Week 34- Wildlife Watching and Roadtrips

Monday 13th April-
Just the regular Monday for me, class and two shifts in work.

Tuesday 14th April-
Had my rangeland ecology class where we moved onto the topic of fire. Fire was historically a natural part of the prairie ecosystem, however settlers stopped fires from occurring. This has lead to an invasion of trees onto the prairie, changing the ecosystem. Now people are using controlled fires to try and revert back to the natural conditions. In my recreation behaviour class we are currently doing a peer review on a published paper from the 1970s, which should not have been published. I met up with some friends after class and we talked about problems we'd found in the paper. That evening I wrote up my peer review, trying not to be as negative as possible and failing miserably.

Wednesday 15th April-
The theme in the Foodzoo today was an Italian family restaurant, so we had to wear costumes to look like gondoliers. I was working on a gnocchi bar frying up toppings for people to have for their lunch, which was pretty fun. In my two hour break I went outside to do my homework because it was 20°C (68°F). I had my shift in pantry that evening and handed in my two weeks notice. So I'll have two weeks in Missoula where I won't be working.

Thursday 16th April-
For our 7am birding fieldtrip we went to Blue Mountain, which is a popular recreation area with lots of little trails. We saw a ton of birds including chickadees, sparrows, finches, ducks and nuthatches. We even saw some pretty cool behaviour of tree swallows trying to drive off a hawk, a spruce grouse displaying to a mate (very rare to see and hear, it sounds like a tractor starting up), a bald eagle nesting, a turkey vulcher soaring and a long eared owl roosting. After my field trip I had my rangeland class and recreation behaviour. We found out our lecturer's (Brady) paper is being published. It's about how much damage and land oil wells are taking up on the prairie. Turns out it takes up enough area to support 4 million cows a year! That evening I relaxed and watched some tv. 

Not a bad spot for bird watching

Friday 17th April-
After my classes and shift at work, I came home and got ready really quickly for the Kyi-yo Pow-wow. This was a Native American celebration where many tribes came together and competed in dances. The competitor were wearing amazing costumes, some made with traditional feathers and some with modern synthetic feathers. It was amazing to watch. After the pow-wow we headed to Kate's house to play Cards Against Humanity for the night.

Saturday 18th April-
Today Shannen, Aoife, Kate, Bridget and I headed on a mini roadtrip up to Flathead lake. Seeing as our time is quickly disappearing we decided to go see it again. There had been a big change since I'd been here in August. The water level was much lower because the snowmelt hasn't made it here yet. We drove up to Wayfarers Park and explored there for a while before heading back down to Finley State Park. We had a picnic here and went swimming for a bit. It was so cold! Reminded me of trip to the beach in Ireland. After swimming, or rather walking around in the shallow water, for a while we went to look for the ospreys we'd seen in August. Sure enough we found them in the same spot, usually a pair will return to the same nest each year. A woman let us know that they had only just returned the day before so we were lucky to see them. On our way home I suggested we go to the Bison Range because we may not get another chance. We had a very productive trip and saw western meadowlarks, mountain bluebirds, bison, red-winged blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds, columbian ground squirrels, elk, deer, pronghorn, and a hawk. Safe to say we were happy with our visit. That night Shannen, Aoife and I booked the roadtrip to New York. I was so happy when Aoife said she could come on the trip with us. We'll be on the road for 10 nights. Our route is: Missoula, MT- West Yellowstone, MT- Yellowstone National Park- Greybull, WY- Mt. Rushmore, SD- Rapid City, SD- Badlands National Park, SD- Le Mars, IA- Omaha, NE- Bettendorf, IA- Chicago, IL- Leamington, Canada- Niagara Falls- Queens, NY. I get to New York on the 25th and fly to Ireland on the 29th.
 

