Today, my mom and I walked the Pelican Bay stretch of beach from the Sandbar to Vanderbilt Beach. A friend got us guest passes, so we were able to take the tram down to the beach and go to the bars! It was really fun. The low density occupation of the beach made for great […]

This year’s birding started with a bang: Paul and I saw Florida scrub-jays up close on New Year’s Day 2016! The next day (Jan 2) was spectacular: we drove east to reach Storm water Treatment Areas 5/6, picking up limpkins along the way. We had originally signed up for the CBC there, and we should have […]

We’re heading to Naples, FL today. Mangrove cuckoo is cryptic this time of year, but the only land species that would be a lifer for me that by all accounts is in range. If I was able to take a boat decently offshore, pomarine jaeger winter off the coast. My “lowest priority” chase would be black rail.

Today, I did my 1st CBC in my new (well, since end of summer) home city. I joined the team that counted section T. It was my most northerly CBC yet! Accordingly, new personal CBC birds for me: pine grosbeaks and ravens! My team was led by a friend, and I met a new birding friend that was […]

Over the weekend, my ecologist boyfriend (mentioned in yesterday’s post) asked about the steam rising from the lake. Since then, I’ve found a few references to it, most intriguingly a video calling it “freezing spray” because it’s been freezing to the boats coming in off the lake. Later, I heard a friend refer to the […]

My guy is the one on the right. 🙂 Another nostalgic post, because today is our 2 year dating anniversary! I took this photo when we went to Scuppernong prairie on a successful search for eared false-foxglove. I’ll spare you the naturalist details of why this is cool (I talked about this in a prior […]

This weekend, my mom and boyfriend were visiting for my birthday (and for the latter, it’s  our 2-year dating anniversary tomorrow). We arrived at the bog around 3:30 PM to a few black-capped chickadees and a northern shrike, and made our way to McDavitt Rd. around 4 PM . We cruised the road slowly, talked […]

As mentioned in my prior post, the hurdles are steeper than I thought, but maybe I’ll at least keep chipping away at this one. One of my concerns is:  I have to do a line-by-line calculation for each line in a giant file, and I’m wondering if R will be too slow for this. Also, […]

I’m currently learning my way around Stella, to work with the WETLANDSCAPE models. I am working on comparing 10-day time step outputs to daily outputs, to see if the results are comparable. As you know, though, I hate closed source software, so working with something like this is…challenging. I was excited (and still sort of […]

I’m in the 1st half of the 1st day of my 30’s, so now it’s time to look forward. The last decade was about school, and earning my way to a Ph.D. This decade will be about career (though certainly not solely). I’m happy for where I am right now, and grateful for the foundation […]