Field Botany TA

Today was my first day "on the job" as a TA - all seems fine here. I'm really looking forward to the opportunities that come with the territory. The morning was exciting in that I got to hunt for some plants - but most of it is review - I like knowing that I know something and haven't forgotten it!


The afternoon presented unique challenges in that I ran out to Papoose and collected.... SEDGES! (and a Grass). I used the brand new sedge key that Ken gave me to work it through... I was so-so impressed. The language is a bit...unnecessarially complex and it is confusing as to EXACTLY what some of the terms mean. The glossary in the back is helpful but there are not many diagrams demonstrating what the terms mean (which would be helpful in my humble opinion).


Anyway my exciting finds were C. communis and C. pennsylvanica and an Oryzopsis (hymenoides I believe if I remember correctly). Fun day - and I'm glad I made it through the keys successfully without wanting to rip out my hair. Very encouraging.

The day ended with the beautiful identification of the evil Tartarian Honeysuckle

If I hadn't turned back around...

Today most of my day was spent among the Populus snow at the Bauer Preserve. I say snow because the seeds are attatched to a white fluff and have been dropping like flurries. If I was a weather-woman I'd say that today we had temperatures in the low 80's with a 100% chance of Populus snow - 1 to 3 inches expected to coat the ground.

The "snow" covered ground.

Meanwhile very little bird activity was occuring. A Yellow Warbler or two down by the water and a stupid browin-ish bird that was unidentifyable. The highlight might have been the Wood Thrush that hopped right on a branch in front of me, but took off before I could reach for my camera.

I was disappointed not to get a second look at the Ruffed Grouse with chicks - last week it chased after two of us as we accidentialy came upon them which sent the group into a tizzy as the chicks were seperated from mom. Mom wasn't too happy and came at us feathers spread and beak wide open ready to attempt to take a chunk out of my ankle. "I'm glad you were behind me so you would have gotten attacked first" stated the company. And these are the people I'm working for!

Actually - it would sort of be awesome to say "Yeah - that there scar is from a Ruffed Grouse that attacked me".

Anyway - of course that all happened when I had forgotten my camera in the car... And today, camera in hand - no Grouse or Grouslings.

Dissapointed I headed back to the car to grab some keys to identify a few shrubs. I hoped to perhaps glimpse something by the water or stream on my way to the car but sure enough nothing popped up. Things were calling but nothing was responding. Discouraged, I continued and then within sight of the car popped up a Male Indigo Bunting. He flittered between a few trees and was light up perfectly by the sun. What a brilliantly colored bird!

The Indigo Bunting posing nicely

He dove into the bushes finally and then came that weird bird again - grrr it's throwing me for a loop but I'm pretty sure it is a Warbling Vireo.

In this location I also had a Black-Capped Chickadee - big surprise eh? Anyway he sat there nicely for me - so I was happy. And got an OK shot:

Black-capped Chickadee being very cooperative - food in mouth!

The final highlight of the day occured about a half hour later. I went back in search of my "Warbling Vireo" and found a female American Redstart. She entertained me for a while but was a little too high up for anything but a picture of her underside. I turned to check the water one more time in case a Yellow Warbler or Common Yellowthroat was by chance close enough for a stunning shot - but nothing was moving. I heard the Redstart calling again so I turned to look for her, chirped a bit, and tried to pshhh her out - then suddenly a Broad-winged Hawk swooped about 8 feet from my face. It landed on a tree and (of course) then realized how close it was to me, and took off. But wow! What a look at the hawk! Up close and personal right there! Anyway it was pretty awesome.

Warbling Vireo? Note the Dusky eyeline.

On a final note - the more I look at my poor shot - the more I think its a warbling vireo. The dusky eyeline is perfect and it definitely had yellow in it (not too visible in this picture because of the leaves) - the only question is if it was too much yellow. Seemed more than most I've seen and than most of the availiable pictures and drawings.

Botanizing

I remember why I like this time of the year so much! The flowers are amazing!
And as great as bird photos are...
Nothing beats taking pictures of flowers and fiddling around with them and with editing them.

As much as birds have become a passion, botany is still my love. Flowers and trees and sedges and grasses are just too much fun!

I've seen all of these flowers within the last week laying in strategic places photosynthesizing their little leaves as best as they can while they bring us a fantastic sight and reward pollinators with sweets that could only match the delicious wonders of life like chocolate, ice cream, and cookies.

These are attractive droplets of a negatively impressive reward.

Plants never cease to amaze me. They have so many little things unique about them that make me jealous. I mean - I wish I could make my own food just by chilling in the sunlight! I wish I could trap insects with little goo-drops, or with jaws of death contraptions. I wish I could propagate in many formats... ok maybe that's a streatch.

Regardless, plants are amazing. And its times like today roaming around outside that I'm reminded of how amazing they really are.

