This Fall and my RI Big Year!

So I have not updated this blog in quite sometime. I got pretty wrapped up and absorbed in my studies this last semester. I finished with a 3.94 which raised my gpa by .01 (Bringing it to a 3.9). My classes were challenging, relevant, and exciting! Field botany was a dream! Squeezing in work was a challenge and required alarms set to 5:00 am and bushwhacking runs through the forest. I finished vegetation classification surveys for three locations and surveyed over 60 transect points. The surveys were to monitor landbird
habitat and each transect was located at a breeding bird survey point. Currently I am working on the New England Cottontail survey effort which requires searching for and collecting pellets when the weather (snow) cooperates and trapping when it doesn't. Super fun work!!! I absolutely love it!
I decided to do a RI big year! A frivolous incentive to go birding, chase down birds, and have adventures. I am sitting in my car writing this, waiting for a pair of Tundra Swans to show up(it's 5 degrees F). I am hoping to get a lesser black-backed gull later at Ninigret NWR. As of now I have 77 species and I am looking forward to picking up more including some lifers. The listing excitement can be followed on http://ybl2011.ribird.org/lists
I have been filling the surf void with birding. RI has been flat for weeks and thus I have not surfed in weeks, anxiously awaiting swell!
Always chase your dreams and fight for your happiness! -Ryan

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