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.
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| 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.
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| The Osprey pair |
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| Kate, Bridget, Aoife, Me and Shannen in front of Elk antlers |
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| Western meadowlark |
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| Columbian ground squirrel |
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| Yellow-headed blackbird |
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| Red-winged blackbird |
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| Bison with the Mission Mountains |
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| Our Route |
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
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| 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
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