It Feels Like Home

So I already like all the new people a lot here for SSII and it makes me sad that I'll have to leave early. Perhaps they will start irritating me soon though. What makes me happier than all sorts of new faces and potential fun people are seeing the 3 new Messiah'ites who I've missed since leaving: Lindsey, Katrina, and Adam... not to mention the most exciting face of all my friend Jon who was here last May and took Woody Plants with me.

Jon and I have a "life long" mini-golf/putt-putt challenge underway tied at 1 game a piece (the first of which he won by 2 strokes, the second I won by 2 strokes). The moment he and I met last year we knew we'd get along (no not as anything more than friends).

So even though its sad to have to move on and say good-bye to good experiences, good botanists, and good friends. Its great to be able to say hi to one session closer to the next step, one session with a handful of people who I want one more go with.

I feel ready to go on to the next step after having learned so much in the last one, particularly from Ken (the prof I was the TA for). Now its time to become a little more independent and a little stronger on my own - putting to use that which I have learned and been given.

Ken (Prof) and me (TA) in the field

On a final note... I bought new shoes - pictures to come soon.

Fourth of July and more

This past weekend was filled with lots of sitting on my chair at the beach with a book reading, a few crossword puzzles, some sun-tanning, laughing as students studied for finals, and fireworks on the lake.

Nothing much eventful happened. A friend came to visit and we trampled through the preserve I'm working at which was probably the highlight of the weekend. Students, who are now packing to leave and leaving, studied and took their finals. A few goodbyes were said... and life went on.

Being at AuSable has taught me that people come and go. Its good to get to know them because for 5 weeks its all you have. You may even see them again one day... maybe not... but maybe.

Nothing is certian in this life, and there's nothing you can do about it besides try to enjoy every day you have. Life is full of surprises good and bad.

Every one and every thing impacts you - you just might not know it or recognize it until its too late.

By The Way:

Happy Canada Day!

Enjoy it... go for a swim, hike, play some volleyball...but don't tear your meniscus like I did one year ago on this fateful day with a canada beach ball on AuSable's volleyball courts goofing around...it was the start of a long downhill health journey.

This Canada day makes me happy for the Canadians I know (celebrating 141 years of "freedom"), proud to have overcome so much in 366 days (leap year), and sad to remember that which happened one year ago and left me changed forever.

Sure change is good sometimes, but RA is something I still wish I could live without no matter how good things have gotten and how much I have grown from it.

Expedition to the Bog

Yesterday we went to one of my favorite places to visit - a bog. While June is really lack of excitement in a bog it was still fun (May and July are the best times to visit).

Just call me "sedge girl" or "bog girl" (woman once I get my phd)

Of course we found lots of orchids: white fringed (not in flower), grass pink, rose pogonia... sedges, including a new rhynchospora for the collection, and of course: leatherleaf!

Grass pink: common bog orchid

Bogs are really exciting places. Perhaps the most excitement for the day though came as a surprise. Unfortunately Ken had an allergic reaction so in the morning I took care of the class and even gave a lecture. It was kind of nuts but it went OK. Usually when lecturing I've had weeks to prepare - however, this was more of a "real" last minute experience. Literally we went over it in 3 minutes and then the class came in and he left for the ER.

Euphorbiaceae, Asteraceae, Cyperacea, and Poaceae were the 4 families I covered - talk about a challenge!

Carex sp.

These four families have some real crazy stuff going on, neat pollenation mechanisms, evolutionary twists, etc. They are huge, diverse, difficult to key out families. None-the-less they are fun, entertaining, and interesting. Difficult to teach about - I don't think I'll ever forget the looks on the faces in the class when I tried to explain glumes, lemmas, paleas, spikelets, florets, etc. Perhaps the only thing more memorable than the looks on their faces was Ken's "I know exactly what you mean" chuckle and grin when I questioned him later if he always gets that look.

JRV X2

So this week I had the opportunity to visit the Jordan River Valley twice - once with Meghan and Jason, and once with Field Botany.

45th Parallel with Botany

It was Meg and Jason's first time there and I think they liked it. We also saw a Scarlet Tanager, an Indigo Bunting, and a Ruffed Grouse.

The male Indigo Bunting we saw - female was also present.

The Jordan River Valley was the first the first designated “Wild and Scenic River” in the State of Michigan. It is a gorgous, short, spring-fed (aka - COLD) river full of Cedar "nurse logs" which hold islands of plants along them. The logs provide interesting terrain to walk across but also interesting terrain to study.

Meg and Jason crossing the river

For the second year now I've been along on the Field Botany trip to use the river to study island biogeography on the little mini cedar islands. On these islands include a variety of plants from Indian Paintbrush to Marsh Marigold to Forget-me-nots to sedges.

