Author: marcuscengland
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Adventures in Central America (Part 2)
Note: The following is a reproduction of the field journal I kept from my first summer in Costa Rica in June and July 1996, when I was a student at La Suerte Biological Station. This was the first time I’d ever left the United States for a country other than Canada. I’ve typed out the…
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Adventures in Central America (Part 1)
Note: The following is a reproduction of the field journal I kept from my first summer in Costa Rica in June and July 1996, when I was a student at La Suerte Biological Station. This was the first time I’d ever left the United States for a country other than Canada. I’ve typed out the…
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Dancing for Sex in the Rainforest
Though advertising for sex often results in a jail sentence in most areas of the United States, these advertisements are highly conspicuous and visible daily in the animal world. You may not often think about it, but sexual innuendo is all around you. If you are one of many who glance up from the morning…
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Antbird Aggregations: The Dynamics of Foraging Formicarids
Note: The following is a write-up I did for the February 1998 Song Sparrow, a publication of Columbus Audubon, as part of a series I authored on tropical ecology. It is based on a term paper I wrote for an animal behavior class at Ohio State. The original term paper (“Dominance Hierarchies in Foraging Antbirds”),…
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On Jinx Birds and the Great Snowy Owl and Bighorn Sheep Conspiracy
Most birders are familiar with the concept of a “jinx bird”. A jinx bird is a species that you have made repeated efforts, often over many years, to see. It is one where you have shown up repeatedly at locations where the species has been reported, and it has always just left the area right…
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Get to the Finish or Die Trying: The 2015 Angeles Crest 100
It is really difficult to move happily through life without adjustments along the way. Stagnation is a key component of misery. It is important to understand what makes you happy, what goals you need to achieve to become happy, and what you are willing to sacrifice to meet those goals. Odds are that happiness will…
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Don’t Cry For Me, Ensatina: An Ode to the Joys of Cooper Canyon
Today was the final stop on my Tour of Otherwise Enjoyable Places That Will Make Me Cry on Race Day. Six days hence, I will be running my third attempt at the Angeles Crest 100. While the course is stunningly beautiful, and enjoyable recreation opportunities abound in the San Gabriel Mountains, attempting to enjoy 100…
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The Voice of Doubt
I suck at running. It is one of the few things in my life that I have chosen to fully embrace despite having a mediocre skillset. My lack of running prowess is the primary reason that I run long distance races: There would be little point for me to work and work at becoming competitive…
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A Sense of Place: Ohio and the Mohican 100
As I write this, I am sitting on Southwest flight 4472, returning from a week in my home state of Ohio. While I have gone back to Ohio one or two times per year since I moved to California in 2003, this is my longest return visit, and the first where I’ve spent most of…
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On Family and Falling: 254 Species
My younger brother and I have a history of adventuring through the wooded hills of Ohio. Through a series of both fortunate and unfortunate events, we have spent much of our adult lives separated by as much as half of the planet Earth, and even when he ended up in northern California several years ago,…