Greg and Kat's blog

Today was very strange. It started off with me deciding to go to work late. These days late is 7:45. Craziness! Anyways, I walk out the door of our townhouse, which happens to be by the complex’s recycling containers and one of the dumpsters. There they were… two practically new chairs and a slightly worn large end table. When people move out here and they have “extra” furniture, they leave it “by” the dumpster. So, I got 2 new chairs and an end table! I think the table is read wood too! Yippee! And, I wasn’t even late for the bus after hauling the stuff back in to the apartment.

For the last half week I’ve been working hard trying to catch birds. After all of those early mornings and 13 mosquito bites later (Total bite count: 43; mostly around my ankles because I wore capris one day and forgot the bug spray), we got 3 adult females. For some reason there were tons of birds out, but none were going in the traps! Tomorrow we put 12 potter traps out, and if these damned birds want any seed, they HAVE to go into the traps to get it. Anyways, we put up traps at a new location, and were watching them for a while. We we were looking for the ideal spot, we came across the LARGEST beetle I’ve ever seen! It was like the big slow beetle in The Lion King. I freaked a bit because I thought maybe all of the beetles around here looked like that. No, turns out Adam, who has lived here all his life (well, about an hour west of here) has never seen a beetle like this. Whew! Anyways, there’s a picture in the gallery. On our way back to the lab I found a dollar on the ground! Yippee again!

HPLC is going well. I’ve got peaks, and I know which peaks are which! One of my compounds is missing and so I have to tweak the solutions to pull it out from the “junk” peak that comes out first. That’ll be this week’s HPLC mission. I could have started that today except that when I went in on Sunday to do what I ended up doing today, I found out that the swipe card that the PI gave me didn’t actually work. So, even though I wanted to do HPLC on a sunny Sunday, I couldn’t get onto the floor where the lab is! Oh well!

Oh, and I bussed to the mall on Saturday. Even with the car I don’t feel entirely comfortable driving to the only decent mall here. You need to take the highway to get there. While I can drive on the highway, I don’t like the cloverleaf on- and off-ramps, and the off-ramp from the mall is a cloverleaf. So, I forked over $4 for the bus (all-day pass) and went shopping. I’d forgotten how cheap things are here (in the states) when they go one sale. I got a Pottery Barn silver clock for the office for only $5. It was regularly $30! I definitely felt good after that. And we NEEDED it (have to say that or else Greg will have a fit).

I’m currently experiencing my first “tropical depression.” It’s name is Alberto. Like everyone said, if hurricanes or tropical storms/depressions hit “the Triangle” it’s never really bad – just a lot of rain. So, it’s raining. It’s supposed to rain all day long. This means I can’t catch any birds again! Hopefully the birds I have will be okay. On the bright side, literally, Thursday through Sunday are supposed to be extremely hot and sunny. Yay! So I’ll be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow with my traps ready.

Good news, I have HPLC peaks! I ran standards yesterday and they look good – I think. So now it’s just trying to separate them out a bit and make sure I know which peak is which. The bad news is everyone is leaving – the tech is off to his new job tomorrow, and the PI is going on vacation this afternoon. The good news is I think I now know what I’m doing and can probably keep myself busy fiddling with different standards until Monday when the PI gets back. Let’s just hope I don’t totally screw things up!

More good news: I found a bus that goes from school to the one real mall in Durham. Yay!!! So I’m going on Saturday. YAY!!!

For the last two nights there have been severe thunderstorms in the area. Came in to school yesterday, and found two of my juvies dead. I think they may not have known to get out of the rain and got water-logged as the rain here comes in pretty fast and hard (not like the Vancouver mist). Not really sure. They were all eating and drinking, so I don’t think it was that. Keeping a very close eye on the others. It’s supposed to rain all day today, so we can’t go out to catch. We could, but whenever it rains the night before, there never seems to be any birds around, so it’s not really worth it. Hopefully it’ll clear up this afternoon, and we can try catching then.

The starlings are all doing well. Half of them have started molting, so I’ve been “scoring” their progression through molt.

We have one of our quarterly animal care inspections tomorrow, so Adam and I will be cleaning out the starling room today and tomorrow morning. I’ve decided to clean the walls this time, and then hang white plastic garbage bags on the walls afterwards. That way we can just replace them whenever it gets too gross, and we don’t always have to scrub the walls, just the floor. Will try to remember to take pictures of the disgustingness.

