Cool stuff to tide you over

Hey kids,

well my national geographic job is well under way. It is extremely fun and rewarding but also incredibly tiring, so a full post may take a while. For the moment I am leaving you with a few links and a photo!

Here are a few links you should check out.

David Hanson is one of the guys I am working with, look at his website!

http://www.davidhanson3.com/


Alex Verron another talented co-leader and photographer check him out:

http://www.alexverron.com

Tierney Thys is one of the amazing experts I have had the pleasure of working with. ADOPT A MOLA MOLA...or just check out her website and talk.

http://oceansunfish.org/

MOLA MOLA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vld1zXGtZGg

Here are the blogs for the two trips if you want to read some of the stuff we have been up to:

First Session: http://ngseocmona2009.blogspot.com/

Second session: http://ngseocmonb.blogspot.com/


That's all for now folks!

East Coast Exploration

Post-graduation life has been a bit crazy. Clear evidence for that is how late this blog is coming to you folks. I left for the east coast on May 27 and was there until June 19. In that time I was in NJ, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, and North Carolina.

First stop was Jersey where I got off my red eye flight, had breakfast with my dad and then was on my way up to Vermont for my NGSE leader orientation. I got to Vermont rather early and the people at the Barn (my bosses) pointed me in the direction of a hike, pictures below!

The wolf tree, A this one is for you.

description of said tree.

look how green!

Anyone that knows me understands my need to be one with the critters and find them where ever possible and damn straight I stayed true to it!

Behold the Eastern Newt...well the eft. ORANGE CUTENESS.

They are everywhere...

and so tiny!

This next guy I am not 100% about, but I believe it is a Plethodon cinereus,
or the Red Back Salamander. To me they look quite similar to the CA Slender Salamander, Bratracaceps attenuatus, but I know it is not the same thing. Doing a bit of snooping it looks like the red back, but PLEASE correct me if I am wrong!

After all the searching I finally made it up to the top of the trail and found this lovely cabin.

Unfortunately because of the fog I did not get the lovely view from the top, but it was a nice a hike and a great change of pace from all the traveling I had done.

After Vermont I went and visited my friend Ryan in Boston. Jealous he was off to Peru, but glad to see an old friend. Then I visited my grandparents in NC and headed to the Jersey shore to enjoy the oh so lovely rain...it rained the whole time. I still had a blast though and on the partly cloudy days I lived it up on the beach. Thankfully my roomie from Mo'orea, Caitie came out to visit me! We were reunited at last!

Roomie love.

Sunset #1

Sunset #2

And that was the east coast adventure...I came to CA to begin the NGSE experience, which you will all hear about soon.

love,
me

Graduation

So four years have come and I am officially a college graduate. I will miss the place I have learned to call home, but it is time to move on! Time to leave the comfort zone and experience some new things. With that said enjoy some pictures from my graduations.

4 graduates, 1 cake.

Caitie and Hayley, my tropical ladies

Mo'orea crew.

Hayley and Myself....WE'RE DONE.

...

Good-bye Berkeley,

I will miss you.

The Natural History of Vertebrate Zoology

This course was AMAZING. It has three components: lecture, lab, field. So lecture is well, lecture, except I looked forward to it. We learned about the major groups AND got to watch Sir David Attenborough quite frequently. Who could ask for more?

Then there was lab. We got skins, skulls, and what we called pickeled herps.

skin: Broad-footed Mole, Scapanis latimanus

Picked Herps:

Gila Monster, Heloderma suspectum (cool name suspect em!)

sidewinder, Crotalus cerastes

Then we had the the field section. Every Friday we go out and tromp around outside and it was amazing. I get units for hiking and playing with happy little creatures? I love bio.

Psuedacris regilla! Pretty colors.

Another Psuedacris, the eye stripe gives it away

They come in all kinds of colors.



Out by one of the many cattle ponds looking for cool stuff!

Taricha breeding morph! ADORABLE

Taricha granulosa doing the unken. There are a lot of intermediate morphs between Taricha granulosa and Taricha turosa but one sure fire way is to see the Unken. granulosa always curls the tail.

The unken is a defensive posture to show the distinct colors and give warning to predators.

This is an Anedies lugubris, the arboreal salamader...look at those teeth!

Baby Crotalus orgenanus

Another Crotalus oreganus Jim picked this guy up and showed off the fangs. He almost stepped on one a couple minutes later.

Baby Pituophis catenifer. I caught this one!

Common King Snake, Lampropeltis getula, eating a Western Fence Lizard, Sceloperus occidentalis. The lizard was already dead when we found it, we aren't that mean.


Your standard Alan

most likely a truei, but I could be wrong

Hutton's Vireo we caught whilst mistnetting.

Spotted Towhee...see those eyes? The darker the red the older it is.

Then we had the last field trip which was an all day competition. Three vans on a mission: find as many species as possible. My crew went to Arrowhead Marsh, Del Valley, driving and stopping on the side of the road. We then went to Corral Hallow to find ourselves some baby barn owls and some night herping. Then Pizza and Beer! Good day. Enjoy the pictures.

Mal doing science and making it look good!

Del Valley

Crazy colored rocks

Pride rock. We all sang the lion king song.


Trekin' whilst singing the lion king song

Baby Barn Owl of joy!

Mallory with the sleepy barn owl, we liked this one. There was a pissed off one as seen below in the video.

Sleepy barn owl

Mal with a Pituophis catenifer!

And that my friends was my amazing class. I will miss it so!