Extreme Spotlighting

Sitting in lecture yesterday we received a little bit of a shock. It was the introduction to the new field lecture, for the ecology class, and we were informed spotlighting was involved. So far so good. Then our professor, Siggy, told us about the shifts. Each of three nights (starting last night) groups of nine would go at the 7:30-9pm 11pm-1am and 3am-5am shifts. That's right- 3am. Divided by cabins, cabin 3 (my cabin) was selected for the super-late 3am shift first. Tonight I have the 7:30pm shift and Wednesday night the 11pm shift. I have to say that I was immediately crabby and tired as soon as I found out about the shifts.

Looking back it wasn't so bad. At least it did not rain for my shift- it poured for the other two. Out of the nine people per shift, groups of 3 went to three different types of forests and walked paths to look for animals. My group had the clearing, thinking that at 3am it was best to take the area where you couldn't get lost. Well... a huge field of tall grasses is easier to get lost in than you may think (or maybe you came to this conclusion before I did). My group, two good friends and I, did not actually get lost as much as we took the wrong trail. It worked just fine for our purposes though.

At about 4:30am we headed back to the starting point to collect bugs out of our giant light rig- this is when it got exciting. Brittany took one step off of the road we were walking along, in order to get to the light, and then freaked out. She was about 10 seconds away from stepping on the head of a scrub python about 4-5inches in diameter and 3 meters long. It stuck its tongue out at us and got in the angry double-S shape. We decided to play it safe and run away. The exciting end to the evening definitely made it more difficult to go back to sleep, but here I am at 10:20am. I'm guessing my whole cabin will start getting crabby around lunch time, and I don't think I'll be able to manage 'cheerful' until this weekend when this whole thing is over!

Leaftailed Gecko- it was very spiny.

Baby Boyd's Dragon. This one was about eight inches long, they get up to three feet long. About 2 seconds later our intern picked it up to hold it and pet it... he does that with just about everything in the rainforest.

Lake Barrine

My classroom-I took the picture sitting in a windowsill.



Cubbies- for 30 students, it gets a little messy. That is my new friend/cabinmate Christy.



Dining room/porch. This is my favorite place to do homework. In the background of the picture is the food serving area and the reach in fridge (yum).

Not much is new here at the Centre- I'm still working through the paper. Yesterday we spent most of the day with Doug and Sid- aboriginal brother and sister- who taught us about aboriginal history in Australia and some traditions. We passed around some several hundred year old artifacts- axeheads and milling stones- that would be worth upwards of four million dollars on the private collectors market. The group of us were so tired that over the lunch break, we just laid in their front yard and napped. It was quite a sight.

Last night there was a 'cookout' with burgers from the kitchen and s'mores up at the fire ring- all student organized. It was fun- and the Australian s'mores with dense marshmallows and dark chocolate were delicious.

Today, my free day, we had been planning to do a huge hike. However, it is very steep so the staff advised us that with the forcasted thunderstorms that we should make alternative plans. A smaller group of us ended up going to a volcanic crater lake, Lake Barrine, that had a walking track and a very cute teahouse. I ate some tasty scones and laid around on a towel (with serious sunscreen) and finally cracked open the Lonely Planet Australia Guide. It was pretty fantastic, considering that it was the backup plan! Tomorrow we start another Field Excercise for a different professor, so I'm sure I will be starting another paper as soon as this one is finished.

More Croc Farm Pix

Very friendly

Wallaby (little) and Kangaroo (bigger)

Holding a live croc. Don't worry-scotch tape around the mouth

Cassowaries! They kick the chain link fence to try to get to you.

About 2 seconds later the croc ran at the handler! And yes, there was just chain link and chicken wire between it and me.

First Field Excercise

I am in the midst of my first field exercise- we spent two days gathering water quality data for my socio-econ class, and now each student is to write a scientific paper on one aspect of the data. It is not the most difficult thing I've ever done, but when it is 80+ degrees and sunny outside I'm not too keen on sitting inside all day to analyze data and type. Once this one is done, I'll be in good shape for the other two of the semester (one for each of the three courses).

Besides working hard on collecting data and writing it up, I've been up to some interesting things lately. Around the Center, we've had a couple of game nights that have been really fun. I'm definitely making new friends and even as the large group, every gets along very well. This past Sunday, the free time outing was to a Croc farm about an hour and a half away (plus some getting-lost time). It was baking hot, but the animals were super-interesting. The crocs were in chain-link pens but there were kangaroos, wallabys, emus and guinea hens wandering around. There were also dingoes and cassowaries in pens! All in all I got a lot of cool pictures, held a 2 foot croc (mouth taped shut), touched a baby croc's teeth, petted and was slobbered on by a wallaby-don't worry Mom, I washed my hands, and got scared to death by a couple of crocs.

Tonight, I'm going spotlighting for the second time. Hopefully when I go back to the cabin, there won't be snakes on the stairs. Again. 5 snake visits in 4 days- we're going to keep a tally.

Lookout at the Gillies (our highway). That is a view of a lowland, more coastal, area.

Field Lecture at the Cathedral Fig- I'm about 8 feet off the ground.

One week down!

