Blue Moon

Once in a blue moon, we actually get a blue moon. I remember when someone explained what a blue moon was, and I finally saw one, that I was incredibly disappointed that the moon wasn't actually blue. Well, it's got a slight blue cast, but I digress. I suppose I could have manipulated the picture, but I decided to save manipulation for the other picture.

So during the course, I did an impromptu mini showing to some of my friends about the wonders of photoshop. I know very little, but I was able to slap a texture shot (mundane dead coral shot) over a silhouette picture I'd taken at the beginning. I ran it through a draganizer action, and voila, digital art! I kind of like the effect of this one, though I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Mon Équipe et le Fish Market

SO now that the course is over, the real work begins! This is the team I will be working with this summer. Bridget and Audrey are volunteers as well. All of us are majoring in Bio at McGill, and we did the tropical ecology course. Vanessa and Sylvain are at U of Laval and Trois Rivières respectively, and Katrine is the person we are working with, and her boyfriend Sébastian is also working with us as well. We're looking at longfin damselfish and territoriality, and how changes in density will affect them. It is a very cool project, which entails us either swimming or taking a boat to get to our study sites.

We went to the fish market in Hoistens. It's a crazy open market area with vendors and tons of stalls sering fantastic Bajan food: grilled dolpinfish (mahi mahi), coleslaw, macaroni and cheese pie (YUM), and other goodies. It's normally right on the beach, but they are doing renovations so it's across the street right now. There is also an area where they blare a random mix of reggae and old pop tunes. There was one guy who was really into his dancing. What we couldn't understand is why he danced with these crazy industrial rubber gloves on. He did eventually take them off. He also lip synched African Queen to a little girl in a carriage who was less then amused by his antics. Lots of fun and good food!

THE END (of the course, not my time here!)

So today is the last day of the course. After a late night (we worked until 3.30am!!) and not much sleep, we hammered out our paper and did our presentation. Audrey knows Powerpoint, so she found some cool photos and put together a cool shot with all our stuff and our kickass rarefaction curves. The presentation was great. Everyone did an amazing job on their projects and put together interesting presentations. considering the presentation was close to 2 hours - it never felt like it was droning on and on.

That morning, some construction people dug up a hawks bill turtle nest, and the turtles had hatched and were probably going to dig themselves out that night, so they brought them to Bellairs. We called the turtle people and they came to get them to release them to the ocean that night.

After the presentations, we had a party - fresh grilled fish (Mahi Mahi, tuna, something else I can't remember) thanks to Dr. Kramer. We made a potato salad, and there was lots of beer and rum. Emma, at the start of the course, collected all our beer bottle caps, and we made them into little bottle cap art. DNA for Dr. Bureau (molecular module), fish for Dr. Kramer (fish module), and a spider for the spider specialist Dr. Buddle (bug module).

And lastly, I pulled out my new Gorilla tripod which provided much phallic entertainment for the evening. I did put it to good use to take our last group shot though.

I'll be posting more about my adventures down here. Stay tuned!

Crunch time!

Today Audrey donned her swamp clothes and went out with Dr. Buddle for a whirlwind collection of the pitfall traps and malaise trap, as well as trying to find a few more specimens. Everyone was working incredibly hard on their presentations and papers (due on Saturday at 2pm!). I was in the lab all day, so all I have to show for it are some macro shots of our pinned bugs. Thanks to Etienne who lent me his camera with a sweet 150mm macro lens for these shots (even though his body was a Nikon :P)

Lab Work

So today, we didn't do a field day, but we spent the day in the lab identifying all our bugs we had collected. The lepidoptera and odonata group worked on identifying species, and some of the species they had to differentiate between looked remarkably similar! The fish people were dissecting their parasite and identifying their fish as well. Lots of work, lots of stress, but still very cool. Kristen spent the day identifying spiders, and she is now the expert spider woman! Audrey also worked on separating the ants by morophospecies, so she is now the ant queen. Morophospecies are when you separate the ants by morphological characteristics. Identifying ants unless you are an expert is too difficult. I have it a shot and ended up with some species that ius only found in Australia, so we used morphospecies instead.

