MARINE ECOLOGY FIELD COURSE - GUERNSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS (10-24 Sept '04)

Here's pretty much the entire trip journal. Included in the accounts are XiYu's contributions for each day... since I was with her pretty much the whole time we were there. Now editing the pics... :) Final reflection on the field course and a summary of some interesting things learnt will follow.

DAY 1
10 Sept, Fri
(Arrival in Guernsey, Introduction to field course)

Today the coach took the exact same route that 'the [Linstead] gang' did to Poole... I had this 'homesick' feeling... or feeling that you're missing someplace, some peole, and some past times. Somehow seeing Poole and the harbour, but in different company, and for a different reason, makes it an awkward occasion. 14 days in the Channel Islands... my mind shall be seeking some solitude there.

I packed a 65L rucksack's worth of stuff, plus a 35L backpack in front. Fidel took a few photos. I felt like a turtle with another top carapace in front. It was a 3-4 hrs' journey to Poole, followed by 2 hrs' ferry to Guernsey.

Les Cotils, the Christian retreat centre in which we stayed, was a warm hostel kind of hotel. Dinner every day would be a soup or starters, the main course, and a selection from a trolley of desserts. After dinner we were given a briefing to Guernsey, the field course, and an intro to marine biology. Guernsey and the Channel Islands were the only British territory to be occupied by the German forces during WWII, and we would come to learn more of its histroy and experience its unique English-French blend of a culture in the weeks to come.

Xi: arrive gurnsey. what a quaint island.


DAY 2
11 Sept, Sat
(Supralittoral and littoral lichen zonation)

O long, long day. Almost all the upcoming 12 days will be like this. Breakkie at 8.30am, lecture and briefing for the day's work after that, then a run to the local supermarket to grab lunch, journey to the survey site, general transecting and laying out quadrats, climbing down - and up - the little cliffs at the northern coast of Guernsey. And the subject? Supralittoral and littoral lichen zonation. The weather ain't being nice, it's been drizzling and raining on and off. The wind was strong... very strong. The site was a rocky shore coast, and apart from the limpets, barnacles and snails, there wasn't much of fauna.

After the field work we travelled to the lab, a very basic 'wet lab'. Basically, it was a WWII-built German artillery bunker (it smells of dampness and mildew) 'taken over' by Imperial and fitted with simple wooden tables and lights and stocked with microscopes and other scientific equipment. It was... small, and narrow, and had heavy short doors which opened with a wheel-like lever-handle, like those that you might find in submarines. A stack of cases near the lab entry had labels from the former Department of Zoology, dated 1987.

Xiyu told me that most of her field trips have all been this 'civilised', meaning Shropshire [last year's field trip] -class and above. No in-field camps in the wilderness. What's the fun in that? I wish we could camp out in the field for a day at least. Living in such a civilised and comfortable place doesn't make it feel much like a field trip apart from the projects and surveying part.

Xi: still here in gurnsey


DAY 3
12 Sept, Sun
(Plankton and planktonic communities)

We went out to sea today, in a specially-hired fishing boat... to collect samples of seawater and sea floor from the northern and southern waters and examine them for plankton and animals from planktonic communities. We spent about an hour and a half out there, braving the spray mists and strong winds, and while still half-drenched and wobbly from the boat ride, headed for the Guernsey Aquarium. It houses a modest, simple, collection of aquatic animals and a few select reptiles.

Today's lab work was simple - ie. no calculations and statistical analyses. We looked at what we got under the microscope - mainly diatoms, the larval forms of crustacea, gastropods etc. Some interesting bigger animals we caught were a spider crab, a brittle star (nothing like those from Singapore's northern and southern shores though), a squat lobster, some skeleton shrimps, quite a number of tiny hermit crabs, and a variety of shrimps (krill).