It's really unbelievable that I've been in the rainforest for one week. In some ways, like not being afraid to walk around in the dark, it seems like I've been here for ages. In other ways, like starting into classwork, it seems like I got here yesterday. My classes are Tropical Rainforest Ecology, Natural Resources Management (like Forest Management, with a lot of plant biology), and Environmental Policy and Socioeconomic Values (mostly about local issues).

The three classes are squeezed into 2 months (the program is 3 months long) with classes Monday-Saturday. The Saturday classes haven't exactly been torture yet- this Saturday we're going to some waterfalls and a driving tour. The last month of the program we divide into small groups to work with professors on a research project- we decide which one later. Most of our classes are held in a classroom at the end of the main building. The common room is right next door, and the classroom is connected to two porches, one with our cubbies and rainjacket hooks and the other with the reach-in (snack) fridge, food serving, and eating areas. The classroom seems more like a giant porch itself though, with huge windows on three sides that can open for climbing out of.

The weather has been pretty nice in the past few days (I hope I don't jinx it by writing this). It is the wet season right now, so it is not suprising if the sun doesn't come out all day and the weather is either misty or rainy. Sometimes though, like now, it is beautiful weather- 80ish degrees and partially sunny with a breeze. My main problem with the weather is the humidity, which I am used to now, but my clothes and other cloth-materials like towels and sheets constantly feel damp. It takes some strategizing and laudry/dryer time to prevent mold.

As for food, one of our staff members is a cook named Les. He's really nice and well meaning, probably in his sixties. Think of a leathery Australian pirate-looking guy that is difficult to understand. When he cooks, Monday-Friday, the food is really good. We have pretty familar dishes since they know we're a bunch of Americans. On weekends we fend for ourselves and the kp (kitchen patrol-my day is Saturday) prepares something relatively simple.

A few of our recent activities have been exploring the Tablelands (this area), so I'll write a little about those. On the very East Coast of Australia there are the 'lowlands' which is where our nearest big city, Cairns, is located. To get up and into 'the Great Dividing [mountain] Range' we drive on a highway called the Gillies- the Centre is actually located just off the Gillies. One of only four ways to cross the mountains in Queensland, it is notorious for its bends and twists and we go from sea level-ish to 750 meters above sea level. There are several smaller towns on the Atherton Tablelands (we are basically on a plateau) all about 15-30 minutes from each other.

Origionally all rainforest, most of the flat land was cleared for farming up until the 1980's- by the way, Aussie say paddocks instead of fields. Most of the rainforest is now in the hillier areas, although some creeks and rivers are being revegetated. The national park that surrounds the center and most of the tablelands (because there are scattered rainforest tracts) was designated a World Heritage Site- like the Great Barrier Reef- in '88. The World Heritage land actually extends much farther than just the local area I'm in. Most of the small towns- the largest is 10,000 people are agricultral or tourism based. The people have all seemed very nice so far, we had to wander around towns for an assignment to ask questions of locals, and there are some great quirks in the towns. Like the 'Bite Me' pizza place and the Majestic movie theater, the longest running in Australia- I went to both last Saturday night. I have also shopped at the 'Big W' which is run by Woolworths and serves as a kind of Walmart equivalent in Atherton, a larger town.

I'd love to explain more about Australia, and I swear I'll write more about exactly what I'm doing in class, but for now I need to study. Things move quickly around here- I have bird calls to learn and a writing assignment to start. Bye!

Waterfall at Mount Hypipamae

On the CRS property-not dangerous, but you can't be too careful!

Aussie-land

So... I promised some people that I would update the blog with lots of pictures, partially to get me out of doing a lot of writing. Unfortunately the internet here at the Center is too slow and spotty to upload many pictures, so here I am writing : )

The School for Field Studies (out of Boston University) is in charge of my study abroad program, in far north Queensland, Australia called the Center for Rainforest Studies. We are located smack in the middle of a World Heritage protected Wet Tropics Rainforest, which means that we are very isolated. The nearest town/neighbors are twenty minutes away, and the nearest large city in Cairns (Cans) reachable only by a crazy snaking highway.

There are 29 other students in my program and we live in 4 8 person cabins spread over a walking trail, about a 5-10 minute walk from the main building which houses the offices of our professors and staff, the kitchen, the common room, computer room, and classroom. The 3-sided porch has our eating area, sitting area, ping pong, pool and laundry. It seems a little primitive and campy at first glance, but we do have a television, wireless internet (when it doesn't rain too hard) and a snack fridge.

As far a school goes, it is going to very, very intense. We have three courses stuffed into two months (the last month is research) and we have classes 6 days a week. Then again, class includes a lot of hikes and field lectures so I won't be trapped in a classroom.

So far we've been going through a lot of safety and emergency materials. Not only does it rain almost all of the time, but we have to be on the lookout for poisonous snakes. I've already seen a pandemelon (a rainforest mini-kangaroo) that hopped across my path in the middle of the night. Once we start going out and about, I'll do more specific updates. Cheers!

Contact Info

If anyone is interested in a mailing address, please do not send any food, seeds, or plant material and mark 'GIFT' on the outside if it is a package. Mail takes about two weeks.

Rachel Toenjes
SFS Center for Rainforest Studies
P.O. Box 141 Yungaburra
Queensland, 4884 Australia

I should be available on gtalk (r.toenjes) and skype (rachel.toenjes) fairly regularly, but remember that Australia is 16 hours ahead of central time.