Glowworms [HRE]

9 xii 2011
1134- sleeping, sorrowfully back in my bed
1248- sleeping soundly
1439- meeting with Emily
2052- Picking up the camper van

Lunch- a banana, some salami, and 1/5 a gallon of milk
Dinner- Beer battered fish and chips with a hard cider.

Well I slept on the balcony until about 4, when I woke up and the noise was too much for me to go back to sleep.  I was surprised though how warm it was out there, minus the noise it was quite present.  Woke up about 815, ate a chocolate croissant as I walked to the conference center and met with Emily Fountain.  She gave me the details on her DNA protocol.  She too was using the DNAEasy kit, and that worked great with stuff younger than the 1970s, but anything older and she needed to do silica based extractions.  Once she figured out her protocol though she had really good success.  She's been trying to graduate, but with the earthquakes getting specimens from the Christchurch museum was impossible.  Finally she was able to get some from BMNH, apparently weevils are no easier than leafhoppers to get on loan from there. We talked some more and I discovered I had found my Pennsylvanian (by way of New Zealand) clone.  She wanted to do 2 PhDs but the university wouldn’t let her co enroll, one doing her weevil work and the other on frogs.  I told her about my disjunct research interests.  Then I found out her roommate is from the UK and trying to become one of the first falconers in NZ, and fly Harriers (NZ falcon is endangered on the south island).  I mentioned my need for grassland leafhoppers and she said she was going to be in the field checking her traps on Sunday so she would collect any leafhoppers for me and could meet me at the airport with them.  Then just as we were about to part ways she mentioned she had a chewing lice side project.  We are actually doing similar things with different groups of birds (passerines vs. raptors).  She's going to Australia in a few months to collect lice so if she gets any raptor lice shell send them my way and I'll try to get some North American passerine lice for her.  Small world.  Then I pulled down my poster and headed back to the hotel to finish packing.  We caught the shuttle, got to the airport and checked in.  We ate some lunch and then called my Grandpa George to wish him a happy 97^th birthday, then boarded our flight.  I slept most of the way, until just before we landed in Christchurch.  The countryside looked amazing as we landed.  Caught another shuttle and got dropped off at the campervan place.  We got our van sorted and then we were off.  Driving wasn’t nearly as hard as I remember it to be, I think walking around the city a few days getting use to the flow of traffic helped a lot, because I didn’t make any mistakes.  My mom though the first thing she told me was I was in the wrong lane (nope, defiantly the correct one).  The drive was beautiful, passing a lot of farm land and some reserves also, then reached Lake Tickapo at about 7.  The lake was a brilliant blue, from the sediment caused by glacial erosion.  The sky here is also suppose to be the best in NZ, and there is an observatory just up the mountain.  However, the clouds were a bit much and so I don’t think we'll get a good view of the sky tonight.  I went and set up some YPTs and then we went to dinner at a place in town.  The town was walking distance away so we followed the lakeshore there.  Dinner was amazing, the fish was quite tasty..  My cider was also really good, as was my parents black beer.  I finished up my mom's pint for her,  quite a sacrifice.  On the walk back we stopped and took some pictures of night falling, (about 2200), and I chased rabbits, hoping to decrease their fitness a bit and maybe if I was lucky kill a couple or lead to their demise.  I also  picked up a dead bird, but it was too long dead to get lice off of.  Once back at the van my dad and I went on a hunt for Myerslopia without any success. We did see a weird looking lep that seemed to have reduced wings and couldn’t fly.  We gave up searching after maybe 30 minutes, the leaf litter was too compact and dry I think for good habitat for a flightless leafhopper, so hopefully we'll have better luck somewhere else.  The sky cleared a little, and we got a good view of the southern cross and Orion (upside down of course) before calling it a night. 

Random Fact: Lake Tekapo gets its brilliant blue color from rock flour- the pulverized bits of rock produced by glaciers as they move.  The particles are suspended in the water, and the way they interact with light make the water very blue.  This also happens in Alaska, although these seem more blue green instead of blue grey like you see there.

