Public service announcement

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Night of the Crawdad

Today on my lunch break I went by the campus park to check on the population of burrowing crayfish. There were many (about seven or so) active burrows (with clean openings or with fresh mud chimneys). I've been meaning to go check them out at night and see what they do, so tonight I took The Pie and a baggie of nightcrawlers and walked down there. I didn't see any walking around outside the burrows, so I cut a piece of worm, tied it to a string, and dangled that down a hole. Sure enough, a crayfish latched on almost immediately. I was able to drag the crayfish some of the way up the burrow so I could look at its little claws. Then it ripped off a piece of the worm and retreated. VERY EXCITING. So, I repeated at seven more burrows! Only one of them failed to yield a crayfish. At two of them I was able to tease the crayfish just enough so it came all the way to the top of the burrow! I did not try to catch them, though. After all that excitement, I was out of worms, so I headed home. Maybe next time I can take some photos!

Also, on the walk home I made the interesting discovery that those new Toyota SUVs That Look Like They Are Wearing Hats have not two but THREE windshield wipers. Unusual.

Hiking trip made possible by new car

My recent car purchase has enabled me to enjoy nature, which is especially valuable since the field season is over and I won't be spending half my waking hours tramping around in Ozark streams. So the Pie and I and the car headed over to Rockbridge State Park to tramp around some woods and streams. From the map, you can see there are a variety of trails to get lost on.


New car had to stay in the parking lot while Tasha and I went hiking. First we took the orange path, then got completely lost but somehow ended up on the white path near the Rock Bridge itself. So we went down to see it. But apparently it is closed - the boardwalk that used to go under it was missing and the path blocked off. But here is a photo where you can see under the bridge. Its not very bridge-like, really.



A stream emerges from under the bridge, from a cave that is further up the trail (which is still accessible, but there were lots of people down there so I passed on the cave - Devil's Icebox - on this trip). In the stream I saw several frogs swimming around, there is one in this photo:


And on one of the boardwalks I saw this interesting caterpiller shown in the photo below. Which reminds me of a funny story. Friday at work I had just sent one of our hourlies to go sign out a vehicle for us for the day, and turned to walk down the hallway. There was a big lizard there. Well, a skink. It was slithering/crawling/walking along the edge of the hall, trying to find an exit. So I called the hourly back to help me catch it. Then other people noticed and became interested. In the confusion it escaped into the mapping office, so we ALL went in there, including my boss's boss, and eventually the hourly was able to herd it behind some boxes and I caught it on the other side in an empty snack bag from the trash can. I took it outside and, unsure of where to put it, finally decided on my boss's windowsill. When I got back inside, I told him about it, and it was still there on the sill when I looked out. He didn't look out for about ten minutes though, and by then it was gone, and he declared that he didn't believe it ever existed. I think he was only kidding, though... Well hopefully the skink was okay, it was covered in crumbs when I let it go.

Where were we? Oh yes, the caterpillar.


After hiking for an hour the Pie was pretty hot (it was about 89 degrees out) so we went back to the car for a Pie Toy to play fetch in an isolated area of the stream. NO DOGS ALLOWED OFF LEASH, you know. Hehehehehheh.




After getting the dog soaking wet, we headed back to New Car and got in and went home, uneventfully.

You can see a short video of Tasha in the stream here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dvWT1Z4toY

New car

The other day I purchased a car. It is a 2009 Toyota Matrix. You can see it below:

As you can see, it is silver. Very silver! Not many pieces of black plastic trim slapped on there to get in the way when one is waxing it. Excellent. In its overall appearance, it has that modern-car-kind-of-lobed, overly-curvaceous appearance that most newish cars have (except the Scion xB, and that new Toyota SUV that looks like it is wearing a hat) and that I am not too wild about. It is not hideous, and it kind of has a cute face:


I think the face looks like some kind of chubby little animal that is very happy to see the viewer. What do you think?

