Hi Everyone, As promised, here’s a quick tour of our living quarters courtesy of Kat, Angus, and Zach. They took some artistic license with my request for a quick video tour through the house… hope you enjoy! All credit goes to the three of them, and before you give me a hard time about giving … More Introducing the Castle!
This year I’ve been lucky enough to bring three Yale undergraduates along with me to Greece. They’ve been here for almost a week and are settling in admirably! They’re going to be a huge part of this summer, and a major ingredient for its success, so I want to give them a full introduction. You’ll … More Introducing the team!
After the long day island hopping in the bay of Naoussa, Johannes and I decided to, before we ran out of sunlight, check out one more interesting spot nearby on Paros. Johannes had been to this peninsula about 10 years earlier and it was then, and is still now, only connected to Paros by an ever-shrinking … More Idiokthsia – a “proto-island”
One of the big goals for this summer’s research is to initiate a long-term island-manipulation experiment on small islets near Naxos and Paros. The logistics and permitting for the experiment have been far more difficult than I’d anticipated, but while I am working with collaborators and government officials to finalize the plans, the first priority was determining whether the dozen islands I’d … More Visiting the Paros Islets
Last year, much of my work was focused on surveying lizards on and off of rock walls in Naxos. Assuming that the differences would be subtle, I spent the bulk of my time carefully characterizing two populations on opposite land-use extremes: lizards living in the Moni valley that is heavily walled for agriculture, and lizards living … More Scouting for Field Sites
After enjoying the Kouros and the excitement of the big May day barbecue, we piled back into the Symenoglous’ car and headed off to an extremely small village nearby to celebrate much more quietly with their extended family. These’s no parking in this village, in fact there isn’t even a road, it’s only accessible by … More Happy May day! (part 2)
The first of May is a big holiday in Greece and just about everything (except my trusty café) is closed to celebrate. I was planning on spending today working on protocols, catching up on emails, and doing some bookkeeping. In the middle of the morning though Mrs. Symenoglou called and invited Johannes and I to … More Happy May day! (part 1)
I made it to Naxos, and boy is it good to be back! Johannes and I were heavily loaded with three kayaks between us, and more bags than hands, but we collapsed into a hotel room without incident after a slow walk around the harbor. Very little has changed on Naxos and it feels great to … More Getting settled in Naxos
As is my wont when prepping for trips, yesterday as I was packing all of my supplies, I had an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation playing in the background. I’m an aficionado. It’d be embarrassing to elaborate, but suffice it to say that I’ve seen all the episodes several times. I had somewhat … More Time to watch more Star Trek!
I safely arrived in Athens! Thank you all so much for your emails checking in on my progress. The flight was long but uneventful, and now I just have to catch up on my sleep to get back to 100% before going to Naxos tomorrow. Looking forward to sending pictures and updates from there!
Colin Donihue 