Peace of Mind

There are few things in the world that I can think of more wonderful than gliding downstream a river in a canoe. (The only thing that might be better is a kayak, but that's besides the point.)

Well, a few weeks ago I got to do just that with a group of friends along the aptly named Peace River. The area is well-known for its excellent fossil hunting opportunities, so armed with shovels, nets, and sieves, we rented canoes from a local outfitter and set out for a day on the water

Experimenting with black and white photography

There wasn't much in the way of birds, besides the usual selection of vultures, belted kingfishers, wading birds, and cormorants, but it was quite the photogenic day nevertheless.

The canoe run was short -- perhaps only 4 miles, but we made the most of our time by stopping at different points to excavate fossils of all shapes and sizes. Some of our finds included ancient manatee ribs, shark teeth, various vertebrae, sting ray mouth plates, turtle shells, gator platelets, and even a piece of a mammoth tooth.

View from the bridge

Just as the sun was beginning to lower in the sky, we came across an old rusty railroad bridge arching beautifully across the water. It was too cool to pass up, so we beached our canoes and scrambled up the bridge to take in the views.

Old railroad

Sunset over Peace River

Alligator bones

We were just about to leave when I spotted a pile of white rubble on the other side of the railroad tracks; my first thought was that it might be a turtle skeleton. Upon closer inspection, a friend pointed out that it was, in fact, an alligator skeleton. It was quite an exciting find, just as much so as all the fossils we'd collected that day.

I must say, for as difficult as this semester has been, I've managed to get out on some pretty cool outdoor adventures. Now that school is over for the holidays, I'll be focusing on studying for my senior comprehensive exams in the spring, as well as more birding whenever I can. I'm also teaching a short "Birding Basics" class in January, for which I'm beginning to prepare.

So that's the latest on my life! Until next time,

Happy birding!

Summer in review

I guess you know it's a good summer when you don't have the time blog about it. But unfortunately the fact that I am now writing about it means that for the most part, it's over. Needless to say, it will be impossible to retell it all in a single post, but I'll do my best to give a short recap of the highlights. 

I mentioned in my last post that most of my summer job consisted of working as a camp counselor, which was an experience in and of itself. Although insanely difficult at first, throughout the summer things got easier as I learned how to work with kids and became more comfortable with my own abilities as a teacher. It was such a great feeling to spend every day outside and watching kids gain a new appreciation for the natural world, even if only in a small way.

Appalachian Blue

But the summer was full of other opportunities to improve my own naturalist skills as well. From periodic bird walks with the experienced staff members, to citizen science projects like butterfly counts, I tried to take advantage of as many of these opportunities as I could. 

Silver Spotted Skipper

Handling the Barn Owl for the first time

One of my favorite jobs was working with the birds of prey at the raptor center. Although cleaning their enclosures wasn't always that much fun, I was able to spend a lot of time handling the trained birds for weekend raptor shows and traveling road shows (TRS's) to educate people on birds and wildlife. I was actually surprised how little people know about birds, but it was a good experience to teach them and I ended up learning a lot, myself. 

Sunrise over the Catalina Mtns

About three-quarters of the way through my internship, I took a week off to travel to AZ for a conference for a scholarship I won earlier this year. It was a pretty big deal -- all-expense paid trip, funding for my last year of school, and the opportunity to network with 80 other student environmental leaders from around the country. Although much of this involved sitting inside conference rooms attending workshops, I spent the early mornings out on the hiking trails.

White-winged Dove

I didn't see a large number of birds, but most of them were new to me, as an Easterner. I was delighted by the abundance of Anna's hummingbirds, white-winged doves, Gila woodpeckers, cactus wrens, and other desert specialties that flourished in the hostile environment.  

Cactus Wren

Gila Woodpecker

Costa's Hummingbird

On one of the last days of the trip, the scholarship foundation took us to the Desert Museum, a 21-acre outdoor natural history museum and botanical garden. Although it was insanely hot (temperatures pushing 110 degrees!), it was also incredibly unique and enjoyable. I only wish we had had more time to explore it! By far, my favorite exhibit was the Hummingbird House, a small aviary literally buzzing with hummingbirds! It was great for photo ops, but also a good look at many of the local specialty species I wasn't able to see in the wild on that trip.

