Feathered house guests

A friend of mine works at a raptor rehabilitation center caring for orphaned and injured birds of prey.  Recently, someone brought her a pair of fledgling wood thrushes and, not being able to to turn them away, has been raising them herself.  She came over for a movie night on my break back home and I entertained these little guys for an evening....precious!

Oil on the Marsh

Even though its been over a year since the tragedy of Deep Water Horizon, evidence of the environment-degrading contamination is still present in the wetlands of Louisiana.  Some of our sites that were hard hit with oil bare a very tangible reminder of the fossorial fossil fuel gone surface.  

 This photo shows a thick, grey sludge of weathered oil blanketing the soil.  At first, the oil seems nothing more than the anoxic, primordial paste that anchors the beds of marsh grass, but upon closer inspection, the sticky texture and chemical pungency are a dead giveaway that its oil. 

Harshly-impacted sites bare the erosion scars of oil toxification.  In some areas, large swaths of dead vegetation are present, in others matted beds of root matter, and in the worst, nothing but open water, with all the vegetation gone completely. 

So far no one truly knows the role that the spill has played in the erosion of the marsh.  Empirical evidence suggests that damage could be attributed to oil contamination, but we are not entirely sure of the natural erosion that takes place, so it’s hard to compare and make a definitive conclusion.  It’s going to take years upon years of collecting data and samples to document and analyze the aftermath of what has so far been the largest oil spill in the history of our planet. 

Don't judge a book...

At first glance, the vast salt marshes in the Gulf of Mexico seem like a monocultural tesselation of seagrass and water.  But take a closer look and you will be amazed at the microcosm of life that exists in its diversity of microhabitats.  The expansive flats of marsh grass are teeming with life, concealed in their verdent blades are a menagerie of birds, fish, and invertebrates.  When we motor up to a site, my eyes have to adjust from staring at a blanket of marsh grass, to carefully examining the activity in the marsh.  If you are patient, and keep a watchful eye, the grass will come to life.  Seaside sparows and red-winged blackbirds bustling among the blades, tiny crabs scuttling in and out of mudholes, snails noisily munching on blades of grass, minnows darting around stems.  And once you really start to pay attention you notice the gator slides, bird nests, and all the abiotic features that the animals create in their marshland paradise.

Spider lillies

The eggs of an oyster drill (a predatory snail) inhabiting an oyster shell

A tiny, flowering succulent

Back to the Greasy Gulf...

I'm back on oil-spill detail in the Gulf of  Mexico, this time working in the sweltering salt marshes of southern Louisiana.  As part of a marsh-assessment team, our task is to collect vegetative data as well as soil and plant tissue samples to assess the extent of oil damage to the marsh grass beds. 

One of our sample sites

This work was started last spring just after the spill happened (a year ago now!) and we are re-sampling the study plots that were initially erected to account for changes in vegetative structure.  Already we have seen signs of erosion.  As oil contamination killed the marsh grass, the beds have eroded back.  At some sites, residual oil can still be seen in the grass beds and in the wrack line of dead vegetation.

At this point, our findings are only empirical; the samples we collect are sent off to a lab for physical and chemical analyses.  I am hopeful that the data we are collecting will be a critical tool in elucidating the details of how the oil spill has impacted the marshes, and the native flora and fauna of the Gulf of Mexico. 

A Kestrel Conundrum

Had a lively day volunteering at the raptor center.  The raccoons are at it again and the education department, regrettably, lost one of their birds.  Those feisty little opportunists have found themselves a quarry of easily-targeted prey and are exploiting it big time.  I'm curious to see how the staff at the center will combat them!

We (unfortunately) had another loss today.  A beautiful male American kestrel had to be euthanized due to a severely fractured, non-repairable ulna.  I was helping radiograph his injuries before it was determined that he had to be put down...

Poor little guy, gone to birdy heaven.  

Ecogeekin' it up in NC

On my way back to Alabama I made a pit stop in Charlotte, NC to spend time with Rob and Haley, the brains and legs behind Untamed Science.  We shot some footage for my bio video for the high school chemistry video series and a few short pieces on coyote ecology for the Untamed Science webpage.  We did some exercises for me to work on developing my on-camer presence and brainstormed ideas for new projects.  It was a lovely visit and they got me even more excited about future Ecogeek adventures. 

I went geocaching for the first time!  We got some fun footage of Haley, Falcon (her dog), and I playing in the woods for my bio video. 

We didn't bring a pen with us so I filled out the geocache log with my lip gloss...classy! :)

Time flies when you're having fun!

Some harsh winter weather has kept us at bay for a while on the sumberged oil study. A colleague shared his hobby with me and I now have a new favorite passtime...

I don't fly fish, but making these things is great fun!  I am seriously contemplating investing in my own personal fly tieing kit!