Lists of things

States Visited - Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Okalhoma, New Mexico, Arizona, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas

(states still needed: Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota)

Provinces Visited - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia

(provinces needed - all but those above, and the territories!)

New Country - Canada!

(countries needed - everything minus the US and Canada…)

Miles Driven - ~ 30k

Miles flown - ~ 10k

Months till I finish my PhD - 17!!!!

/#MORails observed its 6000th rail this year

Top moments of 2015 -

Banding rails under the northern lights in Saskatchewan

Giving my first two presentations at national conferences on my doctoral work

Trip to Yellowstone National Park with my husband

Getting a small grant that let me do my first international field work, based on contacts that I got and collaboration I initiated

Ending my 2015 field season catching both a Yellow Rail and a Virginia Rail

Publishing an editorial with Alex Bond pdf for personal use

Finishing the last classes of my PhD (WAHOOOOOO!)

Starting to feel like a real scientist who is valued by other scientists

Publishing a paper on the project that got me into research and into rails with Black Swamp Bird Observatory pdf for personal use

Being interviewed for BreakingBio

Starting to learn to say ‘No’

Tweeted from @RealScientsits and @BioTweeps

Received my first anonymous hatemail telling me my career was over because of the editorial Alex Bond and I wrote (I think that makes me a real internet person now? maybe?)

Low Points

Losing my amazing Opa (grandfather), who has left us huge shoes to fill in the continued fight for the rights of everyone, especially those with mental illness or who have suffered loss in their lives. He was a truely remarkable man, who will be dearly missed, but taught me so much about how to treat others, and how to live a full full life his obituary.

This was my seventh Christmas without my Dad, and my first without his dad, my Opa, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to live up to both of their great legacies.