Plover Chicks

Being the very lucky lady that I am, I had a chance to see wee snowy plover chicks at work today. Two had just hatched, and their sibling in the egg wasn't very far behind. I don't think I was their parents favorite person today, but I was compelled to take a few pictures -- who knows if I'll ever have the chance again?



I didn't put anything in for size comparison, but the little guys are not much larger than cottonballs with little matchstick legs. They are so perfect, so tiny, so full of life. What a challenging day it must have been for them!

Living a Dream

As the sun rose over Pensacola Beach today, Monica and I went our separate ways surveying the north and south shores, on the next leg of the Plover Olympics. For five hours, I scoured the beaches alone, searching for plovers and chicks and nests, GPSing each and reflecting on the recent past. It was a good morning, and it's been a great growing season for me personally. I finally did the one thing I could never do before: I accepted myself for EXACTLY who I am.

It struck me today that I was happy again -- more than happy. I'm working a job I'm passionate about. I have a new friend in Delaware that I deeply care for and hope will be in my life for a very long time, though I'm not sure yet in what capacity. Mostly though, I have learned to value myself for the vibrant, intelligent, compassionate, flawed and extraordinary woman that I am. No more worrying about family expectations or societal norms or falling short or not being able to change the past. I embrace my flaws for the strong woman they make me today. I finally got that I am fine, just the way I am. It's enough to be a sea turtle biologist who's a bit flighty, unconventional, and happy.


I have spent most of my life trying to meet others expectations. I've formulated life plans around them, giving little thought to what I wanted and what I enjoyed. Obviously, there are things we all must do, but there are also choices we make. I'm making a choice to finally honor.... myself.

Every time I go home, it is with the best of intentions. I plan to help Mom, to get a normal job, to make money and build for retirement and be unhappy and responsible and grown up. I fade, and soon become a shadow of myself. My joy seeps out, and I become like a wounded bird in a black and white silent film -- broken, lifeless, celluloid. My spirit dies. It's not because of anyone or anything -- there is no blame here, no fingerpointing, no 'you do this to me'. It's within me -- I am not honoring my calling and my mind and spirit wither in its absence.

Here, on Pensacola Beach this morning, I finally got it. This IS my life. MY life -- not someone elses. It's the real deal and it's all I get. I can choose to be with Mom and be miserable and have an unhappy life, not really helping anyone or anything, or I can honor that wise voice within me that calls me to something greater than I am now. That inner voice challenges me to reach beyond my current limits, beyond my fears, beyond today. It asks me to abandon contentment and complacency to push the envelope, to reach for my dreams, to live as if my life had purpose and meaning beyond paying the bills and weeding the garden and putting gas in the car. (BTW -- I am planting a garden here... first time in years!)

So today, I embraced me, flaws, past, insecurities, fears and all. I finally learned to love myself. To forgive the past, celebrate the present, plan for the future I envision. There's so much I've learned, but I have so much farther to go... Sorry for the self-indulgent blog, but this is pretty important to me. For those who are interested, this is who I am:

I am a sea turtle girl. My passion in life is to protect these animals and their habitats which, in turn, protects all life as we know it. We rely on the same resources -- the sun to heat the earth, the rain for fresh water, the ocean to evaporate and create rain, the seasons, the seas, the coral reefs and rain forests, the beaches and rivers and streams -- we are all truly interconnected.

I can be a serious girl. I can study, learn and grow.

More often, I am a silly girl.

I carry bubbles in my car.

I chase butterflies.

I believe there is a pot of gold at the rainbow's end.

I believe I can see myself reflected in the eyes of everyone I meet -- that there truly is no 'other' -- we're all too connected by similarities to be divided by any detail.

I believe there is goodness and light in everyone. Yes, EVERYONE.

I wish on falling stars and dropped eyelashes.

I believe it IS possible to have peace in our time.

I am happily naive... and will continue to be so.

I read children's books.

I make sand angels at work some days (we don't have snow here, so it has to do...)

I find faeries, butterflies and birds in a cloud-ridden sky.

