Our marine biology research project has continued this
week. In addition to the amphipods we
were looking for we’re finding all sorts of other cool things in the sand we
collected including worms, some long bugs I don’t recognize, and a shrimp. We’re hoping to have our report drafted by
next Friday so I should start working on that.
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| A rather grumpy looking shrimp |
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| I'm not really sure what these are |
I spent this weekend catching up on sleep and then
gardening, exploring the woods, and playing with my critters. I live off campus and the yard of the house I’m
renting is black plastic and mulch, nothing else. I’ve started a fairly healthy container
garden to help add some green. I have
tomato and pumpkin plants which seem to be doing well and I just transplanted
cauliflower and peas into larger pots.
Just down the road from my house is an old graveyard. It’s used as a community space so lots of
people go on walks, pick berries, or play with their dogs there. The area is partially wooded so it’s home to
a lot of wildlife. While we were
bringing my housemate’s dog to the graveyard for a romp, we saw a really
beautiful coyote. The locals call him Charles. I’ve been told he was a part of a nearby
pack, but got kicked out and has been living around the graveyard for the past
year or two. He’s never caused any
trouble so other than the occasional dog who feels like chasing a coyote,
Charles has been left alone.
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| Charles the coyote |
I also spent time bonding with my critters. I have two rats, Jasper & Mr. Snow, and a
pigeon, Tuppence. The two rats are very
friendly and had a lot of fun looking for carrot chunks in a pile of cardboard
and paper. Tuppence is still working on
being tamed down. Walking down a street
in Portland you’d be surprised that a pigeon would take awhile to tame because
you can get the feral ones to come up to your hands for food, but not Tup. Tup’s a picky eater. I’d never have thought I’d meet a pigeon who
wouldn’t eat bread, but here I am today.
Tup only eats her seed mix. No
matter what I try to offer her she ignores it completely and will pick around
it in her food bowl. We made some
progress this weekend and she finally sat on my hand for a bit. I was so proud!
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| Mr. Snow trying to get carrot out of a tube |
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| Jasper wondering what I'm doing |
Have questions about life at L&C? Please email me at
ameliaberle@lclark.edu