Karnolab

  • Ray, a range ecologist at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), has kindly fixed up my trailer—he’s made it so that there is now running water (and heated water), and in general, he helped get it in working order! John,…

  • Amy Briggs (pomona ’10) and I will be running a Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) station and conducting point counts out in Valley County, Montana over the course of the summer. With any luck, the weather will be on…

  • Here is one of the pictures I meant to put up yesterday.  Most of them are of common murres,which are my favorite birds.  Their plumage makes them look velvety and clean cut, and they have beautiful dark, expressive eyes.  Plus,…

  • First, I need to answer the questions about the gloves I’m wearing in the last entry.  Almost everyone out here wears them because of a condition many people develop while working out here called Farallon Finger.  It can be a…

  • Yesterday Charlotte Chang’10, Max and I headed off to Northern Montana. Charlotte will be working on a project examining prairie bird diversity and productivity in the shortgrass prairie of northern Montana. This is the third summer a Pomona student has…

  • Two subspecies of Xantus’s Murrelets are currently recognized; scrippsi and hypoleucus. These birds look different, make different calls, breed in different places, and recently a genetic test was done to prove they are genetically diverse. Whoever decided they were the…

  • We often saw groups of Brown Pelicans flying in formation around both Anacapa and Santa Barbara Island during our voyage. These birds were everywhere! Pelicans prefer to nest on islands that are not inhabited by humans, making Anacapa and SBI…

  • Today found me beginning some of my duties, being trained in others, and sometimes simply observing other people.  One of Jordan’s responsibilities while she is here will be to conduct the Pelican count every morning, before 9am, from the lighthouse. …

  • Today, I made my voyage out to the island, and it was a BEAUTIFUL day. Our day started around 7:00, when we got up in time to finalize packing the vehicles, eat breakfast, and rendezvous with our skipper, Jared, in…