Birds Again!

Winter means birding at the beach, and there are lots of interesting species visiting.



Gulls, like this young Herring gull (HERG), grow more numerous as the chilly weather sets in. Several times a week, we do surveys divided between the south and north shores. Today was time for south shore surveys.



The south shore often has more common species here, though they can be quite beautiful, like this stalking little blue heron (LBHE).



The black bellied plovers (BBPL) were uncharacteristically bold while feeding today -- they must know the weather is predicted to cool down considerably tomorrow.



I never get tired of my RUTUs! Here, a RUTU seems to rule a roost of sanderlings. Not bad work for such a regal looking shorebird!

Skimmers Nesting at Santa Rosa

I've been seeing Skimmers (Rhynchops niger)in the Santa Rosa area for about two weeks, but today was the first time I thought there might be nests.



The were sitting quietly, til I drove up in my loud ATV.



Once they flew up, I was pretty certain they had eggs.



Here they are... a lot like all the other eggs I've posted here, but they're bigger, almost the size of chicken eggs. The nests are pretty plain, just little depressions in the sand. No wonder they nest in colonies -- that group defense is necessary!



Like killdeer, plovers and other ground nesting species, skimmers also pretend to have a broken wing, or wings to lure you away from their eggs or chicks, and towards them.



They fly at your head too, just like least terns. These birds may have tiny brains, but they use them, and their instincts, to great advantage. If only we all were so adept at using the gifts we're given...

The final day of plover state surveys...

I had the most amazing quote in my email inbox this morning that pretty much sums up the lessons I learned over the past five weeks while in Delaware, and after my return to life at the park:

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. -- Albert Camus



After so long in the depths of my experience, it's great to find that I really do have that light within. Sometimes, I just need the reminder, and a little more work. Now, back to the plovers :)

Monica and I finished our state of Florida surveys today. I did find another hatching nest...



No matter how many times I see a chick hatching, running around or hiding in the grass, I never get enough of it.



They really are too cute, and their parents are so fiercely protective. What amazing little bird brains -- we could learn a lot from their dedication to life and offspring.



Isn't it odd how much they look like their shells?

Message in a Bottle

I wasn't going to post today, but it was such an extraordinary day that I have to write. It was 68 this morning when I woke up, and foggy for hours. It felt great to be back on the beach enjoying it instead of shivering in pain, just trying to get my job done. I forgot what it was like to not hurt. In all, it was a pretty fun day!



I started the day doing a piping plover survey on Santa Rosa. The birds were hard to identify in fog so thick it made it impossible to wear my glasses, and nearly impossible to use my binoculars, but it was warm and that made all the difference in the world!

It was easy to see this wasn't a bird:



While trying to find my way around some dead trees west of Opal Beach, I ran into scattered piles of rusty metal.



The Navy used to use the park as a firing range, dropping bomblets from planes post WWII. These remains and unexploded shells may not be very dangerous, but I worry about all the tourists that visit the park, not knowing its history, so I called law enforcement.



DOD is out in the park now cleaning up the beach. I wonder how many park employees and others walked by before I did. Why didn't it get noticed and taken care of earlier? I'm hoping it was simply uncovered by recent wind activity and that no one would choose to ignore this stuff. ***

Once I got to Fort Pickens, I knew things would be better til I ran into this. You can't tell, but it's a dead dolphin:



A crazy great blue heron claimed a perch on an osprey pole:



A sunken boat emerged from the sands:



And a bottle was cast ashore on the Gulf coast -- that was the best part of the day! At first, I thought it was just trash in the bottle.



I spent a little time working on it, and uncorked this memory from the glass time capsule:



The picture itself was pretty old -- a fuzzy black and white with the blue ribbon photo-shopped into the image. The bathing suits also seem more modest and less colorful than what we wear today.



I wish I knew where the bottle went in the water. The cork reads 2006, so I know the message isn't very old, but it would be fun to learn where it came from!



Where are these young swimmers now?

*** The DOD responded and destroyed these remnants in a controlled explosion that same afternoon. I hope that's the last of those remains in the park!

Can the Wind be a Color? Can You Photograph a Sound?

Today was yet another chilly hunting survey with all the smart hunters home in bed. The cold weather has been very good for the ducks!