2 miniprojects done, 6 more to go! Wonder how long I can last at this rate. It is getting to be quite tedious and tiring... hours after hours of activitiy. Fully packed. There's not only the tight schedule that's bugging me, but the companionship too. Will go quite insane soon... Reminiscing my past trips and outings to places... past field trips, camping in Australia, or more recently going places with the tight-knit Linstead gang. Wondering if this is all worth my coming back 3 weeks earlier and if it's really the better alternative to doing a dissertation later on.

Xi: no Chin!!


DAY 4
13 Sept, Mon
(Plant communities of coastal cliff-tops)

Today... we looked at clifftop plants after having a lecture on the same topic after breakkie. Again sampling quadrats, along a 50m transect that stretches from just above the shore, to the cliff top. Scrambling over Grouse bushes that spikes you as you brush past, stepping on rabbit faecal pellets, facing the winds that are too chilly and strong for comfort, and fighting the same winds that threaten to snatch your plant ID notes and sample records away. Don't like working in the wind. Went around the cliff slope taking pics of the insects and plants after lunch. Lab work was measuring the soil pH and salinity, and doing some minimum variance cluster analysis with the plants that we had found.

Had exchanged some SMSes with Lionel and Marvin... learnt that Marvin's planning to go to Austria with Raymond and co. Contact with the 'outside world' keeps me happy. Hooray for the roaming mobile phone. :)

Xi: poo, Chin


DAY 5
14 Sept, Tues
(Introduction to rocky shores)

Yep, so today we went out to the rocky shores at the west coast of Guernsey, that stretch from Guernsey island to Lihou island, near where the German battery and gun emplacements are. It's also near some WWII artillery control tower. It's been rather disappointing to date, and I had prepared myself not to expect anything much from today's trip out. Those near-3 hours in the rocky pools were boring... yeah we found brittle stars and some annelids (worms), a few mini mini crabs, shrimps and a squat lobster, and the limpets and gastropods (snails) and ormer (abalone), but still I yearn for Singapore's island shores. I wouldn't have thought it really that amazing that our small islands could yield such a great diversity of intertidal fauna, but now, it seems like a miracle. Here, we managed to find those creatures only by way of overturning rocks and boulders and digging through sand and seiving through sand, and most of the creatures were less than 3cm long, and in the dullest colours. *Yawn* It's true I may have learnt a lot about scientific ways and perhaps more about these animals, but it comparing the diversity here only makes me homesick for my shores. I have not been taking them for granted but now I'll consider them with an even greater wonder.
My feet's too damp and soaked in seawater for too long... the air blisters are unsightly.

Side note - I'm appalled that so many people on the couse actually smoke. So many of them periodically disappear outdoors to have fags.

Another side note - boy am I glad that I've brought my preciousss along!

Xi: still no chin. working with Alex, just like the good ol times back in shropshire. Main objective - find a crab. Objective accomplished. Crab small, teeny weeny. Found worlds smallest starfish by accident also ugly dead looking worm which came alive in a petri dish later. did presentation on porifera. only two samples, presentation short. what a gay day.


DAY 6
15 Sept, Wed
(Rocky shore exposure)

Today's exercise on the rocky shore was nothing like the rocky shores that we were expecting. Last night's lecture had prepared us a little, but the actual thing was physically straining. I was assigned to the 'moderately exposed' shore (the others being 'exposed' and 'sheltered'), and a bit of heights was invovled. We had to climb down a hill, perhaps a good 250m downhill (and later uphill again), and then down the cliffs and over rock formations to get onto a little hill of rocks on the 'other side'. It was tiring activity. The landscape and scenery were nice, but not the work bit. Counting barnacles individually can be difficult... estimating percentages of lichen and seaweed cover, and counting the number of certain species of snails, limpets and anemone present. We worked on quadrats along a 50m transect which ran down the slope to the shoreline. Today's tide, at 2.15pm, would be the second-lowest tide level of the year at the Channel Islands. The aim of this was to analyse the distribution of a few particular organisms in similar habitats with different exposure to environmental conditions. The results were quite interesting, I must say. There was no lab work; all work was done using a software which only Dave (a demonstrator) had, so we all had the arvo off. Xiyu, Martina and I went down to town and shopped around a bit, me snatching up an assortment of chocolates and local boxed toffee, and after an amusing attempt at trying to explain to an electronic shop salesman what I needed - an adapter unit that converts an English (BT) local phone line to my 'normal', rest-of-the-world phone line. Apparently they call the 'rest-of-the-world' phone line the data port. Bahh. Also got some postcards and stamps... will be doing some writing soon. Haven't written postcards for a long, long while.