10 xii 2011

359- Getting my tent on top of the van put up.  I ended up having to stand on the tire and turn the bar in order to keep the bar from falling out
857-Sleeping
1344- Eating breakfast- peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I tried to lure the mallards in with my crusts, but only got them within 4ft or so before they wouldn't get closer
2040- About an hour from Te Anau.  My mom was driving, she did pretty good actually.

Lunch- I had some strawberries we got at a roadside stand.  The stand had a  bunch of coins from all over the world pasted on a map.  Pretty cool idea, I think I'll do something like that.  They didn't have any Swazi coins, and I couldn't remember if I had any in my backpack still.
Dinner- Sausage, Pepperoni, and tomato pizza at an Italian restaurant (complete with Italian music and people wearing shirts with Italy maps).  The pizza was pretty good

My mom woke me up about 830, I slept pretty well up in my tent.  I had a sandwich for breakfast, put the tent away (which took a while to figure out and the assistance of the guy across the road), then went and picked up my traps. There were a few leafhoppers in them, and some other insects, including a bunch of larvae.  Once I was back we loaded up and I drove over to the town center.  We walked to the collie statue. It looked a lot like Dapher pup, we took a bunch of pictures.  There was also a small church right by it, but there was a wedding going on so we didn’t get to go inside.  We then walked to the information center, and got reservations for tonight at Te Anau, the glowworm cave and Milford Sound.  I saw there was a bird trapped inside the shop, so I caught it and took it outside.  It didn't seem to have any lice on it, but it's hard to say without being able to dust it.  Turned it loose and then once my parents were done we headed off.  I got stuck behind some slow dude, passed him then shortly thereafter my mom wanted me to pull over so she could get a picture of the lake.  I did, and the guy passed me, since he was still going about 70km/h I caught up with him shortly and had to pass him again.  This happened a few more times, including when we stopped to get a picture of Mt. Cook, which was visible for a bit when the clouds cleared.  Eventually I decided it was open road enough my mom could try driving, so I let her give it a whirl.  She did pretty well.  We stopped at a fruit stand and got some dried apricots, nuts, and a carton of strawberries.  The views for the entire drive were pretty amazing, we went through a gorge where they do bungee jumping, but no one was jumping when we went by.  We got to Te Anau about 1700, went to the store and picked up some paper towels, and then found our campsite.  Then we walked into town, figured out what was going on with the glowworm tour, picked up some alcohol to keep my bugs in at the pharmacy, and got dinner.  While we were waiting for our pizza my mom went to the grocery store and got the rest of the things on our list.  Then we went back to the campsite, got the tent ready, and then walked to the boat dock for the tour.  The ride across was nice, we stood on top the whole way.  Saw some ducks and some neat coves.  Apparently Lake Te Anau averages 200m deep, and so even though it isn't the largest by surface area, it is the largest by volume in Oceania.  Once we docked there was a short lecture on the cave system (it's about 7km long, but to get past the end of the tour you would need to dive through a submerged portion before it gets above the water table again), and the glowworms themselves.  Then we were divided into groups to enter the cave.  We were in the last group, so I wandered around outside for a little bit before coming back in for a short video on glow worms, including a segment of them fishing for food, and cannibalizing smaller glowworms.  Our group only had 10 people (the rest had 14), so that was nice. The walk through the cave was impressive- the glowworms looked like stars against the night sky.  The cave was young (about 12000 years maximum) so no stalagmites or stalactites over a few inches long.  Water flowed really fast through the cave and included some neat waterfalls.  At one point the glowworms were on a really low ceiling so we could actually see the threads they use to catch their food.  Once we got to the end of the walkway we boarded a small dingy and entered the glowworm grotto.  It was pitch black in there, with just pinpricks of light from the glowworms.  After whirling around in the boat for a few minutes we were taken back to the walkway and disembarked.  On the walk back we saw a long finned eel, which was about .8m long.  The largest reach 2m, and they are quite strong swimmers- they can swim against the current and can even climb waterfalls.  They breed once- in the ocean and the young make their way back to the caves.  As we were the last group in the cave, we went straight to the ferry and then we were off.  We again rode on top of the boat, although this time there were only a couple of us that braved the cold wind.  We are at a high enough latitude, it was still twilight even at 2215.  Back on shore we went searching for a bar to get a beer, but the only one open was too loud for the parentals to want to go to, so we went back to the campground.  I am currently sitting with the electronics charging them, since we have to charge them in the common area (apparently New Zealand campervans have a different plug then normal New Zealand outlets, so our extension cord won't work for the provided power…

