#field work

[lichenaday]

Got bit by a new bird species today!

Red-eyed vireo (Vireo olivaceus)

This guy doesn't even go here! Recent high winds blew him over to Iceland from his typical American homeland. Awww, kinda like me!

(I am a licensed bird ringer for the country of Iceland and all animals are captured and handled according to regulations under the authority of the Natural Science Institute of Iceland)

[markscherz]

My team and I have just concluded the first part of our three-destination field trip here in Madagascar. It took us to the littoral forest of Agnalazaha in the south central east of the island. This forest is incredible; it is basically on top of sand dunes, with verdant swamps in the shallow valleys in between.

Here we lived and worked for the last five days, collecting specimens for my project looking at the genomics of miniaturisation in vertebrates, GEMINI. Our field lab was something to behold.

We came to Agnalazaha in search of Mini mum, which my team and I had previously documented from this area for the first time. We found them—lots and lots of them.

Every morning the air is full of the little peeping calls of Mini; it starts around 5, and continues until about 10. The calls alone suggest there are thousands upon thousands of these tiny frogs everywhere in the forest—but finding them is no mean feat. Fortunately I had an awesome team with me, whose hard work payed off, and we were able to get the samples we needed!

The Mini frog population density really blew me away. In some areas we found as many as five individuals in one square metre of leaf litter. A back-of-envelope calculation puts the population in the protected area at something like 80 million frogs! That’s almost certainly exaggerated, but maybe not by much! Still, Agnalazaha is one of just a few remaining fragments of this awesome forest type, so the species is surely highly threatened by habitat loss.

Our work now takes us to another protected area: the famed Ranomafana National Park, where we will be hunting for another hyper-miniaturised frog that is not closely related to Mini at all—Anodonthyla eximia! That species is known from just a single individual, collected in the leaf litter after a cyclone. So, I am hopeful, but not yet too optimistic, about our chances of success to find that species over the next week and a half!

[tgirl-tamag0tchi]

Measuring circumferences of trees with oak galls…

Bio major shit

[dykesandditches]

So many colors! I’m starting to love fall on the marsh. The red spot is red saltwort or Rocky Mountain saltwort. It’s a really special species to see as it’s only found in high elevations or latitudes and has to be in soils with high salinity. It’s considered extinct in a few states and is protected in others. The photo doesn’t even capture how vividly red it is. This is a relatively small patch compared to others I’ve seen around, but I thought it was especially beautiful with the turning bulrush and mountains.

[faeriefinder]

Beautiful art and border of Emily, Wendell, and Shadow by Meghan.elise.art on Instagram!

[dum-dum-duum]

Sociological research with fanfic writers

Hello everyone,

I’m a sociology major writing a thesis on hyperreality created by fanfics. For my thesis, I am conducting a field research study focused on fanfic writers and their relationship with both fandom and Story. 

The interview involves a 60-minute chat. There will be no recordings, the camera is optional. We can do an audio-only chat. During the interview, I’d like to talk about fandom’s place in the fanfic writer’s life, fandom’s community effect, and mainly why you are writing fanfiction (and not an ‘original’ work for example). And finally, the writer’s perception of the characters.

I’m conducting interviews with writers who meet at least one of these criteria:

- writing fanfic for 5+ years, or

- 30 or more posted stories, or

- a cumulative 100k words or above.

I completely understand that anonymity is important in fandom, so I won’t ask for your real name or any identifying details. But what I do need during the interview is some general background information to help build a typology, like:

Family background: work, income level, education level

Personal: age, occupation, income level, education level, and country of residence

If you would be willing to help me with this project and be one of the interviewees, help me connect with other fanfic-writers or have any questions, please dm me or simply reblog :]

[ochipi]

Currently digging a Roman site (hence my inactivity lately), but having been raised on René Gossini and Albert Uderzo I quote;

“Ils sont fous ces Romains”

(Crazy lot those Romans)