PS

I will add the 2 toed sloth to my wildlife list before I sign off- very cool! My pics aren't great but I should be able to come up with a better one!

Finally... the snakes

Big Daddy Boa

Green Vine Snake

Green Vine Snake says hello

Alright, the internet was refusing to cooperate with my photo uploading when I got to yesterdays grand finale, the snakes! Both of these snakes are very close to my quarters- which my roommate had a better description of- Swiss Family Robinson style. I am thinking that I should just send you a link to hers as she is super funny, maybe when I have the address. For now I will just torment you with wildlife.

Today we trekked thru the jungle looking at sights for a study looking at bacteria on rocks in the rivers, had a lecture/ discussion regarding the microbiology work, Polymerase Chain Reaction here we come! The term just comes with a general sense of coolnees, in case I needed any more!

So evidentally there has been some close calls with actual poisonous here recently- a coral snake I think & a fleur de lance- life on the edge!

I have discovered that wildlife watching doesn't really go along with getting anywhere in a timely fashion, I didn't see as much today just as I didn't have as much time. I was feeling a little moody this am, didn't get enough sleep last night, but met some really cool people in my bldg & cheered up.

cheers for now, I'll continue the list later, I met another cool birder who can help me w/ ID.

luv mel

Oh the fauna (& the flora)!

Very hungry turtle- possibly White-lipped mud turtle

Checking out the intrusion

Agouti

Pale-billed Woodpecker

I cannot believe the sights- I had no idea how much wildlife there could be be in such a concentrated area! This is going to be my bird list (thanks to Barbara Blackie for the motivation). Excuse the crappy bird photos, but they are still kind of cool & helped me ID the woodpecker later. Needless to say I am doing great & would think I had gone to heaven if not for the biting insects- even tho they could be a lot worse...

Today I identified-

Dryocopus lineatus aka Pale-billed woodpecker
Ramphastos swainsonii aka Chestnut-mandibled Toucan
Psarocolius montezuma- Montezuma Oropendola
Penelope purpurascens- Crested Guan
Amazona farinosa- Mealy Parrot-
I will be looking for the last 2 again as I didn't get good enough views
Multiple species of hummingbirds waiting for more skills
I believe some kind of Aracari & also a Tinamou

Dasyprocta punctata- Agouti
Tayassu tojacu- Collared peccary

Atta cephalotes- Leafcutter ants
Boa constricter- this is also the scientific name, who knew?
Oxybelis fulgidus- Green vine snake
& I'm pretty sure a saw the rear-end view of an armidillo tonight

Pura Vida!

Hello to all from Costa Rica! For those of you who don't know, I am doing a research project/ internship funded by Peninsula College (where I attend my WWU Huxley classes on the Olympic Peninsula) & the National Science Foundation. This is related to the other internship I have been working on, but I am working on a different project now. It is an incredible opportunity & I will be staying mostly at a couple of different biological research stations for the next 10 weeks! But more about that later-

Just a short post to get me in the blog groove & let you know that I made it safely am enjoying myself already- it was a whirlwind trip to the beach at home for the 4th, back & then here on the overall uneventful, ultimate red-eye. I left Peter with a disaster of a house & didn't get to relax with him much but I am already looking forward to seeing him when he comes down in Sept, for the last week I am here.

I have already seen several different birds, howler monkeys, some lizards/ reptiles & spiders etc. It is very beautiful & La Selva- the first biological research station that will be my home for the next several weeks- has a nice vibe & set up, lots of trails, bathrooms, the rooms are simple but have the required bed & storage & are nice in a full of character sort of way. The people are very friendly & lots of educational opportunities abound.

My Spanish was very weak with the cab driver & at the store on the way here. People mostly speak English here at the lodge, but I would still like to practice. I should have plenty of opportunities if I head back to the city tho, there are lots of people who speak English, but I sure lots more who don't!

No pictures yet but keep checking- manana. There is a lizard above my head now & an unidentified nose that I hear, sounds like someone making kissy noises to a dog-

Hello faithful readers! & sorry there has been nothing to read:( Life is a little insane right now- leaving for South Carolina tomorrow & still trying to finish a paper (of course!) for fish biology. This has been a great class, all of my classes this quarter were great- Oceanography is my favorite though! Learned tons in everything- now once I am back from SC I will turn around & go to Costa Rica for 2 months for REU! Okay too many exclamation points, but it is pretty darn exciting, expenses paid & a stipend in order to study microbiology of the tropical soil. Will I blog to keep you all posted? well, stranger things have happened...
love mel

Quarter update

Heavy classload this quarter- Oceanography, Forest Ecology, Fish Biology (thru Peninsula College not WWU) & my REU is focusing on GIS- but a complementary & enjoyable combination. Great professors & the coursework involves new work building nicely on old stuff. Forest Ecology class joined forces with the Natural History class last week to learn about conifers, ferns & mosses. I am getting better with my species ID (also for fish). Took a midterm today in fish biology- scary that its that time already! Went well although I had some confusion about some basic taxonomy that was a little disappointing- got a too focused on the details & lost the big picture of Phylum Chordata- good lesson tho (don't assume your remember everything form basic bio lesson :)...

