The FINAL Post!

Now that my experience at Davidson is over (& so is the commuting!) I can reflect back on all I’ve done this past week. All in all, I’m very happy with my project! I got some great hands-on experience and a taste for field biology, and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t have to sit around doing paperwork, and–hopefully–I was also helpful to Dr. Stanback and his students. I also got to have some unique once-in-a-lifetime experiences, like watching the euthanasia of a copperhead, that I will never get again. Without this project, I would never have these opportunities. While I’m not sure whether my future lies in field biology or not, I’m definitely going to remember this project when I’m at UNC next year and hopefully help out with summer research there. I’m thankful I got to have such an eye-opening (and fun!) senior project.

Last Day

So, yesterday was my last day out at Davidson. I met up with David and we literally spent the entire day checking all the tree swallow boxes out at Davidson’s lake campus (since all the golf courses were closed following Memorial Day). Luckily, it only rained on us for maybe three minutes in the morning, and then the rest of the day was beautiful! Dr. Moyer came out to visit during the afternoon and see what my senior project was all about. It seems like he really enjoyed it, and I explained to him all of the different research Dr. Stanback was doing with the boxes. It was a pretty typical day, well except for when Dr. Stanback came to visit us in the field and David and I looked up to find him machete-ing his way through the field toward us! I don’t know where he got a machete, but evidently he was trying to “clear away the vegetation encroaching on his nest boxes” (I think he just needed an excuse to use the machete). We also took a BUNCH of pictures so I’ve attached them to the end of this post. All in all it was a good day to end on and a wonderful experience!

: )

Got Herps?

So today I actually worked with Dr. Dorcas and the herpetologists (whose department slogan is the aptly-named title of this post) instead of Dr. Stanback and the ornithologists; basically we studied turtles and snakes as opposed to birds. The first task of the day  was going out and checking the turtle traps. We actually had a problem with the second site we checked because someone took all of the traps out of the lake!! I have a sneaky suspicion it was a child living in the neighborhood since we found a bike near one of the traps…

Anyways, here’s some pictures of us checking the traps out on the golf course…

Recording data

One of the turtle traps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t find any snapping turtles but we did find an adorable baby turtle! Look how small he is compared to my thumb. I named him Squirt in honor of the Finding Nemo character…

Squirt, the baby turtle

Once they capture the turtles, they weigh them and then photograph and mark them for future reference by putting notches in their shells at designated spots. I don’t know if you can see in that well in the next picture but look at the shell to the right of the turtle’s head, and then again by his back feet…

a turtle with a notched shell

After we processed all the turtles, Dr. Dorcas came into the lab and told us he was euthanizing a juvenile copperhead if we wanted to watch. I don’t know why, but I just never imagined that I would see something like that in the biology department! I would expect that from a veterinarian clinic. It was actually really cool, and is hopefully the closest I will ever be to a copperhead (a live one at least)…

Putting a copperhead to sleep...

...the aftermath

All in all, it was another good day. I will say that turtles are a lot smellier than birds. Checking the traps is also a bit less entertaining because you know they’ll either be turtles in it or it will be empty, whereas with nest boxes there could be eggs, chicks, a nesting female–it’s more surprising. I should be checking bird boxes on Monday so I’ll try to take some bird pictures then!

Day 4

Today I met one of Dr. Stanback’s students, Emily, out at The Point to check nest boxes (like usual). Honestly, I think Dr. Stanback’s research students have a pretty good job. They get paid to deal with these adorable little birds on gorgeous golf courses in beautiful weather (okay, it’s not like that all the time, but still)! I brought my camera to take pictures of all the adorable chicks and, of course, the battery was dead! But I plan on taking lots of pictures tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m actually supposed to work with the herpatologists in the morning, so that should be interesting…I’ve been told the turtle traps are quite smelly and slimy…

Anyways, there was a picnic lunch for all the summer research students that I went to, and then after that headed to a greenway to check MORE boxes. It sounds tedious and redundant but it’s actually really fun to go see what’s in each new box. The young chicks are growing on me, they’re almost so ugly they’re cute. I’ve learned a lot so far too, such as the difference between bluebird, nuthatch, and house wren nests, eggs, and calls, but I learn something new every day. The only not-so-fun part of the job is if you find a dead baby chick…that’s always a bit sad (and smelly). Overall though I’m really quite happy with my senior project, and so glad that I’m not stuck inside all day doing paperwork!