Photography

While I may not be as good at it as my former roomate, I love photography.

I love taking the photo. I love having a relationship with my shot. Just like getting an autograph from a baseball player, it means more when you are the one who meets the player and gets it yourself (over buying it on ebay).

Mike Lowell and Gabe Kapler's Autograph

Photography is the same way - when you hike 5 miles and then see a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak drop down, or travel to Florida and see a Limpking 5 feet away, or are ambling around a garden and spot an Oriole and manage to grab your camera, focus it, play with the settings, and get a shot... it means more.

Limpkin

Recently I've been getting better, if I may say so myself - I even know how to use the manual settings! And now I almost always do!

This morning and afternoon I devoted most of my time to uploading more photos onto the internet so I can share them. Facebook friends don't seem to enjoy thumbing through hundreds of bird photos in search of a photo of themselves hanging around. Besides... I have a few too many albums there! Hopefully in time I can replace the travel ones permanently to picasa and eliminate their existance on facebook. We'll see though!

My photo albums can be found here. If you're interested! Most of them are in slideshow format on the right hand bar anyway.

Bird"ing"

"Birding" as compared to "Birdwatching" is a more active and extreme version of "Birdwatching" states my Kauffman field guide.

Somewhere in the midst of the sudden desire to drive an hour and a half to see Hudsonian Godwits I realized I must be in the "Birding" category.

Or maybe I realized it when I pulled my car over in a McDonald's parking lot to see Chipping Sparrows just to push my "Birding from the car on the trip to Michigan list" one higher.

White Throated Sparrow: much cooler than a Chipping Sparrow

Or perhaps it was when I was eaten alive for a Blackburnian Warbler by mesquitos, or chased down by a pissed off Female Ruffed Grouse.

While I still maintain birding should be about more than just a number - it's hard not to get excited about a number when I'm just 3 away from achieving the 300 life birds in North America that I never thought I'd get. Last summer I was thrilled to get 200 ABA birds. This year I feel like I could "easily" get to 400 at the rate I'm going.

I should sit down and add in my Trinidad Birds - I can't imagine my number once I throw those in too.

While I know that the word "easy" is a streatch, I can't help but see how much my birding skills have improved. I can spot birds, hear the call, sometimes even recognize what it is by call when I've never seen or heard it on anything but the Thayer Birding Software and my ipod.

Either way - it's something I'm loving more and more... and I just can't seem to get away from it. I still love slowing down and watching one bird for a while ("birdwatching"). I love "getting to know" a particular bird. Simultaneously though, I am getting thrills out of seeing new things and lots of things like i never thought possible.

The Purpose

Why should you bother to read this blog?

I don't know about you but I think that there should be a reason for everything I do. Why waste our time on something without reason to do so?

So here in my sales-pitchy best is why you should bother to read my blog.

1. You love me. Maybe you just like me, I don't know. But this one always works on parents.
2. You'll learn something. I clearly know a lot. OK - that's arrogant - but you laughed didn't you? If you didn't I'll try harder next time. Maybe I'll tell a lame joke or use a really poor pun. Laugh hard the first time that way you don't have to force me to keep trying.
3. You'll laugh. Admit it, I can be pretty ridiculous sometimes.
4. You'll get to keep up with my travels and experiences. You probably won't be able to keep up with my thoughts - not sure anyone can do that! But being an active part in the blogging experience would allow you to try more successfully than someone who is not part of the experience.
5. You miss it. You miss my antics, my crazy thoughts, my outlooks, philosophies, ideas, and photos.
6. It gives you something to read other than the New York Times. Enough Said.
7. You need a better homepage than http://www.google.com/.
8. It saves you space in your inbox as you can just leave me messages in the comments section.
9. You will know if I say anything about you behind your back?
10. You'll be able to see when I'm running out of ideas (NEVER! - ok maybe on certian topics like reasons why you should read a blog.... but... never ideas overall!)

So really what I'm saying is go for it - you'll probably enjoy some of it... try to keep up or just pop in every once in a while and catch up. You can subscribe for email updates or whatever you want. No matter what - Its for me, its for you, its for anyone who wants something to do or is interested in a multitude of things.

Its not the best blog on the internet, but I promise it won't be the worst.

Graduation

The time has come. After 4 years of work I'm done. Or at least until Grad School in the Fall.

More than anything I'll miss the classes with Dave and my N2 Friends who were there all along. I love those girls. I'll miss the randomness of life and the ridiculous things people said. I'll miss lottie and the breeches. I'll miss the garden, the birding, the botanizing, the trips to Baltimore to see Boston play. I'll miss life there. I'll miss ranting to everyone about whatever I can get my brain on - but then again - that's the beauty of blogging - I can sort of keep up with that aspect of it all!

Did anyone notice there seemed to be a lot of words with "B" in the end of that paragraph?