Oiled birds

Reading more about the oil spill on PRBO's website, continuing to hear about it in the news, and seeing photos of shiny black oil blobs really brings home to me that we are addicted to oil. I mean, each one of us uses some form of that oil that fell into our oceans, washed up dirtily on our beaches, and killed our birds. Each one of us drives the demand for it, to a small extent. What can we do? What changes do we make, which aspects of our lifestyle are we really willing to give up?

This morning I walked up to the refuge offices through the parking lot where a man was using a leaf blower to clear the sidewalks. It just suddenly seemed to me wrong to use that energy, even that tiny little bit, to blow leaves around. It was just so starkly incorrect.

But what about me? Here I use a computer to communicate with friends and write proposals to study conservation, I have a fridge humming in the background keeping my food from spoiling, a light is on next to me. Why do I condemn a leaf blower?

What can we do? Choose our battles: give up what we can, and ponder what we can't.

The Adirondacks :)

I went camping in the adks last weekend... well not technically "camping" My friends have a cabin up there. They're older place has a cute little wood stove w/ no electric but they wanted to test out the new cabin which was a little more "comfy" and we were using kerosine heaters but no electric. (I prefer tents...or if a cabin then at least the one w/ the wood stove) aaaanyway. My redneck friends are avid hunters so we got all dressed up in camo and headed out on the 2200 acres they own up there! We didn't see any deer but I did experience something amazing! We were sitting in the forest on "night watch" waiting for the sun to go down. We were toward the top of a ridge where it slopes way down and then rises again across from us. So I could see the creek below us and the next mountain across from us. All of a sudden as if it were out of a movie, we both spot this big "white" bird coming straight toward us... eye level from the other mountain. With hardly any maneuvering through the branches and trees this bird B lined it straight toward us..eye level the whole way, wings flapping end everything. I swear to you it was about 2 feet from my face I think it was going to land on my head..it got this close and I finally saw vertical breast streaking... my new NJ raptor ID trained brain immediately thought young accipiter. At this point I flinched my head down into my chest a little bit and at that moment the bird spread it's wings to stop it self and landed on top of a snag directly to my right...about 4 feet away and 2 feet up. Oh...hello Coopers Hawk... come to check me out?

it was incredible...

Oil Spill?

Hey I heard on NPR this morning that there was an oil spill in SF Bay...and birds were washing up all along the coast covered in oil! News please!!! Are most of the birds okay, what role is PRBO playing?

Smile!

Here's a great photo that was forwarded to me:










Sanibel is beautiful. While biking home from the library yesterday, I saw a COHA cirling above the houses. Then, further down the road, I glanced into the mangroves and saw two Roseate Spoonbills dabbling around in the mangrove muck! They were so beautiful, and it was cool to watch them forage. My uncle's house, where I'm staying has some mice (but not deer mice thank god), and the no-see-ums come out at night. So, paradise takes some work (I've gotta pick up some traps, and maybe a fine mesh mosquito net for sleeping), but it's so wonderful to be back in the tropics with the warm breezes and blue ocean. It really makes me miss Hawaii though, being so close yet so far.

Bird list so far: NOCA, WEVI, BRPE, XXTE, COHA, Anhinga, Roseate Spoonbill, Common Grackle, XXWA (Prairie Warbler perhaps?), Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, SNEG, Fish Crow, BAEA, OSPR, WILL, Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Also, while in CT I saw Tufted Titmice. My life list is slowly growing.