Week 28 - Bird Watching, Kyi-Yo Pow-Wow and a Daytrip!

Monday April 13th

Today started off as any ordinary week would. I struggled to roll out of bed at 7am for my genetics lecture, but we were doing really interesting stuff this week! Sexual selection in animals, mainly birds and mammals. Pretty cool stuff! Ornithology essentially consisted of the same stuff as genetics but just bird orientated. So nothing too exciting today in college!
I got home and got working on a peer review paper that is due in this thursday for my recreation behaviour module. It's a tough one, essentially we have to go through a scientific journal and nit pick everything we can find wrong with it. I felt so cruel.

This was my set-up for doing the peer review..

 I've also had a really bad headache all week so I decided I'd head out for a walk/jog, the weather here is just class and I needed a break from my work..

Tuesday April 14th

 I love my mini sleep in until 9.30am on Tuesdays. I cherish it now! :P Classes went on as usual today. In rangeland ecology, Brady (the lecturer seemed a little down). At the start of class he asked us all to take out a sheet of paper with our names on it - so naturally everyone got worried thinking we were getting one of these pop quiz things I see on TV. Nope. He asked us to write down three things we wouldn't sacrifice for our degree/career. He then told us to post these on our walls in our bedroom somewhere and to look at them often and not to forget about them.. We got a nice talk on how life basically does not get any easier the older you get and these things you're not willing to sacrifice will change too. Very deep and philosophical start to my Tuesday morning!

The UMT Clock Tower looking well today.

 Recreation behaviour was the same ole stuff again today, nothing too exciting. After class, Fiona, Tana, Emma, Boston, Shayla and I met up to discuss the peer review we have due for Thursdays class. We got a few ideas around and about the place before heading home.
All today I've had this weird blurry vision, which I've since put down to having a migraine. So yay for that!

Wednesday April 15th

Yeah today was another one of those days where I did not want to get out of bed. But I did. At 7am. As usual. Carried on with the usual stuff today, genetics, then ornithology and then my genetics lab. Nothing new and exciting to report unfortunately!
This afternoon I got to Facetime my cousin Courtney for a while, it was nice to catch up and we had a hilarious look back on old embarrassing photos of ourselves.. Typical! :P After this, I spent my whole evening working on the peer review for tomorrow and I submitted my two reviews for Rangeland Ecology and my rangeland summaries for tomorrow also. That's kind of all this evening consisted of really. I got to watch the new episode of Supernatural as well which was good - as always! :D

Thursday April 16th

Up at 6am this morning for a 7am field trip. It was freezing cold today with frost as well so I had my hat and gloves out. We got a lift to campus with Jamie again this morning - what a lifesaver she is! :D We headed up to an area called Blue Mountain, it's a popular recreational area that people bring their dogs [I know this because our recreation behaviour lecturer Libby complains about people who 1) don't pick up the dog crap and 2) put it in a bag but leave it there. And I got to see this first hand].
We saw so many cool birds!

The beautiful river down by Blue Mountain :)

 Unfortunately I have no pictures cause I didn't bring a camera with me. But we got to see a bunch of swallows mobbing a hawk of some kind. We weren't sure what kind it was but these little birds were all flying above him like crazy and then one would make a massive swoop down towards him. This is insanely cool! And especially cause we literally learned it in class this week, and then we step outside on a field trip and see it in action. Something I love so much about being here! We got to see plenty woodpeckers, and some smaller birds, as well as a bad eagle,  bald eagle nest, AN OWL! I'm pretty sure it was a long eared owl, we saw some mountain bluebirds, some nuthatches.. The list goes on and on! No mammals though.. Oh, we also saw a ruffed grouse carrying out a mating dance! The COOLEST thing I have ever seen! They do this flapping of their wings and like dance in front of the female. It's insanely cool!