Female Anna's hummer

After a whirlwind tour of southeast AZ, I flew back east to central PA for the final 3 weeks of my internship. If you've never tried to teach a week of summer camp while jet-lagged, believe me: it's not easy! But I got through it, and spent the final weeks working around the center and with the raptors some more, trying to soak up each moment as best I could. 

Holding the Golden Eagle!

By far, my proudest moment of the final week was holding the Golden Eagle. I spent the summer working my way up to each species: the screech owls, the barred owl, the broad-winged hawk, the great-horned owl, the red-tailed hawk, the barn owl. All that was left was the big girl, the mother-of-all-raptors, the Golden.

Weighing in at nearly 12 lbs, standing 3 feet tall, with a 7 foot wingspan and an attitude, I'd been itching to handle this bird all summer. On my last day, the raptor intern (a great friend) asked if I'd like to try. I was game. That is, until I pulled on the glove. As we opened the door, I changed my mind; the bird was shifting around in the cage like a madwoman, ready to hop on my arm.

"I... think I'm good. I don't want to do this," I stammered, sliding into the safety of the back room.

"Are you sure?" She asked, clearly disappointed. I was disappointed in me too, but my heart was racing and I felt almost light-headed. She offered to tire the bird out first, so I agreed.

Quickly and smoothly, the other intern had the raptor up on her arm without a hitch. I agreed to try again. She coached me through it. "Just walk in quickly and present your arm," she said.

The Golden knew exactly what to do; after a little coaxing, she stepped on and I immediately felt the tight grip of her talons and weight of her body. My friend handed me the wooden staff used to keep your arm up under the intense weight.

It's a slightly painful experience with the strain on your arm, but the adrenaline rush distracts you in the moment. I have very rarely ever felt that same tangle of emotions - fear, respect, admiration, awe - towards an animal, but it was pretty special and an amazing way to end my summer.

Sunset on the last day

Ginormous millipede

On Thursday of spring break week, we got a day off from working to take a trip to some local caves. Our faithful guide accompanied us, but before taking us to the caves he wanted to show us a local cultural center. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a really interesting archaeological site.

The Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial Park is an ancient Taino (native Puerto Rican) site dating back to 1200-1500AD, full of petroglyphs and plazas. The plazas were apparently areas used for civic and religious activities, as well as a ball game known as batey. The petroglyphs portray animals and human faces, thought to represent leaders of the tribes. I was really excited to see this, especially since I’m taking an archaeology class right now and got to geek out on some of the concepts I’ve been learning about.

Petroglyphs -- the middle one is one of the most famous images in PR

Bird petroglyphs! 

After spending some time at the site, we drove about another hour or so on windy roads, before parking at a gas station. I was a little confused at first, but it turned out the entrance to a cave we were visiting was accessible by a small, steep trail leading up a densely jungled and rocky mountain behind the gas station.

There were a couple small caves along the way, but our guide assured us that the cave we were looking for was much larger.

 And indeed it was! We followed a set of natural, steep steps down into a large cavern, switching on our headlamps and flashlights as the light from outside quickly diminished. It was clear that the cave was heavily used by people, but it was definitely an “off the beaten path” sort of place — not ropes, railings, lights, signs, or any sort of safety regulations you might find in a cave that size in the States!

Bats

More bats

The photos above are deceiving, but even with flashlights, the cave was pitch black once we got away from the opening. You could only vaguely make out the ground a couple feet in front of you. When we shined lights up at the ceiling, we could see bats swooping in and out.

After a few long minutes of picking our way through the darkness, light began showing at the end of a wide tunnel. When we came out to it, I realized we were hundreds of feet above the ground with a sheer drop down, looking out over the misty landscape. It was absolutely breathtaking.

