holywa

Wow, has it really been another week since my last blog posting? Time here seems to travel so fast, and we get so much done!

A quick hodgepodge of updates:
LAST WEEK
- was a bit disappointing because my bluegill experiments didn't quite work out. We're finding that even after we think the bluegills eat the crayfish, we can't see any proof in their stomachs when using a dissecting microscope. also, some may be escaping?
- made for an awesome team when on thursday, lindsey, bradley and I were able to go to Big to check on my experiment/measure bluegills, check the crayfish containers on two lakes, and! return back to Big to continue my experiment, all in time for seminar. We are so good. We were rushing to make it back in time because last week's guest speaker was Todd... Crowell?, a stream ecologist who works in Puerto Rico. How pertinent!

Nature Sighting Update
- 4 bald eagles (in one day)
- porcupine

WEEKEND
Friday = late night. 
Saturday = joined my roommates for their lab dinner which brought over jake, pat, naomi, chelsea, victoria, and carol. In the evening the Lodge Lab + others went to the casino mainly to see the hit sensation Da Yoopers. Of course, a tiny bit of gambling was involved and I came out in the positive with $2. more weekend updates l8r

TODAY
FIELD: 7am - 8pm
I went with Ashley and Ricky to survey Spider and Little Star lakes using a mixture of snorkeling and scuba diving. Spider and Little Star are unlike any other lakes here because there was a lot of motor boat traffic: jetskis, water skis, water tubes, etc., but at least all of the intense motoring is isolated on these lakes. It would be a pain dealing with them if they were on all of the lakes. And the people that talked to were nice ("ooo scuba divers!") but many had kind of a negative view on snails. At least two families we spoke with found them to be a nuisance and one woman even went as far as to tell us to "get rid of them" because it was unpleasant to wade. I mean, c'mon! The lake is not their for your sole summer enjoyment!

And if I didn't explain before, we are conducting snail surveys to view the impacts of the invasive rusty crayfish on snail populations. The same survey, using the same exact sites by GPS, was last conducted in 2002 at which no snails were found. Since then, the rusty crayfish numbers have been decreasing and we now see that the snail population is slowly rebounding (at least 7 of our 48 sites had snails. Not a lot, but at least it's some). To sample, we usually use either an Open Core or a large Ring depending on the substrate. If the ground is mostly sand, we'll use an open core which is pushed into the sand and cuts through the container, collecting anything in the upper layer of sand. If the substrate is rocky/cobble then we'll use a ring to determine the area, and then collect the top layer of exposed rock.

It felt really great to scuba dive today for research purposes! Diving can be fun and scientific!

Today's Nature Sightings:
10 ducklings on a log
juvenile bald eagle
a human mother and her F1 generation interacting in their natural habitat