package from the Ets. It was full of good stuff like genitila vials for my bugs and on a lighter note hippy begone spray to get the hippies to go away. I was suppose to get my radio liscense too, but we ran out of time. Its on the list for Friday now.

Day 10- We went to freshwater and boere lake. We ran pan traps along the trail near freshwater lake. Then we walked the trail to boere lake. The weather was perfect for collecting- sunny and warm with little moisture on the plants. Woolley said these conditions were very rare in the elfen forest (usually cold and wet). So he me and cammack collected a good chunk of the way up and got to the lake a while after everyone else. Ate lunch at Boere lake then started back down the trail. The weather was still perfect so we decided to sweep the entire way back. Cammack got ahead of us a few minutes into the hike and decided just to go back with the rest of the class. So I took the right side of the trail and woolley took the left and we swept the entire way back leapfrogging down the trail. Got tons of cool stuff. I need to get a net like hes got since its got a screen that helps keep out vegetaiton while sweeping so its easier to keep the bugs from getting lost in the net. The screen pops off so you can still dive inside to collect the bugs- a necessity for those of us that collect jumping insect and a source of constant amusement to the rest of the world that doesnt. The 2 of us got back to the van a good 30 min after the last of the people before us. We rounded up the pan traps (filled with stuff considering theyed only been out for 3 hours), then went back to the station.

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