Its appropriate that its face looks a bit chubby, when you consider its very wide rear end. I'm not sure the photos communicate it quite right, but even for a hatchback the car has a rather large aft region. Which is great because it means more storage space! Yes!

Some of you may be wondering why I have selected this car, so here is a brief rundown of the features of this make/model/year/specific vehicle that interested me particularly.

Reliability - the previous years of this model have all had very good reliability, as reported in several different places/reviews/etc. This model year has a somewhat different engine than previous years, but no problems have been reported yet.

Cargo - the seats fold down to form a nice big flat surface on which to put dogs. Of course, most hatchbacks do this, so this isn't really specific to this model. What is specific to this model (and its twin, the lovely Pontiac Vibe) is that the cargo area including the backs of the rear seats is all hard plastic. This is excellent, as dog hair will not cling to the upholstery - this was a constant battle in my last car, Carl.

Fuel efficient and good EPA smog rating - this model and year seemed to have quite high MPG (26-32) and air pollution score (6) as seen on the fueleconomy.gov website. It gets less mpg than say a diesel, but since I live in a city I was concerned about the poor cyclists, like myself. Of course now there is the VW clean diesel Jetta wagon....but its too new still for me to afford. Someday....

Manual - I only looked at cars that offered manual transmission...for personal reasons I suppose, and other than the Honda Fit they usually get better gas mileage, supposedly.

Safety - I really lucked out finding this car that came with the optional side airbags, raising its side crash rating from 3 to 4 stars! If I recall the front crash ratings were quite good for all the models I was looking at.

The negative points of the car are that the outside appearance is not too thrilling to me (lots of people say they like it, I think I just prefer the way older cars look) and that it is somewhat difficult for me to see out the back because I am so short. It is better than the Prius I was in, and hasn't really been a hinderance so far.

Hmm, let's see what else...the interior is comfortable and 'cool' in silver and black with some blue accents in the fabric...there is a 6 disc CD player, which is probably more than I can handle...it has cruise control, functioning A/C...no sunroof, but electric windows and such. It has heated wing mirrors - I had never heard of that before, but I suppose its a good thing.

Well, that's enough blathering on about the new car. It needs a name. And possibly a vanity plate (6 letters only, plus one space allowed). Suggest away :)

More fieldwork pics!

From last week's fieldtrip to the Ozarks:

Ah! An enormous spider! That is a pencil below it. We had to work right below him, luckily he didn't fall on us. O_O

A lovely frog I captured:

The most frightening part of fieldwork is placing tiny temperature logger devices in the stream. We are to select deep pools where they are unlikely to be washed away in a flood, and they have to be tethered with thick wire onto tree roots/trunks. Submerged tree parts kind of give me the willies, not as bad as man-made objects underwater, though. Here I am wiring a logger in place, among some washed up barbed wire that is not visible in the photo.

We passed by the raven statue again so I got my photo taken with it!

Nearly unbearably cute mini-turtle:

We have seen soooo many turtles this summer. One day we saw 14 turtles. So far we have seen two LARGE softshell turtles, 3-4 snapping turtles, lots of 'other' water turtles, and countless box turtles, of the ornate and three-toed varieties. Luckily we have an ample supply of hand sanitizer, as my turtle-studying friend tells me they carry salmonella. Eek.

Ozark turtles and such

Well, just finished up another week of driving around the Ozarks, looking at streams, rescuing roadturtles, and picking ticks off ourselves. We even did some training with a famous stream ecologist. At least, I think he's famous. Also we saw this enormous raven statue at Ravendon.

Here are a couple of the turtles we found on roads. This one is some kind of water turtle. He looks like a hamburger.

And here is a three-toed box turtle. He looks like the cardboard box the hamburger came in.

And to continue with a previous theme:
Things I miss about England - ya can let yer dog off the leash at the park. Which park? EVERY park! 8D

Things I am really glad to get back to - people actually LIKE dogs, and it is perfectly acceptable to go up to a stranger and ask to pet their dog. In the few weeks I have been back in Missouri, more people have asked to pet the PieMaster than during the entire time I was in Leeds. Which is saying alot.