Random Fact: Glowworms deploy silk threads, like fishing lines, which are sticky and covered with drops of a paralyzing agent.  When an insect hits one of these lines they become stuck and the glowworm reels the line up and sucks up the hemolymph.  A single glowworm can have a clump of up to 70 of these threads and it sits in the middle glowing to attract prey. 

Horse Racing

Todays random points were less than exciting...

351: watching TV with the parents
643: sleeping
824: still sleeping
1015: still sleeping...

Lunch: We walked down to the place we went to yesterday for dinner. I had turkish food- a lamb rice plate with a strawberry smoothie.  I had sweet chili sauce on the lamb, which was also a bit spicy but really good.
Dinner: We had roast beef sandwitches (mine without the bread) at the track.  On our way back from the bus we stopped for some cake at a coffee shop- I had chocolate.  Both were great.

Random fact: 1080 is used on New Zealand to control (and hopefully erridicate) invasive species.

Woke up and and met up with Is, Andy, and their moms.  We walked to the conference center and put my poster up.  The poster boards were really narrow so we had to artfully arrange them to get both mine and Leighs to fit.  Luckily I was next to Leigh, so we didn't mind moving her's around.  Then it was time to go in for the speed presentations.  Andy went 3rd, and there were some really intersting ones, including a talk preceptions of large carnivores- basicly in areas where people arent at odds over land use they tend not to be too upset about occasional depradation by large carnivores.  The presenter was pretty funny too, and cracked some nice jokes about the UK and Norway.  I spent some time trying to track down the presenter from last night who was doing the ancient DNA work, finally was able to get her email address.  Is appeared and we went to look at the conference tshirts.  After a bit of confusion he bought a shirt for himself and me and then I gave Andy the one I had bought earlier.  All headed back to the hotel, got the rest of the gang and went to lunch.  After lunch we wandered around the harbor for a while, got tickets for the ferry tomorrow, then the parentals and I went back to the hotel to catch the bus for the horse races.  The bus was complicated because we didn't know what the name of the stop was, but luckily the bus driver told us where to get off.  Then a guy on the street directed us to the track.  The track was really pretty, very open unlike tracks in the US.  We could see parts of the city skyline also.  At one point it misted for about 30 seconds and then a brilliant rainbow appeared.  It then turned into a double rainbow and was the brightest I'd ever seen.  Im sure the race track was sad Lucky Charm stratched, otherwise I'm sure tons of people would have bet on him.  We bet on longshots all the way through with no luck, I think its a worse stratigy in this time of race where there is such a big range in horse quality compared to graded stakes where all the horses are really close to the same talent level.  The one race I decided not to pick the horses in and left my parents completely to their own devices the longshot won.  Figures.  In the last race though, I misread the odds and picked a non-longshot, and he ended up winning.  So we won 5.90$, totally by accident.  We then caught the bus back to the hotel area, stopped at a coffeshop and got some cake.  My chocloate cake was amazing.  On the way back to the hotel we ran into a couple of the guys who were sitting near us in the general admission (where there were like 10 of us).  They recognized us and said hi.  Apparently they didnt win at all.  We had both bet on a horse called lemonaid who lost by a neck (came in 3rd), really close race.  So glad we went to the races, I love horse racing, and the woman we collected our winnings from said my dad must be old since he use to work as a runner at a racetrack.  Back at the hotel I went and hung aorund with Is, Andy, and Is's mom until about 2300, then went back to my room and watched some tv until about 1am...

