Life in the Tropics

For those of you who don’t yet know, Mike and I accepted positions as Field Technicians for a study on an endangered, endemic crow species, on Rota. Rota is a tiny island in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (think right near Guam), which is situated smack-dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Japan and New Guinea. 

Now that you know where we are, a bit about what we’re doing. This particular project has been running for a few years, and has been concerning with finding the birds, banding the fledglings, and generally trying to keep them alive. Current estimates show that there are ~ 100 breeding pairs left, which isn’t very many.

Even though we’ve been here since Saturday, we’ve only done two ‘official’ days at work. So far we’ve been using telemetry to find the two birds who still have radio backpacks on (which usually takes a good deal of the morning), and using the afternoon to search for nests in the other parts of the island. These birds will breed year round, and a lot of nests have recently failed, so there is a chance that some birds are starting to re-nest. That being said, they are very hard to find if they don’t want to be found. Often birds will re-nest near old nest sites, so our approach is to go to an old nest, and listen for crows. So far I haven’t been too successful – heard nothing yesterday while in two separate territories. Today was much more successful – we found a banded bird (randomly), hung out with Red (who we were looking for), and heard one bird off in the distance while nest searching.  Furthermore, I completed a rite of passage – getting stung by my first (and second) wasp. They were not as awful as I expected, but I plan on being super-cautious in the future.

A few photos are below. More will trickle in.

Mike makes a critical addition to United Airline's map

View from the Bird Sanctuary - all the white dots are red-footed boobies nesting

This is a blurry photo of a Mariana Crow - apologies until I get a nicer camera

I will (sincerely) try and keep this updated a bit more than previously (i.e. more than once every two years), so check back to see how life in the jungle is progressing!

6 months in NZ (nearly)

Seeing that almost six months have elapsed since I've moved country, I thought it would be a fitting time to update this blog. Once every six months seems like a schedule I could keep. So how to summarize six months of my life? I'm not quite sure, but I think I'll bullet point the highlights for you.
In the last six months I've....

• moved to New Zealand; that was pretty cool
• bought two little budgies, smudgie and pudgie and they're awesome
• been holding down a steady job as a crepe maker at the farmers market
• finished the first semester of my masters degree
• got started on my fieldwork
• sort of learned what I'm supposed to do in the lab
• helped build a rabbit fence dangling off a cliff
• killed african boxthorn
• learned about kea
• tried to learn about NZ birds
• tutored geography
• eaten chocolate

Those are the highlights I can think of now. I was keep to update photos but I've forgotten and am leaving town for a week to go bushwalking (!!!!) so I'll have to keep you all in suspense until then.

Probably the one that requires a bit of explination would be the bit about my masters degree. So I'm still in the first year, where I have to take classes. But I'm halfway though, so I'm on the midsemester break right now. Classes start up again on the 11th, and I probably won't have nearly as much time to puruse the internet. Theoretically then, I have all next year to do field work and work on my thesis. Naturally, I've already started both my field and lab work so I can slack off next year.

My project involves walking along the beach and picking up kelp of a specific species. I have 18 sites along the EC of NZ, and potentially will add more. I bring the kelp back here, dry it out and then do some fancy genetic hocus pocus in the lab. Once I've gotten the genetic stuff to work, I can tell where said beach-washed kelp originated (ie. the sub-anatarctic, Northern NZ, Southern NZ etc). This tells us stuff about dispersal potential and inter-connectiveness of the populations. Neat huh?

I've gone out once and found some kelp, now I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. My lab results have been really mixed, but I'm excited because I just got a batch that worked awesomely this morning!! Usually about 50-60% of the samples will amplify, and out of those, some might be the wrong species. So it's a bit hit or miss to say the least.

Anyways, I should go do lab stuff again, then go home and pack for my bushwalk tomorrow! Photos will come soon!

A quick and simple guide to moving countries.