Anyway feeling much happier spirits today, partly 'cos we had a free arvo and no lab work. And also partly 'cos the weather today was lovely... sun, blue, clear skies, slight wind.

The rest went pubbing *again*. Like what Adrian (from Spain) commented, the Brits equate them pubbing with Americans going shopping.

Side note - couldn't help noticing that many of the students' attire has been disturbingly inappropriate thus far... tight jeans, normal sports shoes even for wading in the water, expensive-looking tops and sophisticated hairdo and such.

Xi: oh fart, Chin. But with Alex as work mate counting stuff. cant really remember. jeff stood watching tide go out. how bizzare.


DAY 7
16 Sept, Thurs
(Rocky shore ecology)

Usually on a normal field trip this would've been our last full day, but for this one we still have a full week to go. I'm becoming more moody, being all spirited and bouncy one moment, and feeling stoned the next. Truth be said, again I say, I'm bored. It's all been a let-down so far. This morn was a little different... due to the tides, we were to set off later than usual, so we could have a sleep-in. Xiyu and I choose to walk down to town to have breakfast by the harbour... I had a Guernsey crab sandwich.

Work on rocky shores today was a-ok, was teamed with Xiyu and Martina. We had to map out a rock pool, drain it of its water and identify and count / measure the abundance of its inhabitants. Destructive sampling, heh. Had a few limpets, lots of top shells, some shrimps, a tiny crab, and some seaweed. 'Lab' work was simple - verify the above data. So far the demonstrators have been doing the statistical work for us on their computers, so there's hardly anything for us to do ourselves.

Still wishing that I had better companions, not that Xiyu's not a great fun to be with, but it's the others. Just simply... the others. The locals. International students are ok... am mixing well with them. It's the Brits I'm having difficulty with, to be frank. It's like me going back to Sydney Days 1 - 7.
Wishing that I had went on more intertidal trips with Ria.
Wishing that I had more time in S'pore.
Wishing that the others were here.
Wishing that this would all end soon.

Xi: destructive sampling!! yarr!!! great fun. lost nematody worm. poo. no chin. yay!!! replaced with martina. much more fun.


DAY 8
17 Sept, Fri
(Sandy shores)

The weather for the past few days was lovely, but we weren't so lucky today. It rained just as we were about to start on our exercise for the day - examining sandy shores and their fauna. We all hate sandy shores... wet sand sticks and it feels icky. There's much less diversity too. All we found were a few tiny, tiny crabs, lots of worms (polychaetes), two insects, lots of beachfleas (sandhoppers) and in the wet pools there were some shrimp-like crustaceans and camouflaged juvenile soles. The survey required us to sieve through the sediment and count the worms... I felt like the Jurassic Park guy who had to reach into dino poop and examine its contents. Got all 'muddy' and stuck with sand all over, and rubbing balls of sediment fingers to look for worms. Seasalt's making all my stuff sticky too. I had my binoculars; and I identified a few species of waders on the shores - ringed plovers, sandpipers, turnstones, a curlew or a whimbrel, and some Little egrets. I hadn't expected to see the Little egrets here... :)

Labwork was also quite simple, all we needed to do was identify the organisms under the microscopes. That done, the lists compiled, we were free to go. I messaged Lu for the fun of it and for want of having someone from the 'outside' to 'talk' to... poor chap's gonna receive his resit results in two days. I'm anxious for him. I'd hate to go through what he's going through. Lionel's in Melbourne now... I wonder what he's doing. In fact, I wonder what everyone else, those who're still in S'pore, are up to. I feel so isolated.