I’ve finally uploaded some of the pictures of my feeders/traps and birds to Greg’s gallery. The first two (feeder and potter traps) are not in the correct orientation, but I don’t know how to fix it. Look at them side-ways.

I somehow managed to get a small bug bite on the small of my back sometime yesterday. Not sure how. Anyways, that brings the bite count to 30, I think.

Catching is going well. Not spectacular (not getting 20 birds a day or anything!), but we are getting at least 2 juvies a day. Yea! the birds in the aviary are attracting other birds to come in and visit, so the last 5 birds have been caught in Potter traps (think carrot under box propped up with a stick) that are hanging off of the HOFIs flight cages. We’re now up to 16 birds (8 males and 8 juvies).

On the other hand, HPLC training is not as happy. The guy I’m learning from is not a very good teacher. Yesterday he said “purge the system” and then left. Didn’t explain any of the 50 buttons on the “system” or anything! And, he knows I’ve never done HPLC because he lent me a intro book so I could understand the principles behind it. Yeesh! Luckily he has an ex-tech who set up the system that works down the hall now (until Wednesday). So, he was kind enough to actually “train” me on what buttons to what. Eep! So I have to try to learn everything I can by Wednesday, because the main guy is not so helpful. I guess that’s what happens when you have a tech for 20 years and never do any of the lab work yourself! I’m starting to think the main guy doesn’t actually know how the system works, so can’t teach me anything. We’ll see. At least this isn’t part of my project!

Strange when the “field” portion of my summer is going well, and the “lab” portion is not as good! Weird!

It has finally sunk in. I live on the east coast. I know, you’d think I’d know this by now. I’ve been here for a month now. But, it just sank in yesterday as I was standing around watching my traps with nothing better to do than think about where I was. It was like, “Ph look, Eastern bluebird… Eastern towhee… holy crap! I live on the east coast, and everyone else is on the west coast.” Yes, cute but not so bright! Anyways, I thought I’d share my little epiphany.

We did it! Yesterday Adam and I caught 10 House Finches! There are 6 males and 4 females/juveniles! Yippee! The only thing now is trying to determine whether the birds we have are females or juvies. I was so tired from the day of catching (the excitement was just too much!) that I ended up falling asleep around 9:15. Yes, I’m getting old. But it was good because I was back out this morning by 6:00. However, it had rained last night, and it was too cold and wet this morning. So, there were no birds. Going back out later when it warms up a bit.

Oh, and I love the new place we’re using to catch. There are very few mosquitoes. The bite tally has stalled! So has the itching, for the most part. Now I only have 3 large bruise-looking marks on my legs. Joy!

Another cool thing – when we were putting the finches into the aviary, a female/juvie landed on the outer fencing of the aviary! I can finally set my hanging traps and try trapping inside the aviary, and maybe actually catch something I want! Yea!

For the past few days I’ve been watching my feeders. There have been House Finches there everytime I’ve watched. Today, I didn’t even see a house finch anywhere near my feeders.
Today was the first day of trapping with the large funnel traps. I got up early and set the traps before 5:30 while it was still dark. Waited and waited and waited. Finally, movement! There was a bird about to go inside! Hmmm… looking at it through the binoculars, I didn’t know what it was. I knew it wasn’t a HOFI, but wasn’t totally sure what I had caught. It has a longer tail than a finch, and was all gray. It was still too dark to make out facial features to look it up in the book, so I just waited. Soon, there was another one in the trap. Hmmm… wonder what these things are. Luckily, Adam came by around 6:30. They’re titmice. Tufted titmice, to be exact. Well, at least I know that the trap works. Eventually they found their own way out. Throughout the morning titmice were getting caught and finding their way out. Not sure if it’s the same pair, or if they were different birds. There were a bunch in the area.

Once it got really light out, the squirrels found the trap. I was interested to see what they would do. Luckily I got aligator clips to close the top of the trap, so everything was secure. I was 90% sure that the doorways were too small for them to fit into. Luckily, I think I was right. They jumped onto the trap, swung around a bit, and then jumped off. Had to scare them off twice though because they wouldn’t stop, and the birds wouldn’t enter the trap if the squirrels were around.

We took the trap down at noon. To make things worse, as we were walking back to Biology, what did we see? Three males and either a female or a juvenile splashing around in a puddle in the parking lot. Dammit! I think I need to walk around with seed in my pockets! I miss the Zeebies!

