Today it rained and then it was sunny...and then it rain...and then it was sunny...and then it rained...

As we left this morning headed for Wasilla AK, we discussed the weather. Jeff said his weather search suggested rain while Lauren pointed out that her weather widget mentioned some sun. This OBVIOUSLY meant we would be experiencing both on and off all day long -- as we would soon find out....

Today Jeff and I remembered why it was we decided to jump into the water early afternoon rather than late morning as we stood at the public access of Big Beaver Lake and watched the rain lightly hit the water and were chilled by the breeze. Last spring/summer, we jumped in later because the sun didn't usually come out in Wasilla on yucky days until the afternoon this time of year -- 12pm at the earliest it seems. We experienced that pattern today as well. In cold, cold Big Beaver Lake we muttered in the water through our snorkels and agreed we should wait until we talk to the residents around the area in the lake we wanted to grid before we grid, i.e. we didn't set out grids today. In general, we set out grids when we do behavioral observation so we have a set area to observe nested male stickleback and their territorial and courtship behavior within replicated subsets of the lake. We try to do four grids per lake when it is possible. In one BC lake, North Lake...


...the males were breeding so far apart that it was difficult to set up grids so we chose a transect and did observations along that transect and later determined transect size so that we could compare our transect males to grid males in other populations. Of course, the point I wanted to make here is -- as soon as we got out of the cold, cold water and were packing up our dry suits, it was ~12pm and the sun was coming out.

Jeff and I are interested in several aspects of stickleback behavior. Jeff is interested in territoriality and I am interested in courtship behavior and alternative mating strategies. Luckily, watching stickleback for several hours a day will give us enough information to investigate both of these research topics. We collect data on all that we see with our nested males during the time we are observing and then Jeff will focus on the male-male interactions while I will focus on the male-female and male-female-sneaky male interactions. Here are some pictures of nested males with adjacent territories and guarding nests in Francis Peninsula Lagoon, BC -- an anadromous population (marine stickleback that breed in freshwater):

Of course the fish are much more interesting in action. A still photograph cannot possibly capture all the drama in their lives -- drama which includes fighting with neighboring males to establish their territories, attracting females to their nest, not attracting cannibalistic foraging groups to their nests, caring for the eggs and young fry they manage to acquire in their nest, and looking out for sneaky males that have an eye on their territories or nests. Here is Jeff (front right) and Greg (middle) observing fish at Francis Peninsula, BC -- to give an idea of how easy, dry and warm it is to make shoreline observations:


We made a good connection with a resident of Big Beaver Lake who will let us use his access and dock for future observations so Jeff and I will jump in tomorrow to set out the grids and set up traps. The next day we will pull the traps and sex the fish. All the males we collect will be weighed and measured and tagged so that we will be able to identify them if they end up in one of our four grids or we happen upon them elsewhere in the lake. More on tagging at a later date...