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!

SOCS Update

The crew has been rockin'and rollin' and we have completed 8 of our 10 sites in Mississippi.  Albeit in miniscule amounts, we are finding oil.  The dispersant really broke things up and the oil we are detecting is in tiny specs suspended in the water column and on the ocean floor.  Our initial 'presence/absence' search for oil will be enhanced with subsequent sampling.  Following laboratory examination of the samples we submit, the field operations team will decide where our targeted sampling effort will begin.

Some more shots of the crew...

Late winter on the Mississippi coast is surprisingly warm and we have been graced with mild weather, which makes our work a lot more pleasant!  Some more shots from the deck of the Horn Island...

Biloxi Sunrise

Got to the marina early yesterday morning...just in time to watch the sun rise...

Southern Lights?

I have never seen the northern lights (its on my list of things I want to do before I die), but today I saw a very cool spectacle of mother nature...colorful clouds.  Don't know if it was gases in the atmosphere, light refraction...a miracle?, but I have never seen anything like it. 

Sweet Home...Mississippi?

Work on the SOCS project continues, only now I am the team lead for Team 71, operating out of Biloxi, MS.  Our boat, Horn Island, is docked at the Point Cadet Marina right behind the Isle of Capri Casino.  A couple days of rough seas had us on stand down for a little while, but the weather today was wonderful, the seas were calm, and we are back on the grind.  Here are some pictures of the crew at work...

Setting up the sentinels

Our makeshift darkroom for detecting oil under UV light

East Ship Island

Taking a snooze on the deck

Poms, poms, and more poms