The Osprey pair

Kate, Bridget, Aoife, Me and Shannen in front of Elk antlers

Western meadowlark

Columbian ground squirrel

Yellow-headed blackbird

Red-winged blackbird

Bison with the Mission Mountains

Our Route

Sunday 19th April-
I spent the day doing assignments seeing as I took Saturday off. That evening Kate asked Sarah, Shannen and I to a BBQ with her friends. After quickly running to Albertsons for supplies we headed over. We had a lovely evening relaxing in the sun with the first summer BBQ. That night I let Shannen cut my hair. Her aunt had shown her how to cut hair properly and she actually did a great job. She never offered me a cup of tea though... tut tut Shannen! :P

Thanks Kate for the photo :)

Thanks for reading this weeks post. My stay in Missoula is quickly coming to an end, but I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to visit such an amazing place- Fiona















  

Week 33- 1500 Views!

1500! I never thought this blog would make 500 views, nevermind 1500! I just want to thank everyone who reads my blog on a regular basis and those who read it from time to time. Thanks for making this little blog a success.

Saturday 4th April-

Back to reality after spring break, I spent most of today catching up on college work. I had a take home exam to do for my genetics class, papers to read for recreation behaviour and had to complete my research proposal for my rangeland class. That night I finally got to watch Intersteller, which I'd been waiting to watch since it came out. It was a great movie but difficult to follow in places. I guess I'll just have to rewatch it.

Apparently Mya was upset I didn't bring her on spring break

Sunday 5th April-

I continued with my homework today. I finished everything I'd started  the day before and started on rangeland summaries. As there was not a place for me to upload these online like there usually is, I couldn't tell if we actually had to do summaries this week or not. I got one done that day.

Monday 6th April-

In my 8am genetics class we've moved onto the "fun" genetics, which focuses on natural selection and adaptations. We were shown some adaptations seen in old field mice to match their fur to backgrounds depending on whether they live at the beach or in fields. After that, I had an hour off before my ornithology class. In ornithology we moved on to bird song and why song is so important to birds. This will be our main topic for the next week or so. After that it was straight off to work. I had my two shifts which went grand. 

Tuesday 7th April-

In my rangeland class I found out that there are summaries due this week and that I'm supposed to be presenting one of the papers on Thursday.... ooops. I got assigned a paper on wild horses in the U.S.A. and how they can degrade the landscape. So after my recreation class I headed home and started to throw a powerpoint presentation together and summarise the other two papers. By that evening I had a semi-decent presentation put together which hopefully will go over well. There are house finches building nests outside our window. The more red the male is the more attractive he is to the ladies.

I shall nickname him Red

Wednesday 8th April-
In ornithology we got our exam results back. I got 94%, not bad for someone who was sick taking it. I had my double work shifts and read my recreation paper in between them.

Thursday 9th April-
This morning I had a 7am field trip for my ornithology lab. We went to the Flight Research Station at Fort Missoula and set up mist nets. We split up between the two TA's, Sara and Riccardo, to set up the nets with 6 students per group. You learn so much more in small groups. These are nets which when set up properly become virtually invisible, even to people. We went inside, talked about how to handle birds when we catch them and how to process them. About fifteen minutes later we went outside again and there were five birds in our nets! I thought we'd be lucky if we caught one. The five birds were all juncos and pretty cranky at being caught. We put one in a bag, released another, one escaped as it was freed, we let another go because its leg looked odd and held the fifth. We brought them inside and saw Riccardo's group were processing a European house sparrow. As these are an invasive species you are allowed to practice taking blood from them and use them to practice measurements. Don't worry birds heal very quickly and if held correctly will not get stressed out. We released our two juncos after showing them to the other group. We checked our nets and had caught another house sparrow, so we measured and recorded this one. After this Sara showed us how to properly take down and store a mist net so that it doesn't tangle and become useless. We got dropped back to campus and I spent the next hour preparing for my presentation. I headed to my rangeland class and found I would be going third. My presentation went well I think, I got 90% for it so I was happy. We had a new teacher for my recreation behaviour class. She will be teaching the next two classes about attachment to place and what makes a place important to a person. That evening Shannen and I relaxed and watched The Lion King.

