Monday, August 3, 2009

What do field biologists do at night?

Answer: be equally nerdy if not nerdier than they are during the day.

It rained all yesterday afternoon which meant tape analysis for me. Analyzing tapes consists of watching the footage which was (usually) boring to film over again. Plus many of the movements the lizards make are less than a split second so you watch the clip over and over again to determine when exactly it started and stopped moving. Very annoying, especially when they jump off camera. Still, it was nice to give my feet a rest.

Anthony's afternoon was slightly more interesting. He found some aquatic anoles (they jump in teh water and swim away when scared), wrestled a croc (and managed to take a photo of himself on it) and a HUGE boa constrictor. I am not that hard core. We later challenged him to catch an agouti in the backyard. I don't know which is funnier/sadder, Anthony's Mr. Miyagi like attempts to catch the flighty rodents or the fact that it was one of the most entertaining things I've seen in a while.

We also went to the convenience store in town. There were 5 us all in khaki field pants or shorts walking down the street shoulder to shoulder. We looked like the Jets' nerdier second cousins. It was worth it. There is really nothing better than a cold Snickers bar when you're sitting in 80 F weather with 100% humidity. We then walked back to the house and watched Planet Earth. (With David Attenborough, obviously.) Hence the title of today's entry (...it's hard to come up with original titles).

Today was more of the same -- up to the observation tower, film the large skittish anoles. We caught two and some tourists took our pictures with them. I'm going to be a big star. I just know it.

Summary:
- tourists continue to be weird
- Anthony is either a baller or certifiably insane
- more lizards

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