bird fancier

On March 12-16 I was lucky enough to take a trip to NYC to experience three productions by the world-class Metropolitan Opera Company.

 

My graduate advisor and opera mentor,  Dr. Robert Jaeger, was my trip companion.  Here he is preparing his pipe outside of Tavern On-The-Green in Central Park where we went for a pricey lunch.

During our Friday night March 14 performance of Tristan und Isolde there was quite an excting turn of events.  First, the lead tenor,  Ben Hepner, was replaced with a singer who had never sung the role before,  Gary Lehman.  Second,  in the middle of the second act Deborah Voight (Isolde) ran off stage while her Tristan kept singing and James Levine kept conducting.  The curtain came down and the lights went out in the pit and house.  We were informed that Ms. Voight had suddenly taken ill and would be replaced by Janice Baird, a soprano who has never sung Isolde for the Met before.  The leads did a tremendous job with the help  of the wonderful Met orchestra which took center stage and guided them through one of the most vocally difficult operas.  A better review of the night can be found at this website:   http://www.musicalcriticism.com/opera/met-tristan-0308.shtml

During the days we walked around the city,  we visited The Cloisters which is a museum full of medieval art

off the A train line north of the city.  It is set in a monastery and holds famed Unicorn Tapestries. 

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One of the best productions was Lucia de Lammermoor with my favorite soprano, Natalie Dessay.  I have admired her for years since I first heard her in a Met Opera radio broadcast in 2004.  The production was phenomenal,  it is in the lyrical bel canto style by Donizetti.  During the scene when Lucia goes mad a real glass harmonica was used as in the original score.  The instrument had a series of increasingly larger glass cyclinders laid out in front of the player.  A machine would turn the cylinders and the player would dip their hand in water and rub their fingers on the cylinders to create the different notes.  It is similar to playing water-filled wine glasses.Edgardo, Lucia’s tenor, was sung wonderfully by Guiseppe Filianoti and the setting and costumes were designed to draw in the next generation of opera-viewers.

We visited the Met museum of art and saw their new Greek and Roman galleries.

The Met has a series of galleries full of Dutch or Flemish Painters from the 1400s,  one of my favorite art time periods. Here is a portrait of Maria Portinari by Hans Memling .

This is entitled ‘Curiosity’ by Gerard ter Borch from the 1600’s.  I am often struck by the way artists can render fabrics with oil.

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The most well known Dutch painter of the 1600s was Johannes Vermeer,  here is his ‘The Maid Asleep’.

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The Pre-raphelite painters have always held a special place in my heart and there are a few at the Met including the left by Burne-Jones  called ‘The Love Song’ and the right by Lord Leighton called ‘Lachrymae’.

In January it is warm enough to jump in the water with manatees and mermaids in Crystal River and Homosassa Springs, Florida.

We went on a snorkeling trip with ‘Birds Underwater Tours’ and this was the view from our boat.  The manatees love to chew on the ropes that hang overboard.

The water was a warm 74 degrees, warmer than the chilly 45 degree air temp at Crystal River. 

Some of these large mammals would swim right up to you and flip over for you to rub them under the arms.  There are barnacles and other growths on their skin which might make them itchy.

Being mammals they must come up for air, but while resting they can go 20 minutes between breaths.  Manatees seek out warm water like the warm springs of Crystal River during the winter, that is why there are so many of them congregated and why the snorkeling tourism is so heavy.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service is considering revoking the public right to swim with the manatees, and of course the tour companies are fighting it.  The dillema is a recurring one that I first encountered while working with the endangered Florida Scrub Jay.  We want to protect the last sacred spaces for these endangered animals, but at the same time we want the public to see them and interact with them so that they will form a bond and help preserve them. There is a balance that must be reached between these two goals.

Oh wait, thats not a manatee.

At the Homosassa springs wildlife park they have many injured manatees on display in an ‘inside-out aquarium’.

This one was just fed a large carrot.  The ‘aquarium’ was a submerged glass room in the middle of a lovely spring.

Some of the other wildlife at the park included Flamingos.

Swans.

And a Florida Panther.

Weeki Wachee Springs is a roadside attraction that was popular with hollywood movie stars in the 1950’s.  And no wonder, they have real mermaids there!!!

   Here they are attempting the famous loop-de-loop to grand effect.   

When I grow up I want to be a mermaid too.

Another beastie sighted recently was an Easter Diamondback Rattlesnake.  He was sunning in the road, absolutely breathtaking, your heart can’t help but to race when you see one of these, but leave them be, they are in their natural element and should be left in peace. 

We are lucky at our office to have a resident Sherman Fox Squirrel, he was obliging enough to pose for pictures one sunny January day.

And this little rodent I caught in my trailer, I had heard him scampering around during the nights.  You’ll never guess what I used for bait!

My first day in Mexico City brought me to Coyoacan, site of the Parroquia de San Juan Bautista (Cathedral to St. John the Baptist) where these images were taken.

