An unexpected meet up with David Bickford
While travelling in California conducting fieldwork on Xenopus, I was contacted by David Bickford with respect to a chapter that we have been working on for what seems like a very long time. I remembered that David worked in the LA area, and so I reached out to him to meet up. In the pic below, David is showing off all of his Mandica memorabilia. He and Mark were lab mates for a while in Miami.
As David was about to move house, he had plenty of space and so I stayed a few nights with him and side-kick Datsie. Anyone who knows David will know that it was great fun to spend time with him, and we found time to drop traps at some of the best places that LA has to offer. Here are some of the highlights:
Trapping at a known site in Corona, Orange County. We didn't catch any Xenopus, but we did meet some interesting characters who hang out under the bridge.
Another fun hang-out in the Jurupa Valley near Riverside. No appropriate trapping places here, but David shows us how he can make his lower half disappear.
Although David and I had no success in Orange County, I hope that there maybe a sample to come from there in future. There are certainly enough dodgy spots for our Xenopus to hang out in.
