Day 10

I have been stationed at the Hammond bird rehab center for ten days now though it really feels like 100. My days are long and my perception of time has become distorted. My body and mind are craving adventure though the ability to get out and go birding is not a possibility. Even though the "restless" side of me feels neglected, I am very happy to be down here. My heart wants to be on the frontlines of this response, exploring beaches and marshes. I know my work here is important and I am happy to do it but I should be down there looking for the clapper rails and black skimmers that are being swamped by the onslaught of oil. Anyways, I feel very fortunate that the path that I chosen and have worked hard to carve has facilitated the coalescence of my passions and livelihood.

Gulf oil blowout and Ninigret!

I am sitting at TF green airport on my way to Louisiana to respond to the Gulf oil blowout. The call came in for me to go Monday afternoon and my thoughts have been racing ever since. Moments before I received the message Jen and I were exploring, birding, and swimming Ninigret pond tidal flats! Definitely one of my favorite places in the world and to experience it with Jenni cultivates warmth and contentment in my chest. I feel so inspired after a day with my love. Jen is becoming a proficient birder and was quick to spot a solo cedar waxwing! Nothing is cuter then that.

I will be stationed in Hammond, LA at the bird rehab center. I have an appointment of two weeks with two additional days for travel. My days will be long with 12-15 hr shifts. I plan on completely embracing this experience regardless of how emotionally challenging it turns out to be.

Jenni found a moon snail at the tidal flats!










Ninigret pond tidal flats!










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Monomoy N.W.R. Roseate Terns!!!

Today I traveled to Monomoy N.W.R. for tern band re-sighting training. I love Monomoy! The second largest colony of common terns on the Atlantic nests there. Monomoy has a diversity of habitat including dunes, ocean, freshwater/saltwater marshes, and freshwater ponds making it an important island for numerous shorebirds. We had the opportunity to count flocks and re-sight the bands on roseate terns. Re-sighting a "field readable" (a small tiny metal band with a combination of letters and numbers that provides information about the bird and the breeding colony that it is from) was very difficult though super fun. Using an elite level spotting scope is a necessity. The wind was gusting at 20 knots and the sky was overcast which made reading the bands a challenge but kind of fun! I am now confident that I can read bands accurately and distinguish roseate terns from commons. Pretty damn excited to get back in the field and search for roseate terns!!!

I tried digiscoping with my iPhone but the wind was making the scope unsteady.








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Gulf Oil Blowout! waiting...

So I am currently anxiously waiting for my resource order to go through in order to respond to the Gulf oil blowout. Hopefully they will pull my name in the next few days. I only have the first three weeks available in August due to fall classes starting. It is so hard waiting. My heart wants to be down there so badly doing whatever I can to help the birds that are getting hammered. I am not sure even how to prepare for such an experience. 15 hour days for two weeks straight. And I am glad for such long days! Its only two weeks and I better be working more then half of the total hours that I am down there! Every hour down there is an hour to intervene and mitigate some of the damage. It is going to be intense to see so much beautiful habitat tainted by toxicity and death. I feel very fortunate to be in the position to apply and have the opportunity to do my part.  All of our birds on Sandy Point have fledged their chicks and have started to move on. (7 American Oystercatcher chicks from 4 pairs, 6 Piping Plovers from 4 pairs though 2 pairs nested and abandoned) We are currently monitoring  the migrants that are flying through and staging. I am excited to see Red Knots soon and re-sight bands on the Roseate Terns!

Common Tern census on Monomoy!

On 6/15 I had the opportunity to travel to Monomoy NWR to participate in a common tern census. What an amazing experience! The day was full of screaming and disgruntled Terns that used tactfully placed poop to discourage our census efforts. I personally counted hundreds of eggs! Here is a video that could be used for the next Birds II trailer. We censused in a line and traveled the island from west-east. There were also a handful of Roseate terns that had nests!!!

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Least Terns!

Our least tern colony on Sandy Point had ~430 nesting pairs this year! Last summer only 9 pairs attempted to nest and all of them unfortunately abandoned their scrapes. I counted ~420 chicks for this years population and in two days the chick count went down to 56! It was devastating.
The culprit? Herring and greater black backed gulls. I witnessed one b.b. gull eat four chicks in two minutes! After the weekend the gulls officially claimed the least tern colony as their own. The remaining chicks were experienced survivors of an all out slaughter! The hand full that made it were mostly all fledged. ~100 probably successfully fledged (some of the terns were already fledged prior to the incident) I think this number is conservative but it is still heartbreaking! The least tern parents work so hard!

Least Tern Eggs!!!



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Horseshoe crab date night adventures are the best!

Searching for horseshoe crabs during the mating season is one of my favorite things to do on an early summer night. The most desirable conditions are during a full or new moon during high tide. Bring a strong flashlight and get ready to witness a 300 million old ritual!






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Mouse in the trash!

Jen found a mouse in the trash the other day. I walked into the kitchen and saw her outside on the deck on her hands and knees pouring water into a bottle cap. The mouse was surrounded by a plastic bag prison and we could not help but to nourish her with organic nut O's and a little water. The mouse was super cute but to watch Jenni feed and embrace a mouse was heartwarming. My feeling were confirmed yet again in that moment. Here's a pic of our little friend.

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Trips!

2010 A short list of some super neat places I have camped, hiked, and explored this year. List is incomplete.

Edwin B. Forsythe N.W.R.
Dry Tortugas National Park
Everglades National Park
Fire Island National Seashore
Bio-Blitz Block Island
Monomoy N.W.R.
Arcadia Management Area R.I.
SW Berkshires

Maybe I will actually blog about interesting things?

I have decided to make an effort to blog about my everyday relationship with nature and the wildlife that I cross paths with. I find it hard to dedicate the time to blog when I would rather be outside exploring or cuddling somewhere comfy. On a day to day basis I interact with the natural world and a blog might be a neat way to reflect upon and share these experiences. I strongly feel that if your not exploring the earth and connecting with your surroundings your at the best missing out and at the worst wasting your life.