2938394 down...

...115 to go. Leaf-litter traps, that is. Tomorrow's my last day at Coweeta, and as kind of a last hurrah today, I hiked the short trail up to a scenic overlook with one of Maerz's grad students, Brian. We huddled under rhododendron while a small storm passed over us and then crawled out onto a rocky outcrop, picked wild blueberries, and watched the sun peek out from the clouds and light up the valley. Amazing. And this Red-legged Salamander (Plethodon shermani) shared the view with us.

See y'all super, super soon.

Love,

Todd

hay got lots to say

It's been a while and so much has happened so here's a recap to my best ability. 

Been checking out events in town, working by day (the exhibit will be at the Chicago Architectural Foundation! Whooooo) and exploring the city by night, or just being exhausted and chilling. 

The 'shell' concert hall in Millennium Park

Guess who was in town?!

Kitties being lovers again

One weekend we checked out the Transformers set downtown. You can make out the car pileup on the bridge. By the way, love Chicago by night. But more on that later. 

One of the Wacker St. tunnels, where they shot parts of Dark Knight --> Chris Nolan --> INCEPTION! Which I haven't seen yet but am going to this weekend.

Chicago River

Some of the cars from the movie. We think there's something really nice/shiny/expensive under the tarp.

Keep reading...

FAIL

So I've spent the entire summer being sad because I didn't think anyone was posting here (I am not great with the internet, but this is unusually bad). But, at least I discovered all of this on a bad day, so YAY. My day is worlds better!

I have no idea how to recapture those two months I was not blogging about, so I'll just start by saying Costa Rica was AWESOME and I'll share some photos (feel privileged, not even my parents have seen photos yet).

COSTA RICA!!
Scott Connelly was one of our instructors, and that was really awesome, so I don't even need Todds help IDing much (and I saw a LOT considering my poor herping skills). This is one he couldn't ID:
This one is for you Kelly, because all my fish pictures are bad:
This was more dangerous (and more fun) than it looks in the photo:
Everything was awesome, my poncho turned out to be very sturdy, and I did my best to recruit more Ecology club members. Results were mixed, so we'll just have to wait and see who shows up. I did not see a sea turtle, but I did catch a basilisk, so there. One of the cutest animals I encountered were baby cows, which isn't especially tropical but who can resist the way they chew on your fingers? NO ONE.

Now I am in Atlanta, enjoying the people, but not loving my cubicle-ville job very much. I CAN'T WAIT FOR SCHOOOOOOL!!!!!

Hey roadtrip

hahahahahaha sorry guys I just found this picture of Aniekan and I HAD to put this up! hahaha SO ANYWAYS.

A couple weeks ago I went on a road trip to New England with my mom. We went to a wedding (I didn't know anyone... it was her friend from high school's son.)





The wedding was in Kennebunkport, Maine which is this really cute tourist town. My Aunt and Uncle live in Maine, too. I love Maine! It is sooooo pretty and it smells so clean and everyone there is really healthy 'cause they all kayak or mountain bike or hike or do something naturey! Did you know Maine has the most coastline of any state because of all the islands?! It's just beautiful and I wish it were closer. Also for those of you city haters, Maine doesn't have many people at all... so it's a great escape. (during the summer, at least)

Kennebunkport, ME

same place



Oh... if you guys didn't know I LOVE sailboats.

So this wedding we went to was SUPER EXPENSIVE. It was really just ridiculous how much money they spent. They had three center pieces! I guess it was pretty though.....


Expensive wedding table. Too much white for my taste though.

I didn't know anyone at this wedding, but it was still fun. My mom got drunk and was acting silly. Also I sat next to this man named Julius who was freaking hilarious :). I also learned that New England boys are super awkward and are kind of afraid of girls. Julius told me people in New England are not as friendly in general which makes them more awkward hahaha

Julius and Me

Fancy table of desserts. ummm

After that we went to Boston, Mass. for the Fourth of July. It was really neat because we were on the Charles River and they have that famous fireworks display. They really were the best fireworks I've ever seen in my life.



Ducks. I don't know what was going on here but it w as cool so I took a picture.

Best fireworks EVER. These one's were espescially neat.

Restaurant in Boston. This is basically for Sheena... I know how you like pictures of food lol

Ok then we made it to NYC. We stayed in Manhattan. OMG we saw Stomp! It was amazing. If you guys ever get a chance to see it in New York... do it! And we got our tickets for it (and for West Side Story which we saw the next day) at the half price ticket booth. If you don't know about it ask me about it later, but it's the only way to buy tickets (CHEAP).

Grand Central Station. Recognize it from other pictures? Very beautiful.

Cool thing in Time Square advocating smart water usage.

Well, that's the end. We then drove back to beautiful Cumming, GA. hahaha I love that I will always be able to make fun of the name of my home town.

Miss you guys, and wish you would post again! I need some interesting reading!

I would love...

...to update y'all on life at Coweeta, but I'm rushed for time with this limited internet access, and instead, I'll summarize with some cute salamander photos.

A few weekends ago, I took a trip a few hours away to chase a few new species. I found them, and I also turned up this beautiful monster in a nearby stream. Eastern Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) overlooking her domain.

A lot of my job consists of checking leaf litter traps in streams for aquatic species, but we've started a new project involving the hybridization and activity patterns of two species of terrestrial Plethodontids at Coweeta. The cuter of the two, the Red-legged Salamander (Plethodon shermani), is pictured here. These guys are ridiculously abundant on the forest floor at night.

Our leaf-litter traps are geared towards finding other species, but I'm certainly not going to turn down the chance to photograph the beautiful and charismatic Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber) when it's a bycatch.

Speaking of Pseudotriton, I was surprised (but elated) to see two of the Red Salamander's cousins, the Mud Salamander (Pseudotriton montanus), at Sandy Creek when I visited Athens this past weekend. This species is really uncommon throughout much of the Piedmont, and July is possibly the worst time of year to search for them. And oh yeah, I also saw some awesome people in Athens :)

Perhaps the coolest thing I've seen here happened last week around Coweeta. After finishing checking some leaf-litter traps, I kept flipping rocks in hopes of turning up something to alleviate the boredom. Under a promising rock alongside the edge of the stream, I flipped up male and female Black-bellied Salamanders (Desmognathus quadramaculatus) guarding their eggs. You can't tell from the photos, but these things are behemoths--around 10 inches each. Momma on top and daddy on the bottom, with a small fraction of their clutch.

The next generation. These little guys were really near hatching (in fact, several hatched and swam away as I photographed them). Here, you can see their unvascularized gills (they live in water with such high O2 content that they can get all they need through their skin) and the yellow yolk in the belly, which will provide the young with enough food to last their first few days or weeks outside of the egg. Too cute.

So long for now!

Hmmm....not a summer fun post

I just saw this on a friends facebook page. Ok, he is still a friend and I definitely know that this is old and the new president has been in office for awhile now but... I can't help but think how awful this is. "... keep your change." People in America really believe(d) this. So disgusting.
I have no happy thoughts at the moment. Sorry this wasn't environmental....

busy busy blog blog

It's been a while, internet! Part of the reason is because working 9-5 is surprisingly exhausting, and the other reason is that we've been wireless-less at the apartment because of weird wiring issues with the apartment. But no matter, I have set up shop at a coffee shop to bring you news from Chicago!

I checked out the Louis Sullivan exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center for inspiration for the exhibit I'm putting together, and just to see the exhibit.

The Cultural Center is cool

Shayna and Leila

For the 4th of July, I saw PASSION PIT FOR FREE at Grant Park. It was a superb concert, despite being surrounded by 14 year olds. Check out their pants and shoes: