Another week has passed, Alyssa and I have set all of our transects, my brush pants are drenched in sweat and full of thorns, and research is fully underway!

This week we got to work with three high school interns, which was an interesting experience. You don’t realize how different the current you is from high school you until you get to interact with someone still in that stage of life. It helped me realize how important experiences like this one were to my process of figuring out a career path, so I hope we’ve given them the opportunity to discover if the natural resources field is right for them. Especially if it isn’t for them; I had go to a 4 week art camp in high school before I realized a professional career in art wasn’t what I wanted, so experiences like this are vital even if they just solidify how much you DON’T want to do something.

This week was a bit frustrating from the perspective of research. We were told at some point this week that research often doesn’t go as planned, and to not become discouraged by roadblock and obstacles. This was properly timed, as setting transects for Alyssa and I’s surveys was much more tedious and difficult than I imagined. Setting transects alone took us all week, with many beginning points having to be discarded due inaccessibility and other points just being a pain to reach and/or set a transect on. We even had to produce more points on one site just to make up for those we lost. Thankfully, the transects are all finished and we are ready to start surveys, but I’m glad I was taught to expect problems so I wouldn’t be as disappointed when things didn’t go as planned.

But now that some of that stress is over, I’m excited to begin our bird surveys and make some progress toward a finished research project.

Sweat beads on my face

We keep pushing through the brush

I am full of thorns