Walked down a few streets to the internet cafe, only to find that it was closing. Managed to get a few free minutes. Sanity half-restored.

Xi: no chin. it gets better and better. worms everywhere. saw lots of mini crabs. caught jaundiced sole. may be lemony. tried to coherse jac to come to Alex and I by pointing out that there;s something weird in the pool of water infront of us. got Nikki;s attention instead. we all had a good laugh. ha ha ha. jeff stood waiting for tide to go out again. its like he thinks he's king canute.


DAY 9
18 Sept, Sat
(Fucoid performance)

Horrible weather, raining all the while. Drenched in the field, sticky, icky, salty, damp, uncomfy, but fun. Did field research in brown seaweed growth and performance. Slippery rocky shores... slipped and fell on my bum, algae's horrible ground to walk on. Arrival of Ian Owens, who'll be mentoring us (Xi and myself) for our project. We chose to do something on birds...

Had two lectures today (norm was just one). After breakkie and after dinner.

I want my Nikon scope!

Were bored while waiting for our results etc. while in the lab. Started braiding and making friendship bands with some random ball of twine found on the lab tables. The others were singing, whistling, laughing, dancing to the portable radio. High spirits... last day of field exercises!

Xi: crappy. but we finished out quad sampling quick. jeff made us go help another lot. horrid weather. just terrible.


DAY 10
19 Sept, Sun
(Free day)

Yeah, free day, but all the shops are closed on Sun!
Some had planned to go horse-riding, some wanted to cycle.
Woke just before midday, went with xiyu, martina, alex to the boathouse at the harbour for brunch.
Walked along the harbour, observed the cormorants and shags (helping Alex and Martina in their pilot study for their project).
Went to Castle Cornet.
Got some sets of old coin replicas and medals from the WWI and WWII campaigns.
Ate out for dinner - some terrace restaurant called Christie's we found in the Guernsey guidebook... 'mini' seafood platter for just 10 quid, for 2 ppl. Nice! A mountain of shrimps, whelks, clams, and prawn... we found an evil-looking fish in the platter. Looks like a snakehead... or some deep-sea ancient creature. Eeek. For the main course Xi had haddock, and I went for herbed scallop + rice. Stomach too full!

Xi: stuff i wanted to say, but jac already said.


DAY 11
20 Sept, Mon
(Projects day 1)

Lu smsed in the morn - he made it! Everyone happy.
Xi and I rented mountain bikes, reason being that our project requires us to be mobile. The waders tend to fly from one headland to another and so we'd have to track them down on bikes. Usually we get around the island in the 3 minivans which Imperial hired, but they'd be tied up in transporting other equipment and students for these two days.
Cycled to study site, 'bout 16km across the island.
Many waders in Vazon Bay... Ringed plovers, Dunlins, Turnstones, Sanderlings, Curlews, Oystercatchers...
Terrible weather to cycle in - torrents of rain, wind facing us head-on (we were cycling out towards the shoreline)... had to get off and push the bike along... 'else the bike would go backwards.
Feeling battered.
Tiring with guernsey's uphills and downhills.
Stopped by Vazon Bay Hotel. Blast... they had closed for lunch. The manager asked, "Are you girls looking for food?" and told us to try the kiosk up the road.
Discovered my new favourite snacks - 'scampi' fries.
Decided to try lunch at the Grande Le Mare Country Club... some posh club where its golfers wore the Club blazer... felt out of place. Intriguing bathrooms - toilets, sinks, and showers all fully-carpets areas.
Continued with the observation of waders for a few hours... are doing some research into their behaviour... coexistence & competition .
Ian Owen's scope - 30 x 80mm. A very old West German model.
Crappy crappy tripod! More like bipod!
Everything sandy, sticky, salty, icky.
'bizzare'! island.
'Ate too much wind', little tummy-ache.