Happy to say that so far, I don’t think I had any bites today – went and bought Deep Woods Off for my clothes and citronella lotion for my hands on the weekend. Together with my mosquito shirt, they’ve kept the bugs away (I think, will have to see whether anything starts to itch this afternoon). Total: 29 and holding.
Have to eat, and then head off to Neurosciences for my first day of HPLC training. Tomorrow we’ll try the other location.

I’m procratinating from reading about HPLC or going UNC’s online safety course. So, I figured I’d say a little bit about the car. Like greg said, it’s not flashy, but it’s mine. I’ve named it “Rusty” since he is. I know cars are supposed to be female, but this one’s not pretty, so Rusty it is.

After yesterday’s repairs, including general fluid flushes, hooking up a disconnected wire to the AC (yea! cold air!), and replacing the brake master cylinder (yes! brakes that work well!), I’m out another $1000. But that’s okay, because now Rusty should in theory go for a while now (knock on wood). Today he’s back in for the state safety inspection and an alignment check. Only $90 today!

I drove home, got gas (first time in MY car and nobody to take a picture!), and then went home to retrieve Blinky. If you’ve read Greg’s prior posts you’ll remember that Blinky is ou new auto GPS system. I needed Blinky to guide me to Finley Forest apartments (I already kind of knew where I was going, but figured I wanted Blinky’s company), where I purchased 2 small dresser drawers from a guy who graduated with an MBA from UNC. Also got a nice wood end table thrown in! I managed to get everything in the car, and then Blinky and I drove home.

Some of you reading are wondering why this is such a big deal. Well, for those of you who don’t know about me and cars, here’s the deal. I don’t drive. I can drive, since I was 16, but I haven’t driven a lot since I got my license. Insurance in LA, where I grew up was $4000 a year, and my mom said no. I drove a lot on my learner’s permit, but then had to stop due to lack on insurnace. In Seattle I drove a bit, but the streets were really narrow, and people didn’t know how to drive at all! LA drivers are insane, but, like drivers in Montreal, they know what they’re doing. I never felt scared in LA. I did in Seattle. So, the fear developed. Then in Vancouver, I drove more because I had to be up at school really late at night and really early in the morning. Not so scary as in Seattle, but I had become accustomed to not driving. So here, I figured the best way to break out of the non-driving rut was to just drive! So, going to Finely Forest (which is only 10 minutes away) was the first step. Plus, as positive reinforcement, I got to buy something!

I’ve e-mailed someone “in Chapel Hill” who posted a nice wood coffee table on the local craigslist for only $10. We’ll see if Blinky and I get to drive somewhere new today!

It’s true! This morning I once again got to school around 5:00 am, and headed out to watch my feeders. From around 5:15 to about 5:45 it was still pretty dark. I could see the nearest feeder, and could make out the second nearest one with the flash light. No chance of seeing it or a bird on it without the light until after 5:45. Could hear birds, but nobody wanted any breakfast. Then, at 6:15, there was movement at the nearest feeder. Red! YEA!!!! Adult male house finch. Score! He ate a bit of seed, hopped onto a nearby branch, sang a bit, and then flew off. I was hoping his singing would lure in others, but no such luck. Then at around 6:45, when it was starting to get bright and I could make out the feeder that was further away, there was movement there too! Red again! I’m 90% sure it was a male house finch. Not sure if it was the same one as earlier. The other 10% goes to a female Cardinal. However, the bird looked pretty small. The light wasn’t so good, so can’t say for sure. I’m going back out at around 11 to see what I can see. Hopefully we’ll start trapping on either Monday or Tuesday.

Bite count so far today: 3 on fingers (total 25).

Blogged too soon: 7 bites today (4 on fingers, 3 on legs) [total 29]. So itchy…

So I guess long sleeve shirt with mosquito shirt works best. Had the hood up and zipped and my pants tucked into my socks. Looked like a dork, and today a police car drove by twice, and two guys walked by on their way to work. All in the name of SCIENCE!

I’ve decided to start a bug bite tally. I did this a couple years ago when I went to the Phillipines for 4 weeks . I think on that trip I got up to 50-something bites. Or maybe it was 80-something. Don’t remember. Anyways, that was in the “city.”

I’m definitely going to top that this summer.

Day 1 in “field”: 4 bites (2 feet, 2 wrist)

Day 2: 4 bites (1 hand, 3 arms) [total: 8 bites]

Day 3: 2 bites (2 arms) [total: 10]

Day 4: 12 bites (see previous post if interested in where) [total: 22]

And so it begins…