I've Been Away and Busy

For the last few months I've been on Southeast Farallon Island.

On a foggy morning at the SEFI lighthouse

 Having an amazing time in the fog and occasional sun

Olive-sided Flycatcher on a background of Farallon Weed

 looking at lots of seabirds and the occasional landbird

Steller's Sea Lion

 every once and awhile we'd get mammals too!

Black Oystercatcher chick, ready to fledge

Check out some more of my photos on my flickr account!

Also, just made a post on the Farallon blog page on bird photography here!

Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows of the Eclipse

 Photos from a long time ago (Spring 2012, oh yea). Most of this is from when I was doing Tree Swallow banding for a grad student last spring, which was one of the most fun field work I had done. Pictured above is a first year female Tree Swallow, ready to fight me to the point of discomfort to protect her eggs.

 This shot is from a very strange nest that was initially House Wrens, but was then taken over by Tree Swallows mid season. The white eggs are Tree Swallow and the brown speckled are left over from the House Wren. Of the three that hatched, two were Tree Swallows and one was a House Wren! Sadly, the house wren didn't make it to fledge this year. There was a storm soon after hatch and it did not survive.

The typical Tree Swallow nest. Quite the decorators.

Ready to leave the nest which means ready to be banded!

A shot from right before the eclipse in Spring 2012. The Barn Swallows were going wild above Putah Creek.

Scaly Friends

  Some of my scaled (some more than others) friends from when I was in Utah over spring break! Some really gorgeous specimens. I was on the lookout since my friend is really into that sort of stuff. I told her I would take pictures of anything I found so that she could ID. I held up on my end of the bargain and so did she. Phyrnosoma hernendesi (greater short-horned lizard) above.

 Coleonyx variegates (western banded gecko). 

Sonora semiannulata (western ground snake). Yay wildlife!

Southern Alligator Lizard (Elgaria multicarinata)

I think it is, at least. This guy was a challenge to shoot at such a narrow depth of field. Really small and fast moving made for a tough target!

Rocket Netting Waterfowl

Well, sadly, I didn't actually get to catch and band any waterfowl. There were none at the site where the rocket net was set up at the Yolo Bypass. But we did get to shoot it off anyways which was a valuable (and loud) learning experience. Here is the aftermath of the net in the water. Normally you have about 30 ducks underneath the net, but oh well. Better luck next time.

Field Biology

I have so many research project going on right now it's hard to keep track.

WFC 195 - Affects of weather on incubation times in Brandt's Cormorants and how it affects their foraging.

WFC 136 - Flight initiation distance in urbanized Mallard ducks in Davis, CA.

WFC 155L - habitat use of Piciformes in relation to invertebrates collected at specific field sites at Cache Creek Nature Preserve. This shot is of my friend record some data after invert sampling at one of our field sites. Fun stuff!

Ladybird Beetle

bugsbugsbugs. Been looking at so many insects recently. They're a lot cooler than most people give them credit for. Why am I doing this? Because I'm working on a project that investigates correlations of invertebrates (both family and quantity) in relation to the presence of Piciformes species. Its fantastic! Gets me a chance to climb trees, sweep net for insects, and bird watch all at the same time.

Killer Bees

There is a 4 box beehive sitting in my pantry right now labeled "DO NOT DISTURB: killer bees." Okay, no, they are no killer. They're just labeled that way to deter people who are too curious for their own good. In fact they are quite lovely because they give us liquid gold (aka honey). Its just, so luscious. I can't wait for this harvest. Honey in a jar and honey right off the comb are just too damn good.

Sticker Jobs

I don't know whose this is, but I like it. Owls are awesome and so are stickers. Well done, anonymous.

Found in Cal Poly at multiple sites.

Hiking Success

Another weekend in Big Sur, California to lift the spirits beyond that of the material world. Went backpacking with seven others on the Sykes hotsprings trail (we did roughly 20 miles) over the long weekend. I was a bit sick, but didn't care because of how amazing everything was around me.

Also, saw some birds I hadn't seen before! Common Yellowthroat, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Varied Thrush, Mountain Chickadee, and potentially a Townsend's Warbler

Birdlife

Sometimes this is all you need to be happy. I love my thrashed Sibley and I picked up these nikon compact binos a little bit ago; they work great! On a side note, I'm currently reading Audubon's Elephant by Duff Hart-Davis. A fantastic story and quick read with some good pictures to go along with it. It is definitely giving me a whole new respect for Audubon...someone who I already hold as a role-model in my life.

Happy New Years, Folks

Honestly, I'm happier than a squirrel with a big fat nut.

Zuni

Zunifer. Zunerella. Zunificustis. The ghost and spirit of DSC. You've got some stuff in yo fur.

Painting Birds

Well I'm all moved into my new house, the Davis Student Co-op (DSC for short, make up you're own acronyms for bonus points), and it is amazing. There was a lot of renovation done over the summer and the construction crew repainted a lot of the walls plain white. So, now I have these huge canvases surrounding a bunch of my room and the first thing I think I want to paint is a bird mural.

Now, don't worry, I'm not planning on painting some giant ducks on my wall. I was thinking more along the lines of birds of prey. Maybe an osprey? Only time will tell.

Koala

Vicious little buggers. Held me at gunpoint on day while I was in a sketchy part of town.

One Sad Looking Bullfrog

No, really. This guy was not looking so good. I found him out on some leaves while I was out catching snakes one day. Maybe he was overheated? Hell if I know. I'm an amateur herpetologist at best haha.

Skulls and the Past Life

Slowly, I build my natural history museum from where ever I can. It is not much so far, but it is growing. People sometimes think I'm strange. I just say I'm an aspiring wildlife biologist.

Summer Work: Watersnake Trapping

So after my plans to do bat work this Summer fell through, I asked around my department and found out the Brian Todd was doing field work pretty close to Davis and was looking for volunteers. I was stoked to get out into the field to do just about anything so I jumped on this opportunity. Above is a photo of a baby (1-2 yrs) Nerodia caught in one of the plastic minnow traps we have set out.

This is where I work in Roseville. We have 156 minnow traps set as well as 7 of these larger drift net traps. We check all of them daily to ensure that no animals are stuck in the traps for more than 24 hrs.

This monster was caught in one of our big drift net traps. I fished him out, which was a little nerve racking. Will (left) and Brian (right) just held him so that I could get a photo. Yes, these are wild snakes, and yes, they can bite and will not hesitate to do so when cornered in a trap.

I never pictured myself working with snakes, but this really is awesome!

Fourth of July in Napa

Toucans, dogs on skateboards, men on horses and big brass bands, hell yea!

wow these photos are late. Sorry about that, folks, but blogger wasn't really allowing me to upload photos for awhile. Oh well, here they are.

Sciurus carolinensis

Little buggers are EVERYWHERE in Davis. Go back to the east coast! You don't belong here!