Boil Up

The bounty of a hard morning

I went fishing for blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) yesterday with my friend Ray, an undergraduate student who is working for the lab over summer. In the 3:15 am darkness we left with high hopes for Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, a popular fishing spot on the Gulf Coast, two and a half hours from Baton Rouge. We were using crab traps baited with chicken and a cast net, which I can now throw decently following a bit of practice. It was a great morning but sadly we didn't catch as much as we hoped - just six crabs and a couple of pounds of shrimp. Ray kept the shrimp for his family and I kept the crabs, boiling them up Louisiana style, with some vegetables and seasoning. It was my first time cooking crabs but they turned out great!

Six crabs makes a meal

Life Through A Filter

In my last post, I said the lack of updates is about to come to an end. I've decided to link my Instagram account to the blog in order to create more regular (and shorter) postings. For those not in the know, Instagram is a social media app with the main purpose of sharing photos and short videos with those who follow you, and viewing the photos and videos of those users who you choose to follow. The fun feature which makes Instagram so popular is the ability to edit your photos prior to posting by applying colour filters, contrast, frames, and a other well-designed effects. I started an account on Instagram a few months ago and have since started posting photos a bit more regularly, depicting things from the places I visit, wildlife (mostly insects) I encounter, and experiments I'm working on, to the mundane parts of day-to-day life in Baton Rouge. By linking the two accounts, I'll be more regularly updating the blog with (hopefully) aesthetically pleasing, informative, and interesting photos, and maybe even some videos. Below is a sample of some of the photos I've shared since I signed up for an account to give you an idea of what to expect from future posts. I still intend to write lengthier posts on topics of particular interest, but this new approach will lead to more regular brief updates also.

An experiment recently set up to examine interactions between Phragmites and its soil microbes

A field trip in Jim's boat in a bayou near Lake Pontchartrain 

Hyalopterus pruni aphids on Phragmites

A leaf footed bug (Acanthocephala declivis) in Homochitto State Park, Mississippi

Io moth (Automeris io) caterpillars...

...and the resulting female (top) and male

A banded water snake (Nerodia fasciata) spotted while teaching invasive species ecology at Bluebonnet Swamp

Your daily dose of cuteness from the stray neighbourhood kittens

LSU campus with azaleas in full bloom

Teaching the ecology lab on seed dispersal from four stories up

Scottish band Mogwai came to Baton Rouge and put on a mean show

View down the Hooker Valley from my last trip home - I miss NZ every day

Pavlova I made for my friend's BBQ, another great NZ treat