I have a lot of random thoughts when riding down the beach on my ATV. My wandering mind helps me forget that I'm in danger of hypothermia... If the wind can have a color, today it was gray.



I had my camera out for random beach photos today and paused by a snow fence. The sound of the wind and blowing sand running along the length of the fence made me pause. The shucka-schuka-schuka of sand hitting the fresh wood and the wind rattling the slats and wire are impossible to replicate.



I don't carry a recorder with me, just my camera - I guess I could have filmed it for a few seconds, but the waves would have been louder than this gentle rhythm. Why can't we see sound? Certainly it would be visible if we could see the sound waves.



The road project is well underway at Opal Beach, which is why there's so much sand fence around. It's a symbolic fence placed at intervals to define the corridor for all the construction vehicles. The road should be open within the next few months. I wonder how the birds will react.



Someone sailing at the Santa Rosa area had a pretty bad day recently -- this boat is very firmly aground, and looks a bit worse for wear. Who do you call when you need to tow a boat? Does SeaTow handle things this well ashore? This boat is in far too fragile an area to reach it by land -- I can ride an ATV down this beach at low tide, but at high tide, it's all marsh. My ATV certainly is no match for this lovely boat anyway.



When I arrived back at the office to thaw for a few minutes, my sister called -- they're taking my uncle in for his bypass and carotid artery surgery as I write this. I thought it would be later this week, but my uncle is happy it's today -- waiting was really hard for him. I expect to have good news late this evening.

What's This Strange Thing in the Sky?

There was a very bright white thing in the sky today. After days of rain and bone-chilling gray winds, I almost forgot what a sunny day looked like. With the worry and stress of this week, the weather fit my mood. It was wonderful to see such a good omen today though as my uncle finally has his cardiac cath and we get a better idea of how things will proceed from here.



I missed a lot of great photos today, but the birds were still great therapy after a heart-wrenching week. There was a plump little piping plover bullying the snowy plovers on a mudflat near the asphalt mountain. I couldn't capture him as he raced around, flapping wings and diving at other birds, seeming to claim his territory. In a calm moment, he might have looked like this plover, but he was more sleek and pudgy:



Two lesser yellowlegs were hanging out near the asphalt pile too -- Mark doesn't believe they're still here, but I see them every week... One of them wrestled with a small fish while I watched -- it's strange to see a fish travel down the birds neck!



I didn't have my camera out to capture the two bald eagles at the west end of Fort Pickens today either. I'll still take it as another sign from above that all will be well at home.

I promise to get back to more Park and sea turtle based discussions soon!

Underwater Again

Every time Mark schedules me for a hunting survey, it's an underwater hunt for hunters. As I woke at 0430, I could hear the gentle wash of rain against the cabbage palm outside my window. It's a soothing sound on those rare days when I can stay home with some hot tea and a good book, but there aren't many of them! If I were less enamored with my job, I would have rolled over and called in sick. I am such a geek!

I tried to dawdle at the office, hoping that either the rain would clear or the temperature would rise with the sun. Neither seemed to be in Mother Nature's plans today, so I loaded an ATV, hopped in a truck and headed to Santa Rosa. Arriving at that park area, I was immediately soaked through when I unlocked the gate. No worries though -- with 14 miles of beach to cover, I was destined to be drenched anyway! There were, of course, no hunters. They were all at home, warm in bed. Smart men.

Perdido Key was the same story. At least the ATVs got a really good rinsing, and the ducks got a day off. Hunting in the park is only open until the 28th, so the season is almost over. I'll have to talk to Mark about his survey schedule -- maybe we should have just picked the days based on weather instead of trying to pre-plan.

The rest of my day is back to Pensacola Beach lighting. Since we can't just appeal to the public and get the lights changed, my new method is to personally invite all property managers and owners to one of our two upcoming Sea Turtle Lighting Conferences/Workshops, offer sea turtle talks and maybe some hatchling release invitations later in the season. Tourists love that stuff! My theory is that they'll have a harder time saying no to my face, and they certainly can't ignore me. I only have a short time left here and I have goals to meet. The turtle season last year was the worst ever -- there's no where to go but up, and I'm doing all I can to help make that upswing a reality.

Now that work is done, the sun still hasn't come out, but it's not raining. I think it's still a great day for a book -- I got two from Amazon yesterday: new sea turtle books from Frank Paladino and Carl Safina. I can't wait to snuggle up with a good read!

