ארכיון יומן של אוגוסט 2021

אוגוסט 2, 2021

Places that slip through the cracks.

When I first moved to Corvallis, which happened on September 1st, 2020, I was so excited to be in a new place and I voraciously explored my first few days and weeks here. As I settled in, I picked out a few "favorite" places, as well as spending more time going outside of the city.

For that reason, there are key places that I went in my first few days here that I haven't been to for months.

A little bit about Corvallis, for those who aren't familiar with the area (Although the one person who usually reads this is, of course). Corvallis is between hills in the west and north, and the wetlands around the Willamette and Marys River to the east and south. More or less. Corvallis, like much of Oregon, is also between an oceanic and Mediterranean climate. Pine trees or oak woodlands! Anyway, despite the large amount of exploring I do, I have not been to the hills to the west since March, or possibly May depending on how we look at it, and I haven't been to the open oak woodlands on the hills to the north since November. And these places aren't hard to get to: they are literally like two linear miles from my home. But I haven't gone there, despite finding it in me to take 50 mile bicycle round trips.

Anyway, this Friday, I did go there, and it was interesting to see how different this place was, even though it was so close to me. Some of the plants I saw there were slightly different than along the river, and some were similar, but growing in a slightly different way. So it was nice to get that reframing of my surroundings.

Also, it underscores how much of an embarrassment of riches there is here. With one year here, there are many places I haven't gone at all, and many places I have only gone once or twice. Looking forward to seeing and doing more things! :)

הועלה ב-אוגוסט 2, 2021 09:24 לפנה"צ על ידי mnharris mnharris | 3 תצפיות | 0 תגובות | הוספת תגובה

אוגוסט 3, 2021

Symbolic goal for the year

Since a lot of my interest in biology is geography related, I have a goal I have been working on for a while in Oregon:

By the end of the year, I want to be in the top 10 of the leaderboards for 10 Oregon (*or, conditions permitting, Southwest Washington) counties. I know this is an arbitrary goal, since it is not like visiting a single corner of some county and photographing all the daisies in some city park is really going to wildly expand my biogeographical horizons. But, as with so many other things, it is a process related thing. It makes me think of going places I would not otherwise go.

Currently I am on the top 10 all-time leaderboards for Benton (#2), Linn (#3), Polk (#6) and Lincoln (#9) counties. I am about 100 observations out of place for Marion County. After that, I admit it gets pretty far-fetched for the time remaining in the year: the Portland area (Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington) would take several hundred observations for me to get in the top 10. Lane would require several hundred more, as well.

And obviously, as wildfire season and Covid-19 Delta variant become greater threats, I am not going to endanger myself and others chasing something like that...but I still do feel it is good to have goals driving me on.

הועלה ב-אוגוסט 3, 2021 08:07 לפנה"צ על ידי mnharris mnharris | תגובה 1 | הוספת תגובה

אוגוסט 23, 2021

An important part of science

An important part of science is realizing that we can have reasonable reasons for believing things---and still be wrong.

הועלה ב-אוגוסט 23, 2021 07:43 לפנה"צ על ידי mnharris mnharris | תגובה 1 | הוספת תגובה

אוגוסט 26, 2021

Kind of phoning it to be honest

Most of the trips I've made lately have been phoning it in, other than Eugene and Albany. Not a lot of new and different things apparent to me, the hot dry late summer has seemed to discourage a lot of activity.

It rained today, maybe I will see things, new and different.

הועלה ב-אוגוסט 26, 2021 08:38 לפנה"צ על ידי mnharris mnharris | תגובה 1 | הוספת תגובה

אוגוסט 30, 2021

My one year anniversary here

On September 1st, 2020, I moved to Corvallis. So I am close approaching my 1 year anniversary here.

A lot of the observations I have made of the same places have been because I could still observe them at different points throughout the year. But now that I have seen the entire yearly cycle, I will probably not observe the same places quite as much.

But even with that, there are a lot of parks with a few miles of me that I have only visited once or twice in the past 12 months. There is always more to see. There is probably about two dozen good observing locations within walking/biking/busing distance, so if I visit one of them once a week, that means I will on average visit most of them twice a year. It is August, and I am surprised that there are many places I haven't visited since last December, or at best since this March!

A lot of my plans to increase my circle of places I can visit have slowed down because of the Delta Variant. After some trips involving taking Greyhound/Amtrak in May-August, I have reconsidered whether I want to do that for a while. So as temperatures cool off, I am going to be focusing on bicycle trips.

הועלה ב-אוגוסט 30, 2021 08:32 לפנה"צ על ידי mnharris mnharris | 0 תגובות | הוספת תגובה