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shichahnSeems I have a fair amount of free time tonight, since classes haven't started yet. Soooo I thought I'd say hello for a moment and tell you a bit about what North Tropical Queensland is like so far.
First: WOW is it wet and humid. I mean, duh, rainforest, I know. But really. All the computers are kept in this one air-conditioned room here because the surrounding area is so incredibly damp that it can kill computers. My bird book is already getting a bit warped, as is my passport. The damp just sort of condenses to absolutely everything. It hasn't taken too long to get used to, though, and it's nice being in warm weather for once. The field station I'm in is located on the edge of the Atherton Tablelands, which is decently high elevation as compared to the coastal lowlands of Cairns so all the clouds stick right around where we are. We got a bit of sunlight this morning, though, which highlighted the rain nicely. ;)
The big deal, of course, is the wildlife. I've seen tons of birds so far, which is quite exciting for me as I'm sure you all know. In the morning there are sulphur-crested cockatoos flying about, and we heard kookaburras during breakfast today. As we were walking down the road back to the centre after a bit of a hike today, we met a brush turkey who marched along in front of us for quite a while as if he was our guide. It was pretty funny. Aside from birds, the most commonly spotted vertebrates are the fucking cane toads. Ugly toxic invasive bastards. Three of us went out hunting for them tonight and caught around thirty within about 20 minutes. The protocol for them is to then stick them in the refridgerator in the lab to stun them, then drop them into the freezer. Painless and easy and yet it's probably making so little impact on their population around here.
We also have fireflies here, which are great fun, and apparently some people have seen pademelons and wallabies, though I haven't yet. I did, however, see the first bandicoot of the semester while walking back from my cabin to the centre this evening. Apparently they make quite the terrifying screech if you bother them, but this one seemed content to just walk past me. I also caught a huge cicada the size of my forefinger in the bathroom this morning and put it out, saw a huntsman spider in the lab today (same genus as the clock spider, but not as big, thank goodness... probably 3-4 inches in diameter), and there's some kind of freaky... thing outside this evening that sounds like a cross between a cat, a baby, and a frog. It won't stop making its weird calls... yeah. I'll try and get a recording of it. Speaking of which, I need to just record what it sounds like at night here anyway. The sound of the cicadas and crickets and frogs is deafening. My ears were buzzing for a bit after I walked indoors this evening. ...Oh yeah, and they have bats that smell like skunks here. It's really really weird.
To save bandwidth, I'm not going to be able to do much posting of pictures or video until the internet service is redone here. At some point this semester they're getting a new satellite internet service, and a wireless service as well, that will cost the CRS a great deal less money. But at the moment they have to pay a ton of money monthly for our internet, and it's slow and kind of rubbish, so our internet use is a bit limited. Ah well.
Also, as I likely won't get a chance to respond to any of the comments on the spam post, just let it be known that I have read the 16 that are there so far and I love you guys a ton, it made me laugh. XDD I've turned off email notifications and so I heartily reccommend you all spam it a great deal more. Bwahaha. Oh, and Lisa? I need a backup mod over at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
blau_und_gold since I can't watch it as much as I'd like to right now. Would you like to do this? If not, I can find someone else, but it's really easy and basically all you have to do is keep an eye on things and make sure nobody's posting stuff that's off-topic, like multi-fandom RP ads or whatever. If they do you just reply and tell them you're deleting the entry for being OT, give it a few hours to give them a chance to read it if they don't have email comments, then delete the post. Other than that, traffic there is so low that you don't really have to do anything. I'd just feel better if I knew someone was keeping a modly eye on it for me until I get back. XD
Oh, and I have a phone card ("Say G'Day" brand, omg) and so it's quite possible I may someday have free time that corresponds with a reasonable time in the US and may be able to, in fact, say g'day to some of you for a couple minutes at some point. Or maybe I could just hold the phone out to the air and let you hear the ambient sound here, because it's pretty incredible, as I did mention.