 

Day 2 at Teotihuacan, the Pyramid of the Moon seen from atop the Pyramid of the Sun.  From about 250 to 600 A.D. this was the site of the first great Mexican civilization.  Little is known of the people, but some of their gods like Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc were still being worshipped by the Aztecs 1000 years later.

Rafael and I in front of the Piramide de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon).

The Piramide del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun) from inside the museum, Museo del Sitio.

 

Day 3, Xochimilco riding colorful trajineras (boats) along the canals and hearing a Mariachi band and Marimba.

From left to right, Luz Maria, Laura and Blanca Rosa, 2 sisters and niece (in middle) of Rafael.

Day 4, the Basilica de Guadalupe where in 1531 a native, Juan Diego, saw the Virgin Mary.

The image of the virgin that miraculously appeared on Juan Diego’s mantle.

The Arcangel Michael treading on a serpent.

This scene is sculpted to honor the miraculous appearance of a spring where the Virgin stood.

A view into the graveyard near the spot where the Virgin appeared.

Afterwards we attended the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Day 5, the Aztec’s Templo Mayor in the historical center of Mexico City.  Is this Quetzalcoatl?  He is usually depicted as a feathered serpent.  Even they knew that birds came from reptiles!

Coyolxauhqui, the goddess decapitated by her brother and whose stone was found at the base of the temple where he threw her severed body.

The Museo del Templo Mayor is one of the finest museums I have ever attended.  The layout flows you easily from one room to another, all of the artifacts are displayed singly or in small groups so that each can be appreciated.  The lighting, informational signs and backgrounds are beautiful and the place is full of national treasures.  They spent a lot of money on this museum and it shows.

Afterwards we went to the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) to view Diego Rivera murals.

Statues from the Alameda Central, a lovely park and greenspace.

A snapshot of the mural by Diego Rivera ‘Sueno de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda’ (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda) inside the Museo Mural Diego Rivera.

Portrait of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

 

Welcome to the new Red-cockaded Woodpeckers!
This nestling is 7-8 days old, about the time that we prefer to band them.  Notice the three color-bands on his right leg, on his left leg will be a color band and an aluminum US Fish and Wildlife Service band with a band number.  This allows us to uniquely identify each individual in our population.  Notice the zygodactylic feet, with two toes pointing forwards and two backwards, this is to help the woodpecker hold on to the trunk of the tree while he is foraging.  Those feet are large in proportion to the body, thats because they have a big responsibility.  The eyes of the nestling are not open until day 10, so the poor guy can’t see whats happening to him. 

We use swedish ladders and a climbing belt to climb the tree and access the nest cavity.  We use a noose made out of fishing line to pull the nestlings out by their necks.

Ashleigh is peeping inside the cavity with a drop light and a dentists mirror to make sure she retrieved all the chicks.

We take a series of measurements to ascertain the health of the chick and its growth, after banding we put the chicks back into their nest.  We can’t tell which sex they young are until their feathers start growing in, so around day 20 we peep into their nest again.  The males will have a red crown patch and the females will have an all black head.  At day 27 the chicks start fledging the nest.  At this point we want to find the fledglings that survived so we can tell the success of the parent’s nest.

And that, in a nutshell, is what i have been doing for the last 3 months!  In mid-May we went to Appalachicola Nat’l Forest near Tallahassee to train how to band nestlings with Chuck.  Here Chuck shows off a red rat snake that he found crossing the road.

Chuck showed us a lovely patch of native wet prarie with pitcher plants, star sedge, goldcrest, thread dew, and cholic root to name a few native plants.

Here is the view down a Parrot pitcher plant.

alligators

gopher tortoises

peacocks?

and more alligators

I have been in Central Florida for 3 1/2 months so far.  By the end of next week I will have visited every one of 900+ cavity trees that our Red-cockaded Woodpeckers have hollowed out in live Longleaf Pine trees.   What does that mean?  That I am getting very comfortable navigating the 62,000 acres on Three lakes WMA.  Ashleigh and I have caught and banded 8 adult woodpeckers and helped translocate 5 more.  Soon I will have a technician to help me begin the Annual Cavity Tree Survey in March which leads into the nesting season for our birds. 

Driving down any medium-sized road in central Florida you can see Wood Storks and Sandhill Cranes in the ditches, you can see Bald Eagles, Red-shouldered hawks and Anhingas flying over and you can see White Ibis and Cattle Egret perched atop lamp posts. Florida is dripping in wildlife juxtaposed against the urban growth and detritus. Truly, winter is the time for birds to seek refuge in the warmth of this state and they come en masse just like the Snowbird humans who have co-opted their name.  I drive through Kenansville, Harmony and St. Cloud to the southeast of Orlando.  I have been exploring my new home like a tourist, I have been to the St. Cloud Flea Market, the Harmony Dark Sky Festival, the Kenansville Heartbreak Hotel store, the Orlando Peacock Room Lounge for soul/funk/techno dancing and the Melbourne Scottish Country dance group.  But enough about that, I must show you pictures from my working life: Let me introduce you to the Red-cockaded woodpecker.  This fellow we were translocating from Georgia to our property last November.