This was the only picture I was able to take, you can make out that the little grey blob is an owl :P

 So all of this was done before 10am :P That's when we got back to campus. We had rangeland at 11am and Brady wasn't teaching the class today, so our TA Sarah took over and kicked off the presentations. We had 4 today and they were all on fire and herbivory which was grand. After class, we also got sent back our proposals that were peer reviewed by other class members. One of mine came back and the guy asked me what a waterfowl was.. I don't even know how to respond to that?! :/
We then went through the recreation behaviour peer review with Mike today. It went okay. I feel like I did alright but it's always so hard to tell over here. This evening, Fiona, Kate and I went to Walmart to get some food and Fiona got herself a second suitcase for going home.. Yes that time is drawing close! OH! We also got the fantastic news that Aoife is coming with us on the roadtrip back to New York!! YAY! So excited, it's going to be so much fun :P

Friday April 17th

Another cool genetics lecture again today! We got to watch more clips of David Attenborough, so naturally I wasn't going to complain :D I got home from college today just after 11am and went straight into finishing and posting last weeks blog and writing this weeks. I slacked on keeping up to date with it every day this week. Nevertheless, I got it all written up fairly lively :)
This evening, Fiona, Kate, Aoife, Sarah and I went to watch a bit of the Kyi-Yo PowWow on campus. It's basically a native american celebration involving singing and dancing! This was a competition though I think. Nevertheless, it was really interesting! So cool watching their dancing and how individuals make their own spin on things, it's cool!

This picture goes to show how colourful the whole event was! It was pretty class :)

 After this, we went to Kate's for some cards against humanity! Probably my new favourite game! So we began and I didn't get off to a good start at the beginning, but before long I was on a roll and I ended up winning the game with 11 black cards :D

Some of the cards that I won in Cards Against Humanity :D

 Saturday April 18th

An early start this Saturday morning! Up just after 9am to get ready to leave at 10am. We're going to Flathead today!! :D Met Kate and Bridget at Lewis and Clark and then collected Aoife on campus and we were off!

The Northern part of Flathead Lake :)

 A 2 hour drive until we reached the northern point of the lake near Bigfork MT. We stayed around here for a while before heading down to Finley State Park. Down here, we had a lunch here and then we hopped into the water for a while. It was kinda chilly but you got used to it fairly quickly :P We did some sunbathing here cause the weather was CLASS. Fiona, Aoife, Kate and I walked over the beach a little bit to see if the osprey we saw back in August were still there. And we were in luck! The woman that lives on the property where their nest is, told us they returned yesterday so that was lucky! We watched them for a bit while they fixed up their nest after the bad winter.

Finley State Park :)

One of the Osprey at Flathead. Photo credit to Kate Lowe - thank youuu :)

We left Flathead at about 4pm, it was still lovely and warm out but we wanted to swing by the National Bison Range on our way home - and did we have a good time or what!
Within two minutes, we came across a herd of Bison.

Traffic in Montana :P

We could also hear Western Meadowlark's all over the place and eventually spotted some. They're such pretty birds with a song that sounds like raindrops :P We saw White Tailed Deer, Pronghorn Antelope, some Red-Winged Blackbirds, Yellow-headed Blackbird, some male Mountain Bluebirds and also a hawk of some sort looking for food in the long grass. Basically - we saw a lot of animals! And it was amazing! We got home and stopped off in McDonald's for food cause we were all quite hungry.

Thanks again to Kate Lowe for this stunning picture of the Western Meadowlark - The State Bird of Montana!

 Aoife then came over to ours this evening so we could get planning and booking our roadtrip to Queen's, NY. We got our motels/hostels booked. IT'S OFFICIAL!! WE'RE ROADTRIPPING ACROSS AMERICA!! Yay :D

The Roadtrip has been laid out!! :D

Sunday April 19th

I had planned on sleeping in a little bit today but that didn't happen. I woke up early just because.. Today is going to consist of getting my work done for the week ahead as per usual I have rangeland ecology summaries to get done as well as genetics homework and two proposals - my ornithology and my rangeland ecology one. Fun times ahead!
So I got all my work done for today bar my ornithology proposal. Kate and Roger invited us out for a BBQ which was lovely :D Fiona, Sarah and I went and grabbed some food to bring with us - never go to a party empty handed!

We got back and that night, Fiona asked me to cut her hair.. I had told her before that I would if she wanted me to but I never thought she'd actually say yes! :P I have spent a number of summers watching my aunty cut hair and it always interested me! So, I chopped her hair and it turned out nice if I may say so myself :P I also blowdryed it, which my aunty has taught me to do before so that was pretty cool :D

That is essentially what my week consisted of.. A very random week mind you, but it was a lot of fun! I got to do plenty of bird watching, which I hate to admit is getting more fun each week! Next weekend will also be a fun one. Lots of good times with family and friends as well as more exam banter to look forward to!
Thank you again so much for reading my blog, I can't thank you guys enough!

- Shannen.