Boats, up close and personal

3:57- We were just about to land in Auckland
7:15-  We were settled into the hotel and trying to watch cricket, quite possibly the worlds strangest sport.
16:13-  After a chocolate croissant, we walked down the harbor, had some gillato, and headed to the maritime museum
20:28- Working our way through the maritime museum.  The museum was pretty amazing, lots of cool boat stuff, a section on boat racing, and we got to explore a steam operated floating crane.  I even got to start the engine, which was super quiet.  The engine room on the boat was much larger than I'm use to, guess that's expected on a 160ft boat.  I also got to design a racing sail boat, 2 of which sank and the other 2 had a chance at winning.  They also had a boat simulator, but the boat responded much faster than I was use to, so steering was a bit of an adventure...

Lunch- What's that?
Dinner- I had a lamb rice plate.  I was going to have a burger, but a group had apparently come through and bought all the beef.  The lamb was amazing so I'm glad that I couldn't have a burger.  We got our food to go from a place called burger kebabs, and ate down on the harbor.

Random Fact-None of the sailors on Captain Cook's ships died of scurvy because he made them eat sauerkraut and lime juice along with regular exercise above deck. 

I woke up a few minutes before 9, then we met up with Is, Andy, and the parents shortly after 9.  We went to a pastry shop and I got a chocolate croissant.  Then we went back to the hotel to figure out where the conference center was.  In the process the 3 of us decided to make the executive decision to go to the harbor, check out the ferry, and visit the maritime museum.  There was a cruise ship in port, and a few barges being unloaded in the harbor.  While the parents were figuring out the ferry Is and I decided we needed gillato, a decision shared by some of the others.  Then it was to the maritime museum.  Just my parents and I actually went to the museum.  It was really well done.  It started with the early Polynesian settlers, and highlighted various important boats and types of boats in New Zealand, including many examples of sail boats and canoes.  Many of the pre European boats were so narrow it's amazing anyone could sit in them.  I think my favorite part was exploring the steam driven floating crane.  The ship was in good shape, and I got to climb all over it.  There was also a cargo sailboat (used to haul produce than explosives) that was inside the museum I got to play inside too.  They also had some really nice nautical themed paintings, and carved figureheads.  We left there shortly before 1700 local and I picked up my registration packet.  We went back to the hotel, got some beer, then met up with the rest of the armada. Andy's parents decided to stay behind, and the rest of us went on a foraging expedition.  Everything was super expensive, so we got some meat and rice to go and ate at the harbor.  Then we headed back to the hotel, stopping at the grocery store.  Is wrote his final, then Andy went to bed, and Is, his mom, and I stayed up talking until about midnight.  Then I went back to my room and watched some basketball (New Zealand Breakers vs. Melbourne).  Game is still ongoing, in double overtime.

New stamps on the passport [HRE]

2 xii 2011 .  Note- all times are central time.  I decided this was the easiest way to deal with time changes
4:17- sleeping finally.  Was up pretty late packing and such
10:59- on the way to Houston Hobby.  We stopped at Blue Baker and I got a chocolate croissant and a mango juice.
20:44- About to leave my grandpa George's house in Anaheim.  We went there for a few hours to see him and my aunt before we left and to drop off some things we weren't going to need.  Always fun seeing them, even if just for a few hours.
23:32- Sitting at LAX under the phone booth bank charging my laptop.  LAX is among my least favorite airports.  Not only are there almost no plugs, but the gates are in isolated blocks so I couldn't even go see Is and Andy who were in a different block of gates.

Lunch- didn't really have one unless you count the honey roasted peanuts (my favorite) on Southwest.  I also got the "Plane Cookies" which were animal crackers.
Dinner- We had take out Varsity (not Academy like my mom kept telling me) Burgers with my grandpa and aunt.  Mine had cheese, pickles, tomatoes, and mustard on it.  Both it and the fries were good.

