Today is a landmark day, because today I ate my first midge.  Actually, I had lots of adventures with arthropods today, but that will have to wait until I get the pictures off of my camera.  Yesterday was another one of those days that doesn't really count as work.  We went out on Myvatn in a boat to set midge emergence traps.  A midge emergence trap is a plastic funnel with a jelly jar screwed into the top and weights to hold it below the surface of the water.  It's also attached to a buoy and an anchor.  The idea is that when the midges emerge from the lake, some of them will emerge into the air/water boundary in the jelly jar instead.  We can come back and switch out the jars to take a look at what's inside of them.  It's a bit of a trick to get the contraption set properly in the water, but really most of our time was spend driving from one part of the lake to the next on a gorgeous sunny day!

I should also mention that boating on Myvatn is very restricted - you either have to own land on the lake or know someone who does and have a very good reason to be out there - so going out on the lake is a unique privilege!

Getting the boat ready for launch

Maddie driving

We stopped to visit some friends from the research station!  They are doing their annual bird count.

Kati, their pet polar bear