Me and Nicole Christie, coauthors on “Timing of Nesting and Nest Site Selection in a Northern California Population of Western Pond Turtles (Emys marmorata),” presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Section of The Wildlife Society, in Riverside, California.
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This is my one of my favorite YouTube videos. The song is catchy, and it’s SO freaking hilarious, especially if you’re familiar with arguments about evolution vs “intelligent design.” This came out, IIRC, around the time of the Scienceblogs kerfuffle about the film “Expelled,” and honestly, I don’t know if it’s meant to lampoon ID creationists or Richard Dawkins and other atheist scientists (including P.Z. Myers and Eugenie Scott who are “featured” in the video) – but it does a great job of poking fun at both sides. Best of all, hip hop Charles Darwin! As someone who identifies as a methodological materialist (but not a philosophical one), I adore this video. Geeky science humor doesn’t get any better than this.
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Since I am pursuing a bachelor of science degree, I will be writing a senior thesis. Of course, this means that I first need to do some research, so I have something about which to write. It looks like that something will be turtles, more specifically the nesting preferences and nest site fidelity of western pond turtles. I spent a a good part of last summer doing field research at a site up in Lake County, and this semester I am working in the lab with the data we collected, but for my own project, and also for a continuing project on temperature-dependent sex determination in turtles.
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If you’re wondering about the black thing on the turtle’s back, it’s a radio transmitter. This gravid female had been captured the night before and given an ID number, weighed and measured, and fitted with a transmitter. Then, she spent the night in my car. This photo was taken right before she was released back into the lake the next morning. Then, over the next few days, her radio frequency was monitored each evening in the hopes of finding her out of the water and laying her eggs.
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Today, I fed all the animals at the Wildlife Rescue by myself, for the first time ever. (Usually there are at least two, sometimes three of us). I don’t usually feed on Saturdays, but today I was filling in for someone who had surgery earlier in the week. I fed 56 animals today (well, 57 including Gizmo, whom I fed at home before I left this morning :D).
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I had a big surprise at the Sonoma County Wildlife Volunteer Appreciation party this afternoon – I received an AWARD!
I had no idea this was going to happen, and in fact I was really, really surprised. Apparently, though, Nicole knew about it, and insisted that I attend the party (otherwise I probably would have stayed home).
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In addition to working at the main site of the Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, I’ve been doing one shift a week at the nearby Songbird Hospital, which is affiliated with the SCWR, but located at a different site (at the home of the woman who runs it and does most of the work).
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As a follow up to this post, I thought I’d post a picture of the most excellent “mouse” trap that I built earlier in the week.
The Vole Trap:
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Today, I had to build a mousetrap. Well, to be more specific, a vole trap. It’s a pretty funny story, but first you need to know some history.
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We’ve had some new arrivals at the Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, and I thought I’d share a few pictures.
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