A bunch of photos of the Pie

Yesterday I took Tasha to the vet to get a checkup and some anti-heartworm pills. It ended up being a really hot day, and the walk was about 2.3 miles each way. Woof. Alot of the walk was through a large park, so there was shade available. On the way back we stopped at Sonic for some iced tea...and water, heh heh. Pie schmoozed with the waitress lady. The waitress lady was NOT wearing roller skates.

Here are some pictures taken in the park on the way back.

Mmm, Sonic water.

Something funny over there I suppose. Possibly children. Bask, bask, bask.

Do a barrel roll!!!

And now, photos of me, as well. I finally got some new sandals:

Rawr!

That is all! Unfortunately today it is very stormy so no outside adventures for us. Only...the thesis!

Well, its certainly been awhile since my last post, and lots of things have happened since then. But, probably, if you are reading this you already know all about them. Basically, I moved back to Ohio for a month before heading to Missouri to start my new (old) job. I'm very happy to be back on the crayfish crew, leading brave crustacean hunters on various adventures in southern Missouri. The person who is leaving my position and I went out this week to do some recon and collect some crayfish for Wash. Uni. in St. Louis. It was wonderful to be out in those beauuuuutiful Ozark streams...catching crayfish!

And now, to begin what will certainly be an ongoing feature:

Things I miss about England
-Public transit...around the entire country!

Things I am so glad to get back to
-Very few diesel cars means when I am riding my bike I can actually, you know, BREATHE freely. The difference is...very pleasing.

Quick, let's get to the coast!

Today some friends and I from work went to the Scarborough Sea Life center! There were lots of RAYS, and CRABS, and even a LOBSTER. Also some penguins, seals, loads of fish, some sharks, and a SEA TURTLE! We all had a fun time. Unfortunately it was not at all well-lit, and flash photography was prohibited, so I didn't get any photos except of this turtle:


Also I made some videos of some other turtles, I'll try posting them on youtube later. Here is a lego sculpture that was by the ticket desk. Apparently a new lego fun centre of some kind is opening in Manchester, but not until I leave.


At the centre, I got a little stuffed blue lobster, which will feature in later photos. Here, we had gone to a restaurant, and Lobbie is trying to escape. Into the grey, grey outdoors.


The restaurant had this great drawing up on the specials board!


It took awhile to get our food, someone at the table got a little bit over-eager.



Make that more than one person.


The food was great, I had a dish made with potato, cheese, leek, and some kind of fish. And some salad. Yum! With Yorkshire Tea, but of course. Outside, this seagull had found something tasty, too.

Avatar film

And we thought it was futuristic science fiction! Or a remake of Pocahantas or Fern Gully!

"Avatar's secret history lesson recalls Bougainville war"
http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/02/avatars-secret-history-lesson-recalls-bougainville-war/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bougainville
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Singirok
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ona

Also:
"Tribal people appeal to James Cameron"
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/5529

Pie

Found this video floating around my hard-drive after my compy got repaired:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_8YbyM1eEo

Note: not for those with slow internet connections!

Crayfish Cake

It was my labmate's birthday awhile ago, and I made her a crayfish cake. Not sure if she likes crayfish alot. But she'd better get used to seeing them! The cake was tasty, at least.

And now, police officers sledding on riot shields:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/8458822.stm

Most excellent. I hope they didn't get into any trouble.

Crayfish slave

Well, here I am, back in Leeds for more WORK! Its as if I cannot get enough of it!

Here's what I have to do:
-Lots of lab work, ideally one PCR per day, once I get started.
-Write two pages of thesis per day.
-Survive.

It seems like a do-able amount. Plus, I am HIGHLY motivated to finish the lab work as soon as I can. Finish labwork = go back to America, my family, my Pie! Woo hoo!

*goes back to work*