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I just got back from a field trip. I attend UTSC and for an ecology field course, I was required to spend my weekend at the Oak Ridges Moraine. The moraine has a long and interesting history. It is privately owned by the people who began the Shopper's Drug Mart chain about 100 years ago. The family bequeathed it to the University of Toronto so it is now jointly owned and maintained as an ecological preserve, used for scientific study. We stayed the entire weekend to gather data, but other groups on day trips were coming and going too.

We stayed in the refurbished barns. The owners who still live in another part of the Moraine once kept horses in the barns, but now overnight groups sleep in the quarters once inhabited by the stable workers. They were nice and warm and clean, but had cluster flies (they look like house flies) everywhere and dying in piles on the window sills, it was gross. Our group had 3 boys, 11 girls and our professor and the TA.

We went into different barns to sleep. The professor and TA had their own room, boys slept in a small cottage house and there were 5 girls at one barn while I went with the rest. I had a top bunk, something I had never slept in before. It was a lot of acrobatics to get up and down.

During the day we were constantly moving around, I was exhausted by the end. We did 3 different data gathering experiments (got the data there, we crunch the numbers in a couple weeks). Had to study vegetation in the forest, also studied meadow voles and white footed mice in the forest, setting up live traps and learning tracking techniques.

For the vegetation study, we had to measure off areas and count and ID the trees in the areas. My group finished fast and helped the others that had fallen behind. Plants usually bore me, but I found this interesting, since we had to cover lots of ground and there were lots of different tree species in different areas. There were also many varying degrees of succession but it was mostly climax community with a lot of sugar maple and hemlock. Dead white birch were everywhere, since they die quickly and were chocked out by the climax forest trees.

Tracking techs were used to follow some animals, just for demonnstration. One was coated in flourescent powder (the prof called it a 'shake and bake'), it was then let go and followed at night using a black (UV) light. We also did a spool and thread, where temporary glue is used to stick a spool of thread on a mouse. She was then let go. She fell over a bit, but then got used to it and darted off (she was weak from a botfly, we saw a lesion on her leg). She ran about a bit before we found the end of spool, that she had groomed off.

Studying voles involved setting up trap boxes baited with oats. They were caught, weighed then tagged on the ear before being released. This was repeated on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. We had a number of recaptures and even a pregnant female who had given birth to babies in the box. The professor left the trap open with her babies inside and left it alone for a few hours so she could move them. We also caught some shrews (there are 2 different species in the meadow). They're quite fierce and tried to bite the prof through his glove, but many were dead since we checked the traps every 12 hours or so and the shrews starve to death in about 3 hours (they need meat and insects and have a high metabolism).

At night, we also hiked to try and listen for bats with special equipment. There weren't any though, the prof said they had probably left the moraine to find places to hibernate in by now, since it's fall. We also visited some old growth forests. When the settlers first came to Canada, they cut much of the old growth forest down, including trees in the Moraine. But deep in the valley, it was too steep and impractical for them to go and cut the trees down there. So we navigated into the valley and got to see some beautiful, huge trees (I think they were pine and aspen, but not sure, need to check later), some of which are 800 years old, meaning that they were just tiny seedlings while it was the dark to middle ages off in Europe. It just blows the mind to think of it that way.

I'm dead tired now. The food was all vegetarian and prepared by the site director, and older lady who is a zoologist. She's really nice and the food was great (pasta on Friday dinner, assorted stuff for breakfast and lunch, vegetable chili on Saturday for dinner, etc.) and I had a good time, but I hardly slept at all. Probably about 4-5 hours each night. I think I annoyed the prof a bit since I was kinda chatty and not paying attention much by the end of the trip.

I felt kinda out of place at the trip since I was one of the few 3rd year (most of the others were 4th and some even had finished some kind of undergrad), but tried to do my best and pull my weight, so nobody seemed to act like I was a burden. Lisa, my roomie even commented on how independent I was. She's really nice. She's about 30, has a degree in geology and young kids as well, but is working on an environmental studies degree now, that's why she was with us. I'm still kind of a puppy at this University stuff (this is the first time I've done a field course).

Well, gotta get caught up on the rest of my work and other random stuff. Yay. I'm so behind on Organic Chemistry, a course I hate but am taking since I will need it if I do graduate studies (something I really am considering). Also start my job tommorow. Got a part time position as a cashier at Price Chopper, since I need spending money.

Well, talk more later. Right now, nap, dinner, then homework.