Photo-a-day Challenge: June

Jenn told me about this photo a day challenge she is trying, and I thought I might too, since I never take pictures (most of my camera contains pictures of lab specimens.....). Maybe you, dear readers, are up for the challenge?

If you use Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or something you can tag it, and share it. I don't know how to do that on blogs though...

Since I just found out today, I will post 2 pics and try to keep up, which will be interesting for the days I'm in Costa Rica and not able to post things.

Day 1: Morning

I'm still in bed, but Charlie is ready for breakfast.

Day 2: Empty

Muffins for brunch! Baked in reusable silicone cups!

Herps camping trip 2012!

This past weekend I went on a camping trip with some people from my Herpetology lab at UCSB. About 13 of us ended up going, from the original 20. We had a good time. Nobody got bit by a snake, so we were in good shape. We were up near Sequoia National Park, the Inyo Mountains and the Mojave Desert. It was hot, but beautiful. Sadly, I didn't have a camera, and the Facebook page for our class doesn't have pics up yet, but we saw some cool stuff!! We had set out specifically to find Hydromantes platycephalus (a web-toed salamander) and Batrachoseps campi (a slender salamander)
Here's the species list for those who care:

Snakes: (except for the first one, all of the snakes were babies that we saw on our night drive)
Crotalus viridis (pacific? rattle snake) - this guy was huge!!
Crotalus scutulatus (x2; mojave green rattle snake)
Crotalus cerastes (sidewinder)
Rhincocheilus lecontei (long-nosed snake)
Phyllorhynchus spp. (leaf-nosed snake)

Lizards:
Sceloporus occidentalis (western fence lizard (blue belly!))
Crotaphytus bicinctores (great basin collered lizard) - this one bit a classmate! To be fair, he was warned!
Coleonyx variegatus (western banded gecko) - saw this guy on our night drive, he lost his tail :( (side note, not our doing)
Sceloporus magister (desert spiny lizard)
Dipsosaurus dorsalis (desert iguana)
Aspidoscelis/Cnemidophorus tigris (tiger whiptail)
Uta stansburiana (common side-blotched lizard)

Salamanders:
Hydromantes platycephalus (Mount Lyell salamander) - we climbed some interesting cliffs (by interesting, I mean structurally) to get to see these guys, and we weren't even sure they were there. After fires and floods it was amazing to find two in their first year! We were literally sliding down cliffs while trying to cross them. It was a little worrisome, but also kind of fun.
Batrachoseps campi (Inyo mountains slender salamander) - we found three of these buried way down in the mud. It was so dry we weren't sure we'd find these guys either.

Mammals:
Lepus californicus (black-tailed jackrabbit)
Dipodomys spp. (kangaroo rat)

Birds:
Well, we saw lots of birds, like hawks and ravens, but this one in particular was unsual
Chukar - like a giant quail, its a non-native partridge. We accidentally scared this one away from its nest. WHOOSH!

Inverts:
Lots of cool insects (a classmate was collecting them for his invert lab)
BIGGEST black-widow I've ever seen!! Was in the bathroom at our first campsite. SURPRISE!
TINY little scorpion of some sort

Away, laughing on a fast camel!

I turned in my application to EAP today! So excited. Now I just have to keep my GPA up, and I'll be in the clear. Interviews are in a few weeks, and then sometime in July I find out all the details, such as which host uni I'll be attending.

Herps camping trip this weekend to look forward too. Going up around Sequoia National Park and a few other places I can't recall. Hopefully will see some Batrachoseps spp and Hydromantes spp,  as well as a bunch of other cool stuff.
#1 rule of the camping trip: don't get bit by a snake.
Rule # 2: don't get bit by a snake.
Rule # 3: see rule #1

Been reading some cool stuff for my bio of reproduction class... Female camels, which are induced ovulators (basically, only ovulate when mating), were used in warfare (~350bc), but had to be ovariectomized, otherwise they would constantly be in estrous. Female camels in estrous will sit down (due to the lengthy mating process). Not so good when you're waging war! All the enemy has to do is send in male camels, and all the non-pregnant, female camels in estrous will mate. So much for that battle.

"Tick tock, tick tock"

"Tick tock, this is a clock." - Katniss

Time is ticking away as the date to submit my application for EAP (education abroad program) draws nearer. I have decided UNSW is my number 1, and UQ is number 2. I have learned that I am allowed by the College of Letters & Sciences (at UCSB), and EAP (should the host uni give the OK) to extend from the spring semester (Feb-June) to the year program (Feb-Nov), and that financial aid would extend, even though I will have been at UCSB for 2 years and a quarter (extending to fall 13, after I would normally graduate Spring 13). Apparently as a transfer student, I can get aid for 9 quarters, and that would top me out at 8. However, I'm only applying for the spring semester, and have a form signed saying I'm allowed to extend should the opportunity arise, and I decide I want to. I haven't made up my mind yet. Its a long time to be gone, but it would be awesome.

Also, getting anxious about my impending trip to Costa Rica!! It seems very unorganized as far as communicating with participants, but I've been nagging the contact/leader guy, so I hope he's not sick of me yet.

news.bbc.co.uk

Speaking of Costa Rica... I'm writing my term paper for History of Mammals on sloth locomotion. Sloths are so freaking cool. Slow... yes. The max out at about 0.47 m/s (that's about 1 mph!!), and can go as slow as 0.02 m/s. Also, the two extant lineages of sloths are NOT closely related. They share a common ancestor about 30 million years ago!

 Left: Choloepus spp. - Two-toed sloth (smallmammalchannel.com)


Below: Bradypus spp. - Three-toed sloth (worldwildlife.org)

I haven't seen you for yonks!

Here's the current standing for top 2 schools I would like to attend in Australia (in no particular order):

University of New South Wales (near Sydney), and University of Queensland (Near Brisbane).

Recently had a meeting with the Australia EAP advisor and some other students who plan to go abroad as well. There were two returning students who had studied in Sydney and Melbourne who came to talk to us and share their experiences. Some of the things they said made me change a few things around in my decisions. For instance, when the girl likened University of Sydney to Harvard and Duke, and that she hadn't even considered any other school there, she had ended up wishing she'd applied to UNSW (which is about 20 min away by car) as far as the aspect of friends, academics and college experience. I also realized that UQ has a ton of bio classes that would be interesting to take. And really it doesn't matter where I end up geographically, I will be having a great time regardless.

Applications are due May 16, so I've been cracking on that. I have to apply to my top 2 schools, but also rank up to 6. Fortunately, Spring is less impacted than Fall, so I should be able to get one of the top 2.

Thats all for now!