Looking Up at the Gulf of Mexico

We finally finished the forest transects today, which was great! Yesterday, I thought I was going to get hypothermia, playing in the woods in 42 degree rain. It isn't so bad when you're moving, but when standing still, my joints were all freezing. It was impossible to write, especially while holding a metal clipboard... The seedling area had mushroomed from 24 trees last year to nearly a thousand, and every one had to be identified and measured in the driving rain. What fun! Today dawned gray and dreary, but there was no rain. When we arrived at PICL 8 (Pinus clausus plot 8), we were elated to see that it was so sparse. We finished the plot in three hours, after disturbing this patient woodpecker for the entire time.



Once we finished the plot, I abandoned Jennifer and Angela to do a PIPL (piping plover) survey on Fort Pickens. Drainage ditches from the rain yesterday made parts of the north shore completely impassable, and there were few birds and a dead beaver. I didn't even know we had beavers at Fort Pickens! The biggest adventure was just trying to find a way to drive an ATV down the beach. I failed to find safe passage past the buildings at Fort Pickes, so I had a pretty long walk to finish the survey -- it was a beautiful afternoon for a stroll and the walk helped me thaw a bit :)



I checked out the tree removal in the campgrounds and the trash removal at Battery Worth. The trash pile is just vanishing -- it was great to see the progress! It gives me hope that the park may indeed open again soon.



It's just amazing how much trash a storm throws up on the beach. It makes it very clear how much we consume, and dipose, in this society. There has to be a better way!



When passing by the road, I wondered how they were going to manage it. The surf was fairly large today, but was knocked down by the northerly winds. Even so, I could clearly look up to the Gulf of Mexico while riding along the road about three miles into the park. How can we build a permanent road that's not above sea level? Quite a challenge to maintain that one! It would be better for the turtles and the birds to just leave it as it is.



Riding back, the south beach was loose and wet and my ATV kept getting bogged down, so I decided to try the corridor -- bad choice! I managed to get the ATV sunk to the axle in more loose, wet sand. Eventually, one of the construction workers from the tree/trash removal came to the rescue. I'm a scrappy lady, but I can't pick up an ATV all alone. Next time, I'll stay on the beach!

In all, it was a fun day, though I still can't figure out what this was doing on the North shore...

Weekend Work

Though I posted Saturday, it was regarding Friday evenings work -- I'm getting lazy again about posting and the New Year isn't even two weeks old! I promised myself I'd write more, even if it's just here, as kind of a journal of my last 10 months with the National Park Service...



We allow hunting in the park at this time of year -- granted, it's very limited and very regulated, but it's a fun thing for those individuals who choose to participate. I'm not a hunter, and never could be, but I appreciate the respect and knowledge these men (generally) have for the environment. We only allow duck hunting, and I can't imagine being interested enough to sit out on a cold marsh in the early January sun waiting for some birds to fly by.



There are a lot of neat things to see as I drive by, which motivates me to get out there, but it really is too cold to sit still for hours!



These hunters have to know what they're doing -- only certain species are legal, and they have to identify them as they take flight. Don't worry -- great blue herons are NOT hunted -- I just didn't take any duck pictures today.



It's a challenge for me at times when I'm doing a shorebird survey, and I'm a biologist. I enjoy the opportunity to learn from these men, but I could never join their ranks -- I love the sun too much, and don't have the stomach to kill an animal.



That's why I work as a biologist trying to pull several endangered species back from the brink of extinction
These sea turtles are my focus -- even my Mom came down to help for awhile... (notice my natural hair color there under my stunning head lamp :))



Hunting season means more early mornings on the beach for me, even on my days 'off', so I froze all weekend, waiting for the sun to warm the day. Recently, it's been in the 30s in the wee hours, rising to near 70 by noon. It's a challenge to dress! I wear two pairs of pants, rain pants, four shirts, three jackets, a scarf, two hats and three pairs of gloves on the ATV at dawn. Riding through the frosty morning, in a northerly breeze, creating even more wind by driving at ATV is a chilling task! By ten am, I'm already peeling layers off. By noon, my stack of clothes is larger than my backpack. Florida is a little crazy that way!



I love having the time to explore the beach though -- I am truly blessed to be here, even if they can't really pay me :) Just look at that beautiful day!