As we sat there taking in the view, a rainstorm swept across the mountains, shrouding everything in fog. It’s impossible to even describe, but it was just beautiful. It was by far one of my favorite days yet, and a good end to a week of service work, fun times, and many new perspectives.

White-winged Dove

¡Vamos ir a Puerto Rico!

Volunteer site in Puerto Rico

So tomorrow is the day -- Travel day, that is. I can't believe it's come up so fast, but it seems spring break is finally upon us.

Tomorrow night is going to be long. After a couple hour drive to the airport, a couple hour wait, and a couple hour flight down south, we have to spend the next 5 hours or so in the Puerto Rico airport waiting for a bus!

The only thing you can expect in travel, is the unexpected. Original plans to sleep that first night at a church fell through, and our bus driver apparently hiked up his prices, throwing our plans and budget off slightly. But we seem to have a great group of students, so we've all agreed to sleep in the airport until the bus arrives in the morning. Wheee!

Once we get through all that, we'll be driving out of the city and into the mountains and national forests of PR, 2,500 feet above sea level. Our week will be spent doing trail and building maintenance around the eco-preserve, with a couple side trips to visit local area.

That said, I have no idea what to expect, but I'm sure it's going to be great no matter what. I will be MIA for the next 10 days or so, but I'll try to post pictures and my travelogue when I get back.

¡Hasta la próxima! (Until next time!)

End of one journey, beginning of another

The past few days kept me busy out in the field as I finished up my final research project for Field Ornithology. Given the short amount of time we were allowed to do our research, I chose to compare species diversity and abundance at one of our ponds in the morning vs. the afternoon.

It wasn't all that hard to do, and mainly entailed hiking around the pond twice a day to count birds and inevitably led to some good photo ops, including the above 3 pictures (Great Blue Heron, Anhinga, and Pine Warbler, respectively).

On Tuesday we took a field trip to another local nature preserve where I added a good number of birds to my year list.

Photo quiz! Can you tell what this little headless guy is?

Some of our findings included a Caspian Tern (somewhat rare for this area), Black-and-White, Palm, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Green Heron, Red-winged Blackbird, Red-shouldered Hawk, and Belted Kingfisher among others.

For all the birds we saw, there seemed to be just as many aligators. The above one is just a baby -- take a look below!

Now THAT's an aligator.

Northern Mockingbird giving us a close look

And thus, my fabulous 3 weeks of Field Ornithology have come to a close. The final exam was today, along with our research project presentations which all went surprisingly well.

The lovely thing about the end of one adventure is that there is always another waiting just around the corner. My next one starts in 3 days when I head off to the UK. I'm not sure what is going to happen then, if I'll be able to keep up my blog, or if I'll even get to go birding. I'm bringing the binocs just in case, but I've heard so many different stories about peoples' experiences through the program I'm going on, I have no idea what to expect anymore.

We'll see what happens though! I'll definitely try to keep posting and give you the scoop on the birds of London whenever I can.

So until the next adventure,

Happy birding!

In Dreams Awake

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
- Henry David Thoreau

I think Thoreau was right. Perhaps our truest life is, indeed, when we are living our dreams, but the real trick is making those dreams come true.

Thus far I have found no magical formula for turning aspirations into reality, but, not for the first time, I am finding myself waking to an incredible adventure -- two, actually!

My first bit of news is that I got into my school's Field Ornithology class for winter term (which spans for the month of January). The class had filled up before I could register, but after a short letter to the professor about why I should be in the class, I was admitted on the basis that I "showed strong interest."

According to the class description, we'll be learning about bird identification, natural history, and threats to their persistence. We'll also be studying bird behavior, taking field trips, and doing research. I can't wait!

After winter term, something even bigger is happening. I will be spending 4 months studying abroad in London!

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to travel the world -- and now it's actually happening. It's a little scary, I'll admit. I've never traveled on my own before, much less even been outside the US. But, you have to start somewhere.

New sights, new sounds, new environment, new experiences -- and new birds! I have no doubt this will be one of the craziest adventures of my life so far. I say, bring it on!

Until next time,

Happy birding!