The rare occasions I enjoy my research

If only snails came with text bubbles...

I tell people all the time that if I wasn't doing my research in such a beautiful place, I would go crazy. No joke. Insanity would have slowly taken hold had the following not occurred:

1. Sneaking up on a mother black bear and her two cubs by accident while checking traps (It scared the living daylights out of me, but it's a great story!)

2. The most amazing sunrises

3. Seeing all kinds of cool rodents (I had a picture of a dead vole stuck in a trap, but I'll spare you the horror.) Here are some pictures of some (but not all).

Carolina northern flying squirrel

Southern flying squirrel

Red squirrel

4. Seeing the leaves change with the changing seasons

5. Getting in the back of a pick-up with a man holding a rifle who had just shot a rattlesnake. Grrrrr! >o[

6. Witnessing tons and tons of bees "drunk" off of filmy angelica. It must be a trade-off of some sort because the risk of predation goes up sky high when they're like that.

7. And finally, (I'm sure there are others I'll think of later) today I got to see loads of swallowtails (butterflies) chilling on the side of the road. I tried to take pictures with my phone (forgot my camera at home) but they didn't come out. :o( I also tried to remember what they looked like so that I could identify them, but that was a ridiculous idea. At any rate, it was really cool.