Graeme Hall: Muck Day

We thought yesterday was a mucky, swampy day. This one was just as bad. First, Dr. Kramer, or OMS (old man of the swamp) shows us how to get through the sedge habitat by wading waist deep in the sludge. Dr. Buddle in the mangroves showed us what the new fashion is - mud covered pants. He did keep his camera nice and dry, though! Today was a field day for our group to do insect collection in our focal habitats: mangrove and sedge. We mostly did it through opportunistic collection. We had a great time collecting our focal taxa, though we fell seriously short on one of them. We didn't get very many coleoptera (beetles), since it seems they are most effectively caught through flight intercept traps, which brings us to the malaise trap we set up. Malaise traps are designed for diptera and other flying insects that when they encounter something, they fly up. The only opening at the top is into a jar of ethanol, so we were able to collect flies, bees, wasps, and other things like that. Flight intercept traps are designed for things that fly and go down, such as coleoptera, and we all realized if we were to try and sample them, we would need a flight intercept trap. Next time! So, while slugging through the sludge in the sedge, while waist deep, I did manage to find a spider that had not been previously recorded on Barbados before. I found a dock spider, with an egg sack, which was pretty cool. Very large and hairy!

Graeme Hall: Swamp Day

Today is first field collection day. The beginning of the day was dedicated to game plan and out collection techniques. I may have my days mixed up, but there was one day where everyone had to go out in the field. Now, in the what to bring list - they said bring some clothes for Graeme Hall that you won't mind getting muddy. When they said muddy, they meant muddy. As you can see, the boys demonstrated proper swamp fashion. Tyler also demonstrates the art of zen lepidoptera and odonata collection. Or as he calls it: Oh-no-data.

Dr. Kramer worked with the fish group while Dr. Buddle worked with the two arthropod groups. We set out pit-fall traps, which are cups of ethanol set into the ground that bugs will walk into, fall in, and be preserved in the ethanol. The picture shows Dr. Kramer and the fish group trying to identify their bounty while puzzling over this weird growth on some of their fins. The growth actually turned out to be a parasite, and when you looked at it under the microscope, it sort of pulsated and moved - straight out of an alien movie!

Graeme Hall: Non-swamp day

So today was our introduction to Graeme Hall and decide on a project day. We were meeting various government people, so were instructed to dress semi decently. First was Graeme Hall - a nature sanctuary owned by a Canadian. In this reserve there is the last remaining mangrove habitat, and we were told of a petition to make Graeme Hall a national park. The problem is a developer wants to put a water park right next door to Graeme Hall, and so some people got together to form an NGO designated to make Graeme Hall a national park. Due to the political implications and complications, our project ended up being very information based as opposed to actually making a recommendation. However, I do think we gathered some interesting information through this project.

We also went to the Ministry of Agriculture, where the entomology sector showed how they were using bioloigcal methods to try and control crop pests. It was very interesting, and alternatives to pesticides are almost always a good thing.

Then it was brainstorm time to try and find a project. Dr. Buddle acted as our moderator, and we actually ended up with five sub projects. One group would do research on biodiversity and its importance and the effects of conservation programs in other countries. Three groups looked at fauna in Graeme Hall, collecting and identifying species, and the last group worked with molecular biological techniques to be able to process and add to the DNA barcoding initiative. The three fauna groups were fish, lepidoptera and odonata (butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies), and terrestrial arthropods.

To finish is an example of our now superb pinning skills which will be put to good us in this project! The bug in the top right was a carpenter bee. It was found dead - can you imagine that thing actually flying around?!