Removing a junco from a mist net

A male junco

Taking a blood sample from a sparrow

Friday 10th April-
My genetics and ornithology classes went fine. Shannen and I did a Spring clean of the whole apartment so we won't have to clean it so much during finals week. I went off to work for my three hour shift in the kitchen. That evening I corrected two of my classmates proposals for rangeland. This helps to give us an idea of how to give constructive criticism. I spent the night finding the cheapest possible motels and hostels for our roadtrip back to New York. I worked out a route which will look something like this.. Missoula-Buffalo-Mt.Rushmore-Rapid City-Badlands National Park-Sioux City-Omaha-Des Moines-Davenport-Chicago-Detroit-Niagara Falls-New York. That's 2668 miles in roughly 9 nights :D

Saturday 11th April-
I did what I do most Saturday's and spent the day working on assignments. Kate, Shannen and I went for a walk for a break to a nearby playground. We played basketball and went on the swings for a while before it stated to rain. Then twas back to the books for me for the evening. Kate found out that she won't be able to come on the road trip with us anymore :( . I really wish she were able to, it would have been fun to have her along.

Some pretty dark storm clouds rolling in

Sunday 12th April-
Sunday consisted of more of the same. Assignments and more assignments. My ornithology proposal draft essentially got torn apart, so I'll probably have to come up with a new topic to propose studying. Safe to say I was fairly annoyed to have to redo it. So instead Shannen and I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. Safe to say I was fairly excited for the return of GoT. The first episode more than made up for the years wait. Very important question; Who do you want to see on the Iron Throne and why? That evening I watched two documentaries about the Kalahari in Africa with Sarah.

So that's what I got up to on my first week back to college after Spring Break. I hope you enjoyed this week's blog. - Fiona

Week 32- Spring Break!

Friday 27th March-

So after about two hours sleep I was up and ready to go to the airport. Desiree drove Kate, Caitriona, Shannen and I there. We were checked in and through security in no time, a great thing about Missoula airport. Our flight took off with no delays and after a short stopover in Salt Lake City we made in to San Francisco by 12pm. It was very easy to get to our hostel, The San Francisco International Hostel, by just taking the subway and walking about a block. The location was great just a 2 minute walk to the main shopping street, and at only $23a night for a four bed en-suite room it was great value too. Mairead was getting a later flight that evening and would share a room with Caitriona.  That day we walked to City Hall and The Painted Ladies, which are a famous row of Victorian style houses. We relaxed there for a while, soaking up some much needed sun and watching the hummingbirds zoom by. First time I ever saw a hummingbird and to say I shouted "HUMMINGBIRD!" with excitement would not be a lie :P .  That evening we went to Union Square and Chinatown, where we browsed the many souvenirs and trinkets on sale. For dinner we went to Viva, a lovely little Italian restaurant where I had the nicest spaghetti bolognese I think I've had.

City Hall

The Painted Ladies

Chinatown Gate

Carved Mammoth Tusk

Saturday 28th March-

The hostel offered free all-you-can-make pancakes before 9am so I took advantage of that for breakfast. Today we started off at the Ferry Building and enjoyed the local food and crafts market there. We got a free shuttle bus to Presidio Park and another to The Golden Gate Bridge. It really is a sight to see, spanning almost 2 miles across San Francisco Bay. From here we could also see Alcatraz Island. After visiting the bridge we got a bus to Golden Gate Park, which despite the name is not anywhere near the bridge. We wandered here for a while before heading to the Japanese Tea Gardens. These were lovely but were not worth the $8 admittance fee. I was not expecting the crowds there either, which did not lead to a nice quiet peaceful walk through the gardens. After the Gardens we caught another bus to Ocean Beach, a huge sandy beach stretching 3.5 miles along the coast. We sat and enjoyed the views from here for a while before jumping on a bus back to the hostel. We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory that night which was lovely. Naturally we got cheesecakes to go seeing as we were all so stuffed from dinner. 

