the month of july

it would be utterly cliché of me to say that time flies when you're having fun, but perhaps i am a little cliché these days. i figure that if niko can occasionally pee on a bright red fire hydrant then i can sometimes use well worn out phrases rather than coming up with my own. but the point is that the month of july flew by full of events, activities, and of course a plethora of bat work.

it started with the birth of our bat pups and the squeeking that filled our camp as the mothers left to forage each evening. it continued on with a trip to Yellowknife for the Folk on the Rocks music festival and a chance to catch up with my folks and uncle who was visiting in town. it progressed into our bat pups fledging and taking flight on unsteady wings with their fresh downy fur. the month then culminated with the Slave River Paddle Fest which was a weekend spent on the river as the community gathered for voyageur canoe races, kayak surfing competitions and a generally great time down on the rocks by the river. and then july began to wind down slightly with the arrival of matt and griffin up from california. settling into a new routine with new company and niko having to share his space (and my time) with his slightly more needy sister.

so july was full. not to mention that i've been paddling on the river a few days a week, playing in the rapids and attempting to perfect my eskimo roll. and, well of course, the night are always full of data collection and bat research.

and now here we are in the last month of my field work and even that's almost at an end. i've managed to push the end date of my season to september 8th, giving me a couple days to move into my new place in calgary and prep for the lab i start teaching on the 13th. it's been a very full and exciting summer full of productive research and productive play. i'm thinking that maybe i'll need a second field season similar to this one next year...and i think that if niko could think that far ahead, he would agree.