Leatherback Turtles

So, as you can tell, I am about week behind in getting my posts up. However, in retrospect, this day that I am currently writing about has to be the highlight of the trip. First, we met up with this very cool guy, Barry, and some of his assistants and he explained to us how the Sea Turtle Conservation project was started and what. They had found what they though was a nest by the little tracks to the water. On Morgan Lewis beach, the nesting turtles are the Leatherback turtles.

So, as part of their efforts, every nest they find is excavated, and every non hatched egg is opened to see what stage of development it was in. The picture shows an egg, and you can see the embryo and yolk sack. When they are fully developed, they use their egg tooth to get out of the egg. They then manage to get out of the sand (the females lay their eggs in nests that are a couple feet deep), and using the light reflected from the ocean, they make their way to the ocean. While they were digging out the nest, they found a coupe that hadn't made it, but we did find one live one. The group named him Zeus, and at dusk, we put him in the sand and cheered him on as he made his (roundabout) way to the ocean. Because of the tourist development on the west coast of Barbados, the turtle project get calls from people saying there are a bunch of baby turtles in the lobby. The bright lights of the hotels disorient the baby turtles, so they think they are heading to the ocean when they are in fact heading the opposite direction.

So, after a BBQ on the beach - nothing like sand as a condiment to the burgers - we accompanied tome volunteers on the turtle walk. Female turtles come up at night to lay their eggs. On the way back, as we were literally ready to head back to the cars, someone found some tracks. We were luck enough to see two of thes HUGE turtles. The carapice (shell) length on one of the females was 1.67 metres long! It was very cool. If you ever have the chance to see these guys, I highly recommend it! June is apparently peak hatching season for the beach on the side of the island where the research institute is located. Can't wait to watch the babies!

Atlantis and Turner Hall

So today the group had decided to take a tour in this tourist attraction called the Atlantis submarine. It was a lot of fun, and the captain and commentators were very entertaining. One of the guys managed to get one of the commentators to mention that there was a DNA code outside the portside. It's fun being a nerd!

Afterwards, we went to Turner Hall. Getting there was a bit of an adventure, as the maps we had were not the most accurate things in the world, but Bridget led the way and we got to Turner Hall. Turner Hall is apparently one of the least affected areas in Barbados, meaning it what we were seeing was basically how its been for a long time. Audrey and I, through leaf sifting, managed to find a pseudoscorpian that made Dr. Buddle so happy, he's keeping it for his personal collection. We actually managed to find two since I managed to drop the first one on the ground before it was in a collection vial, and these things are about the size of a period, font 7!

Gay's Cove and Welshman Hall

So, the internet in Barbados is a little temperamental, so I apologize for the delay in getting these up. I haven't quite figured out the template of this blog either, so I apologize for funny margins and obscured text. I hope everyone can still at least sort of read it.

Since we finished the module rotations, the next few days have been spent discovering Barbados and its ecology. This day, we first went to Gay's Cove. After a bumpy ride through a cow grazing area, we were treated to a spectacular cliff over looking the east coast of Barbados. We found a bees nest and some very cool spiders and other little critters. We got to walk down the cliffside to the waters edge and walked up and down the pebble beach there as well.

We then headed to Welshman Hall for a picnic lunch. A local tour guide showed us some of the flora in the gully, telling us what some of the plants were used for in traditional medicine and other purposes. We figure she must have thought we were crazy because we kept running off and chasing insects. Dr. Buddle found an ant lion - a predatory insect that makes burrows and waits for ants to fall in. They only walk backwards and are incredibly tiny. Fun stuff!

B-Ball

So today was the fish module, but my camera for my underwater casing chose a convenient time to simply not work on me, so I don't really have anything to show. Etienne decided to be lazy in his hammock, and was so lazy he didn't bother taking off his wader boots.

There is a basketball course right next to the research institute. A basketball was found in the computer room. Thanks to whoever left it!