I wish to be a dolphin while watching a pod frolic in the waves.

I throw my arms back on a warm afternoon and try to embrace the sunshine.

I have been known to actually hug a tree. Really.

I build sand castles.

I twirl on a lonely beach when my favorite song comes on my ipod.

I twirl on a polished oak floor just because I can.

I'll skate on that same floor in socks. No one ever sees me do these things...

I giggle when watching plover chicks somersault after tripping on their newly hatched feet.

I drink hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows and eat popcorn at the movies.

I love my friends and family fiercely, no matter what. They may not always know that, or see it evident in my words and actions.

I am lonely in a crowded room, and crowded alone with my own thoughts.

I am loyal, kind, independent, compassionate, eccentric, intelligent and very often, scared.

I love and trust too easily and hurt far too deeply.

I love sunrise, a cup of chamomile tea (it's sunshine and honey in a mug!), fresh cilantro, music, and my nephews.

The sounds of shushing waves, the wind scratching the palms and a chuck-will-widow calling let me know I am home.

My greatest joy comes from sharing the things I love most with someone else. There's nothing quite like introducing someone to their first sea turtle hatchlings, their first ocean, their first coral reef. The gift really is more mine than theirs, and I am ever grateful.

I know I have found my place in this world -- I am a voice for the wordless sea. I am a champion of the under water world. I am a siren on an earth island, singing my song of the deep blue beyond.

I am inspired by light, laughter, small children, old people, turtles, the sea, spring, good books, fresh mint, friendship, starlight, kindness, love and life.

I marvel at dew drops on flowers and the quick smile of a stranger.

I don't just take the road not taken, I don't even carry a map. My path is uncharted and no one has walked it before me.

I am bare foot and sure sighted in a confusing world.

I may not always know where I'm going, or how to get there, but I do believe I'll find the way.

I am happy.

I am joyous.

I am free.

I am living proof that dreams do come true. And when they materialize for you, just make a few new ones -- there is no limit to what we can imagine, or what we can do in this life if we believe, and back that belief with solid intent and action.

Here's to the dreamer in all of us, and to realized dreams :)

The Plover Olympics

The state of Florida has asked us to census all of the snowy plovers on all of our beaches. It doesn't sound like a hard task until you understand the Park, and the plover, a little more.

Plovers are tiny, sand colored birds, about 5 to 6 inches long, that love to hide in foot prints and run from big scary humans. This one is really easy to find as the beach is so clear and it's darker back stands out against the sand.



Their nests are just a few eggs deposited in a little hollow in the sand. The parents carefully line the scrape with small bits of broken sea shell and tend the eggs for three to four weeks until they hatch. This six egg nest is exceedingly rare -- most are two to three eggs.



The mama and papa birds can be easy to spot when you get close to their eggs or chicks as they display wildly to attract your attention away from their young.



The chicks are a little harder to find. These are hiding behind some dead grass. While they appear to stick out once you find them, it helps to remember that this is one wee patch of dead grass on seven miles of beach, that we cover from the Gulf of Mexico to the Bay.



These little powderpuffs of tigerdown are so adorable that it's worth the search!



Their parents do a great job protecting them from the giant human predators too... and they provide lots of shade on the hot summer beach!



Finding them for this survey is like a large game of hide-and-go-seek. We know where a lot of the nests are, but there are solitary plovers, plovers still building nests, and new family groups wandering the mudflats feeding and hiding from predators. Once we find them, each plover, or small group, needs a unique GPS point. Since the birds fly from other birds, scare each other, and run when they hear or see our approaching ATVs, it's a little hard to get accurate locations, or even to know whether or not we are GPSing the same bird (yes, for a biologist, 'GPS' can be a verb).

In the best case scenario, that's the whole Olympic event -- search the seven mile sections of beach (of which we have three, each with a north and south shore), GPS each bird, and call it a day. Add in hunting osprey, wandering raccoons, the occasional dog, visiting people, airplanes and other distractions, and the job gets a bit more challenging. Figure in the least terns (LETE), and the job is nearly impossible.

