Start of school

Hi there!

So, school has started again and it's looking to be a great semester! I'm excited to say that, not one, but TWO of my classes are field intensive... What a way to wrap up undergraduate! I'm still working away at my salamander research and it is going beautifully. I am so glad I got to work on a project like this over the past three years; I've really learned a LOT about herpetological/ecological research (and salamanders of course).

I went into the field Wednesday for lab and one of my classmates caught a baby ribbon snake. I have a picture, but it is very blurry. It's always fun to see how people who don't have much experience with snakes react when they hold one for the first time. You can tell they're hesitant or scared at first, but then they cave in and admit that it's totally awesome. We also saw some skinks, toads, frogs, and a wood rat who had built her nest under an overturned boat. I found that my friend, Miranda, is an excellent herp spotter. My friend and fellow Ecology major, Austyn is also in that class (and most of my other classes) with me. We're definitely going to have lots of field shenanigans this fall.

My name is Blurrysnake and I care what you think.

I don't know what this is, but it's awesome!

Yesterday, I got to go out into the field again with my professor/research mentor who is studying lichens. We didn't get as many lichens as we'd hoped (field work almost never goes as planned), but we saw some other amazing things! On the way into the park, we saw dozens of woolly bears zooming across the road. I swear I've never seen caterpillars move so fast! Watch out Nascar drivers, you've got competition! Along the sides of the road, blue herons and green herons stood like sentinels while the shy turtles dropped into the water. If you've never seen a blue heron take flight, shut down your computer right now, go out to the nearest body of water, and watch one. Trust me, it's breathtaking.
Once in the forest, we drove through a rabble of butterflies who were flocking around a piece of smashed-up roadkill (who knew that butterflies were so morbid??). As we drove past, they swarmed around the car and fluttered around the windows. It was pure magic. I love the forest.

One of the many hitchhikers who rode with us yesterday.

Caution: Minnows Ahead

I've been working on lots of comic pages, but I'm not ready to upload any of it quite yet. I'm hoping to finish something before this semester's over, but I have much to do in the coming  months. For the three of you who actually read this mess, I'll try to update this trainwreck of a blog with more field pictures and doodles as often as I can.

Have a great day and thanks for reading,

Megan