As I write this post, I have approximately 30 hours until I leave Capulin Volcano for the summer. People keep asking me the same question: am I excited to leave? My answer always has two parts. The first is that I've really enjoyed my...
I've always said that I love having one foot in the world of scientific research and another in education and outreach. I've done a bit of the education part before, but it mostly revolved around answering interesting questions. This week, I took it a step...
In a surprising turn of events, I seem to have become the unofficial photographer/videographer for the park. I wasn't always such a prolific photographer. I remember being interested in it by the time I was about ten years old, collecting National Geographic magazines and...
Ever been paid to go camping? If you've read even one of my previous posts, you've probably put together that I'm outside every chance I get. This week, I was lucky enough to go on a one-night camping trip with my coworkers. When I...
I would bet good money that one of the things most LHIP interns share is that we are spending our summer somewhere we have spent little (if any) time before. I've worked a lot of jobs in a lot of places, but crossing the state...
Part of what drew me to this internship, beyond the bird research itself, was the opportunity to talk with visitors about the birds and our project - to tell them why we band, what questions we're trying to answer, and how they can get involved....
In this post, I'll answer the number-one questions I get when I tell people I band hummingbirds: "Wow - but they're so small! How do you do that? Does it hurt them? Why are you banding them?" First, though, what is bird banding? Bird...
When working with the National Park System, it's easy to get caught up in the big and the grand. [caption id="attachment_10221" align="alignright" width="250"] Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone[/caption] Our parks are full of soaring vistas, imposing rock faces, thundering falls...
When I left San Diego to go to school in Montana, I was warned by dozens of people about the unpredictability of the weather. I was told to always dress in layers to be prepared, and I can't begin to tell you how many times...
Hello, everyone! A little information about myself: my name is Kelsey Whitaker, and I am a recent graduate from the Wildlife Biology program at the University of Montana. I grew up in San Diego, and I think I have always known that I would work...