See, at the National Seashore, plover nesting overlaps with black skimmer and least tern nesting. There aren't any skimmers in the park yet, but the LETEs have set up shop and are building scrapes and laying eggs, sometimes right along side the plovers. Sometimes, they harass the plovers so much they abandon their nests. They will dive at the little birds with their sharp beaks pointed at their heads, flapping their big, but elegant, tern wings and scaring the little guys away. They do the same to humans, dive bombing while shrieking at us and simultaneously blessing us with a load of guano. Lovely. Really. I mean it. It's lovely.

So, that's the birdy Olympics, and my lovely week at the park. While I may take a few minutes for lunch and be immortalized in a bad pic, I'm still working hard. Really Mom, I am!

Plovers Everywhere!

Today was the first day of the statewide snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) census in Florida. Mark called me early this morning to ask me to come in on my day off... that's what happens when you answer emails first thing in the morning, including responding to your boss! I need the time though, and the OT is good too.

It's been awhile since I've done a complete SNPL survey -- we did a lot of LETE (least tern) last Thursday, and I did as much SNPLing at Perdido Key as possible Saturday before the storms blew in, but I haven't seen an entire beach since I came back last week. Today was the first, and it was the mother of all beaches -- Santa Rosa. It's a huge beach with lots of habitat for plovers. There aren't that many SNPL nests, but there are a lot of SNPLs and it's a banner year for WIPLs (Wilson's plover) too. I thought it would take two or three hours, but it took all day! It was great to be out and about though, and there were several snowy family groups. They always make me smile -- those little puffballs of tiger down tripping over their own feet and hiding in footprints are hilarious.

I'm really enjoying being back at the park. It was good to spend time with my Mom, but I lose myself there. I feel forced to fit the roles everyone wants for me, and forget what's important to me. In time, I get confused and start losing myself. I don't meet society's expectations for me -- I should be married with 2.4 kids, working a job that I have no passion for, just trying to get by. Instead, I am alone in my life, following my dreams and working towards what I hope will be a wonderful future. I just hope it won't be alone.

Sunrise and Stormfronts

Today was my first turtle patrol for the season. There weren't any nests, but it was a fantastic start to my weekend, riding a cranky gator through seven miles of sugar sand into the sunrise. It was a cloudy morning, and the pinks, purples, blues and grays as the sun rose were stunning. I didn't think to take out my camera -- I was just enjoying the first day on the beach.

Least terns and black skimmers have started to set up shop again in the old Five Flags hotel site, which means construction will be postponed til nesting season is over. That's better for the turtles anyway. There were at least 100 terns, but only about 12 skimmers, flitting around, settling on the beach, rising with each passing beachcomber. An idyllic morning, if a bit breezy.

I headed out to Perdido Key to check on snowy plover and least tern nests, but the weather got the better of me. I really don't mind getting drenched on a warm day, but day-old plover chicks and incubating eggs may not tolerate the heat loss that comes from being wet. I convinced myself I left early because of them, but it was nice to escape the gathering storm. I was almost out of work time by then anyway -- when turtle patrols start at 5, it seems as if there's little time to get the rest of your work done, and there is so much to do! We have three beaches of nesting birds, at least two strandings reported this week (a dolphin and a sea turtle), turtle patrols on Pensacola Beach, gearing up for turtle patrols on all three beaches in about a week, lighting surveys, meetings and talks, and a million other things. I love my job, but I'm tired just thinking about it! I need to remember to take time to have a little fun!

In that vein, I'm done with this post :)

Marine Mammals in Mississippi

I don't think I've ever been to Mississippi to be in Mississippi before, though I have driven through. Monica and I spent the whole day there today at a marine mammal stranding conference/workshop sponsored by NOAA and NMFS. It was a fun way to spend the day and learn about new protocols addressing human interaction with marine mammals that have stranded.