Endangered Rivers Issues

Thought this was interesting in regards to the Pitt River dams & other issues


Canada's Endangered rivers '08

1. Upper Pitt River (proposed independent power project).

2. Flathead River, (proposed coal mine, coal-bed methane development).

2. Fraser River, (urbanization, sewage, pollution, industrial development).

4. Taku River (proposed mine, acid-mine drainage).

5. Peace River (proposed hydroelectric dam).

6. Headwaters of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers (proposed coal-bed methane development).

7. Kettle River (water extraction, proposed power project).

8. Coquitlam River (urbanization, excessive sedimentation).

9. Glacier/Howser creeks (proposed power project).

10. Coldwater River (water extraction).

11. Okanagan River (water extraction, channelization, urban encroachment, riparian habitat loss).

12. Salmon River (low flows, pine beetle, riverside habitat loss).

13. Little Campbell River (agricultural impacts, water-quality concerns).

From-

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=e438cec2-06d9-4562-8345-5dd401637a5e

I survived & the Pitt River

I found this lonely old post sitting in my drafts-

Hello everyone- I officially lived thru the second worst quarter of my academic career! & the morning warmed into a beautimous spring afternoon- for awhile anyway. Found myself with too many projects & not enough time & energy last quarter.

I have been listening to my CBC (Canadian Public Broadcasting) & the subject of interest today is the run-of-river (& without large reservoir) Pitt River hydroelectric proposal that sounds like just got shot down (maybe?). This would require moving the boundary of Pinecone Burke Provincial Park for a transmission line, or an amendement to the "Park Act". Sounds like 1,000 public members showed up at one meeting- largely in opposition. The place of hydroelectric dams in th interesting topic that has been on my mind lately. I wrote a paper about the Snake River dams last quarter & listened to some interesting talks at the Elwha Research Consortium meeting yesterday, including one discussing different current dam removal projects, controversial stuff but it seems that the tide of public opinion is shifting to question new dam projects & support dam removals.

Here's a link to the content of the Park Act (just cuz I was interested)-
http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/stat/P/96344_01.htm#section7

So evidently I'm having an attitude problem of late. I try to thing of something to blog about & it just comes out negative, so I guess I'll just roll with it, like the rest of life. Team Nearshore just got back from the Pacific Estuarine Research Society Meeting. It was quite an experience. I thought I pretty much knew what I was in for as I have a long, long history with veterinary conferences but- as it turns out- it was kind of a whole different thing. The talks are only ~15 minutes long each & tend to be pretty specific in topic, like about a specific grad or other research project. So for someone of my little experience it was difficult to get oriented to the topics- I just found that I didn't know enough about eel grass or zooplankton etc to get as much out of it as someone who had a broader knowledge base in the marine world. I guess that is probably the same at vet conferences, much of the difference is probably the knowledge base that I already had through lots of experience & also from conferences. Veterinary conferences come in many shapes & sizes so it is not difficult to find topics that are aimed at audiences with different levels of experience. Hopefully I will find this to be more the case at the American Fisheries Society conference that we are leaving for tomorrow bright & early. I don't know about that tho- in reality what I know about fish could be probably be written on a 3x5- okay maybe not quite but you get the gist, my knowledge base isn't really any stronger.

I did meet some great people, 2 in particular made helpful comments on my project & poster. Someone by the last name of Emmett who does forage fish research along the coast & another gentleman who works for a private environmental consulting company had some great thoughts on the sediment work. Only one person seemed a little overly aggressive with her questioning.

Anyway it's all a great learning experience & I certainly know a lot more than I did last week. The best part was the dinner at the aquarium in Newport- I forget the name at the moment but it is a beautiful facility. I loved all the different rockfish & everything else. The hotel was also great, beautiful ocean view/ balcony- I ended up with a huge room to myself. It was sad to not be able to really get out to the beach- it was all go, go, go. If only I was an early riser & not feeling so thoroughly sleep deprived at the moment!

So thank you to Dwight, Karen, Anne & all the people who provided funding & support to get us to the conferences. I'm a little jealous of the snow teams conference plans- I have the feeling their group won't be quite as stressed out on their travels:)

Life has been filled with work involving paper & computers as of late. Team nearshore has not been seining much lately but our trip out to Pysht last week did result in the most fish that we have seen in awhile- lots of surf smelt again which I don't really understand as they have a winter spawning season & are not known to make annual migrations to the ocean- they may actually reside near the shoreline for their lives. I don't know what makes the huge apparently seasonal variation in numbers but it would be nice to know as I have to get up in front of people & talk about forage fish a couple different times over the next 2 or 3 weeks. I have been working on sediment size analysis using photos lately, although not as much this week with all the work on my presentation, which I am still working on now (well I am taking my break to update my blog as I have sort of lost track of it). I am discovering that we don't take enough pictures of the actual forage fish, I need more material! Especially for the poster form of my presentation.

Blair asked what my artwork attempt pic was of (hi again B :) It is the shoreline along the Elwha bluffs (at least that's what we call them), east of the Elwha river mouth, with the shoreline armoring, I am not sure what that metal piece is actually called. I am sure that is adding some nice metals to the water, although over a very long time, obviously it is slowly breaking down. That is a crazy beach for collecting stuff, all kinds of metal & other stuff, I found the coolest fork there w/ the tines are curled & disfigured. People used to dump garbage right off the bluffs & there is also a landfill above that has been the source of some local contention as it is close to the shore.

Happy whatever holiday it is! Okay President's day, sorry, it's just filled with non-holiday contemplations for me.

Oh yeah, one more thing, welcome to new team member Sean. He is part of the Peninsula College fisheries program & a welcome addition to Team Nearshore. Especially as he knows my friends Ward & Sharon from Bremerton- small world! The new addition should help fill the empty spot in our hearts left from Jon's decision to head back to the paid working world. Congrats on the house tho Jon!