April 3, 2009
January 31, 2009
Scouting Hummingbird Research Sites at Motte Rimrock Reserve
Dat and Mark with Anne at Motte Rimrock Reserve on a scouting trip to look for a site to study Anna’s Hummingbirds.
January 26, 2009
Staking out a hummingbird feeder at 4,000 feet
Anne, Mark and Erin keeping a close watch at a hummingbird feeder while scouting for potential Anna’s territories at Pinyon Crest, near Palm Desert and Boyd Deep Canyon
April 15, 2008
BBC Wildlife Article
Below is an article from BBC Wildlife related to our ongoing hummingbird research. (Click the article for the full size version)
April 11, 2008
Bethany William’s Public Presentation of her Master’s Thesis
April 10, 2008
Bethany Williams presents her Master's Thesis on the song of Costa's Hummingbird (calypte costae)
Lab members Cory Castro and Uyen Tran listen as Bethany Williams gives her public presentation of her Master’s Thesis on the song of Costa’s Hummingbird.
Dr. Sean Walker, a member of Bethany Williams’ thesis committee, introduces her for the public presentation of her thesis.
Co-members of Dr. Houtman’s lab attend the presentation. From left, Laura Steen (partially obscured) Jaimee Grimes, Cory Castro, and Uyen Tran.
Bethany Williams takes a question from the audience during her thesis presentation.
Dr. Anne Houtman(Bethany’s thesis advisor), Cory Castro, and Bethany Williams in the field at Deep Canyon in 2008 collecting additional data for their hummingbird research.
Bethany Williams watches a Costa’s Hummingbird in flight as Cory Castro makes notations.
Bethany Wlliams and Cory Castro measure the distance from a preferred perch of a Costa’s Hummingbird to establish speaker location for playback research.
Bethany Williams recording Costa’s Hummingbird song in the field at Deep Canyon.
April 7, 2008
The Jumping Cholla Incident
Opuntia bigelovii
by Will Prouty
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| The Jumping Cholla is also commonly known as the “Teddy Bear Cholla,” because of it’s dense array of spines, that give the appearance of fur. A name only someone who had seen pictures of it would come up with - anybody dealing with the thing in the wild would go with Jumping Cholla.It does indeed seem to jump.
Notice in the above picture the many spiny segments lying on the ground, as well as budding off from the main plant. These things break off very easily, and apparently give the impression of jumping to attach themselves at the lightest brush of anything against them. Here’s how my incident began. Hiking just after dawn over broken ground towards a cluster of cacti, I felt a stabbing pain in my calf. I thought “rattlesnake” at first, but no such luck. I looked down and saw a segment of cholla (pronounced ‘choy-a’) attached to my calf through my jeans. There were no cholla plants within 10 feet of me, and this was a foot and a half off the ground. A long jump indeed. I could easily figure out what had happened. The segment had attached to the inside of my boot as I walked by, and when I lifted my foot to climb over a rock I drove it into the back of my leg. I brushed it lightly with my hand, and now I had a cholla attached to the back of my hand. It wouldn’t shake off. In fact, vigorous shaking seemed to make it grip all the more securely. Odd. Still, there is only one way to deal with this sort of thing, and I grabbed it lightly with my left hand, and pulled the unwilling cholla out of my right hand. Only moderately painful, but it showed a surprisingly tenacious grip. Now I had a cholla on my left hand. Amazing how deep those spines can sink in. Flexible spines too, shifting over each other and sliding ito my skin in a distinctly nonparallel manner, which could only bode poorly for their ultimate removal. By now, I had grasped the concept that you didn’t remove cholla by using another body part. This would hurt, but I figured I could use a piece of camera equipment to pry it off. Well, it did hurt, but I was long past any chance of prying it off now. This thing wasn’t going anywhere. In such a situation, there is always a foolproof fallback plan. Anne. |
| Go here to see a magnified image of a cholla spine that shows you why the spines are so difficult to pull out - they are barbed, much like a porcupine quill. This lets you tug painfully on a spine, and do nothing put agitate yourself and maybe even drive it in further. When you pull them out with pliers, your elastic skin stretches and pulls away with it, until you can finally tear the barb out. |
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| This is the cholla on my finger - I grabbed a quick picture of it before going for help. Well, two pictures actually. I didn’t like the lighting in the first picture. Anyway, I look at this picture and see all those long spines, and I think how lucky I was that where my finger is, there seems to be only short ones there.Seems to be.