NOAA flew in a stranding from Virginia Beach for us all to work on together. They had a UME (Unusual Mass Event) a month or so ago, and this Common Dolphin, Delphinus delphis, was part of that group. It was interesting to see the animal as it's not a species normally found in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Monica did a great job playing Vanna...



I know the pictures today are kind of sad, so I'm only putting a few in... It's not a lot of fun to do a necropsy, but it's so important to find out what's causing animals to beach themselves while live, or wash up dead. It's equally important to ensure that biologists doing the studies are all doing things the same
way -- consistent data are vital! Check out the tattoos here -- he had some very accurate corals on his arms :)



This stranding had some not fun stuff -- discoloration and possible infection in the lung, necrosis in one kidney, lots of parasitic cysts, and a parasitic worm in the nasal sinus among other anomalies. His belly was badly scratched from rocking against an oyster bed in the Chesapeake region, and he had rake marks on his right flipper and right flank. Dolphins do sometimes play rough! Anyway, it was a long day, but a good learning experience and a great chance to get to know more local stranding team members. It's so hard to find them in the Florida Panhandle west of Destin. It's good to know we have friends to call on if the marine mammals on our beaches have a rough day...

Buy My Book

How's that for a shameless plea?

I've FINALLY self-published the first part of the Peach Fuzz story -- the only part I know to be true. You can see it here: Wrong Way Peach Fuzz: A Turtle Tale

First, meet Peach Fuzz, Jordanna (Anna) and Kirsten, the morning Peach Fuzz had her nifty new satellite transmitter attached. She was ready to get away from the two of us!



Right now, I'm working on a new book about her hypothetical path from egg to adult. While this story is based on the real world challenges, dangers and obstacles that hatchlings and maturing turtles face, it's not an actual observation of Peach Fuzz. Jordanna and I were privileged to watch Peach Fuzz in her first nesting year, but we weren't studying sea turtles when Peach Fuzz hatched twenty or thirty years earlier. Maybe someday we'll be able to follow an actual hatchling through all life stages, but that's a life's work as turtles may live as long, or longer, than humans!

The second book is all conjecture, based on observed behavior, deaths, strandings, etc. of other individual sea turtles. As I blog tonight, I don't even have a working title, maybe something silly like "Peach Fuzz: The Early Years", but it would only be a name to facilitate organizing my word file :) I've wanted to tell this story since I started writing "Wrong Way Peach Fuzz", but wasn't sure how to approach it. I just thought it made sense to keep Peach Fuzz as the main character to allow those who've already fallen in love with her to see her life history. While no one has yet followed a turtle from nest to nesting, there's plenty of info in the primary and gray literature to create a very plausible picture. I'll let you all know when the book is ready, but it won't be before fall.

Happy reading... and writing!

Home Again

It's funny how fast the park has become my home. I spent about five weeks in Delaware, trying to help my Mom, and struggled with the decision to return here. I feel as if I abandoned her in Delaware, but I was abandoning myself there. This job may be ending in the fall, but it feeds my soul. I need to be here.

Mark, Monica and I spent the whole day at the Santa Rosa area of the park today. Snowy plover nests and chicks were all over the place, and the least terns are just starting to put down eggs. Seeing the island teeming with life, despite the ongoing road project, was wonderful! The plover chicks, little tiger-spotted cotton balls, ran around on black matchstick legs. Least terns dive bombed our heads. Plovers pretended they had broken wings so they could lure us away from eggs and young chicks.

At one point, we really confused a nesting least tern. Mark and I stopped to put some signs near nests that were only a few feet from the road. We scared the bird off the nest while posting signs in the area, and backed away to see how many nests may be in the area. The poor least tern spent twenty minutes dive-bombing the strange new predator near her incubating eggs. The threatening figure refused to move though, standing stoically like, well, like a post in the the sand :) We were in hysterics!

In all, it was a fantastic day. I'm so happy to be back at work. And for those of you who haven't been reading elsewhere, here's a picture of my newest love -- my as yet unnamed nephew "Figo".



And Figo with his tired and doting parents, Peter and Helene. We're all so happy to have him in the family!