Packing was  a bit of an adventure, I thought I'd forgotten the nuts for my net, went back to the apartment, gave up on finding them, then discovered they were already packed.  Apparently my mom woke up at 6 and yelled "Oh shit I forgot the passports" only to realize she hadn't, so I guess it was shaping up to be that kind of trip.  The flight to LAX was uneventful and we made it to and from Anaheim without too much trouble, although I wish we had had more time at the house, and less time sitting at the gate at LAX.  My grandpa turned the fire on and we sat around watching the news.  I guess there were 100+ mph winds in SoCal yesterday, and the power was out in some areas, they're pretty wimpy compared to Alabamans. 

Random Fact: the Santa Ana winds that came through were the strongest they had been in over a decade.  I remember them when I was a kid, but they were never that strong in Fountain Valley.

3 xii 2011
115- we've just taken off for Brisbane.  I thought we had to go to San Francisco, but apparently not.  Going to be a long flight, but luckily I can sleep on them fine.  Looks like we'll get dinner, and the entertainment selection isn't bad.
457- I'm watching the Hangover II and about to fall asleep.  Watched me some BBT and HIMYM, and played some trivia.  I did well in geopolitcal, history, and aviation.  Not so good in science (which was really famous authors of fiction novels?) and movies...
1122- I'm completely passed out.  Occasionally I woke up when my pillow moved but i was out for the rest of the flight til breakfast.
2201- We're wandering around South Bank in Brisbane.  There's a really cool bridge that goes over the river so we stood on that for a while and watched boats.  Now we're trying to find some ice cream

Dinner 1- on the plane I had beef stew, not bad for airplane food, and an Australian beer.  I love free alcohol on international flights.
Lunch- we went to a burger place in Brisbane.  I had a burger with tomatoes on a paninii roll while my parents had lamburgers.  Order of chips with tomato sauce, feels like I'm back in Swaziland.  To drink i had Pepsi with sugar
Dinner- we got take away from Red Rooster.  I had a 6 piece nugget.  Not as good as ZFKs but not bad.  I ate just before we boarded.  This flight from Brisbane to Auckland had something I'd never seen before- you had to pay for all drinks, not just alcohol. 

Random fact- Big ships have a rudder with a rudder on it.  The normal rudder is so large it wouldn't be possible to turn on its own, so there is a second small rudder that turns the larger one.

Since I'm exploring a new area I'll also include more details.  We arrived into Brisbane at 0700 local time.  Customs wasn't bad, they looked at my new boots and decided I wasn't going to bring in pests and let me through.  We caught the train to the city center, got off, then instantly got back on so we could try and find lockers at the next station (Roma Street).  Once we got a locker hired we walked to the city center, passing the city hall and Christmas tree.  We went to the Cathedral for Mass, got there about an hour before it started so wandered around some more.  There were some really cool fig trees in one of the center medians so we checked those out.  I found the Woolworths so we could stop by once it was open and get an adapter since I seem to have lost my New Zealand one.  Mass was nice, it always amazes me how its exactly the same everywhere.  They too were struggling with the new responses... After Mass we got my adapter then found a place to eat.  Then it was back to the train station where we caught the train to South Beach.  Passed by a couple cool looking boats in dry dock then stood on the bridge over the river watching boats go by.  They had a couple river boats with paddle wheels, and a bunch of smaller ferries.  One ferry seemed to go back and forth across the river.  That would get boring after a while I would think, although the other traffic on the river would be fun to watch.  I gave my parents a lecture on figs/fig wasps then we walked along the river.  I chased a few birds, and then we sat along the river while my mom took a nap on the grass.  I decided to take pictures documenting my parents sleeping across Oceania.  Then we went on a quest to find ice cream.  The first place didn't take Visa, and I wanted to save the 10 dollar bill we had cause it was blue.  So we found another place and I got a milk shake while my parents got cheese cake.  In the process we passed by Nandos (the same as in Swaziland), and a bunch of little tents selling tshirts etc.  We got a magnet with a koala on it.  My dad jokingly said he should get a tattoo of the bridge, I thought it was a good idea, my mom not so much.  Then it was back to the airport, stopping at Roma Street to retrieve our stuff.  Cleared customs no problem, and found our terminal which was basically empty and waited for our flight to board around 1800 local.  Flight to NZ was uneventful and we landed just after midnight.  Customs wasn't bad.  The passport control guy wanted to talk about the meeting, apparenlty he got his BSc in ecology.  Lots of sniffer dogs, the one in Australia was really interested in my backpack, so the lady asked if I had animals, once i said what I had she decided the dog was just having fun smelling all critters...

