fieldwork

I create my own stress. i know this.
spending 10 hours in my windowless office makes me crazy. i know this as well.
but sometimes i get so caught up in the pile of papers and the ever-growing to-do list that i find it hard to leave and do something else, fretting away until my brain melts and all i can do is sit on the couch and read blogs.

I am an ecologist! i study habitats. ecosystems. plants and animals and their interactions. I can learn some of this by readings papers, but once and while, it behooves me, and my sanity, to actually get outside and look at some damn trees. sheesh.

So, this weekend i went along to help out with an undergrad mammology field trip to my university's research station. We set about 150 live traps, hoping to catch a few species of mice, maybe some voles, and hopefully a flying squirrel! The result? Nada. But it was still great fun, tromping through the woods and prairie, getting sticks in my hair and burrs all over my clothes.

No pics of any fuzzy creatures, but I did see the largest box turtle that i've ever seen, and I felt much, much better for having fled the city for a few hours.




But, as a treat to you for hanging around this long, here's a pic from some mammal trapping that was going on the last time I was out in AZ. I was there to count plants, but the rodent folks were there at the same time.