Throwing quadrats
Jun. 23rd, 2004 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenBiology field trip! Yay!
Despite the sarcasm, it really wasn't that bad. The main thing that was worrying me was the fact I had to walk for miles. I mentioned before that despite the fact the field trip was to Formby Point, Rice-Oxley decided not to use the main entrance to the reserve. Instead, the meeting place was down the coast. I couldn’t cadge a lift, as my parents are still in London (and I am still bitter, but that’s another story) and so I bit the bullet and walked. It took me about an hour, which didn’t do wonders for my state of mind. The weather forecast wasn’t good, either. It was already beginning to rain by the time I fetched up at Range Lane.
Steph was the first to arrive after me, and was swiftly followed by everyone else. Although all the groups came, we were split into three teaching groups, so to all intents and purposes we were on a field trip with ten people. I actually quite liked this, because part of the reason I don’t like field trips is the way everyone has to jog to keep up with crowds of others. In our case, it was just the usual gang of people, plus Rice-Oxley, who started off the day by standing in a nettle patch and holding forth at length upon the historical, geographical and ecological significance of hedgerows. Apparently they pre-date some cathedrals – at least they do in Formby. See, I listen on occasion.
Cue tramping along in the mud down the path, trailing muck and water and that lovely smell of wet polythene and wet dog. Admittedly, I didn’t mind the dog. Quite the opposite, in fact. Gem is Rice-Oxley’s dog, and she’s one of those nice, sweet golden collies that everyone likes.
So, it rained. And we tramped through mud making notes on increasingly damp paper. By the time we reached the dunes, where the hedges open out and make way for acid heath and dry slack (I do listen!), it was less claustrophobically wet but the sky looked ready to open upon us. Somehow or other, I didn’t mind. I love this place. I hope I never get over how beautiful it is, even under such awful weather as we had today. It was so bleak out there today, windy and cold (and it’s June!) that we were the only people out there. Rice-Oxley let Gem off the lead, and she bounded around chasing sticks while we clambered up the dunes and into the biggest blowout in Europe.
[No, I didn’t know what a blowout is either – it’s a place where the dunes have just collapsed, leaving a crater – and this one is absolutely huge]
By the time we reached the beach, we were throwing quadrats. A quadrat is not an obscure medical condition or some form of seizure – it is two wooden poles bound by string so they cover an area of one metre squared. What we do is try and estimate the percentage coverage in each quadrat of various types of plant – I learned a few plant names today, lovely names like red campion and rest-harrow and centaury and dewberry – and also the coverage of bare ground. It’s not very accurate, but throwing quadrats is fun. In order to get a sandom rample (Rice-Oxley calls them this for no apparent reason), you spin a pencil and follow the direction it points in, walking a fixed number of paces that you have obtained from a random number table. Then you take your quadrat in both hands, spin round and round and let go so it flies backwards over your head.
Fun. Not so fun is counting all the plants in them, but still. Quadrat-throwing provided most of the humorous moments of the day. I particularly liked the moment where I threw a quadrat, having spun a pencil, generated a random number, walked a few paces, closed my eyes, spun round and thrown, and the quadrat sailed through the air and landed exactly on top of another group’s quadrat, startling the life out of them.
Later in the day, it was Fidan’s turn to throw, and although her eyes were closed, mine weren’t. “Watch out!” I yelled, but it was too late – the damn thing had gone flying like an iron bar to a magnet and landed on Rice-Oxley. The entire group were trying not to laugh. I considered scrapping my species list for that quadrat and writing “100% Rice-Oxley”, but she disputed that on the grounds that she isn’t a species in her own right.
The weather is a great leveller. We all looked bedraggled and lost-sheep-ish, and obviously very geeky, carrying quadrats and pH-meters and windsocks and in my case, an auger. I looked geeky but threatening. The effect was ruined by the fact I was constantly chasing over the dunes after my hat, which kept on blowing off. Fidan responded by jamming it on my head with enough force to take me down, laughing hysterically and rolling over down the dunes.
Fun. Wet, but fun. It’s amazing how different even a field trip is in sixth form: we didn’t travel far – I never got more than half a mile from home all day – but we planned it ourselves, ate lunch on the dunes below the sky, and went home wet but fairly contented.
Which is not to say I am not still bitter about my parents’ leaving. I am. But today wasn’t too bad. I just don’t want to go to school tomorrow.