The perfect meal

My brother and I were talking a few days back about what a perfect meal would contain if there were no logistical concerns.  Being the ultimate day to contemplate eating here is my perfect, and rather large, meal:


I would start off with some fresh out of the pot Alaskan shrimp.  Most likely caught in about 320ft of water (that's the depth of the magic hole), in an undisclosed location in southeast Alaska.  I boil mine in salt water for about 3 minutes, they come out perfect.  Eat these shrimp and you'll never eat commercially produced shrimp again. 


Next I would have a small "salad".  This would consist of cherry tomatoes (in Catalina dressing), croutons (in Thousand Island dressing), sliced and skinned cucumbers, and skinned lima beans.  None of these items will touch either cause that's just strange.


The main course is a tough one.  I think I would go corned beef and potatoes.  This is my family's go to meal for occasions such as Easter, birthdays, and treats when were well behaved.  This corned beef comes in a can (make sure you get the imported variety, made by Libby).  Cube up some potatoes, add some oil and fry.  It's a slice of heaven, and a staple during field.  Learned the hard way it's better to drive an hr and pay the extra 4 dollars to get the imported South American corned beef instead of the cheep locally manufactured variety.  It's disconcerting being able to identify parts of the heart in your dinner. 


But there are competitors.  I had an amazing steak one day in South Africa.  It was also grilled, but in a way I've never seen previously.  An empty (I assume) oil barrel was coated with some sort liquid, I think gasoline or something similar, and lit.  A flash fire occurred and the steak was instantly thrown on top of the barrel.  About 5 minutes later you had a perfectly cooked steak.  This is quite different from the BBQing I grew up around, where any sort of lighter fluid or gas was a mortal sin, and multiple BBQs were involved in the grilling process.  If this meal had to be chicken biased I would pick Zaki's Fried Chicken in Sur, Oman.  If you ever find yourself in Sur, be sure you check ZFCs (not the restaurant, I didn't go there since its too fancy for me, but the walk up window where the locals eat) I'm not a poultry person, and yet this chicken really excellent.  It probably didn't hurt we got our chicken to go and ate it on a wall overlooking the ocean.  The final option would be a hamburger.  And what Aggie would not identify the Dixie Chicken as the best burger place around?  I get mine on toast with pickles, tomatoes, and mustard.


Dessert is easy.  My mom makes a cake known as Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake.  It's chocolate awesomeness.  This cake is so good people who have never met her contact her to request them.  If I'm not home for my birthday I get them mailed to me.  Cake isn't complete without ice cream and the best ice cream out there is Bluebell's Triple Chocolate.  This is a seasonal ice cream (don't as me why) but if you are at an actual ice cream shop you can get it year round.  Back when I worked for the P-fund we would go to Ft. Davis and get ice cream at the Caboose- the only place out there to get Bluebell.  Jodie knew my order- 3 scoops of triple chocolate- and I was so predictable even if they were out up front she would keep enough in the back for me to get my order.  To this day I still known as the triple chocolate girl.


My drink of choice is not so easy. 