Day 3

Today got off to a little later start since Dr. Stanback and I went to check bird boxes that weren’t on a golf course. It turns out that the field we were going to is right by the lake that supplies Cabarrus County with drinking water so we had to carry this paper saying we were allowed to be there and there was a barbed wire fence and a camera and whatnot. Once we got past all this though it was actually quite pretty. Although I did have my first encounter with a black snake, which was not so pretty…

Here’s a picture of Dr. Stanback about to check one of the boxes…

About to check a nest box...

Today was a lot slower than the others (for me at least). After we checked these boxes we went back to the lab, where I entered data into the computer. That’s basically what I did for the rest of the day. Like I said, it was a little more laid back than usual…

Day 2

I accidentally forgot to post yesterday, but it was another great day out at Davidson. The day started off like the first one, with me meeting Pat out at the golf course and then going through and checking the bird boxes. This course took a lot longer, not only because there were more boxes, but also because we had to band a lot more chicks. I actually banded a few bluebird chicks myself! On a non-bird-related note, we also saw a huge snapping turtle out on the side of the course. Checking the boxes takes a long time (it took us about three and a half hours) so by the time we were done, it was time for lunch. After lunch, we checked some more boxes–this time tree swallows–out at the lake campus.

Since a lot of what I’ve been doing is checking bird boxes, I’ve begun to learn the routine. When the group goes out, they are looking to see if a box has chicks, eggs, nests, or nothing in the boxes, and then whether these belong to tree swallows, bluebirds, house wrens, nut hatches, or the dreaded cow birds. If  there are chicks, we’ll either band them or just weigh and measure them, depending on their size. Banding them means we’ll put a little metal band on their leg to identify them. Dr. Stanback is gathering this information for a variety of different studies. I know he’s looking at the difference in the first and second bluebird nests, “hot” or “cold” box success, the effects of different size openings on house wren nests, and a bunch of other studies as well.

So far I’ve really enjoyed my project, and already I’ve learned a lot about birds and their nesting habits, and also what field work entails (like being on site at seven in the morning). I’m excited to see what else I end up doing as the week progresses!

My First Day on the Job

Today was my first day working out at Davidson, and I helped with a variety of different things. First, I began the day checking bird boxes at Birkdale golf course with Pat (one of Dr. Stanback’s students), basically to see if there were nests, eggs, or chicks in any of them. We did find that some boxes had bluebird chicks in them (which actually weren’t as cute as you’d imagine). Then, we headed off to the lab where I met up with Dr. Stanback and we went to check some barn swallow nests. These were actually underneath a pier so we literally had to canoe under a pier and crouch down to check them. I though this was pretty interesting, and I got to perform a valiant rescue to a chick that had fallen from its nest into the lake. After this we took a break for lunch and then went to check one last nest, the owl nest, back at Davidson. There, I got to see some adorable fluffly owl chicks, and their angry not-so-adorable mother…

That was basically my day, and it seems like I’ll be doing the same sort of things for the rest of the week. I may take an afternoon and check out some of Dr. Dorcus’ turtle research but so far I’m really enjoying working with Dr. Stanback and his students. Hopefully I’ll see more cute little chicks and become more useful as the week goes on!

My Senior Project

For my senior project, I will be working at Davidson College with Dr. Mark Stanback in the biology department. Mainly I expect to help him with his research about birds in the area and different aspects of their nesting. I will be going on out golf courses and fields to help his students check the nests and report what we find. Hopefully this experience will give me a sense of whether biology and field research is something I want to pursue as I head off to college.