Comments on: Resolutions: from blogs to birds

By: An entomological wish list for the new year › Expiscor

An entomological wish list for the new year › Expiscor — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 14:46:03 +0000

[…] and hope of all the great things the new year will bring. I did this last year, over at arthropod ecology, and it was a helpful way to benchmark some priorities for the […]

By: Arrie

Arrie — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 18:18:44 +0000

Meeting with the undergrads? One of my frdneis has never had a meaningful exchange of words with his PI (though there's one undergrad whom he is apparently chummy with). Their lab does take up at least two entire hallways, though.

By: The greatness of pseudoscorpions « Arthropod Ecology

The greatness of pseudoscorpions « Arthropod Ecology — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:39:07 +0000

[…] and interesting things have happened recently, and enough to warrant a short blog post. I also promised that I would post a few more videos related to some research activities on the hunt for […]

By: Chris Buddle

Chris Buddle — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 12:49:07 +0000

Thanks Matt – great tips! Much appreciated. I’ll keep you posted on my birding successes (& failures….)

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:48:06 +0000

Sparrows are very hard to identify, and that genus is one of the most confusing! If you can get a hold of the original version of Kenn Kaufman’s _Advanced Guide to Birding_, he includes a section on first determining the sparrow genus by shape, and then narrowing it down to species from there. The most recent edition of this guide might also have this section, but I’m not sure.

eBird has some privately developed smartphone apps including BirdLog for iPhone and Android which allows you to easily record and submit sightings (http://www.birdseyebirding.com/)

By: Chris Buddle

Chris Buddle — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:43:15 +0000

Thanks, Jennifer, for the advice and comments. In particular, I should subscribe to the advice about dealing with emails only at specific times (as Dezene suggests, too). I’ll look into the “getting things done” method! (more than a few people have now suggested that text to me – it’s a sign!)

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:26:01 +0000

Sounds like email is something everyone is struggling with :) I do a combination of methods:
1) I only ‘deal’ with email in the mornings. I peek at emails coming in during the afternoon, but if they’re no urgent, the replies wait until the next morning.
2) I partially use the “zero-inbox” method. As in, if it’s something that needs to be done soon and I can tackle in the next 48 hours, it stays in my inbox and it gets dealt with in morning processing. If it’s going to take longer than 48 hours, or if it’s something I can put off until later, I respond to the person, letting them know when it will be handled, and then it goes into my to-do list.
3) And my to-do list is inspired by David Allen’s method of “Getting Things Done.” If you haven’t been introduced to this method yet, it has some great ideas on how to sort and manage and get power over crazy long to-do lists.

Thanks for you posts, I love them! I’m not an entomologist myself, but a science communicator in the physics world, and have photos of bugs on my desktop as a screensavers. Yay science!

By: Chris Buddle

Chris Buddle — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:23:50 +0000

Thanks Barbara – OK, a close look again this morning – I was (of course) quite wrong – those sparrows in my back yard ARE American tree sparrows, not the Chipping sparrow. Mistakes, I shall make. Learn, I will.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:54:14 +0000

Great resolutions – you might just inspire me as well. I have wanted to get better at my insect ID for several years now… as well as plants, trees, fish, mammal tracks…. and more! I am more than happy to help with bird ID anytime – just let me know! I agree with Matt that your sparrow was likely a American Tree Sparrow – slightly bigger than a chipper and with a central dot on the breast. I have plenty of them at my feeder this winter.

By: Dezene Huber

Dezene Huber — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 01:14:40 +0000

Email: I integrate my accounts with Gmail and use Boomerang to help me keep things in my box only when they need to be there:

http://www.boomeranggmail.com/

I also try to not look at my email except at specific times… with varying success… :)