Tag Team Professors

 On the way back from one of our study plots I spotted this magnificent Bald Eagle perched on top of a wall of rocks above us. I had time to take a few photos before it took off, giving us an amazing show as it's wingspan must have been at least 5-6 feet.

 Dr. Lookingbill insisted on taking pictures of me working this day as he thought I needed to include them in my blog to prove I am in fact doing work. Above is a picture of myself with perhaps the most accurate measurement of a tree ever. It's big.

 Here I am working...

 This plot was freezing, probably below 40 degrees, so we actually relished our turns to be the one measuring the seedlings because it allowed us to move around and warm up as the other person sat freezing on a log recording data.

 Here is Dr. Lookingbill doing his thing.

 We found this scorpion hiding on our porch in an attempt to escape the rain. The only question I had was how on earth it made it to the second floor...

Of course we did what you are supposed to do with all wild animals, we backed it into a corner to see if we could get it to snap its tail at a spoon. Alas, the scorpion was on to us and refused to use his barbed tail on our metal utensil.

 We got him/her into a plastic container for transportation away from the apartments. Pretty cool animal.

 Another picture of those deer that enjoy hanging around our camp. The mom (back right) is pretty firm with her fawns, Dr. Lookingbill saw her kick one of them to get it moving when it wasn't listening. Story of my life.

Yesterday was my first full day working with Dr. Kostadinov, a post-doc working with Dr. Lookingbill who headed back to Richmond for a few weeks before his return in late June. Dr. Kostadinov and I went up to the last plot I had not sampled yet. It was our highest elevation plot, and we had to park the car about a mile from the trail which brought us to the plot. Already there were ominous signs about snow cover as the surrounding peaks we had a crisp white sheen from freshly fallen snow the past few nights.

 The sky was clear during our hike however. Out here it just seems like the blues are more blue, and the greens are more green.

A candid shot of Dr. Kostadinov near the end of our plot. The last 40 meters of the plot drop off very
steeply. Due to snow cover on the plot I was unable to sample this final plot yesterday, so after some practice with Dr. Kostadinov's timelapse camera for analyzing snow depth year round, we headed back down the mountain.

On the way back we got an unbelievable view of South Sister Mountain piercing the clouds.

 Here I am on the road heading back down.

 I think these are hare tracks. On every snowfield these tracks were going everywhich way.

 Dr. Kostadinov shares my love for the simple beauty of the crystal clear water that flows along the side of the roads, and through small snowmelt creeks.

Dr. Kostadinov in his uber-bright pants ahead of me as we crossed the final snowbank before our car.