Time Gone By...

It's hard to believe I've been here for 5 weeks already! I only have 5 more left. So sad! This was the final week of class for Ecology here at KBS. I'll have about a 10 day break before I begin taking Physics at Western Michigan. I have really enjoyed the lecture class. We've gone on so many field trips; it's been great! We went to Saugatuck Dunes State Park a few weeks ago to look at dune succession. Last week, we went to the Pond Lab to study red-winged blackbird behavior. If you want to hear more about the adventures we went on in my class, check out our Natural History Blog and Ecology Class Blog!
This week was one of two "Eminent Ecologist" weeks at KBS. They bring in an ecologist to do two lectures as well as meet with students and faculty one on one or in small groups. The ecologist of the week was Joel Brown, a researcher and faculty at University of Illinois-Chicago. The first of the two lectures was on Evolutionary Game Theory. It was quite interesting as he is a very enthusiastic speaker, but quickly got over my head, which was unfortunate. The second talk was much better as it was about the studies he has done. They are fascinating! He has worked with grad students on tracking blue sheep (which are actually brown goats...), which is the prey of snow leopards. The grad student became so good at tracking where the prey would go that they were able to see snow leopards in the wild, which is something that very few people have done. Joel Brown also works on cancer cells and determining how they evolve and adapt within the body. It was really, really neat!
Coincidentally, the final project my partner and I chose for our Ecology Lab was very similar to Brown's squirrel experiments. We observed the eating behaviors of chipmunks in relation to threat level as determined by human presence. We didn't get great data, or very much, but found that chipmunks prefer to eat from areas that are moderately populated.
A couple weeks ago, Venus crossed in front of the sun. A group of undergrads got together to watch it. One girl made a contraption using binoculars and projecting the image onto a piece of white cardboard. We were able to see a tiny, dark dot as it moved across the sun. This event won't happen for 105 more years! Unless I live to be 123, I won't see it again.

It's hard to see, but there is a tiny speck in the lower righthand quarter of the sun-that's Venus! 

I was able to get up and go for a long run this morning before it got too ridiculously hot. It's supposed to be in the 90s for the next couple days. Luckily, I'm living on a lake and took the opportunity to swim a little bit after I ran. It felt so refreshing! I am thinking about doing the Shermanator Triathlon in August, but haven't officially decided one way or the other yet.