They are actually just as long, they are just seamlessly integrated with my finger. Using Anne’s Swiss Army knife, we cut the bulk of the cholla off my finger, then begin drawing out the spines one by one with tweezers. Wow. One even managed to hit my finger nail, and obligingly buried itself under the nail. Not fun. |
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| Just as Anne drew out the last spine, the director Al Muth came up to show us something he had just found on the road. Here’s a close look. |
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| This nocturnal Kangaroo Rat stumbled onto a cholla fragment, and couldn’t get off. Probably died from exposure as the day grew hot after sunrise. University of California Riverside keeps a collection of creatures that have died after getting stuck on cholla, from mice to Cooper’s Hawks.You’ll notice Al has a handy Leatherman tool for dealing with stuff like this.
I now have one as well. I have recovered from my trauma, the only lingering result is that anytime I go within twenty feet of a cholla now, Anne “helpfully” points out its location to me! |
March 21, 2008
Twelfth Annual Western Assessment Conference
March 20, 2008
The Assessment of Critical Thinking and Problem Solving in Biology Workshop
Dr. Kathryn Dickson (above, far right, standing) and Dr. Anne Houtman (above, far right, seated) gave a workshop about critical thinking and problem solving in Biology, based on the California State University Fullerton Student Learning Outcome assessment project ongoing at their university since 1993.
Dr. Kathryn Dickson opened the workshop, and presented information for the first half, and Dr. Anne Houtman, Director of General Education Biology, finished the presentation.
Dr. Houtman and Dr. Dickson presented a few of the actual assessment rubrics developed over the course of their program, and gave the workshop participants an opportunity to work on developing their own assessment strategies and evaluations that would fit their particular discipline.
February 8, 2008
First Time Teaching: Tips for TAs from TAs
These podcasts for training new teaching associates were developed at a Biology 500C workshop at the Sweeney Granite Mountains Research Center. They have been produced under the direction of Dr. Anne Houtman, featuring TAs (teaching associates or assistants) who have just finished their own experiences as first time teachers.Check back here for further podcasts, or click here for my YouTube stream.
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Episode 1 - The First Class
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Episode 2 - Balancing Teaching, Research, and Life
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Episode 3: Grading
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Episode 4: Dealing with Problems in the Class Room
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Episode 5: Boundaries with Students
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January 25, 2008
Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center
Anna’s and Costa’s Hummingbird Field Research, January 17 - 20, 2008
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| After a dry 2007 field season centered in Anza Borrego in which Costa’s Hummingbirds were hard to find, Dr. Anne Houtman and her research lab choose the University of California’s Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center as a new focal point to explore hummingbird locations in Southern California. Here you see Dr. Houtman and part of her research lab team shortly after arriving at Deep Canyon, happy to see an abundant and thriving Costa’s population as evidenced by over a dozen individuals at the two feeders there. From left to right, Uyen Tran, Anne Houtman, Tanya Samra, Sarah English, and Jaimie Grimes. Present, but not pictured: Cory Castro, Krista Brown, and Bethany WIlliams. For more images of the Deep Canyon Research Center and environs, click here. |
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| A male Costa’s hummingbird at one of the Deep Canyon feeders. While Costa’s were plentiful, Anna’s hummingbirds were only found outside the reserve, in the town of Desert Springs, and at higher elevations in the mountains surrounding Deep Canyon. For more images of the hummingbirds at Deep Canyon, click here. |
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| Here Bethany Williams prepares to record a male Costa’s hummingbird’s song, using a parabolic microphone. For more pictures of the field team at work, click here. |
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| At the end of the first day’s field work, the lab group sat down to discuss what they had discover, and to strategize for the upcoming day. Here, Bethany Williams is telling what she had found so far. From left to right, Bethany Williams, Cory Castro, Tanya Samra, Uyen Tran, Jaimie Grimes, Krista Brown, and in the foreground, Anne Houtman and Sarah English. For more pictures of the field team after the day’s work is done, click here. |
January 22, 2008
Houtman lab in the field
The Houtman research lab does field work near Boyd Deep Canyon, January 17 - 20. Click here for more.