My experiment has started! So, for better or worse, I've been out in the field just about every day since mid-February. For you loyal blog readers (of which I doubt there are many), I'm sorry about the radio silence for so long.
What have I been up to all this time? Mainly, building exclosures, sampling alfalfa fields, and counting weevils. As is the case with all field work, everything takes longer than expected.
Being in the field is super fun. We constantly come across things we're not expecting, and driving around the countryside between Davis, Knight's Landing, Esparto, and Winters keeps showing us neat little pockets of wildlife habitat. Great birds I've spotted on the farms so far include burrowing owl, Swainson's hawk, merlin, prairie falcon, loggerhead shrike and Western bluebird, plus all of the more common species (including plenty of yellow-billed magpies)... not bad considering we're setting up exclosures, not looking for birds. We've also come across a coyote, lots of Sierran treefrogs, and a falconer.
I've been trying to 'live tweet' my experiment from the field using the hashtag #wildag, and have truly joined the twitter revolution by 'storifying' my tweets so far. I'm going to try to post more short updates on this blog about fieldwork, now that the initial setup is mostly behind us. I'm also hoping to get my interns adding their thoughts and blogging about their experiences- so.
Click on 'Read More' below to see the whole twitter story since the start. Be sure to follow me on twitter @sara_kross for real-time updates from the field.