No comment...

...on how true this is. ;)

12 hours

Previously, our lab record for the most frogs in one night was 76. That was last year. Last night I got a text that said they got 65 frogs at one pond. That's rather a lot - a good night is usually 20ish pairs. So cool, we'll have plenty of frogs to test, and I can definitely make headway on my experiment. Then this morning I wake up to an email that says we have 101 pairs of frogs. That is a LOT of frogs.

I did indeed make good headway on the Lombard experiment. While I was there between 9am and 9:30 pm (seriously) we got 9 done (bringing this year's total to 10), and I left some undergrads there to keep testing into the night. I need 20 total for this summer, so I should be able to finish tomorrow. W00t!

However, 12+ hours in the lab makes for very long days. I have a short attention span...I don't think I've ever done anything for 12 hours consecutively (except sleep, but that doesn't count.) Right now I am trying to figure out if I'm hyper, from sitting for forever in lab, or exhausted. I'm leaning towards the latter, currently. Also, 12+ hour days require lots of food...

Only one more day of this, yay...

Oh hi

I need to be better about updating this thing. Sorry. I do still exist! Because it is late and I must be in lab early, we're going to do bullet points! (And by bullet points, I mean numbers.)

1. I have been quite successful with grants this year/semester, including one of these nifty things.
2. My waders did not survive the winter. I went out late April in 40 degree weather and discovered I had a leak in my left heal. Pond water is very cold that time of year.
3. I took a bioacoustics course this spring and we got some nice recordings of Western Chorus frogs (Pseudacris triseriata).
4. During one of these recording trips, I spent a rather long time bothering a large toad. Toads are hilarious. They just sit there and make this absurdly long call, over and over, and they don't move if you poke them. So I spent a good twenty minutes poking a toad, watching it try to mount the stick I was poking it with, and poking it's throat pouch to make its call change pitch.
5. I get a field assistant!! She gets here at the beginning of June.
6. Things are mostly set for my field work this summer. Now I just need cooperative frogs so I can finish off my Lombard experiment from last year and I can take off on my frog scouting missions.
7. We got a food processor, so now I can make homemade hummus. (Not frog related, but I'm excited about it.)
8. My fish died. :(
9. I got new waders, but have yet to try them out.
10. I have basically finished one year of grad school. The time went ridiculously fast...for the most part. Now only 4-5 more years to go!!