Hey Friends!
So I'm not even sure what day it is and how on track or off track I am for blogging... half because we've been going and not had a free day since...leaving Hobart...? Like... 2 1/2 weeks ago...?!
We went to Lamington, then to Brisbane, then last weekend we were on North Stradbroke Island and this past week we've been back in Brisbane.
North Straddie was AMAZING though!!! At first I wasn't too happy about going away on our first weekend in Brissy (Also, yeah, all these abbreviations are real, AussIES like to end things in that "-y/-ie sound a lot! -- Tassie, Sydney, Brissy, Straddie... the list goes on... even things that aren't places, like sunnies). Anyways, I was even less thrilled because the forcast was 100% chance of thunderstorms Saturday and Sunday and then 100% rain for Monday. When we left on Saturday the forecast was true to it's word. It was POURING. We had to take a ferry over and we couldn't see more than 20m in any direction. We got to the island and they took us on a boardwalk walk. It's was incredibly beautiful and the swell was beautiful.
While we were there we were staying at the MBRS, the Morton Bay Research Station. We had two incredible tutors with us, Renee and Eliza. We learned all about North Straddie, and how it's a sand island. We learned about the formation and how delicate and unique the different sand island ecosystems are.
The first night we had a lecture and were also able to go out into the bay across the way and practice netting. There were SO many stingrays - we didn't catch any - and for good measure. But we saw a few, which was slightly terrifying. We caught a lot though!
Thankfully the weather turned on Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny day. We explored the mangroves and sea grass flats. I really loved how Eliza and Renee ran the program we had because they let us learn by exploring and just wandering. They would catch certain creatures we'd come across and tell us about them, but we didn't stay packed a group, I didn't take any photos of it, but it was super amazing! We saw HOARDS of soldier crabs and then a ton of sea cucumbers, various fish, a couple stingrays, I even saw some platyhelminths - some flat worms.
The Soldier Crabs are kinda creepy...They look really cool and it was like watching something out of National Geographic. They're appropriately called soldiers because they move like a carpet just scrambling over eachother. It's a bit weird because they almost look like spiders, aund they move in any direction - not just side to side.
We had some more lectures and explored a lot of the island and saw the geographical niches that were there. We went to the beach after lunch and looked at the sand dunes and did a horizontal transect across the island moving inland. Sand islands are very dynamic and are always moving with the cycle of new sand and old sand and nutrient cycling.
When we were there we got to go for a 10 minute swim!! It was like a whole new place, the water was so clear and beautiful and it was warm and sunny. The swell was strong but not too dangerous. It was scary though because we had all run into the water without a second thought, but a few minutes in Nat pointed out a stingray and we all just froze and waiting to find a safe exit out.
After the beach we went to a tea tree lake, called the brown lake. It's a perched lake, above the water table. The water was so clear, and it was sandy and lacked the normal slimy algae stuff. It also felt super nice after the sticky salt water. It was really cool to learn about all the places on the island and then get to go see them. It was also really nice because while we did learn a lot, Eliza and Renee let us be adults. They didn't hold our hands and make us all stop as a group to talk at us. They let us swim and relax a bit but taught us through immersion and discovery.
The last day we were able to go back to the boardwalk and it was a completely different landscape. The water was SO CLEAR and it was just breathtaking. Looked like something out of instagram or pintrest. North Straddie ended up being one of my favorite places, and definitely my favorite weekend / thing we've done so far. It was relaxing despite having that 14 hour Sunday, but it was so insanely beautiful and we we're doing marine biology which I find fascinating.
That's all for now,
got to go finish writing my venom bio proposal,
if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email at ksaylor@lclark.edu
Cheers,
Kate
So I'm not even sure what day it is and how on track or off track I am for blogging... half because we've been going and not had a free day since...leaving Hobart...? Like... 2 1/2 weeks ago...?!
We went to Lamington, then to Brisbane, then last weekend we were on North Stradbroke Island and this past week we've been back in Brisbane.
 |
| Stormy views |
 Mangroves in North Straddie  |
| Solider Crabs |
The first night we had a lecture and were also able to go out into the bay across the way and practice netting. There were SO many stingrays - we didn't catch any - and for good measure. But we saw a few, which was slightly terrifying. We caught a lot though!
Thankfully the weather turned on Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny day. We explored the mangroves and sea grass flats. I really loved how Eliza and Renee ran the program we had because they let us learn by exploring and just wandering. They would catch certain creatures we'd come across and tell us about them, but we didn't stay packed a group, I didn't take any photos of it, but it was super amazing! We saw HOARDS of soldier crabs and then a ton of sea cucumbers, various fish, a couple stingrays, I even saw some platyhelminths - some flat worms.
The Soldier Crabs are kinda creepy...They look really cool and it was like watching something out of National Geographic. They're appropriately called soldiers because they move like a carpet just scrambling over eachother. It's a bit weird because they almost look like spiders, aund they move in any direction - not just side to side.
We had some more lectures and explored a lot of the island and saw the geographical niches that were there. We went to the beach after lunch and looked at the sand dunes and did a horizontal transect across the island moving inland. Sand islands are very dynamic and are always moving with the cycle of new sand and old sand and nutrient cycling.
When we were there we got to go for a 10 minute swim!! It was like a whole new place, the water was so clear and beautiful and it was warm and sunny. The swell was strong but not too dangerous. It was scary though because we had all run into the water without a second thought, but a few minutes in Nat pointed out a stingray and we all just froze and waiting to find a safe exit out.
After the beach we went to a tea tree lake, called the brown lake. It's a perched lake, above the water table. The water was so clear, and it was sandy and lacked the normal slimy algae stuff. It also felt super nice after the sticky salt water. It was really cool to learn about all the places on the island and then get to go see them. It was also really nice because while we did learn a lot, Eliza and Renee let us be adults. They didn't hold our hands and make us all stop as a group to talk at us. They let us swim and relax a bit but taught us through immersion and discovery.
The last day we were able to go back to the boardwalk and it was a completely different landscape. The water was SO CLEAR and it was just breathtaking. Looked like something out of instagram or pintrest. North Straddie ended up being one of my favorite places, and definitely my favorite weekend / thing we've done so far. It was relaxing despite having that 14 hour Sunday, but it was so insanely beautiful and we we're doing marine biology which I find fascinating.
That's all for now,
got to go finish writing my venom bio proposal,
if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email at ksaylor@lclark.edu
Cheers,
Kate