Thinking about moving country? Is it to simply uproot yourself and start fresh in a new location? Did you get deported out of your home country? Are you looking for a way to challenge yourself and stand on your own two feet? Do you love paperwork more than life itself?

Follow this easy guide to decide if moving country is right for you!

Which one accurately describes your daily sentiments?

a.) What a nice place! I’m so glad I live in this fantastic country! Woe is everyone who ever had to live anywhere else! (1 point)

b.) Another country could be cool, but it’s so scary and hard! I’ll just stay here thanks; sure, it gets on my nerves sometimes, but the positives outweigh the negatives for me (5 points)

c.) Get me out. Now. (10 points)

Your view on paperwork: it’s….

a.) Boring and I wish I never had to do it again (1 point)

b.) Not awful; I get tired of writing my name and address 700 times but I like ticking boxes (5 points)

c.) I’m a fan; I like seeing how my signature changes from form to form; ticking boxes is awesome and I never tire of writing my address (10 points)

What are your thoughts on making all your personal, financial and medical information available to strangers?

a.) No way! Those are private documents and you have no business with them! (1 point)

b.) Um…. I guess you can see them; you’d best have a good reason though! (5 points)

c.) What else do you need? Deceased pet names? A full inventory of my underwear collection? Would you like my footprints as well? (10 points)

How attached are you to your current belongings? (Furniture, home, pets etc)

a.) My things define me! That’s a vintage 1973 Louis Prada designer coat hanger! And don’t even get me started on my lightswitch covers….. (1 point)

b.) They’re just things; I mean I like them, but other places have things too, right? Wait, I would need to buy things AGAIN?! That changes things…(5 points)

c.) I don’t own anything I don’t think…. (10 points)

My life is…

a.) …chockfull of stress and anxiety; xanax…. need xanax…. (1 point)

b.) …up and down in terms of stress levels; average I guess (5 points)

c.) …more stress please!! (10 points)

Your results:

0-15 points: Probably best to stay home; moving country isn’t for you.

16-35 points: You could move country, but maybe try moving state first, as practice

36-50 points: If you’re willing and able, you could be a candidate for a potential an inter-country move. Whether or not another country wants you is another matter of course…

hey all!

So as some of you may or may not know, I've returned to the US! Briefly. I got back early this week and head out again in Jan. Right now I'm in CT, eating thanksgiving yummies and doing whatever it is I do here. I'll be heading down to Maryland and some point in the next few weeks (before xmas) because I miss you all and want to see your smiling faces again. (yay!) Also, I have a new phone number : 860-965-0170, so you should call me and we should hang out. That's the morel of the story.

Cool. Yeah. So, we should hang out sometime soon. yeah.

Sorting out my life

Deciding what you want to do with your life isn't easy. It's even harder to do it for that matter. However, I've un-officially applied to a Masters degree in New Zealand (still waiting for the email that says they got all the papers), I have one more form to fill out for that too, booked all my flights there to look at houses (and the flights home and back for xmas). Now I'm sitting around Hobart wondering what to do with myself. All I now need to do is file my tax return, find an illegal cash-paying job and enjoy life. Oh, and get accepted to Masters. Fingers crossed!

Latest updates

Since it's been two months or so, I figured it was time to update this blog again. Since we finished watching whales in North Stradbroke, I realized that plan A (which was me staying in Tassie and guiding for another season) would not be possible because of assorted visa issues. Naturally, the next best option was to fly to New Zealand and look into doing a Masters degree there. So, Mike and I flew to Christchurch and started a mini road trip that involved seeing the sights and climbing in between rushing back to Dunedin to meet with professors. Mike met up with a guy doing behavioral work on mosquito fish, and I with someone doing phylogeography (read genetics) of southern ocean kelps and seaweeds. We also got to spend 2 days at Castlehill, which was just a pathetic amount of time really. AMAZING place though and I'm super excited to be living just a few hours away!! Enough boulders there to keep several people busy for a lifetime, and you probably would never run into anyone else. Truly a magical place to be.