Despite the sarcasm, it really wasn't that bad. The main thing that was worrying me was the fact I had to walk for miles. I mentioned before that despite the fact the field trip was to Formby Point, Rice-Oxley decided not to use the main entrance to the reserve. Instead, the meeting place was down the coast. I couldn’t cadge a lift, as my parents are still in London (and I am still bitter, but that’s another story) and so I bit the bullet and walked. It took me about an hour, which didn’t do wonders for my state of mind. The weather forecast wasn’t good, either. It was already beginning to rain by the time I fetched up at Range Lane.
Steph was the first to arrive after me, and was swiftly followed by everyone else. Although all the groups came, we were split into three teaching groups, so to all intents and purposes we were on a field trip with ten people. I actually quite liked this, because part of the reason I don’t like field trips is the way everyone has to jog to keep up with crowds of others. In our case, it was just the usual gang of people, plus Rice-Oxley, who started off the day by standing in a nettle patch and holding forth at length upon the historical, geographical and ecological significance of hedgerows. Apparently they pre-date some cathedrals – at least they do in Formby. See, I listen on occasion.
Cue tramping along in the mud down the path, trailing muck and water and that lovely smell of wet polythene and wet dog. Admittedly, I didn’t mind the dog. Quite the opposite, in fact. Gem is Rice-Oxley’s dog, and she’s one of those nice, sweet golden collies that everyone likes.
So, it rained. And we tramped through mud making notes on increasingly damp paper. By the time we reached the dunes, where the hedges open out and make way for acid heath and dry slack (I do listen!), it was less claustrophobically wet but the sky looked ready to open upon us. Somehow or other, I didn’t mind. I love this place. I hope I never get over how beautiful it is, even under such awful weather as we had today. It was so bleak out there today, windy and cold (and it’s June!) that we were the only people out there. Rice-Oxley let Gem off the lead, and she bounded around chasing sticks while we clambered up the dunes and into the biggest blowout in Europe.
[No, I didn’t know what a blowout is either – it’s a place where the dunes have just collapsed, leaving a crater – and this one is absolutely huge]
By the time we reached the beach, we were throwing quadrats. A quadrat is not an obscure medical condition or some form of seizure – it is two wooden poles bound by string so they cover an area of one metre squared. What we do is try and estimate the percentage coverage in each quadrat of various types of plant – I learned a few plant names today, lovely names like red campion and rest-harrow and centaury and dewberry – and also the coverage of bare ground. It’s not very accurate, but throwing quadrats is fun. In order to get a sandom rample (Rice-Oxley calls them this for no apparent reason), you spin a pencil and follow the direction it points in, walking a fixed number of paces that you have obtained from a random number table. Then you take your quadrat in both hands, spin round and round and let go so it flies backwards over your head.
Fun. Not so fun is counting all the plants in them, but still. Quadrat-throwing provided most of the humorous moments of the day. I particularly liked the moment where I threw a quadrat, having spun a pencil, generated a random number, walked a few paces, closed my eyes, spun round and thrown, and the quadrat sailed through the air and landed exactly on top of another group’s quadrat, startling the life out of them.
Later in the day, it was Fidan’s turn to throw, and although her eyes were closed, mine weren’t. “Watch out!” I yelled, but it was too late – the damn thing had gone flying like an iron bar to a magnet and landed on Rice-Oxley. The entire group were trying not to laugh. I considered scrapping my species list for that quadrat and writing “100% Rice-Oxley”, but she disputed that on the grounds that she isn’t a species in her own right.
The weather is a great leveller. We all looked bedraggled and lost-sheep-ish, and obviously very geeky, carrying quadrats and pH-meters and windsocks and in my case, an auger. I looked geeky but threatening. The effect was ruined by the fact I was constantly chasing over the dunes after my hat, which kept on blowing off. Fidan responded by jamming it on my head with enough force to take me down, laughing hysterically and rolling over down the dunes.
Fun. Wet, but fun. It’s amazing how different even a field trip is in sixth form: we didn’t travel far – I never got more than half a mile from home all day – but we planned it ourselves, ate lunch on the dunes below the sky, and went home wet but fairly contented.
Which is not to say I am not still bitter about my parents’ leaving. I am. But today wasn’t too bad. I just don’t want to go to school tomorrow.
