White Pelican Release

Check out these photos of me helping release White Pelicans at the refuge here in Sanibel. the release happened before xmas, but we finally got the copies of the pictures from CROW (Care and rehabilitation of wildlife), who facilitated the release of these birds, who were flown down on Northwest from Wisconsin where they were getting trapped in the ice this past fall, having failed to follow their compatriots south when they were supposed to. It's an interesting dilemma, if the birds aren't migrating, should we be helping them on the way? Will they do the same thing next year? Is there a bigger problem that we aren't seeing? It was still a cool experience, and it was amazing to hold such a big bird, who was surprisingly light-weight which demonstrated how birds are so adapted to flight (hollow bones, feathers, bills instead of jaw bones). These guys swam off and joined the rest of the White Pelicans which had flown their own way down here.

hope y'all are having good winters and i'm jealous of those of you who are in snow (truly).

Damn it's snowing AGAIN.

Hooters Fresno

Gouldii and I finally got out in the field today after several days of heavy rain. We had a long drive and a long day in the field cutting net lanes and setting up nets. What better way to relax than having a beer and burger at Hooters. Goudlii insisted. Our waitress was a Koko look-a-like. Well she was shortish, had long brown hair and wore glasses. I hope all of you know that Koko was formerly a Hooters girl. I heard she went to the reunion when she was back home.

We'll be banding tomorrow, weather dependent.

raining men

the tempurature is rising
pressure is getting low-ow
according to our sources
the street's the place to go

tonight for the first time
just about half past ten
for the first time in history

it's gonna start raining men

it's raining men
HALLELUJAH
it's raining men
AAAAmen



-excerpt from the night of january 3rd, half past ten pm. power outage from the storm of the century. koko, mr.d, gouldii, aes, tag, dma

My life as an environmental educator

Hey all, here are some photos of my first two programs at the J.N. Ding Darling NWR on Sanibel, FL, where I'm the env. ed. intern. The first one is of the Bailey Tract birding tour where I take bird-friendly people out to see what we can find in this freshwater ecosystem. The second photo is of my "Basic Birding Skills" program. There were 5 of us on the Baily Tract tour before the rain drove us away, and no one showed up to the basic birding skills except a soggy Yellow-crowned Night Heron who stood stoically in the rain waiting for a crab to come out of its tunnel. But, for a rainy first day of the year, it wasn't a bad bird day! Lots of Gray Catbirds meowing in the bushes, Spoonbills and White Pelicans all over the refuge and tons of Myrtle Warblers in the Wax Myrtle bushes.

Happy New Year Lists!!!

Left: Checking out some Mottled Ducks.

Right: Testing out some "identiflyers" and setting out the bird anatomy poster and bird books.

Happy Holidays!

Hello all,
Hope everyone is having a great holiday season. I was back in Michigan for a week. I had dinner with the Mid-Western family (minus the sister). Had some beer, talked about deer hunting, you know Michigan stuff.

Had lots of food and saw lots of family. Overall a great time. My nephew is walking around with minimal support. Almost ready for his first pair of bins. I'm back at Palo right now. Picked up Gouldii this morning. His beard has grown in nicely. We'll be off to the Central Valley to band next week.

I think it's time for everyone to give an update. Peace out.

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.