Just Keep Swimming

So... A couple of days ago I had to check on one of my field sites. I did not know exactly where it was so my professor had to come with me. He mentioned that to get to the site with the equipment I would have to wade through water that was up to my chest. He was very VERY wrong, the water was WAY above my chest. And I was quite scared to go further into the water because drowning in waders isn't very fun. So I had only one choice... swim across... yes SWIM with all of my clothes on and everything holding my equipment in one hand (god forbid it gets wet!). Anything for research. When walking back my professor asked me if I still enjoy working for him. Of course I do! I love this work, I love what I do, I love what I research. I would never change what I do for a boring office job or working behind a food counter. Yes I have bad days where I have to work in pouring rain, or I end up falling into marshes, things get stressful and there are some days where I just work for so long I get exhausted by the end. BUT never would I want to trade this. This really shows me that I want to do this for a long time. A life in research is the life for me.

Back to work [in the rain].

Got back a couple of days ago and got right back to work.
Had to modify my experiment a little, which is always lots of fun... But you at least it is flowing much better now, and my days are somewhat shortened.

It has been raining for the past couple days which makes sample collection a cold and wet. Unlike the bird people, I still must go out on rainy days because frogs aren't necessarily bothered by rain. And the tadpoles are so adorable!! They are developing from their tiny head-blobs to head-blobs with feet!

I am exhausted but soon comes a day off... kind of.. but still, soon!

Looking more like a frog!

Lots of samples!

3 Weeks in and Goodbye Froggies

Well not really goodbye, I’ll be back to froggy business on Monday. Instead I am taking a break and going on a road trip to Edmonton, Alberta. So far we’ve been on the road for a day, stayed in a motel for the night and back on the road again. The sights are beautiful! We’re avoiding driving at night due to the abundant numbers of moose that like to venture onto the road. The ride has been quite uneventful to the common bystander, but for me I am having tons of fun. Listening to music, writing, talking. I love road trips. Ontario is huge, but beautiful. We hope to hit Manitoba tomorrow.

We stopped at Iron Bridge for the night and I heard Spring Peepers!!  I haven’t heard them for a week now in at my field station. It was so lovely to hear them again.

P.S. I love looking at the name of some of these cities, one we stopped in was Wawa… The things I find amusing. 

Data, where art thou?

I started my research May 1^st. That’s a problem. Like I mentioned before I work with frogs, female frogs to be exact. Well most frogs start breeding in April (in Ontario), which leaves me with only 2 out of 8 species to work with: the American bullfrog and the Green Frog (Grey tree frogs bred early this year). So my project has been extended to also study the tadpole. Tadpoles are much easier to catch, contain and study than females, you just use a big strainer. Fingers crossed that everything will work out!

I spend most of my days searching for my tadpoles in different marshes and my nights walking transects looking for females, so my entire day is frog-filled. 

Introduction

One of the first questions people ask me is “why are you in biology?” Almost always followed with “you want to go to med school, right?” Contrary to what my parents would like I have no will to go into medicine. It never interested me. Biology interests me: conservation, evolution, natural and sexual selection, phenotype, the list goes on and on…. FASCINATING!

So I have started a blog that will share my every adventure of doing a thesis project in my fifth year of University. Sharing everything I learn, the struggles I will [definitely] go through, and the finished result. The reason why I have named this blog “The Frogger” is because I study frogs for my research and figured it suited quite well.

Also I have started this 3 weeks into my project so I’ll have to do a quick fill in.

Sincerely,

Biologists, Herpetologist, devoted Frogger. 

P.S. Some posts may be different days but will be up at the same time due to bad internet connection.