The Ferry Building

Shannen, Kate, Desiree, Me, Caitriona and Mairead

Koi fish at the Japanese Tea Gardens

 

Ocean Beach

Sunday 29th March-

Shannen and I had an early start that morning seeing as we were going on a bus tour to Yosemite National Park at 6am which cost $139. Our tour driver was a little old Chinese man who'd learned English in Alabama and so you could only imagine his accent! I tried to sleep on the drive there but kept getting woken up by a screaming toddler. His mother had given him a big chocolate cupcake for breakfast and pretty soon he was throwing it up. Safe to say the drive there was not an enjoyable one. When there we first stopped at a high view point that overlooked the entire Yosemite Valley. From here we could see Brideveil Falls, El Capitan and Half Dome Hill.Our bus driver dropped us off at Yosemite Falls for two hours on our own. We had our lunch at the near the base of the falls, which are the tallest in North America and fifth in the world. I decided to climb closer to the falls and got close enough to feel the mist from them. After that we walked through the forest to the information center. We explored here for a while learning about the history of the park. All too soon our time was up and we had to get back on the bus. There was only 15 people going back to San Francisco so the bus was nice and quiet. Our driver put on a movie about the California gold rush and the Disney movie Enchanted to keep us entertained. We got back to our hostel at around 10pm and headed straight to bed.

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Falls

El Capitan- The Dawn Wall

Just canoeing ma tree!

Monday 30th March-

This morning we had our tour to Alcatraz Island. I was expecting the island to be creepy but instead it was really interesting. We had self guided audio tours which were narrated by former guards and convicts. This made the tour very authentic and the stories they told very realistic. The island is home to many waterbird species, including gulls and cormorants who nest there.  After we finished we got the ferry back to Pier 33 and walked to the famous Pier 39, also known as fisherman's wharf. We had dinner on the pier where I has San Fran's specialty seafood chowder in a sourdough breadbowl. The Pier had lots of cute little souvenir shops and tourist attractions. The main attraction though was the colony of California Sea Lions which make the pier their home. They even have their own pontoons to relax on. When we were finished at the pier we walked up a few hills to Lombard Street, often called the crookedest street in the world. I didn't think that title is far wrong as I watched cars meander down the switchbacks. We climbed up Lombard street and jumped on the cable car home from here. I sat on the outside for most of the journey but then decided to stand up and hold onto the outside, which was both terrifying and thrilling going down San Frans hills. That night we had to pack for our flight to Las Vegas the next day.

Alcatraz Island

 

Signs from the Native American takeover

A typical cell

Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl

Amusements on Pier 39

Sea Lions

Lombard Street

Tuesday 31st March-

Mairead's flight back to Missoula was early that morning so we didn't see her. Caitriona, Kate, Desiree, Shannen and I headed to the airport nice and early before our 12pm flights. Caitriona was heading the Seattle for the rest of Spring Break so that just meant four of us would go to Las Vegas. When we landed we got the bus to our hostel, Hostel Cat. This hostel was on $16 a night for a six bed dorm so I wasn't expecting much. However, our room was nice surprise. It was much more spacious the our San Fran room, we had our own bathroom and shower and the beds were much nicer. We had a roommate, a Brazilian girl who was on exchange at university in New Orleans. After we'd dropped off our bags we walked to the Stratosphere casino and got the bus from here to the Strip. To say it's insane is an understatement. The casinos are huge and their themes are elaborate. Caesars Palace is one mile long from end to end! We had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe and the food was unreal. After that we just wandered around the strip until 9.30pm when we watched the Bellagio's famous water fountain show. This was amazing to see the water timed to a song. After that we went home to the hostel because we had an early start the next day.

