Ithaca in Autumn

It's been a week since Block I finals ended (no, I do not have any grades yet... we're assuming that I get to stay in vet school) and we're just finishing up our first week of Block II, the next series of torture... errr... the next step in becoming a Cornell veterinarian. Not gonna lie, it's boring as heck. I'm fairly certain you don't want to hear about DNA transcription and mitosis and all that jazz (Lord knows I don't) so I'll probably refrain from mentioning it at all. You can thank me later. Block VIIb is shaping up to be a bit more interesting- it's a combination of husbandry, ethics, and nutrition (no, I do not know who decided that those topics went well together) and involves some time at the SPCA and a farrier lab (read: horse hoof care), among other things. So we'll see how that goes!

But since the pace has slowed down from Kentucky Derby to a basic workout around the track, we all get to stop and look around a bit, and enjoy this beautiful city in my favorite season. I live on the edge of town, which is a bit more "wild" than downtown in the sense that I have some interesting animal neighbors. I heard a pack of coyotes one night not long ago, and have been serenaded by a pair of great horned owls every night for the past week or so. I've also become addicted to Sapsucker Woods/Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which is a neat bird and wildlife sanctuary right up the road. I've started some semi-serious birdwatching as a result of hanging out there- it's an excuse to get outside! The Lab also run a neat website called eBird, where you can log your sightings of birds anywhere in the world. The data is useful not only for your own records, but for the scientists at the Lab as well, who use it in their studies. Plus it's kind of cool to watch your "life list" of bird species keep climbing!

The picture above was taken at Sapsucker Woods Pond, though I did kind of cheat- this was taken around mid-October, nearly all of our leaves are gone by now. Can't wait to get back out there today- sixty degrees!!! And... snow predicted for Sunday. Ahhh, western New York.