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Biology is not a degree

Dec 20, 2022
Gentle reader, I beg your indulgence to begin this blog with a long passage. There is a point to it, I assure you.I have heard honest men swear that they have killed and cut open tiburons [sharks] and found so many things in their bellies that they would have considered it impossible if they had not

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The ties that bind: Knots

Jun 23, 2022
Several years ago, working in the lowland streams of Nova Scotia, I set a series of minnow traps into the brook and left them for the overnight set. It rained that night. Heavily. Returning to the stream next day I found it overflowing, brown, muddy, and roaring through the channel. Pulling in the lines

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Looking for the invisible

May 30, 2022
Preamble: Gentle reader, it has been four months since I have appeared before you. Obligations and opportunities required my absence for a third of the year but now I am back. I am very pleased to be able to appear once again on the page in front of you. Reflecting upon my absence, I

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Tips for better proposals

Jan 23, 2022
Mid-winter. A time of thinking about summer work, planning, designing, scoping… And also writing those pesky proposals that drive the work we do. Having written a few proposals in my time as well as sitting on the other side of the desk and receiving proposals for work, I would like to distill a few,

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Christmas Books for the Biologist-Reader

Dec 13, 2021
By Sean MitchellIt is December 2021 and Christmas morning is rising, evening star-like, on the far horizon. This is a time for loved ones to ask us what we would like for Christmas. Here I would like to offer some advice for valuable gifts to be left under the tree for practicing biologists or

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So, you are stuck out overnight: part 2

Nov 17, 2021
By Sean Mitchell“The myriad jingle-jangle gadgets of some of our modern outdoorsmen would make our ancestral buckskin men turn in their graves. Their packs were light and their equipment meager, for these adventurous and picturesque wilderness men depended upon their skill and ingenuity in woodcraft rather than upon a lot of ‘things’.” (from Jaeger,

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Five suggestions to improve your writing

Sep 23, 2021
By Sean MitchellWhat are your views on the technical writing that you develop? What about that which you see by others? Are you satisfied and feel enriched upon finishing your own report or reading someone else’s work? You should: the act of writing should be satisfying and enriching, as should be reading others documents

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Identifying a Species From Bits

Aug 31, 2021
By Sean MitchellFound carcasses are fascination. Yes, I am that guy that stops on the roads to check out road kill; behaviour that has really honed my wildlife identification skills. I recommend it to everyone. Being able to identify a species from a carcass or even whole skeleton is not that difficult. But, and

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Return of the Generalist

May 26, 2021
By Sean MitchellToday’s working biologist or environmental technician sits at a nexus of many industries, disciplines, and requirements (Figure 1). Not only must we be knowledgeable and competent in our training (typically biology of some form) but also need to be familiar and conversant with a myriad of other tasks; activities such as reading

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