First we should do beers.  My favorite beer is Shiner Bock, or if you can find it Shiner Black.  However, there are 3 other beers that hold special places in my heart.  The first is Guinness.  Since I was a kid this was my family's beer.  Back when we were young there was a math formula (my dad loves formulas) that calculated how much beer we were allowed to drink on special occasions.  After Easter Vigil we drink Guinness and watch the Pope's Mass while eating corned beef and potatoes.  Castle Milk Stout is an awesome beer I get in Africa.  I have yet to find a good milk stout in the US, something that bothers me to no end.  The last option would be Quilmes Black.  A beer in Argentina.  When I was down there in 2008 the first thing we did was hit a grocery store and bought supplies.  Along with my corned beef and tuna I bought 2 six packs of beer.  We drank most of that the first night but then I decided I should ration the rest, packed it up carefully, and hid it away in my backpack.  A couple weeks later we were all gathered around a light sheet in Calilegua National Park, and I asked who wanted beer.  Chris told me he was impressed that in the middle of nowhere Argentina I could produce beer and that that was the mark of a good grad student.  Probably why he took me on for my Ph.D.  When I left Argentina I wanted a Quilmes shirt so badly, but hadn't seen any anywhere.  In desperation I went to the skateboarding shop in the mall (the only place that remotely looked like they might sell beer shirts) and in my very lacking Spanish asked if they had any ideas.  The guy didn't, but decided to make me one.  Talk about copyright infringement.  He pulled the logo off the internet, I picked the shirt I wanted it on, and 4 USD later I had a Quilmes shirt. 


Non beer drinks would be either chocolate milk (made from US or South African cows, the rest all taste funny), an orange juice from this small place we found in Muscat, Oman (and went back to on our way back through Muscat), or strawberry juice from hole in the wall place in the Bur, Dubai, UAE.  I had never had strawberry juice, but quickly decided it was amazing. 


I would then finish it all off with a shot of single barrel Jack Daniels or some good single malt scotch. 


And that would be my perfect meal, now if I could just teleport it would be possible to eat it. 

Why my parents should have name me Peregrinus

When I got my passport back in 2005 I had no idea how I would come to rely on that little blue book.  I had decided to go on a study abroad trip to the island of Dominica in the summer of  2006 (check the archives if you're interested).  Before that trip I had figured the tallgrass prairies of the central US was what held my research interests and other than this one trip (which I was going on since a number of my friends were also going on) I had though I'd be spending my field work running around the southcentral US.  Boy was I wrong.  It quicky became apparent I inherited the Tokar traveling gene.  Many of my aunts and uncles on my mom's side have spent large protions of their lives wandering the globe for work and play.  As many of them are into developing agriculture in underdeveloped nations these locations were usually less resort style vacation and more wild adventure.  I grew up listening to stories of finding cobras in trucks, getting diseases most US doctors have at most read a paragraph about, and landing on dirt runways where a mistake sends one into the canyon walls or ocean.  When I told my parents I was going to Dominica the first responce was talk to Matt, he's been there a few times.  In the process of that trip I found a calling.  Even though that trip was overseen by a couple professors who had been working on the island for over a decade, field work in a developing nation is never predictable.  This unpredictablity, presence of situations that require quick thinking, and need for ingenious solutions made for an incredibly exciting time, and something I found I was pretty good at.  International field work has become my addiction. 
Falconry, being the rather rare and idiosyncratic passion that it is, has given me a way to interact with locals in a way most field biologists don't get to.  Often, before I head off someplace I get in contact with the local falconers and when it works out we meet up and go hawking or at least talk birds.  If I've learned one thing it's that falconrys the same the  world over.  As soon as company shows up the birds fly off, the dogs run amuck, and the quarry fails to fly fair.  But when it all comes together the joy is the same be it sage grouse in Idaho or frankolin in South Africa.  Even more amazing is the ability to cross the language barrier.  I don't understand a word of Arabic, but walking into the falconry store in Abu Daubi was walking into the merchants room at a NAFA meet.  Once I pulled out my phone and showed the shop keeper a picture of my peregrine I was instantly "in the club".


