Another Greeting From Alqonguin

Hi there,

The days here warmed up briefly but it's rainy again. Today (Sunday) is my day off so I'm catching up on emails... Maybe I'll work on the WRS website again. The link, I think, is: http://www.uoguelph.ca/~wrs/home.html Sorry if that doesn't work. The site is still under construction... I have been making updates but I haven't uploaded any of the corrections yet.

I just finished breakfast. It was waffles with warm berry topping. I forced myself to eat some cottage cheese because I know I'll be hungry in 1 hour if I don't. Oh well, there are leftovers in the fridge that I can eat. the food is really really good here. Betty, I'll give you some recipes when I get ahold of them. I've been making a list of meals because I have difficulty coming up with meal ideas.. but no full recipes yet. There's a lot of tofu here, and beans. And pasta salads, quinoa salads. There was a really good squash carrot soup that I ate for breakfast for a few days (that's first breakfast... at 4:10. Second breakfast is at 7:30).

I finished my thesis. Finally. Dr. Ramsay brought up my corrections when he arrived here. I spent a few days going through them and adding the finishing touches. It is a grand total (including 7 pages of references, 4 pages of Appendices, and over 20 pages of Figures) of 91 pages long. It *should have been* a Master's thesis... if it was a better project. But I was not prepared for my project, and I didn't do enough planning ahead, or reading... so it was not very good research. Despite that, one of the "Birders" up here is the son of the retired Park Naturalist... and he wants to show my thesis to his dad because dad is writing the "Birds of Algonquin Park" book. Wouldn't it be cool if I was mentioned in Park literature? And on top of that.. the project that the "other birders" are working on relates to logging and indicator species... and my thesis is related to that sort of thing as well. So Doug, this head birder, is interested in reading it. I'm pretty flattered but also a little nervous because (as mentioned) it's not particularly good research. ah well, I did make some interesting comparisons so there is SOMETHING to get out of reading it.

The people up here are fun... but there are a LOT of them. Did I mention that I'm staying in a cabin with 4 other girls? At least they are birders so we are all up at approximately the same time. And it's a good thing I'm tired all the time or it would be difficult falling to sleep...

The people up here listen to good music too. It's not uncommon for me to walk into the kitchen and hear Postal Service, or Cuff the Duke, or Arcade Fire. I'm getting excited for Hillside. Who has tickets?

Who's going to convocation? I think that's when I'm coming home. Dr. Ramsay is extremely vague and mentioned something about heading into K-W 5 days before convocation... which means I'd be heading home then too. BUT.. he didn't elaborate. mom, dad, Shay... one of you willing to pick me up in K-W if I come home early? Or Erin, Heather, Kate, Sonal... willing to take me in for a few nights until I can be picked up? Eek. (side note: kate, anyone living in the basement yet? How's the kitten?)

Alrighty... hope things are well with you. Ttyl!

-Nic

hello again

Hi there, (for those of you who haven't gotten a first email from me... the email program I'm using ate your email addresses but here's the summary: I'm in Algonquin Park studying birds and i wanted to keep y'all updated. If these emails bore or annoy you, please let me know and I'll stop sending them!)

Weather is much warmer now. Winter jackets in the morning but tee shirts and shorts by afternoon.
Mornings are EARLY. Yesterday we were up at 3:15, today it was 3:45. We need to be up before dawn so we can record the birds' whole "dawn chorus".

New birders arrived today. We're taking over the station.

I don't have a whole lot else to say... I'm really tired... not surprising. Probably a little sunburnt as well. But it's fun. Lots of cool people too. And I'm passing on lots of good advice to the new thesis students so they don't make the same mistakes I do.

Today we went for ice cream in Whitney... a town of a couple hundred people... very "small town".

Today is a sad day because it is Wednesday and I am missing America's Next Top model... So I'm assigning you the task of taking notes and summarizing the episode for me and sending me an email as soon as it's over. Erin, Heather, Emma... you're probably watching it? Ryan... did I get you hooked? At least tell me who gets kicked off. At this point, I don't even care if it's Jade or Sara... Jade at least provides entertainment because she makes up words and facts "elephants are so prehistoric. they remind me of dinosaurs. cuz... they're in the dinosaur family, you know". Yeah, OK Jade. I've made up a few words here... especially in the last 2 days when I get braindead by 3pm... Sometimes I get called Jade.

Alright, now that I've told you more than you ever wanted to know about america's next top model... I'll let you go. It's almost dinner here and I wanna clear my laptop off the table. Maybe I'll post pictures later but connection is WAY to slow now!

Bye!

-nicole

Pictures: Top picture is Allison, the cook. The second picture is some random white flowers. The third is Matt (a turtler) and Adam (a squirreler).

Greetings from Algonquin

Hi!

So I thought I was going to start a "blog" to keep you all updated with my field work experiences, but this is actually easier b/c I can compose an email and then just hit "send" when I log in. Blogger (the website I blog through) is slow lately and would be even worse on dial-up, the only connection to the internet here at the Wildlife Research Station.

I picked this list of people because I thought you might be interested in what's going on. I will *not* be offended if you email me back and say "hey actually... I'd rather NOT get a weekly email about your bird-watching, can you take me off this list?" Or maybe you can't check your email very often and so it's perfectly reasonable to not want to get repeated emails. I support that.

Here goes the first email:

For one month, I am going to be a field research assistant studying white-throated sparrows in Algonquin Park.

We arrived up at Algonquin Park on Thursday. We got out of the car in tee shirts and it was warm enough to do so. Last night, the pipes froze in the bathroom and yesterday it snowed/hailed. We are all sitting in the cookhouse with multiple layers and several blankets. We had a fire earlier, also. it's COLD. I am currently wearing 2 sweatshirts and I was wearing a toque. Brr.

Dr. Ramsay, my supervisor, has not arrived here yet and I'm running out of things to teach the 2 new girls. I'm a little afraid he'll think we didn't do very much but we don't have a permit yet so I'm hesitant to run around with sound recording equipment in case someone stops us. He will be arriving tomorrow (monday).

The food here is amazing. We get 3 meals a day cooked for us and they sure know how to cook vegetarian food. i want to steal recipes from them.

I don't have much else to say. I'm trying to redesign the Wildlife Research Station website but it's slow-going because my web-design skills are rustier than I thought they were.

Talk to you later!

-Nicole

the picture is of the "upper lab"...the lab we were working out of. behind the lab is the lake, and that's sunset.

Welcome

I've created this bird blog to highlight my fantabulous bird adventures. When I was in Algonquin this past May/June, I wrote emails instead of blogging because of the nature of the internet connection. So I've backdated all of these posts so that they appear on the days I sent emails.

Enjoy!

images for blog

'