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Montana, Sunday 08/11/24

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  Hello my name is Mathew Virgen. I am a fourth year biology major at the University of La Verne. This was our last day at Magpie ranch as we were leaving first thing the next morning. This meant today was the day to wrap up on all research station activities including the cure project between Mario, Gustavo and I. We were finished with all of the trail camera footage that we were assigned to analyze. Although the six cameras collected thousands of videos for us three to divide and go through, we were able to complete the work by the end of Saturday the 10th. The focus of this Sunday morning was to work on the actual organization of the slides to present later that evening. We were purposeful with the order of our slides as we were also implementing our chosen animal species onto the presentation. Since we saw all the animals we chose on the trail camera footage, we asked professor Pablo if we could combine these assignments. Gustavo was first as he introduced the black bear with f...
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Montana Trip 08/16/24: Going Home :)

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 Hi! My name is Gabriela Rojas! I'm currently a 4th year Biology major at the University of La Verne!  This was the day we returned back to California, we had a super long car ride. I think we used this day to have one last time blasting music through the walkie talkies, talking, and playing car games. During one part of the car ride, I was reflecting on all of my favorite memories from the trip. To name a few, I really loved being able to see all of the milky way with people I care about. I think it was such a great moment to share with everyone and  just appreciate the stars. My inner child was fangirling from being able to see so many stars because in California it’s really hard to appreciate because of the abundance of city lights. It was so fulfilling to be able to have this moment.  Another thing I enjoyed was how close I got with everyone and had the opportunity to see the amazing traits that everyone had. I admired and enjoyed how everyone had a differen...
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Montana Trip 08/10/24 North Fork Blackfoot River

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  Hi! My name is Gabriela Rojas! I'm currently a 4th year Biology major at the University of La Verne!  Today, we went to the North Fork of the Blackfoot River to do some fishing and swimming. On our way we blasted music and enjoyed a girls day. On our way to the river, we got to see a Turkey Vulture and Northern Harrier.  When we arrived at the river, we had to go down a very steep hill but it was so worth it! The water was so clear and beautiful, the variations of different colored rocks was so satisfying to watch as the water flowed. The only people fishing were Grace and Pablo,  the rest of us took the time to frolic around the river. At first, we were trying to catch macroinvertebrates like caddisflies and then did some rock skipping. However, Dahlia, Sam, Gail, and I decided to go across the river. Everything was going great, we were exploring the whole river but at one point when I was crossing the river my sandals broke. I realized I had to walk back like thi...
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Montana Trip 08/07/2024

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 August 7th  Hello! My name is Dahlia Garcia and I am a fourth year at the University of La Verne. Today started off with an early breakfast which consisted of cereal and a banana and then we all got into the vehicles to visit a ghost town in Garnet. It was stated on the greeting board that it was from the 1800's and from the elevation we were at, we saw so many homes that still looked like they were in good shape. The first building we went to was a hotel and the size was much smaller than the modern ones I see in my normal life. Each room was decorated differently with articles of clothing from the time, the kitchen had tools as well as old canned food items, and one of the floors showed a little quiz to guess what the antique items were. Other buildings that we saw included a newlywed home that happened to be extremely small, family home, and a cool saloon that looked like it was from the movies. We entered the visitor center, where they had nice apparel and cute gifts to g...
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Montana Monday 08/12/2024

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August 12th, 2024 Hi 👋 my name is Mario. I’m a fourth-year biology major with a minor in chemistry and work as an academic technology specialist in the makerspace at university of la Verne  I woke up around 7 am to get ready to leave the Magpie Ranch field research station it was an emotional day for me; I formed a bond with that place and with just everybody in it it’s like a part of me a part of a routine with everyday getting up at 8 am have breakfast pack lunch go to a hike or go fishing and then we eat dinner altogether as a family so after waking up I made a little bagel sandwich with cream cheese, and lettuce then I started vacuuming, washing bed sheets making sure everything is back to place and clean afterward professor weaver asked us to go outside to observe nature and take pictures in front of the Bob and Mary Neher Montana Research Station sign, which I have a picture of in this blog. We took a couple of pictures and said hi to one of the bald eagle nests on top of a ...
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Montana Friday 08/09/2024

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Hello, My name is Gustavo Munoz. I am a 4th year Biology student at ULV. The day started with a small breakfast of nutella toast with some strawberries. The previous night, Mario Sabry and I had made dinner for the entire group for this day. I chose to make mac and cheese, while Mario made an Egyptian dish. We left Magpie Ranch fairly early and headed over to Phillipsburg which was about a 35 minute drive. On the way there we stopped at a museum and saw many statues of local animals made out of steel. Life size models. Stopping in Phillipsburg, we went ot Doe's Restaurant. As a group we decided to get many different foods and share. Between chicken strips, elk burger, bison burger, and rattlesnake & rabbit bratwurst. It was an introduction to new local flavors since in California it is rare to come across these type of meats. A local favorite was the huckleberry soda, which most of us tried. We chose to do some sapphire mining in phillipsburg after our lunch. As a group most of...
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SECOND BLOG POST!!!!!

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 August 6th, 2024 Hello! My name is Lauren, I just graduated with my biology degree in May of 2024 from the University of La Verne! Summary : I had to wake up at 3:00am for a 6:00am flight, but I was able to sleep pretty early the night beforehand. The first group of students already arrived to Magpie Ranch on the 5th, so the last group of us were very excited to meet up with everyone! Our first flight was only an hour and a half and we had a layover in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our second flight was another hour and a half and I was able to sleep on the whole flight :) Once we landed at the Missoula airport in Montana, our small group met up with Professor Weaver (Pablo) and we headed to Cracker Barrel for some lunch (everything was delicious, I had the best blt ever). After lunch, we went to WinCo Foods for snacks and food for the rest of the week. I am paired up with two other people (Brianna and Gaby) to make dinner for one night while we are at the research station, and we all dec...
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