So now that passport I wasn't planning on using more than a time or two is literally full.  I already don't have enough blank pages to enter many countries, and once I get back from my December trip to New Zealand (and Australia) I think it will officially be full.  It's more cost effective to get a new passport instead of adding pages to my existing one it'll soon be replaced.  Since it has been my trust companion for the last 6 years the prosepect of getting a new one is a bit sad.  As Peregrinus means wandering (and is the name of a bunch of early Saints, my parents major critera for names) it would have fit quite nicely.

Lets try this again

So I've toyed with the idea of starting this thing again for a while now. The timing seemed right (and I really didn't want to work any more tonight) so here it goes. In the last 2 years I've almost filled my passport up wandering the world (including a revolution for spring break), defended my first masters (Entomology), passed my prelims for my Ph.D, bought an old ford f-250, trapped a beach bird, and navigated a boat through the Inside Passage from Seattle to Wrangell, AK just to hit a few of the high points. With the highs come some lows too. I've lost a few birds, gotten malaria, wrecked a truck in Africa (but was lucky my tech and I walked away without injury) running into a cow, and learned snow and I are not friends. I'm a little bit older, hopefully a little bit wiser, but definitely not any saner than I was when I wrote that last post back in 2009. I'll try and fill in the blanks as I go as I like to think I've done some pretty cool stuff over the last few years. Here are a few pictures...

Marabou storks (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) at the Simnuye dump (Swaziland). We use to prebait them every morning back in June and July 2009 for a research project.  In the process I learned to call down the storks in siSwati, leading local residents to belives 1) I was crazy and 2) i spoke siSwati.
Picture by Laura Sands (December 2009)

Light collecting at Malolotja, one of the National Parks in Swazliand. This national park is one of the coolest places in Swaziland.  It features high elevation grasslands, with really neat rock formations.  More pictures to come.
Picture by Laura Sands (December 2009)

 Trapping peregrines is one of those things falconers have been dreaming of since they were first listed as endangered species.  Starting in 2009 a few lucky falconers got the chance to trap a bird.  I tried (and failed, more on that later) in Oklahoma duirng the 2009 season.  In 2010 I was drawn for a Texas permit.  Here is my passage tiercel peregrine, Diablo, trapped on South Padre Island. (October 2010)

The outcome of 2 hours of war driving in Muscat, Oman. This was the only place we found wifi, and I really needed to send an e-mail. 
Photo by Thomas Catanach (March 2011).

Groping in the dark or what happens when a college town looses power for a few hours

We had a great black out right after getting back from AK. I was sitting in the genetics lab help session about 500 when all the sudden the power went out then came back on. Strange but whatever. Then it went out again and stayed off for a few min before coming back on. Keep in mind I'm surrounded by all this high tech equimpent that keeps turning on and off and therefore beeping constantly. It was like a symphony of beeping, kinda amusing. This lasted a good 15 min before the power totally went out and we decided to leave the building. Went over to Heep and discovered it was totally dark over there too. So went over to biocontrol and sure enough there was no power over there either. I wanted to find wharton to get my trivia for the day so walked into the dark lab. All the sudden this flashlight pops on and all i see is whartons head. So i got my trivia and then we went out to the parking lot. We had a wildlife society meeting that night and wharton wanted to talk at one of them about dominica. I told him he could come to tonights, but he wanted to know what would happen without power. I suggested he do interpretive dance of dominica, so he started interpretive dancing climbing a palm tree and bird watching, definatly the highlight of the night. The power stayed off through the meeting (so we had an outdoors meeting, kinda fun), then went to mcdonalds (the only place with power) for dinner with maria and a couple fish from tws. Then I dropped Maria off at the girls and I went to Aubreys to hang around. The power came back on eventually although it was off in part of BCS until 2300. It was a nice relaxing evening since no work could be done- that hasnt happened for a while.