After that, we flew to Nadi, Fiji to do yet more whale stuff. This was very different to the work on Stradbroke, principally because there were very few whales. Mostly we sat on top of a mountain and stared at the ocean. (but we got free t-shirts!) Everyone there was just awesome though, so I made a whole bunch of Fijian friends and got my butt kicked almost daily in volley ball by the local village kids.

Now, we're back in Queensland, waiting patiently for Fed-ex to come and deliver my academic transcripts. Then I will officially apply to the Masters program at Otago University. :) very exciting stuff. Then tonight it's off to Frog to get our butts kicked by some crack lines. Then to Sydney and catching the boat on the 2nd. Back in Tassie on the 3rd!!

Hopefully I'll be able to update this a bit more frequently in the near future (maybe even with photos)! Stay tuned.

PS anyone have any cash-in-hand jobs for me??

Lately...

So it's been what, 7 months since I've updated you all on my life? Far to long I imagine. Sorry to keep you all in such suspense. Right at this very moment, I'm sitting in a house on North Stradbroke Island, which is off the coast of Brisbane (still in Australia, for those of you who don't know where I am). I've been here for about a month now, "working" for the University of Queensland on a study involving migrating humpback whales. This island sort of creates a bottleneck for the humpbacks as they migrate north from Antarctica, so about 95% of the population comes within 20 km of the shore, which means we can see them with binoculars. Yay!! The "job" involves sitting for 5 hours a day on a platform, with binoculars, a theodolite and a computer (with three or four other people, of course) and counting and tracking the humpbacks as they swim by. It's pretty thrilling work.

Actually, that's not true. Sometime's it's cold, windy, and the sea state is awful, which means you're miserable and you can't see anything. Other days, like yesterday, it was beautiful calm seas, and we sat on the platform in our bikini tops, drying off after a surf in the two hour break between shifts (it's a hard life)!

At the peak of the season, we were getting about 120/130 whales per day, which made for some pretty busy shifts. Suddenly, within the past two days, the peak has dropped off and we've had a decrease in daily numbers (like 60 or 70 animals). I won't dwell on that, because if you search on facebook for "straddie humpbacks" our page comes up. You should become our fan. All the cool kids are doing it.

When we're not watching whales, we're hanging out and eating, and talking shit. Lots of cool folks here from all over the world, doing really interesting jobs, all sort of bumming around and working odd jobs like this for food and accommodation. Might even be joining Saras over in Fiji after this, doing the same work for food and accommodation (again). It's a pretty sweet way to save money I must say.

SO technically, Mike and I are currently living out of a garage in Noosa, but that will change when we return to the mainland. Probably a bit of climbing at Frog is in order, then perhaps Fiji before heading to south Australia to do more mammal work in the middle of the desert. (Bilbies better watch themselves! I plan on catching many). The guiding work ended in May, so I spent a month (3 may to 3 june) in Flinders doing some bush regeneration work (AKA killing African Box thorn, the most vile plant EVER)! Then drove up to Straddie, collecting road tolls along the way.

It's been good to get to that bigger island Tasmanians are always talking about, but I have to say that I'm missing Tassie a bit (not the cold or the dark, but the people and climbing, naturally). It's looking like I may have to leave the country though, do to some visa issues. Apparently, I was reading forms for a Working Holiday visa (which I don't have) instead of the ones for the Work and holiday visa (which I do have) because they are two very different things. Ergo, I can't get another Work and holiday visa, which means if I say in Oz, I'll stay on a visitor visa, which I can't afford to do if I can't work. Make sense? Please explain it to me then. Of course, this is all that I could deduce from the immigration dept website (which is awful) and I'm still waiting for an email that will answer my questions, because they don't see fit to respond until they've kept you waiting for at least a week.

Anyways, that's all. Photos will follow.... maybe on Friday when I can go to the library.