timelines.

so there are 11 nights left in newfoundland.

tonight we just put up a harp and no mistnets. it was beautiful out, but we had trapped a lot the last two nights and are running low on PIT tags and so we are taking it easy. there was a beautiful full moon.

yesterday the water pump crashed and we may not have water for a while. i smell bad and would like to shower. after handling bats that have fleas, it's nice to shower. ah well. we are running short on supplies and need to go into town. bah.

I'm getting kinda nostalgic since we are leaving soon and I'm going to miss it here, but I'm also really excited to get home. this is a closing of a chapter though - possibly the last time I ever do field work with bats!

 there's a 5 legged frog on display here... apparently a common mutation?

 harp trap = has been golden for catching the bats. or it completely fails. this night it failed. we caught one bat..

doing science.

i feel weird lately. I'm tired all of the time. stressed. presentation hasn't been started for the conference, nor the analysis. just getting all the data into one data base has been a challenge. i'm worried that I won't get anything done when I'm back in halifax either. i feel like maybe I haven't taken full advantage of living out in the woods for so long. it's a weird set up though, there isn't much of a trail system here. the one trail is a boardwalk often filled with kids screaming.
there is another trail that leads to a river, it's pretty awesome, but I've just been too tired to do anything. but i've walked the trail a few times. I've been so inactive - the opposite of what I thought i'd be out here. I miss my bike. I miss walking around with jake. i shouldn't even need trails. but i have a terrible sense of direction and will easily become lost. i was reading a lot but i've stopped. i brought my knitting stuff here and haven't knitted anything.
i'm scared of failure, but i just dont care at this point. i miss having the freedom to go where i want. i've been done work since midnight yet i'm still awake - it's nearly 4am. this sleep schedule is ruining me. we are running out of tags, vials, and the glue is drying up - and its hard to find. the batteries are dying. one of the systems isn't working right and i dont know how to fix it. we haven't been able to go whale watching yet.
i've been listening to a lot of johnny hobo and the freight trains.
i'm having a hard time talking to people about veganism. people ask stuff or say things I just dont agree with, but i have a hard time calling them on their bullshit. trying to stay professional or civil and yet talk about something so near and dear to my heart is hard. it's hard for me to view non-vegans as anything except monsters who kill animals. i really just try not to think about it, but it's hard, and ignoring it doesn't make me a good vegan (?). this is maybe just late night ramblings/frustrations.

i'm also wondering about the ethics of this research project. pit tagging bats has been taking a tole on me, especially recaptures where they haven't healed properly. the juveniles are flying soon and I'm worried about tagging them. is pit tagging bats vegan? i dont know. it seems a bit like exploitation to me.

nearly six weeks in newfoundland.

I've been in newfoundland for almost 6 weeks now. and it's felt like it.

we arrived - it was cold and wet. it was horrid. we barely caught any bats.

it got better - we started catching a few, and now we catch a decent amount.

before I left - jake and his new roommate - love to people watch from the window. adorable.

Deer lake - where it all started. spent 3 days trapping near here:

 pynn's brook - actual study site by deer lake.

 after trapping there - 9 hour bus ride across the island - of course it was raining.

arrived at salmonier nature park - took some pictures along the boardwalk - a 3km trail that goes by enclosures of captive wildlife. most are injured or were orphaned and brought in for rehabilitation.

some art along the way:

female caribou - note her white winter coat - and see later photos!

 threatened pine marten! bad picture, but it's hard to see them out and about

 lichen, everywhere.

 bunchberry! - the centers are tiny flowers that each turn into a fruit - the big white petals - are actually infertile flowers

 pink flowers - bog laurel

finishing an all night bat box watch - noting behaviour of the bats around the boxes all night. it's often foggy here. on the right is the cabin where we stay.

 left - eagle fishing; right - wild irises

 peregrine falcon - unreleasable - wing injury

 

 

above - balsam fir and mountain maple 

below - bog laurel before second bloom

 river otter!

 blue bead lilly

saint john's adventures
we were going a little stir crazy and were able to snag a ride in saint john's for a few days. 

