Feeling Like a Rockstar

Ok so my time with my sister is over :( We had a really great time. I am ready to buy a Pinkberry (a frozen yogurt place, amazing!) I may or may not have had it twice today...

Anyway Mary Ann and I are in the lounge for Cathay Pacific Airways and its pretty awesome- free food, drinks, espresso, computers, tvs, rich people (haha, but seriously).

I don't really know what to tell anybody, we are getting Morgan a day early which is really exciting but kindof scary because we dont get much rest.

We will be on our plane for 16hours and when we land we board another one for two more hours before being able to go to our hotel. This time change stuff is so screwy, I dont have any idea how to figure it out but I think we will be like a day ahead of you all.

Sorry today is not too exciting,

Hope everything back home is going well!

Getting Ready to Go!!

Ok, I have updated the blog and am getting ready to head out to China!!

So much to do, so little time and so much confusion about rules/regulations when leaving the country. I hope Mary Ann has this thing down by now (third trip), because I sure don't know what is going on!

I do know that I am feeling very calm and ready to go. I am super excited- this will be an experience, I'm sure! I have been told there is a Starbucks and an Ice Cream Shop right outside of our hotel so I'm set!

I will try to keep the blog updated as often as I can, so check it often.

I leave Tuesday (Feb 23) to visit Jessie in California. Wednesday night I meet Mary Ann in LA around 9 or 10 and at Midnight we take off for China!

Thanks for keeping up with the blog!

Hello

Sorry I havent updated in so long. For those of you who dont know I am HOME!!!!

I got back a week and a half ago and brought a special surprise for my husband- a new kitten! His name is now Sprocket and he is hilarious. Duece met him yesterday and was unimpressed! At least he didnt try to kill him. Sprocket however has been following Duece around the house growling and hissing at him.

I will probably stop updating the blog since I am no longer 'on the go'

I hope everyone has a great school year, work year, relax year or whatever!

Thanks for following the blog

This is the little man while he was still living at the shelter

Still at the shelter- he's much bigger now!

Friday, August 7th

Today we caught 3 chipmunks and 2 golden mantle ground squirrels. We let one golden go because he was a part of another study. We ran the chips and went to get the golden out. Thats about when he escaped and pulled a flying ground squirrel act. He made it behind the cabinets in the lab and we had to set traps in the lab and go eat dinner, waiting for him to go in the trap again. He got recaptured and we are running him right now, its 930 at night and hes not even done! We've been in this lab since 8am.

Anyways I thought I'd share a couple of pictures illustrating just how much of a research town this is. Like I said the squirrel we caught today was already ear tagged and dye marked so we let him go. Its like every animal near camp is a study participant!

This is a Yellow Bellied Marmot- a momma marmot. She heard a noise and ran to this rock to check it out.

This is what she's worried about- baby marmot

Baby marmot copying momma

And this is how you know she's in a study... No, Marmots do not naturally have a number stained on their backs! This little lady is number 3!

Thursday, August 6th

ONLY ONE MORE WEEK!!

Today was quite boring. It rained last night and was raining this morning when we headed out. The Prius wasn't handling the muddy road up to the pikas and we didnt feel like falling off of a cliff so we got rained out. We set up in the lab and Dr. Wilson trapped a chipmunk that we ran all day, snore.

Crested Butte is the wildflower capitol of Colorado. We have been seeing A TON of wildflowers and since I am so absolutely bored all of the time I thought I should take some pictures of the beautiful blooms and share them with you all. This has given me something to do at least- I spent several hours today trying to figure out what kind of flowers they are!

I hope you enjoy:

Columbine- I think this is the state flower?

Nodding Groundsel

Scarlet Paintbrush- I love these!

This is a Fleabane, I'm not sure which one though

Kings Crown- very cool!

Tuesday, August 4th

Today Dr. Wilson informed me that we will be leaving a WEEK EARLY!!!! I will be driving back August 13th!

You cannot even understand how happy I am about this. I do not recommend leaving home for 7 weeks to anyone EVER. Its a bad idea, period.

Anyway we caught 2 more young pikas today. They are so mellow, I got to touch one a couple of times and their fur is so soft, even their little feet are fuzzy!

Here is a video of a couple of baby pikas running around on the rocks. They are so agile.

Monday, August 3rd

Today we went out to trap pikas. We didnt catch anything till about 1pm. We caught a juvenile pika and ran him through the program. Thankfully he was ok! We were worried about them because they're a little sensitive.

The only issue with these pikas is that they live up on these rocky slopes where the rocks have slid off the mountain and they usually live above 10,000 feet. We hiked up and down that darn cliff 5 times today! I have thighs like a beast! The bigger rocks are usually pretty stable but all of the smaller ones shift when you step on them, I twisted my ankle and knee several times today, I was hopind Id get to break my left one and come home!! No dice.

To all of you who are dying from the heat of August... I touched snow on Sunday... SNOW! It is right near where we are doing our research, I could touch it every day if I wanted, ha!

Dr. Wilson up the rocks where we set traps

Can you see the pika?

Heres a baby pika, soo freaking cute!

Adult pika

Our baby pika in the pika chamber.

ps the pika in the second picture is perched on a darker gray rock just right of the center of the picture!