Our cute little hostel

The Stratosphere Tower

Las Vegas Strip

New York New York

Bellagio Fountain Show

Wednesday 1st April-

By early start I mean we were up at 5am. We were all going on a bus tour to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. This tour only cost $89, which was great for what we got. after we were picked up at our hostel we were given bottles of water, a breakfast pastry and coffee. Out tour driver, Frosty, was very informative while also being funny. He told us all about the history of Las Vegas, Boulder City, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, as well as pointing out little historical sites along the drive. Our first stop was Hoover Dam, an impressive 221m high. We noticed a white line along the shore of Lake Mead which Frosty informed us is usually how high the water reaches. It really shows just how much of a drought Nevada is in. After Hoover Dam we crossed the new bypass bridge and continued west to the grand canyon. Frosty put on Independence Day, the sci-fi movie with Will Smith. Some of the scenes had been shot in a little town we passed through. We stopped at a little town called Williams for a free all you can eat buffet lunch. This was included with our ticket and was a nice surprise seeing as we expected a packed sandwich to be our lunch. I had a salad, a pulled pork burger, wedges and vegetables for lunch and warm apple tart and ice cream for dessert. We continued on our way and just finished Independence Day as we arrived at the park. Our first stop was Mather Point, a beautiful overlook of the canyon. Frosty gave us two options: spend an hour here,get driven to Bright Angel point and spend another hour there, or walk the two mile to Bright Angel. We chose the hike and it was so worth it. We got to see many different viewpoints of the Canyon along the way. To say the the Grand Canyon is breathtaking does not do it justice. Along the way, Kate and I climbed down to an overhang to look straight down into the canyon, which was terrifyingly amazing. We took almost two and a half hours to get to Bright Angel just because there were so many point to stop and take it all in. We left the canyon at 4.30pm and Frosty had more movies for the drive home, Runaway Vacation with Robin Williams and Parental Guidance. We were dropped off at our hostel at 10pm, feeling tired but happy. This tour was much better that the Yosemite tour and had a lot more included. That said I'm still delighted to have vised both National Parks.

Hoover Dam

The white line is where the water should be..

Just chilling :)

Taking it all in

Kate and I on the overhang

Thursday 2nd April-

We decided on our last day of holidays to treat ourselves to breakfast at Denny's. We spent the entire day working our way down the Strip; starting at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign and finishing at the Venetian Casino. We had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in the MGM Grand with Desiree's aunt Amanda and her fiancee Zach, who had both gone to the University of Montana. We had a great conversation with them and spent over three hours there. It was lovely to meet them. After dinner we walked to the Mirage for their Volcano fire show. This was even more impressive than the Bellagio's fountain show. Kate and I were so close we could feel the heat from the flames and smell the gas. It was a great way to finish our trip at Las Vegas.

Viva Las Vegas

First we visited ancient Egypt..

Then Medieval Europe..

Stopped off in New York for a bit..

Said Hello to the MGM Lion..

and dropped into the Rainforest..

escaped an exploding volcano..

Before finishing up with a relaxing gondola ride in Venice..

Friday 3rd April-

Our flight was at 9am so we got the bus the the airport nice and early. Desiree was on a later flight than Kate, Shannen and I so we said bye to her at the airport. We were flying home with Allegiant who offered cheap flights to Missoula. The airplane was uncomfortably cold so it was pretty hard to sleep on the plane. We flew up the Bitterroot valley, between the Rockies and I watched as we approached Missoula, hopefully not for the last time. We landed, collected our bags and got the bus back to Lewis and Clark. Waiting at the door for me was my replacement camera from Sony. They couldn't fix my one so gave me the same model free of charge. Once in my apartment I couldn't get the lock open on my bag. The office didn't have lock cutters so I had to force open the lock to get my room keys, ah well. I spent the rest of the day going through almost 900 pictures and putting the best on Facebook for my friends and family to see. That evening I finished off season 2 of The 100, which had finished up earlier that month I just didn't have time to watch it.

So that was the main part if my Spring Break. I hope you enjoyed reading about my travels and if any of you are thinking of visiting any of the places I've been don't hesitate too ask me for tips. I had a great trip and it was the experience of a lifetime. - Fiona :)