{"id":751,"date":"2009-05-31T18:48:08","date_gmt":"2009-05-31T18:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/?p=751"},"modified":"2013-05-28T13:44:17","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T13:44:17","slug":"im-only-happy-when-it-rains-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/blogs\/stickleback\/2009\/im-only-happy-when-it-rains-not\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Only Happy When It Rains…. (Not)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lauren<\/a>
Lauren trooping out over the muskeg at Pup Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well, we\u2019ve had a spell of dreary weather out here–which makes the job no more difficult, just slightly less gleeful and photogenic. It started on Tuesday. Down in Point MacKenzie the sky was cloudless and bright and all a frolicking pair of stickleback seekers could want. However, as we headed north toward the Meadow Lakes an ominous, inauspiciously dark blanket of indigo was heading quickly toward us from Hatcher Pass. I\u2019ll tell you, there\u2019s nothing like the not-so-distant rumbling of thunder to motivate a field crew to push the limits of efficiency.<\/p>\n

Since then the weather has been of a more mundane variety–drizzling, passing showers, shades of grey. Rachel and I stopped in at the Palmer office of Alaska Department of Fish and Game (it\u2019s not wildlife here, it\u2019s game) on Wednesday to introduce ourselves to Dave Rutz, the local area biologist in charge of the Mat-Su. The new person in charge of our permits is adamant about constant communication between researchers and the local area biologists, so instead of just calling the poor fellow constantly I figured I\u2019d stop in and say hello–THEN call the poor fellow constantly. Dr. David Heins of the Tulane stickleback lab<\/a>\u00a0arrived Thursday night and has been in contact with us–we\u2019ve negotiated communal breakfasting and had a t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate over collecting locations. As I understand it, Dave has been sampling out here for as long as\u00a0Dr. John Baker<\/a>\u00a0and nearly as long as\u00a0Dr. Mike Bell<\/a>–although his focus is more on the parasites that affect stickleback, namely\u00a0Schistocephalus<\/i>. (Note from Rachel: I will have an extensive post on this parasite later.)<\/p>\n

\"Bad<\/a>
Bad weather tends to cause scientists to… act strangely.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dave will be heading down south to the Kenai Peninsula at the beginning of next week, whereas Rachel and I will head north to Willow on our way to Talkeetna. Once we\u2019ve camped up there for a few days we\u2019ll cross paths with Dr. Heins on our way down the Kenai to camp another few days and make our own collections at the lakes he won\u2019t be visiting. Perhaps we\u2019ll be able to meet up with him in Girdwood to chat over a dinner plate-sized snickerdoodle. But let\u2019s be honest, I\u2019ll have one either way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, we\u2019ve had a spell of dreary weather out here–which makes the job no more difficult, just slightly less gleeful and photogenic. It started on Tuesday. Down in Point MacKenzie the sky was cloudless and bright and all a frolicking …<\/p>\n

I’m Only Happy When It Rains…. (Not)<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":318,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18916],"tags":[18933],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stickleback","tag-lauren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/318"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/foster-baker-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}