What a week! The stress of working in the field and analyzing data for my research poster is real and I don’t see it letting up soon. After squeezing in two weekend days of fieldwork at the tail end of good tides, I started the work week off with an absolute banger. We trekked out to Upper Hidden Creek on Monday to set traps and it was almost comically tough. Upper Hidden Creek requires about ~20 to 30 minutes of carrying heavy equipment across soft mudflats. The key to walking mudflats is being able to disperse your weight, thus preventing you from sinking. Being tall and having large feet (like I am/have) are ideal for this. In fact, I’ve even heard of grad students using boogie boards to slide across deeper mudflats for essentially the same reason. Nicole and Sherlyn, the two amazing humans that helped me set up traps at Upper Hidden Creek, are both more petite than I am and the increased difficulty that came with their size was pretty dramatic. All in all, there were more than a few moments of either losing boots and sinking knee deep for all of us. Even so, Nicole and Sherlyn were both smiling and laughing the entire time. Again, let it be known that they are real troopers and I wouldn't have been able to set up that site without them. By the end of Tuesday, I finished 8 of my study’s 9 surveying sites. Since then, I’ve been at the computer integrating all the data I’ve collected into charts and graphs for my research poster. My statistical skills are rusty so interpreting the data has been a struggle. Shon, Sebastian, Victoria, and Flynn have all given me helping hands, resources, and brainstorming time to me and I’m grateful for all it. Hopefully by next week's blog I’ll have both results to share on here! Despite it being a heavy work week we've all taken time for some special celebrations. Chloe’s 21st birthday was on Tuesday and we took her out to a local waterfront bar for her first drink and some tasty desserts. Friday marked the Invertebrate Costume Ball AKA the ~~Spinless Soiree~~ . I went as my favorite tide pooling invertebrate, the California sea cucumber (Parastichopus californicus). The UO students on campus went all out, bringing some top notch craftsmanship and creativity to the costume runway. After the ball the REUs piled into cars and drove to town to listen to some live music at a bar and take a break from the building pressure of our research posters.
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AuthorHello! My name is Colleen Walker. I'm a New Yorker now living in Oregon where I am pursuing an AS in Biology at Clackamas Community College. This summer I'll be studying the European green crab alongside Dr. Shon Schooler at the South Slough National Estuary Research Reserve. Archives
August 2022
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