Birding FTW

That's For The Win, for all you internet-lingo illiterate readers :P Exciting things have happened! But not on Sunday - I was a slug all day Sunday, came home from Natas and cleaned up a bit, then watched Dogma. Have any of you seen that?! Alan Rickman as the seraphim responsible for being the Voice of God, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as Bartleby and Loki, respectively (fallen angels), Chris Rock as the 13th apostle, Jay and Silent Bob are prophets, and Alanis Morissette as God?! It was ridiculous. But worth watching, in a now-I-can-say-I've-seen-it sort of way. I also watched the first half of Zodiac, and finished the other half in the morning. It was great, but I'm not sure that's because it was well done or because I got to watch Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Junior in a movie at the same time. :D
Monday, yesterday, was the day when things happened haha I finally got my butt on a bus and went up to Trent to meet with Joe Nocera, my supervisor. I went to the terminal downtown to buy a 10-ride bus pass and caught the number 1 George North bus, which goes all the way up to Trent. I was surprised again by how friendly everyone is - the bus driver was awesome. You could pull the stop string anywhere you wanted and tell him which corner to drop you on. He drove a couple of elderly people right to their door. And stopped for a second to yell good-natured abuse at a senior man sporting a Boston Bruins hat. The downside is that route is kind of circuitous so it took almost 40 minutes to get up to Trent. There is a route called Trent Express which goes more or less straight there but unfortunately it runs only a couple of times a day in the summer.
So I finally know what my thesis is going to be based on!! Well, for the moment anyway lol I'm not naive enough to think it can't change. But for right now, it's going to be on the different habitat types in southern Ontario and which migratory grassland birds use which habitat, and for what, and how the different species compete and/or co-exist. I need to think of a more concise title :P but that's really very exciting to me :D because my field work is going to consist of driving all around Northumberland County and doing Breeding Bird Survey-style point counts in different habitats, to see who's where and what they're up to. Birding! Every morning! Squeeeeeeeeeee :) Joe is renting a vehicle for me to use to get around, preferably a Subaru or something else designed to get around on highways and dirt roads alike. Ideally all the counts will be done between dawn and 10 am, so I really need to get my internal clock rearranged so I'm actually alive that early in the morning haha. I'll be working with the Nature Conservancy of Canada as well as with another organization which I can't remember the name of...bah. For those of you wondering what the point of it all is, I'll be focusing on six or so species which are at risk, and their use of different habitats in this area is largely unknown. At a time where hay farmers are taking a lot of the burden economically for the conservation of these species, it's important to figure out whether a particular bird ONLY uses hay fields for nesting or whether they can use different habitats. Right now, we can say such-and-such is bobolink habitat, but we can't say conclusively that they CAN'T use other habitats. We can also say that it appears that the eastern meadowlark and bobolinks do not coexist, and that the meadowlark seems to oust the bobolink, but this has not been tested or proven, simply observed.
Wow I'm excited. That was long-winded. I'm off now to do actual research lol must read up on grassland birds, where they are known to be found, and majorly brush up on my ID skills.
<3 <3 <3
Oh and I also have my own internet now!!! Yay. And I'll end with a picture of the lovely kitty Tao. She was mad at me yesterday for putting flea treatment on her, but we've made up.