Okay, I think it's about time for me to head to bed. I'm tired and my head's a bit fuzzy. :/ Jet lag, aarrrgh, I will beat you yet, I swear.
First: WOW is it wet and humid. I mean, duh, rainforest, I know. But really. All the computers are kept in this one air-conditioned room here because the surrounding area is so incredibly damp that it can kill computers. My bird book is already getting a bit warped, as is my passport. The damp just sort of condenses to absolutely everything. It hasn't taken too long to get used to, though, and it's nice being in warm weather for once. The field station I'm in is located on the edge of the Atherton Tablelands, which is decently high elevation as compared to the coastal lowlands of Cairns so all the clouds stick right around where we are. We got a bit of sunlight this morning, though, which highlighted the rain nicely. ;)
The big deal, of course, is the wildlife. I've seen tons of birds so far, which is quite exciting for me as I'm sure you all know. In the morning there are sulphur-crested cockatoos flying about, and we heard kookaburras during breakfast today. As we were walking down the road back to the centre after a bit of a hike today, we met a brush turkey who marched along in front of us for quite a while as if he was our guide. It was pretty funny. Aside from birds, the most commonly spotted vertebrates are the fucking cane toads. Ugly toxic invasive bastards. Three of us went out hunting for them tonight and caught around thirty within about 20 minutes. The protocol for them is to then stick them in the refridgerator in the lab to stun them, then drop them into the freezer. Painless and easy and yet it's probably making so little impact on their population around here.
We also have fireflies here, which are great fun, and apparently some people have seen pademelons and wallabies, though I haven't yet. I did, however, see the first bandicoot of the semester while walking back from my cabin to the centre this evening. Apparently they make quite the terrifying screech if you bother them, but this one seemed content to just walk past me. I also caught a huge cicada the size of my forefinger in the bathroom this morning and put it out, saw a huntsman spider in the lab today (same genus as the clock spider, but not as big, thank goodness... probably 3-4 inches in diameter), and there's some kind of freaky... thing outside this evening that sounds like a cross between a cat, a baby, and a frog. It won't stop making its weird calls... yeah. I'll try and get a recording of it. Speaking of which, I need to just record what it sounds like at night here anyway. The sound of the cicadas and crickets and frogs is deafening. My ears were buzzing for a bit after I walked indoors this evening. ...Oh yeah, and they have bats that smell like skunks here. It's really really weird.
To save bandwidth, I'm not going to be able to do much posting of pictures or video until the internet service is redone here. At some point this semester they're getting a new satellite internet service, and a wireless service as well, that will cost the CRS a great deal less money. But at the moment they have to pay a ton of money monthly for our internet, and it's slow and kind of rubbish, so our internet use is a bit limited. Ah well.
Also, as I likely won't get a chance to respond to any of the comments on the spam post, just let it be known that I have read the 16 that are there so far and I love you guys a ton, it made me laugh. XDD I've turned off email notifications and so I heartily reccommend you all spam it a great deal more. Bwahaha. Oh, and Lisa? I need a backup mod over at
blau_und_gold since I can't watch it as much as I'd like to right now. Would you like to do this? If not, I can find someone else, but it's really easy and basically all you have to do is keep an eye on things and make sure nobody's posting stuff that's off-topic, like multi-fandom RP ads or whatever. If they do you just reply and tell them you're deleting the entry for being OT, give it a few hours to give them a chance to read it if they don't have email comments, then delete the post. Other than that, traffic there is so low that you don't really have to do anything. I'd just feel better if I knew someone was keeping a modly eye on it for me until I get back. XDOh, and I have a phone card ("Say G'Day" brand, omg) and so it's quite possible I may someday have free time that corresponds with a reasonable time in the US and may be able to, in fact, say g'day to some of you for a couple minutes at some point. Or maybe I could just hold the phone out to the air and let you hear the ambient sound here, because it's pretty incredible, as I did mention.
Okay, I think it's about time for me to head to bed. I'm tired and my head's a bit fuzzy. :/ Jet lag, aarrrgh, I will beat you yet, I swear.