Xi: funny day. had to call dave to bring ian and scope. all very hectic, but we survived to tell the tale. stormy, waves went over the sea wall. got wet. legs been going too much cycling. tired. but we got bk b4 everyone else. only ian in dinning room. me thinks jacs in lurvvveee with ian.

(side note from jac: ian owens is... the birdman. he's the professor who lectures us in vertebrates and other cool stuff! and he's a twitcher!)


DAY 12
21 Sept, Tues
(Projects day 2)

Upgraded bikes to electric bikes.
Much easier on the muscles! And practical for Guernsey's hills.
Went with vans to lab, then got bikes delivered to lab.
Went wrong way, ended up at Guernsey German Occupation Museum.
Decided to give it a go... the tides were still too high anyway and heading for the shore then would've achieved nothing.
Lovely weather, but disturbances - people, dogs.
Setting up observation posts, in middle of sandflats, clumbering up small cliffs, feeling very field biologist-ish.
At night - the others took turns in having goes at our electric bikes. Such laughs.
Funny martina.
Alex's fall into the rose bush.
Some others went to the Guernsey observatory - but... sky too cloudy? Decided not to go.
Xi hogging me phone, texting some 'jolly good', 'utterly random' messages to Darren.

Xi: good fun with bikes. no chin. yay!! saw steven [our animal behaviour lecturer] looking at the electic bikes. me thinks he may have been jealous. felt bad when he cycled his 'traditional' bike with red blinky light to observatory and everyone was on our electrics. awww...


DAY 13
22 Sept, Wed
(Data analysis of projects)

Took pics by bikes in morn... 'cos they're cool!
The big bad man (bike hire man) took them away (he appeared the previous day in smart suit... and today was in shorts and tee).
Work, work, work, data analysis, presentation preparation... PowerPoint and Excel.
Ancient machines such a pain. Computers with Windows 95 and 98 are soooo lacking behind.
Learnt during dinner - "courgette" is what the Brits call zuccini. Bah all these Brits vs rest-of-the-world pronounciations and terminology (e.g. eggplant here is called "aubergine") Brit BIZARRE country.
Ian wore bright green jumper. Like green carpet anemone. He pulls it off quite well though. Bizarre.

xi: dunno what to say. went to pub with alex for pub lunch. very good. didnt win a jack daniels t-shirt. poo. picked up delicious cheesy puff for jac complete with a happy hippo.


DAY 14
23 Sept, Thurs
(Presentations, pack up, last full day!)

Went downtown with Xi.... tempations, tempations! wanted binos, chess set, wooden animal bookstands, tripod... pocket scope 12-40 x 40, 79 quid only! Haven't heard of the brand before though.
Had lunch at Victor Hugo's. A Lorraine Quiche. A rather cute pastry shop.
Did the presentations, couldn't play the videos! Quicktime wasn't supported in Dave's laptop.
Chin's humour 'wicked'.
Now... nothing to do. Bleh.
Others tried to drag me off to the pubs. Heh.
Spent some time on internet on library computer, replying to personal emails, SingSoc stuff.
Found out that Lawrence Poh passed away on Sun... world mourns the loss... he was the "father of digiscopy" :(

xi: yay we're going home tomorrow. lazy day. went shopping avec jac. for goodies for the troops (irene, sarah, and alex [who got nothing]). drinks pre presentation in martina's room with petit sarah, all very funny. presentation fine, jac talked too much. chin took off his shoes and scratched his feet. pub this evening.


DAY 15
24 Sept, Fri
(Depart Guernsey)

Waiting and travelling all day long.
Funny that one gets real tired by doing absolutely nothing.
Checked out by 10am, sat in TV lounge, SMSing people... happy to leave!
Ferry to Poole 12.30am, so wait... wait... wait...
2 + hrs on ferry...
Then coach... 3+ hrs...
Arrived Imperial 7pm, tired.
... next entries're coming

posted by Husky @ 9/26/2004 11:29:24 PM  |