 at the rocket - an adorable cafe.

 cape spear ! we saw whales here! most easternly point in north america.

 kayley's whale photos - I lack the skills needed to photograph them. also - these are from fort amherst rather than cape spear where they were harder to see/further away.

 the cute streets of st john's:

signal hill
wild carrot - everywhere!

 lilac tree?

 quidi vidi

 middle cove beach

 marine drive - the marine centre - they had captive seals in tiny enclosures. it was sad. first giant squid found in the bay here.

st john's farmers market - poor bystander got blurreddd

 that table had three seal pelts covering it - and was displaying seal fur jewelry. disgusting.

 fort amherst - this was across from signal hill

 more wild carrots

 people walking their pet goats...

 dinner at the hummus hut!

 then lattes at hava java - not such a bad day. exhausted.

butlers trail - a trail by salmonier that I walk fairly often - goes back to salmon river. it's quite lovely but very wet/boggy at times.

 sunburst

 wild rose bud

 salmon river:

 great place to read "seventy years among savages" by henry s. salt

 orange hawkweed

 green frog

 hair cut? whens a better time to try shaving your head right bald than when in the woods. it felt really weird and i felt really vulnerable. glad its growing back.

 the perks of the job - seeing sunset and sunrise.

 above - blue bead lilly - fruit forming.
below - bog laurel blooming everywhere

 the end of the day? not quite, the beginning of our work night.

my friend megan visiting from halifax - on board the hudson to research sponges! gave us a tour, it was rad. I still want to be a marine biologist.

the cataracts - also where one of the first newfoundland roads was build, and one of the first bridges..

then off to cape saint mary's!

 sheep... just grazing.

 muirs and razerbills! and some kittiwakes!

 gannets - everywhere!

 if you look closely - you can see gannet babies! white fluffs under their parents!

 tamarack/larch

 bunnies - we see 'em every evening, everywhere!

 female caribou - dressed for summer!

 wild roses. i've collected some petals and plan to make something with them... tea perhaps.

 twin flower

 silver fox - taking a nap in the sun

 an extended grocery shopping trip which ended up with us exploring the rooms for an hour

 above - the auk, a badass 10kg bird that has gone extinct

 cormorants - beautiful.

 bear skulls

 oh hey huge whale arm

 giant squid

sorry this is ridiculously long. i haven't had the energy to write, and still don't really, so this is mostly just pictures.

we had to stop catching for about 2 weeks cause the bats were having their babies. we found this out because the one night we took a bat out of the bag and she had a tiny (really tiny) baby in her tail membrane. i talked to my supervisor about this and he talked to a bat researcher in ontario, and it's likely that she had a miscarriage - hence we stopped catching.

we also had a robin get caught in a mist net - and it died. apparently robins are really susceptible to stress. by the time I got there to help my assistant get it out - it died in my hands.
in the beginning I thought this project would be pretty ethically sound - but this is not necessarily the case.

the equipment has also been screwing up and not recording properly - but I think i have it fixed for the most part - but it's been terribly frustrating. at one point we lost 3 weeks of data from one of the monitoring units. bah. the temperature loggers came in about 2 months late - i installed them the other night - which involved me climbing a huge ladder in the middle of the night and trying to glue them in with carpenters glue and duct tape - we couldn't use a drill because the boxes are filled with babies (usually they are installed early in the spring after the adults emerge and the boxes are empty).

the bats started having babies at the beginning of the month and we were still capturing pregnant ones a few days ago - but it seems that most are done having babies now. we get to peak up in the boxes and see the tiny bat babies - it's adorable.

i miss hanging out with jake and i miss hanging out with people in halifax. and i've been really sad about not being in bc, and just not doing wildlife rehab. they are raising a moose calf here and it tugs at my heart strings - i miss raising moose. i miss bottle feeding raccoons and skunks. and baby birds. and ravens. all of them!

i'm freaking out because the bat conference in costa rica is coming up and i have nothing prepared - being in the field I've had no time to do data analysis. but i plan to start... soon!

trying to stay positive. message me your address if you'd like a postcard - aliciaeileenirwin@gmail.com