Happy Pi Day

Today is pi day, in honour of the irregular number we all love, pi. So, Marco decided to make a pie, and baked, from scratch, an apple pie. Yum!!!

Homemade apple pie!!
Happy Pi Day!

Team Poop!!

On March 10, we had another super productive day at the beach. With three of us there, we were able to keep the nets open most of the time, and we hit our desired sample size of 15 females for each of two species (small and medium ground finch). We were also able to capture a few more birds that we were able to process, which was great! Sarah has trained me in how to measure the finch beaks, which is great. I have been watching my colleagues measure for three seasons, so it was nice to get my hands on the calipers and contribute to the dataset.

On March 11th, we hit our target sample size today for the parking lot! We were there well before sunrise, and had our nets in place. The finches are molting, and thus, are not breeding. This means that they tend to flock more, especially at dawn, so we had hit our target by mid morning. Today I set up a time laps video for fun. We'll see how things turned out with it! The most interesting finch we got today was some sort of hybrid, the top beak looked like a fuliginosa, and the bottom looked more like a fortis. I don't think I'd seen anything like this before!

We discovered a lovely place in Puerto Ayora above the Proinsular grocer store. They have amazing desserts as well as scrumptious snacks like patacones with queso fresco. It is on the second floor and overlooks the port.

Amazing view of the docks at Puerto Ayora

A yacht that had hit a rock or something had been on shore for repairs, and was heading out back to sea. Given how small and narrow the channels where marine craft can navigate, it's amazing this large yacht got out at all. The yacht managed to get to open sea by way of water taxis which are single outboard motor boats normally used to ferry passengers from a boat to port. Somehow, there was enough horsepower to get the yacht out!

The yacht getting pushed out of the port with water taxis.

We have decided to unofficially call ourselves Team Poop (and cat) for this field season. After all, our twitter and instragram hashtag is #HappyAboutPoop but you will have to ignore anything about happy toddlers pooping in the bathtub.

Marco's First Day!

Marc arrived from Montreal via Quito yesterday. He's been working with Team Pinzon's long term dataset, and had the opportunity to come down to see the source of all the data. We sampled at the parking lot where the boardwalk to El Garrapatero Beach starts. This area is still relatively close to the beach (it's a 10-15 minute walk to the beach from the parking lot).

We've also seen them eating the native foods such as tribulus (2015, not this year), the succulents, and on the cryptocarpus and scutia around the area.

Dry carpet of tribulus

We had some good numbers, and we're surprised to get more fortis than fulis. We also got two large morph fortis, both of which managed to bite either Sarah or myself, and those guys HURT (though not as much as a mag). We think we caught one mag, but the beak depth was just shy of the cutoff. It could have been because I measured the beak and I am still getting used to measuring beaks! Though a quieter morning than down at the beach, a productive one!

Sampling on the beach

Today Sarah and I sampled on the beach. Sometimes, we have to pinch ourselves when we take a few minutes to enjoy the surrounding sites!

I had never sampled on the beach before, so this was a new experience for me. We set up two nets and there were lots of birds around, so we were busy for the whole morning. We stop when the sun is high overhead because it's just too hot for both humans and finches to do much.

As usual, we had an array of other critters visit us.

First day of sampling!!

Hoorah! Today was our first day in the field, and I forgot the banding kit *doh*. However, we found a good spot and worked out the methods for sampling.

The cages over the boats worked great! the birds poop, but don't jump around in their own poop. The only problem is the are molting so we are doing our best to time it so they poop, but don't do anything else.

That afternoon, we met Camille and Andy, two researchers from Exeter. They are part of the ISBE committee, and I am looking forward to that conference. They had some awesome suggestions and neat ideas, and I hope we will be working together in the future.

 Sarah spotted a cuckoo which was pretty cool.

That evening, you could tell we're getting tired. All of my cats decided they wanted to read my new book on domesticated cats for bedtime....  #CatsofInstagram

El Garrapatero Scouting

Today we decided to scouting the different sites we were planning on sampling at around EG. We headed to the beach first before the tourists get there, and we found a nice place that was away from where the tourists would be, but where finches appeared to be abundant. 

We also ran into a dead shark on the beach. It appeared freshly dead, but there were no visible injuries, and it had all of its fins. We don't know how it got there, but we're pretty sure scavengers would get to it quite quickly. 

While we were walking, we ran into Team TickEaters: Sabrina, Ashley, and Angela. They mentioned that it had rained at EG, but nothing like what we had in town to days ago. Unfortunately, that means there hasn't been enough rain to trigger breeding for the finches (or the mockingbirds). 

Near our pick-up point, we found the remains of an owl. The skeleton was still intact, and there was some mummified flesh and tendon on the skeleton, as well as some feathers still attached.

That evening, Sarah and I prepped the supplies we would need for the first day of sampling. We found solid wire mesh and made little cages to go over the weigh boats. This prevents the birds from hopping around in their own poop once they have pooped. The idea is we want the poop, but we didn't want the finches to jump around in their own poop. If they did this, any bacteria on their feathers or from where they had been would contaminate the poop sample. We're in interested in the gut microbiome, so we want as clean a sample as possible.7

Off to the field tomorrow!!!

Rain! (but not enough to trigger breeding)

Today, Sarah and I spent the day taking care of logistics so we could go the field. This involved a couple meetings with people to make sure all our permits and papers were in order. We got our hands on a bike, so Sarah and I both have bikes now, which makes getting around town much easier. As we were going around town to do our business, we noticed some rain clouds rolling in. I didn't think much of it because it can rain in the highlands without any rain making it to the coastal areas. However, we came out of a meeting and the distinct smell of a rain storm was in the air. The bike I had obtained didn't have air in the tires since it hadn't been used in a year, so I couldn't ride it home. So, Sarah and I walked home. The rain was warm and refreshing, and as we turned onto our street, we noticed three children playing in the street. Actually, they were literally swimming in the street! The rains were intense enough to cause temporary flooding in a valley in the street, and the boys splashed and played in the rain quite happily!

Children playing in the temporarily flooded street

We had hoped this might be enough rain to trigger breeding in the finches at our field site. Unfortunately, though there was buckets of rain in Puerto Ayora, there was very little at our field site. However, this will not affect the main objective of our field season, so off to the field we go!!