A year ago today, I began an adventure that was entirely unexpected and which changed my year completely, in a very good way. I've already written about that adventure. It was an unbelievable trip - quite literally! When I got back to Melbourne, I could scarcely comprehend that I'd just spent a week at sea on a yacht sailing from Bali to Broome. Now I'm preparing for another adventure - this time it's one I've been planning for nearly a year.
What is this adventure I speak of? I'm off to the USA on Thursday to do some research on beetles in the high mountains of the northwest coast. I'm not abandoning the grasshoppers completely - just taking a short break. These beetles are a fascinating system. Up to 13 species in the genus have been recorded from a single mountain and each species has a characteristic altitude zone within which it occurs. I'm interested in what role temperature tolerance limits play in shaping these distribution patterns and am lucky-enough to be working with Dr Sean Schoville on the project.
I'm hoping to write regular updates during the next month of fieldwork, but in the meantime, this is the rough plan: (1) fly to San Francisco, (2) find a mountain, (3) climb the mountain, (4) catch beetles, (5) repeat steps 2 - 4 until mid-July. Now, when I first signed up to this project, I was thinking how nice it would be to skip the Melbourne winter. Then I checked the weather at Mt Rainier, one of our primary study sites, and it's forecast to be -10C. And for that reason, I now own a lovely warm sleeping bag. While a year ago I was packing my shorts and t-shirts for tropical Bali, now I'm gathering all my winter clothing together in preparation for some very cold nights! Some things haven't changed at all though - I'm still glued to the weather forecasts, waiting for that first snowfall in the Australian mountains!
I'm hoping to write regular updates during the next month of fieldwork, but in the meantime, this is the rough plan: (1) fly to San Francisco, (2) find a mountain, (3) climb the mountain, (4) catch beetles, (5) repeat steps 2 - 4 until mid-July. Now, when I first signed up to this project, I was thinking how nice it would be to skip the Melbourne winter. Then I checked the weather at Mt Rainier, one of our primary study sites, and it's forecast to be -10C. And for that reason, I now own a lovely warm sleeping bag. While a year ago I was packing my shorts and t-shirts for tropical Bali, now I'm gathering all my winter clothing together in preparation for some very cold nights! Some things haven't changed at all though - I'm still glued to the weather forecasts, waiting for that first snowfall in the Australian mountains!