Back in Business

It has been a long time since my last post so I wanted to take the time make a few important announcements about the future of this blog.

Southern Catalpa (Catalpa bignoniodes) seen during a recent trip to Kisatchie Bayou for Field Biology

First of all, the blog has been remodeled. You may see a few more minor changes in the future. Most importantly, the name and url are different. I hate to do this, but it needed to be done.

I will be shifting gears and focusing more on natural history and stories of the landscape. There is a lot of room here to narrate how people fit in to the bigger picture.

This summer, I will attempt to keep a regular schedule. I’m currently processing a small book’s worth of field reports from a Field Biology class I recently took at ULM. In this class we visited a number of natural communities around Louisiana, all of them west of the Mississippi River, but most having comparable eastern counterparts. The class was phenomenal. I enjoyed getting my materials together. I loved the driving, the people, the nights in bunkhouses.

Packing for Week 1

The class was a restart button. Though there were some great moments this last Spring semester, I found myself not getting out nearly enough and always feeling behind in research because of classes. In Field Biology I was able to do a lot of things that I now recognize are important nutrition of the soul.

For one, I was able to teach again. Well, sort of.  I was able to convince one my undergraduate students Jared to take the class. Though no stranger to the outdoors, he had not really gone romping into the woods identifying plants and animals before.  Sharing the few things I knew and learning alongside him and the other members of the Field Biology team brought me back to a feeling I knew quite well at Glen Helen: sharing discoveries with young, engaged people. The ride down to Rockefeller was probably a bit intense.  Every minute or so, another person would call out some new species: Turkey Vulture! Chickadee! Grackle! Before arrival, we had already begun our blitz in attempt to document every species. Half way down and suddenly self-conscious, I turned to Jared. “We must seem pretty strange to you.” I figured had never been around weird people like us. "Yeah," he smiled politely, agreeing. I've been in it for a while now, but not many find themselves in that kind of environment, where people are looking intently, rapidly identifying elements in the landscape, listing.  Throughout the trip, we continued a conversation about the excitement and challenges of field biology. He grew into it nicely and in the end I was very happy that he came along.

Jared holding a Buttermilk Racer (Coluber constrictor anthicus)

I think he learned a great deal about this place called Louisiana. Perhaps he also absorbed a new way of seeing the world and its mysteries. Sharing this kind of experience with others and helping provide some of the conditions for it is one of my favorite things to do. It was also nice to interact regularly with other folks outside of a typical work environment. I don’t get this opportunity very much in the semester. A special kind of magic occurs when people can hang out and not have to talk business, eat together, work, hike around. The good life.

The Field Biology Team (from left to right): Garret, Billy, Dr. Carr, Mendy, Maria, Dr. Tolson, Will, Clayton, Cody, Me, Jared and Sarah

Of course, learning was an important part of the class, too. And we learned many, many new things. About species, about soil, climate, about the day to day work of conservation professionals. We also learned about chiggers, which was not near as much fun!

Me holding a live rodent for the first time, the Hispid Cotton Rat (Sigmodon hispidus)

So, my goal is to post one community a week from the field biology report. We’ll just have to wait and see how that goes! I will be modifying the reports a bit, but you’ll get mostly the raw deal with species accounts and background. But alas, because I am working on my masters, I expect to be very busy on other things. Finishing up my work as a graduate student is number one priority. So I apologize if I get behind. Some of the posts in the future may actually be about the research I am doing or elements of my thesis.That will be very interesting indeed!

So that is all for now. Come back soon and please do send feedback, comments, etc.

UPDATE: So, I was not able to keep up with the blog. Research and finishing grad school has taken the front seat and I'm prioritizing that. I do have plants to run all of the articles, though. They just needed a lot more work than simply copying and pasting. I want them to be warm and inviting and not simply a list of all the species we saw. Hang in there. I will get to it soon!