It’s been quiet here for the last couple of weeks because I’ve been busy wrapping up loose ends in the lab, visiting family, putting all my worldly possessions into storage, and packing, in preparation for a big field trip. Today, Sean and I will travel to Honduras (via Dallas, Houston, and Miami) to study Red-throated Caracaras (awesome raptors that are specialist predators of social wasps) in an area where they are threatened. We will do extensive surveying and hopefully radio-tracking of the birds to get some basic data to inform conservation efforts. Sean will be blogging about our efforts at ibycter.com.

This is what all the gear we’ll need for 3 months of field work looks like. (Photo: Sean McCann)

Somehow, all that stuff fits into these 4 bags! (Photo: Sean McCann)

This work is the continuation of Sean’s PhD, and although it’s not spider-related, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go along and assist with field work in such an exotic location. While we’re in the field, I’ll be working on writing up my thesis on sexual communication in black widows. Of course, as we explore the department of Olancho in search of Caracaras, we will also be keeping an eye out for cool spiders (and other arthropods)! If it’s anything like our last field expedition to French Guiana, we’ll find no shortage of amazing creatures to observe and photograph. I hope to blog regularly about all the wonders Honduras has in store for us, so stay tuned for updates from the field!

Our main goal is to find lots of these! (Photo: Sean McCann)

But I am looking forward to seeing lots of these too! (Photo: Sean McCann)