We're Still Here. 1-26-2019

Obviously, there's not much to tell. It's winter, its cold and the Northeast is crap. We did our first day of Seas Turtle necropsies on January 19th (I got a yellow jacket in a turtle's stomach) and we've been trying to exist until the weather is less shitty.

We did have a bit of niceness when our friend to Teá gave us an invite to join her at some local spots while she took water samples from some ponds and streams. Of course, any chance to hang with her gets a big YES from us. So we met up with her and Dan, yet another wonderful person she has introduced us to. We hit the dens but as it was 32° and windy, we saw just what we expected. Nothing.

The next place has a stream. With Two-lined Salamanders. After some pond samples, we hit the running stream and scored our First of 2019 Two-lines.


The woman, the myth... the legend... Teá.


The underside of rocks and the mud was full of wonderful life. Teá was looking for lots of tiny organisms. I settled on Two-lines and scored a few more, from teeny larvae to uppity adults.


Having collected some leaves, water and mud from the stream into a big jar, we started to get ready to head out. But wait... there was somebody inside looking out...

Oops... we'd accidentally scooped up 2 adults and 2 larvae in the mud.


It was great to spend some time with a dear friend and to meet a new person who is awesome. It's tough making it through the cold months but hanging with some like-minded people helps. Plus, I always learn a ton from Teá.

So what did she find in her water samples? Well... lots of crane fly larvae and three more Two-lined larvae and... I'll let her tell you...

"Today, the samples have EXPLODED with micro-organisms, planaria, copepods, rotifers, tons of other smaller things I need the other microscope to ID, and I think I saw a tardigrade.

The salamanders were left in a container with some of those little worms we kept finding and by the time they want back [home], alllll the little worms were gone and there were some fat salamanders."

Fun-ness.

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