This is the type of pine flatwood habitat we will place him in.

This Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake was seen crossing a road near our management area, I sure hope I don’t step on any of these in the underbrush!

Hooded Pitcher Plants can be found in the moister soils.  They bloom an interesting white flower.

You are looking at a new Red-cockaded Woodpecker Biologist at Three-Lakes Wildlife Management Area near Kenansville, FL!!  I have finally found a full-time year-round position and will be working for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The job is described below:

Duties will
include nest searching, nest monitoring, climbing trees using Swedish
sectional ladders, capturing and banding adults and nestlings,
identifying birds by reading color bands, data entry, collecting GPS
data and making maps, and maintaining natural and artificial cavities.

On Sunday, October 1, after work Sarah, Julia and I went on a dolphin-watching cruise aboard the Grey Ghost  near Orange Beach, AL.  We saw pelicans, sailboats, dolphins riding  in our wake and sharks. 

This hammerhead wanted a taste of Sarah’s Corona .  Would you say ‘No’ to a creature with teeth like that?  And one who can mysteriously come on shore?

We’ve been catching birds every morning for weeks now, waiting for Fall Migration to start happening in good earnest.  What we need is a cold spell to wake the birds up and remind them to start heading to their southern wintering grounds.  Here is a mist-net set up in the scrubby palmetto and live oak section of our banding site. 

I tried to take some pictures of the birds we’ve been catching but none of them have been turning out so hot.  Here is a White-eyed Vireo, a Scarlet Tanager, and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

After two weeks of visiting friends, writing manuscripts and applying for jobs I went on to my next position in Fort Morgan, Alabama.  This is the view from my new backyard into Mobile Bay.

Can any of you Crustacean biologists identify these crabs?

My job is with the University of Southern Mississippi and involves assisting at a fall migration mist-netting site that has been ongoing since 1990.  We awake at 5am, open our mist-nets at 6am and catch birds until its too hot (90 degrees, around 11am).  Here is a Prothonotary Warbler up against a Loblolly Pine.

The  land is covered with Coast Live Oak which is short and scrubby interspersed with saw palmettos underneath tall Loblollys.  The bander, Dan, identifies and bands each bird before releasing it.

On busy days during migration we are going to open the nets in the evening as well.  Here is our out-of-focus crew, from the left clockwise:  Sarah, Julia, myself, and Dan.

Both Sarah and Julia hail from Wisconsin while Dan is from Ohio and I claim to be from Virginia even though I haven’t spent substantial time there since 1998.  There is a secret beach not 3 miles from the house with white sands stretching to each horizon and blue clear waves and no one around.  I plan to spend almost all my free time there when I’m not working and applying for new jobs.

In Tokyo we visited Harajuku street with girls dressed like Anime characters and funky shops and lots of youth.

(not my picture)

We wore mom out shopping in the Oriental Bazaar and walking up and down Omotesando street where we didn’t have enough money in our bank accounts to even look in the windows. We ate a picnic lunch in Yoyogi park.

We left mom at the hotel and hurried by subway to Ueno Park which
rivals Central Park in New York City for its miles of walking trails,
ponds, museums and people-watching. There I saw a Little egret ‘Ko-sagi’ and these ducks with striped faces that were very comfortable with the nearby pedestrians.

My brother casually mentioned that there were no homeless people in Japan, but I caught sight of this fellow who was going through the trash and seemed to have many day’s grime on his clothes.

The Toshogu temple in the middle of Ueno Park boasted a 900 year continuous flame of peace. Of course Mike went immediately up to it to blow it out.

On Thursday, August 10th we climbed the bottom half of Mt. Fuji from the first to the fifth station (they go up to ten). 

In the town of Fujiyoshida there is a Shinto Shrine called Sengen Jinga that is the traditional starting place for the hike up to Fuji-san. 

There we saw an archer aiming his arrow at the target without the use of his eyes.

I was followed all morning by light blue butterflies with brick red hindwings.

I investigated the lovely warble of a thrush and was chastised by a Northern Wren or ‘Misosazai’.  I got a quick glimpse of the Japanses grosbeak ‘Ikaru’ feeding in the canopy, he had a huge bill, black wings with a white tip and a dirty yellow body.  I heard the ‘ank ank’ call of a nuthatch and discovered it was the Eurasian nuthatch called ‘Goju-kara’.  Some Long-tailed tits ‘Enaga’ were feeding in a mixed flock with Coal tits.  These photos from google images are in order left to right.

There were many Shinto shrines along the path, some of them were so old that their wooden roofs had caved in.

We turned back at the fifth station where most climbers START their climb after having been driven by bus to that point.  The forest becomes dwarfed and eventually fades away to bare lava rock. In this photo the crater of Fuji is the left peak and Mike is in the bottom right side: