Snake Surgery

On Tuesday evening my reseach student, Eric, and I packed up all of my surgical supplies and headed to Johnson Co., KS, to implant some rattlesnakes. Animal Control, supervised by my friend and colleague, Jennifer, had recovered two courting rattlesnakes from a resident's backyard after they became entangled in landscape fabric. We were asked to come out and implant radio-transmitters in these two so that they could be released and their movements tracked by radio-telemetry. This picture shows me suturing up a very large male. Actually, Timber Rattlesnakes aren't NEARLY as huge as people think - he was one of the largest males we've caught and he was only 3.2 feet long and weighed just over 2 pounds! The other snake was a big, pregnant female (rattlesnakes give live birth), so we were extremely careful with her. Both of them recovered well and are doing great. They will be released later this week.

Back from Ireland

Aric and my brother, Jeremy, and I just returned from a week in Ireland. It was AMAZING! We spent several days in Dublin seeing the sites and took the train across the beautiful countryside to the west. We rented a car in Limerick and from there my brother masterfully drove us around on the left side of incredibly narrow roads and round-abouts. We were very fortunate to be able to stay in the childhood village of Dr. Mairead Greene (of the RU Math Dept.) in her grandfather's home. Our time in the west was spent on the beach, at the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher, in picturesque Irish castles, and in the wonderful little town of Ennis. Ireland is a truly remarkable place and I only wish we'd had more time there! Pictured are Jeremy and Aric in front of the High Cross at Dysert O'Dea in Co. Clare, and me and Jeremy under the waterfall at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.

Buck O'Neil Legacy Seat

A while back, Aric nominated me for the honor of sitting in the great Buck O'Neil's Legacy Seat at a KC Royals game. Buck O'Neil was a Kansas City legend and a hero to baseball. He played in the Negro Leagues, was the first African-American coach of a MLB team, and established the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in KC (you should definitely see this museum!). He also performed countless other services for the Kansas City community and has been greatly missed since his death a few years ago. As a tribute to Buck, his seat at Kauffman Stadium is always filled during Royals home games, and the person with the honor of sitting in his seat must first be nominated and then selected. To my surprise I received that honor and yesterday filled his seat, the only red one in a sea of blue at the stadium. Not only did my three guests and I (left to right: Rob, Laura (Dr. Salem), me and Aric) receive VIP treatment, but we got the privilege of watching the Royals from the same spot Buck had watched them from for so many years as a scout and a fan - right behind home plate.

Back from Nicaragua...

It's been a while since my last post because my parents came into town from Texas right after we returned from Nicaragua. I love showing them around this amazing city, but I must say it was difficult to make the transition from a 2-week stay in an impoverished country to the extravagance of American life. We were without electricity or potable water, surrounded by a foreign culture and ecosystem, and quickly became immersed. To return to superfluous gadgets and luxuries was difficult to accept and made all of us feel paradoxically guilty and thankful for what we have.

This picture is of some of the Field Trip students looking out over Lake Nicaragua and Granada from the cloud forest atop Mombacho, an inactive volcano. Like every aspect of this country, it was incredible.

Nicaragua

Bright and early Memorial Day morning, Dr. Scholes, Linda Lehrbaum (of KCWildlands), 10 students and I will be boarding a plane to Nicaragua for our Biology Field Trip Class! Well, we'll actually be boarding 3 consecutive planes and spending a lot of quality time with one another in multiple airports, but by the end of it all we'll be landing in Managua. We will stay at a functional farm outside of Jinotepe, surrounded by tropical forests abounding with biology. Needless to say, we're all very excited. The picture here is from our 2007 trip to this same locality - there will be many more to add upon our return in June!

Evolution presentations

My Evolution students just finished presenting their blogs and did a phenomenal job! I am so proud of them - they took this grid-computing project and absolutely ran with it. Please take a look at their team statistics, indicated at the top of each group's blog. And then consider joining a grid-computing endeavor yourself!

Snake season!

Next week, the rattlesnakes that my students and I monitor during their active season will be emerging from their den. I will have several students working with me this summer, a few from KU and two of our recent graduates as well as two current Rockhurst students. One of these students, Eric Kadlec, just received the Dean's Undergraduate Fellowship for Research, which will fund his summer contribution to the field work. Congratulations, Eric!

I'm so excited to get started tracking snakes again, especially with these fantastic students!