June update - Everything

Since arriving in Colorado, my life has been incredibly busy and interesting, which is why I have not updated my blog until now.  This post is a quite poor in terms of topic organization, I apologize.

Researches

One of my many research projects is to examine if Mertensia plants with different floral orientation are influenced by rain differently, and one measure of this effect is the number of nutlets (seeds) each plant produce.  To test this, I constructed and placed a rain shelter over a plot with several Mertensia plants, manipulated floral orientation (upward or pendant) of haphazardly chosen plants, supplemented pollen to these plants, and waited until the end of the flowering season to collect the nutlets.

(Wild)life back in Ottawa

I have not done a lot of wildlife-watching since I returned from Baltimore - mainly because I do not have a valid bus pass yet and I only try to go to places within walk- and bike-able distances.  Besides where I live, the other places I go to for the past two weeks are: Sawmill Creek Wetland, the Arboretum, McCarthy Woods, and the university.  Here are some interesting things that I photographed.

Sawmill Creek Wetland

Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillar (Euchaetes egle)

July update - Animals

Different types of animals I photographed this month.

Mammals

Least chipmunk (Tamias minimus)
 

July update - Places & Happenings

In two days, I will be on my way back to Ottawa once again.  Overall, this has been a great field season and I am saddened to see it coming to an end.  After returning from Grand Canyon, I have been working on my data analyses and other research-related things, but I still tried to do some outdoor activities and fieldwork just to keep my mind sharp.

July 21st - Rainbow

Saw a rainbow after poor weather prevented me from staying out and taking photos of hummingbirds visiting flowers. 

Salamandering at Mexican Cut Preserve

Last Sunday, I wrapped up my field season by collecting the last nutlets from remaining plants.  The following day, I volunteered to help out with Tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum nebulosum) research in Dr. Howard Whiteman's lab.

The salamander research conducted here at RMBL is fascinating because it takes place at Mexican Cut Preserve, which is one of the highest areas (11,200 feet) in the world where salamanders are found and also the highest land in the world protected by Nature Conservancy.  The alpine ponds on Galena Mountain that house these salamanders were carved by glaciers a long time ago.

Mexican Cut Preserve

Final holiday update - Mudppy Night in Oxford Mills

One of the several reasons I came back to Peterborough this holiday season was to go to Mudpuppy Night (happening every Friday at 8 PM starting with the first Friday after Thanksgiving) with friends from Peterborough.  I don't remember exactly how I come across information about this event (probably from reading someone's blog post, such as this), but it is something I want to do for a while now. 

On Friday afternoon, we started our journey from Peterborough, and we couldn't had asked for a better weather with just a few degrees below zero.

View from the farm where we dropped Bronte off for the night.

We arrived at Kemptville Creek (near the intersection of Water and Bridge Streets) just around 8 PM and was greeted by the starry sky.  If you Google" mudpuppy" and "Oxford Mills", you'd be certain to come across a lot of information about Mudpuppies (Necturus maculosus), so I won't really go into it here (e.g., this and this).  But if I have describe this place in one word, I'd say it is special (or two words - very special).  There are a lot of places with similar conditions (shallow, rocky, clean, and relatively slow-flowing water), but to have tens of wild salamanders right in front of you, I doubt there is another place like it in Canada (or perhaps even North America).  Plus, Dr. Fred Scheuler is a very knowledge expert on Mudpuppies, so coming here, seeing the Mudpuppies in-person, and talking with Fred is the only reasonable way to learn about Mudpuppies.

Herping at Oliver Centre

There are many Flatheaded Mayflies (Heptageniidae) flying around lately.  One was seen outside my office window today with its old exoskeleton nearby.

Leucrocuta sp.

In the afternoon, I was helping out with the herpetology class with their salamander surveys at the Oliver Ecological Centre.  The students were comparing different methods of surveying for salamanders (i.e., transects, quadrats, random walks, and cover-boards).

Maytag the cat & Herps

My landlord got a cat on Monday and his name is Maytag (Tag for short).  This is my first time living with a cat (even though I like animals a lot, being responsible them is a completely different story), so it's going to be an interesting experience for sure.

Maytag on the sofa

Salamandering!

After arriving back at Peterborough yesterday afternoon, I went grocery shopping and headed home for a quick dinner.  Because shortly afterwards, I went to look for salamanders with some friends!  Since we had no luck last time looking for salamanders in Burlington, we decided to stay close to Peterborough and checked out a couple of hotspots.  The weather condition was quite perfect - warm and rainy!  Miserable for most people, but seeing the salamanders definitely made it worthwhile.

We did not see anything in the first two locations that we checked, but our third location was a success!  Many Yellow-spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) and Blue-spotted salamanders (Ambystoma laterale) were found crossing the road, along with Spring peppers (Pseudacris crucifer), Leopard Frogs, and many worms!

As we drove down the road, we did our best to move all of the salamanders and frogs across the road to the direction they were headed to.  Sadly, we also saw a lot of dead salamanders and frogs and worms on the road from being ran over by cars.

Both Yellow-spotted and Blue-spotted Salamanders belong in the family Ambystomitidae (Mole salamanders) and members of this family are stout-bodied with short and rounded heads.

Yellow-spotted Salamanders is a relatively large Ambystoma (15 to 25 cm long) and is found in southern Canada and eastern US.  There is quite a variation in its breeding timing depending on the populations' location.  Populations in southern regions may breed as early as December, while northern regions may not breed until April.  Breeding in northern populations is highly synchronized and restricted to major breeding bouts following periods of rain.

Slow Down

Reading two different blog posts with the same title must be a sign for something, I believe, especially when they are titled "Slow Down" (posts 1 and 2).  I definitely need to slow my life down a bit and not get overwhelmed with all of the things I have to do and complete.

I am still taking photos, but just can't find the time to upload them onto my computer or blog about them.  Until now, that is.

2013.03.23 - walking to school on a Saturday.  The snow is mostly gone now.