Movin' On

My time here on Sanibel draws short. I will miss the Anhinga and the Rosies, but I'll be banding Akiapola'au while listening to Apapane, so I guess I can't complain. I'm heading over to the big Island for a couple months to help a Stanford postdoc on her project studying habitat needs of native Hawaiian honeycreepers, also doing plant surveys in the friendly hawaiian vegetation. There's a bit of outreach component to the job too, teaching some tour guides how to read color bands. I'm also thinking that it will introduce me to some key people in the hawaii bird conservation scene! In any case, it will be incredibly nice to be back in the misty forest islands called "kipuka" situated on vast expanses of black lava.

Just to make you all jealous of me, here are some pictures of a few of the lifers I've seen since I've been down here in Florida. Last week, the 2 bio interns and I went to a really cool spot (that was unfortunately next to a shooting range, but in Florida you can't be picky about land set aside) where we didn't see Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers, but did see Swallow-tailed Kite, Brown-headed Nuthatch, female Ring-necked Duck, and heard a Bobwhite, and of course also saw Wood Storks and Pine Warblers. But these pix are from Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, an amazing bit of land managed by the Audubon Society. Purple Gallinule and Palm Warbler. I also picked up Ovenbird (I love them!), male and female Painted Bunting, and Brown Thrasher. For more (and better) recent photos of Florida birds, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/susan.culliney

All of you who have not posted recently, let me know where you are and what you are up to!

Kranz, I just finished a trilogy about climate change by Kim Stanley Robinson (Forty Days of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, Sixty Days and Counting). To all who have not read this author, please try him out. He wrote the Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars) as well as this more recent trilogy about what happens to our society in the next few decades with our current problems. He's very optimistic, and I wish I could vote for the President in the 3rd book. There are so many great ideas and it's very hopeful. He's a very realistic and scientific fiction writer!

Everyone needs to update their whereabouts and current activities!