Carex sp.

It was frustrating at times seeing the plants I learned and not remembering all of them - but fun none the less... some of them came right back to me. I also really appreciated walking around with Ken instead of doing the survey - I gained a lot from botanizing with him as I always do.

"Forgetting" what the plant is (Forget-me-not)

We saw a number of cool things ranging from Yellow Lady's Slippers, to Showy Lady's Slippers, to Black Birch to... who remembers what! We even saw Cedar Waxwings in... CEDAR!

Cedar waxwing in...Cedar

All in all it was a great few days filled with tons of Volleyball, Frisbee, Hiking, Basketball, and Pillow-talking with my roomate who might even actually read this.

Catching Up

OK so a lot has happened since my last post due to some computer breakage (more on that in a later post I'm sure). For now I'll just try to relive a lot of the excitement and play catch up on everything that's happened - well not EVERYTHING - more of just the highlights.

Highlight 1: The UP

On Saturday the 14th Micah, Will, Dave M. and I got up at 4am (not the best part of the day!) to take off to look for Yellow Rails. I am dissapointed to say that we did not find any - though it was a crapshoot to begin with, it is still sad that we failed. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to try again and get up earlier! The day did start out with a spotting of a roadside Sandhill Crane... While it was no "sandhill crane crossing" as in FL, it was a fun spot none-the-less

We did however find Mourning Warblers nearby the "Rusty Zipper Camp".

The birdlist for our day was rather shorter than expected and we did not see any of the 4 or 5 species we were hoping for, we did hear some and still had some great looks at birds and even better stories shared.

We did make it to Whitefish Point - though no birds were migrating really, we did get some nice looks at the Evening Grosbeaks on the feeders. These guys seem to just love feeders - thats where I always seem to spot them!

The final spotting of the UP was a Ruffed Grouse which was a first sighting for members on the trip despite the numerous times heard.

Highlight #2: Pyatt Lake

Last Thursday we checked out Pyatt Lake preserve and found some interesting things including this Squaw Root:

Highlight #3: The Wedding

This past weekend I did the craziest thing ever - I took a total of 4 flights to go see my old roomate get married. The plane broke, I ended up going to cities I wasn't supposed to en route to VA but eventually made it, and after a morning of birding (where I spotted tons of Red Eyed Vireos, a Great Crested Flycatcher, Pee-wees, Pheobes, Robins, Titmice, a Cardinal, and an American Goldfinch) I prepared for the wedding.

It was great to catch up with old friends, and even greater to be there for such a happy moment. Very different to see someone THAT close to me in age and in spirit getting married. But great. The wedding was beautiful, the church was nice, the food was great, and the glass clinking thing was sort of odd when it is someone you used to live with and had never witnessed a kiss between the two before... but still fun. I still remember the day she wasn't ever going to get married and the day she found him, and the day they first went out on a date... and the day they got engaged... and then now I can add the day they got married.

Everyone who was there also got a new memory - the day that Lowie wore a skirt and had her hair down:

And now I can say that I own 2 skirts and a dress... Maybe I'll wear one day 1 of grad school so people don't think its such a rarity. That will trick them!

Watch out for spiders

Yesterday was a great day working out in the field for Field Botany (funny how that works). We sampled 2 forests and visited a third. It is humbling to go out and not remember plants and then be reminde of how little I do know. However, simultaneously it is awesome to get out there and see how much I do actually remember.

One of the coolest things I saw (besides the plants) was this white spider hiding in this flower only to grab a bee attempting to pollenate it and then proceed to kill it and suck its insides out:

This is one of many shots I took. I sort of like that you can see the water drops in the flower on this one.

Other highlighs included a look at the male (below) and female Evening Grosbeak at Hartwick Pines. Also spotted was a Purple Finch (male and female), Rose Breasted Grosbeak (males and females, and a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (female).

Today I had a real treat bird-wise that even topped the dimorphism show of yesterday. I saw my 9th ever Kirtland's Warbler. This rare bird requires forest rejuvination via fire within Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) stands. Its range is basically the local area though a few have been found in the UP of Michigan recently. Most of the KW that are seen are found in Grayling, Michigan - home of the Kirtland's Warbler Festival.

Today we (three students, 2 faculty/profs, and myself) popped into the forest while on a quick tour of locations for tomorrow's integrative day. It was raining and the warblers were singing but none were being cooperative and singing high in the trees. Just as we turned to leave one darted infront of us in the first-second row Jack Pines. I quickly found it and pointed it out. To our fortune it climbed up the second back Jack Pine and perched quite nicely for us. If it weren't for the rain I would have had the shot of a lifetime of a Kirtland's. Oh well! It was awesome to see the little bird once again.