Day 4: Entomology

So today was the entomology section for my group. I never knew bugs could be so much fun! I've known about the ecological significance of insects, but today, we went out in the field and learned bug collecting techniques, how to mount (pin) them, and how to separate them based on their morphological features. Rachel and I went out hunting and turned over a huge rock and found this very cool millipede under it. We didn't need it for our purposes, but the prof let me bring it back to take some pictures of. We went twice, once in the afternoon and once at dusk. The second time there was the cattle egret in the water logged areas, so I snapped a couple of pictures. I wish I had my telephoto, but I'm sure there will be a time and place to get some more shots of these guys.

I have a new found respect for insects, and my mild phobia of them has disappeared upon realizing the vast majority are harmless. The second time out, I took a sweeper net and focused on butterflies and flies, and got some specimens the prof was happy with. We learned how to mount butterflies and moths as well. I may go out and get a sweeper net and start a small collection of Quebec butterflies. Of course, I have many other projects I would like to do as well, so we shall see if this one comes to fruition!

Day 3: Molecular Ecology Module

Yesterday was a sort of orientation day. We went snorkling over the reef, and we spotted a flying gurnard - a very cool, large fish that has huge fins that it uses to scare up little critters like shrimp to eat.

Today my group did the molecular ecology module. We were introduced to DNA barcoding, a technique that molecular biologists have developed that can potentially have huge implications to the ecological field. It's a constantly changing area that some cool possibilities in the future - we'll see how things develop. Then we learned how to isolate DNA sequences, PCR (polymerase chain reaction), and gel electrophoresis. We used insects we collected yesterday on a walk we talk around the immediate area. We all used various parts of various insects, and were mostly successful in isolating the targetted DNA sequence and amplifying it with PCR.

The food here is great, today was BBQ chicken and mac and cheese, and yesterday was mahi mahi. YUM!

Thanks to Emily and Bassel for letting me post their pictures. The bird is a black grackle on our compound.

Barbados - Official Start

So, today was the official first day of the Tropical Ecology course that I am taking. I also got to take the first of many sunset pictures. Today we went snorkling and saw lots of parrotfish and damselfish. My friends saw a turtle, but I somehow managed to miss it. We did see some cuttlefish, which I've never seen before so that was really cool. This course sounds very exciting. We went for pizza and got to meet the other students and the profs as well. So, hopefully I'll be able to post every few days or so, or even more. Cheers!

What to do when it snows in April and you need a break from studying for finals

Yah, so pretty much exactly like the title says. We're almost halfway through April. And it snows. At least it was snowman snow. Raided the fridge for a carrot and some broccoli florets. First pictures I've taken in a long time, and they're snapshots. I think I'm saving myself up for the summer or something.

Now it's back to bio. Four finals to conquer this semester.

Happy winter (oops, it's spring) everyone!

Star Trails

Hmm, hope you can see this on your monitors. So HDR seems to be the rage at the moment in some areas of cyber photo land, and while I haven't had the chance to try it out for real, I used the HDR option to stack two long exposure night shots to see what would happen

I got my star trails. Yah! I also got noise. Hoorah for noise ninja! Anyways, as you can see, I have no clue what I'm doing. I have a friend who will be trying out more of this stuff with me sometime next year, so let hope we have good weather!

If your in the east, happy non-white holidays!

30 second exposure up in the country. no ND filter (on my wish list). The sun ahd basically gone down when I took this. Little bit of PP to bring up the water and enhance the sky

Now, who wants to help me remeber the names of all the components of a splicesome?

Fishy!

My lab professor is one fo the co-teachers of a course I'm taking in the fall. It's basically an intensive lab course that will cover things like data collection and statsitcal analysis and stuff. It should be a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to it.

For this course, they felt that it would be nice to have pictures of the fishes that would be used in one of the labs, so they asked me to come and shoot the fishies in their aquariums. I splurged and got a circular polarizer for this to try and reduce the reflections. It made a huge difference, and I now have a kick ass polarizer and step up rings for all my favorite lenses.

Anyways, here is a picture :-D