ELago

On March 16, I spotted a distant object in the sky that appeared to be a helicopter flying dangerously low. A quick look into my binoculars let me get a closer look at this star falling from the sky. I did not wish upon this star. I think I would’ve wished for  better ways  to celebrate occasions without [...]

Sometimes fire or rain will impede the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow crew from working in the field. The wildfire that occurred during the first weeks of the field season meant we ended up working on a Saturday. I headed to Everglades National Park and spent my usual day off in the field. I stopped at [...]

It is time to speak of my fear of walking on slippery rocks. I found out about this fear when hiking a Peruvian mountain in Huascarán. There were moments where we had to walk through streams, and I was fine for the first few, but it was quietly making my anxiety grow inside. At one [...]

One of our plots is inaccessible without the use of a helicopter. We step off the helicopter, grab our gear from the back, walk to a safe distance from the helicopter, turn around and see our only way out fly away. On days we conduct transects, we are only 100 meters away from each other [...]

Fire is critical for the pine rockland and prairie habitat of Everglades National Park, but not always beneficial to the Cape Sable seaside sparrows or our work, so we were worried when we saw we saw “Prescribed Burn” and “Smoke Ahead” signs on two occasions when we drove into the park to conduct our field studies. Pinelands are located on higher [...]

This is a photo of my fresh start at the “crying plot” from my last blog post, Highs and Lows. I had oriented myself to face east when I quickly realized I would be walking towards the sun. In the photo you can see the dragonfly I walked around (I know I don’t like to be [...]