Volunteering for the Birds

March 22, 2016

My boss forwarded me a letter from the North Carolina FWS asking for volunteers to help put up signs for nesting birds on islands in the Sounds along the Outer Banks.  This was a chance to get to go out and see Pamlico Sound and also do something to help birds.  I immediately asked her to keep my schedule clear for the first two days of this job and volunteered.

The black-crowned night herons were just going to bed when I arrived at the marina

Monday turned out to be too windy and rainy to go, but the weather on Tuesday was perfect. And instead of starting at 10:00 A. M. we were to start at 7:00 A.M. It took us until nearly 8:00 o'clock to get two boats loaded and in the water. Then we all went down to the furthest island north, Island I, and learned what our leader wanted us to do and how far apart to set the posts and how deep to dig them.

Annika explains where we'll be going

This is "my" boat - we loaded it with out stuff, posts, signs, nails,  and post hole diggers

Our Captain

The lead boat captained by leader, Annika

I ended up in the smaller craft with three young guys. The two boats divided the islands up and our boat divided ourselves into two teams and worked different sides of the islands until we met up again.  My jobs consisted of nailing the signs on the posts while we were underway and carrying up to four posts plus a bag of signs, nails, and a hammer to just put the signs back on still-standing posts.  My partner carried both posts and a post hole digger and dug all the holes.  I helped fill the holes in using one of the posts as a tamper.

First stop to learn our jobs

The signs on their posts, ready to "plant"

The two boats each did four more islands.  We managed to get two days of planned work done in one day and left the state caught back up and ready to go down to Hatteras the following day.

Eli demonstrates his post hole digging prowess

We disturbed several Canada geese who were laying eggs - most had 4-6 eggs

The temperatures were just at the point where I needed my long johns under my nylon pants.  But by the time we had finished the second island I was burning up and stopped behind a bush and took them off.  I already had my jacket off and tied around my waist so draped them over my shoulders.  Then, I attempted to get to the boat through a patch of briars.  I had to turn around, to back  to the top of the island and take a different route to shore.  I got in the boat and realized I not longer had my long johns. Gallant Earl went back and tackled the really sharp briars and made them release my long johns.

My long john rescuer

Eli and I getting signs nailed to the posts during the rides between islands

We enjoyed a group of great egrets - this was the best of my captures

This little boat looked pretty settled in

I got to see Bodie Lighthouse from the water

We met back up with the other group for lunch

We were pretty hungry after four hours of work

We had a nice little sand bench to sit on

And were blessed by a bald eagle flyover

Earl volunteered to take our pictures when we were almost finished with this island

Earl and his (found) redhead

Michel is holding the front down to keep the motor high as Eli pushes us out

We had a wonderful time on the water and saw huge flocks of brown pelicans,  gulls, and cormorants. We also found several Canada geese nests with four to six eggs in them.  We watched an osprey carry a stick, and saw a pair of oystercatchers, and a large mixed flock of ruddy turnstones and sandpipers. We came back very close to the great horned owl that has been sitting on her eggs for about a month.  She is nesting on the channel marker right at the dock.

There were several hundred brown pelicans here

There were about 20 ruddy turnstones in this group

Sometimes the ski filled with pelicans

As we were leaving the last island, this juvenile kept flying with us and then landing near us - I think he has learned to beg from fishermen 

We all had a marvelous time except right at the end, when the larger boat found it had no power.  One of my teammates and I moved to it to let another volunteer couple go home.  Then my partner and the leader, both called their respective maintenance people and found and fixed the problem, a loose wire, allowing us all to get back to the dock before 5 o'clock.

Almost finished

The entire day felt like a playday, even though I walked at least one mile in shin deep water and walked a total of 7.5 miles. I felt good about keeping up with three guys, whose total age was almost the same as mine.  And glad to know that the birds using these islands for breeding would be undisturbed.

Saturday Was a Very Good Day

Saturday was the first nice day after last Monday.  In between it was cold and rainy or cold and cloudy.  Birds were hardly in evidence, except for the chipping sparrows and American goldfinches that hang out at my feeders most of the day.

It was a stained glass kind of morning

 Saturday had lots of birds feeling their spring oats. The pine warblers were warbling their melodious one-note call all over. A cardinal was singing to his lady. I surprised a pair of great blue herons, all decked out in dating clothes. But most exciting of all were the marsh wrens. Three males were all singing very near each other.  Definitely another sign that spring has arrived.  I love their songs.  This morning, the first time I heard it, it sounded like a ghost warbler. To hear it for yourself, click here.

Great Blue Heron in his courting clothes

A singing male marsh wren - they are usually almost invisible as they move through grasses and reeds

Just as I was about to go to the boardwalk and hunt more birds, I got a call to come work in the visitor center. I ended doing that until almost noon. By then the birds were not very active and the light too bright. But right after I started working at the Visitor Center, a visitor reported he had seen and heard a northern parula.  Migration has started. Another visitor reported that her sister had robins in her yard trying to feed in the snow.

I'm ready to give these guys the boot.  They are so numerous, active, and loud, they hide other birds from view

This chippie just got his new spring suit and paused to show it off

I had a great afternoon driving and walking around and stopping to talk to visitors. Our biggest alligator had hidden in plain sight, across the road from his usual sunning spot.  I was able to help several people get to see him.

THERE he is - just on the other side of the road

I stopped to talk to another couple who were looking for pitcher plants and were upset that someone had apparently mowed them down. They were near the blooming bladderworts so I asked them if they were familiar with them.  They were.  So I asked them if they wanted to see a patch of butterworts.  They got excited and said they knew about them but had never seen them.  So I told them to follow me and I'd take them to the patch.  There we chatted and took pictures of the very interesting little plants - blog on them coming soon.  They were so happy, they insisted on taking a picture of me.  They won't send it to me for another few weeks since they aren't traveling with their computer.

Visiting the butterworts

Then  as I visited the tower late in the day, I found the resident snowy on the near side and I grabbed a good enough picture to put in my e-bird check list. This is a bird that gets automatically filtered althouogh we have several at different places on the refuge. 

I'm pretty distracted right now.  I have a friend driving over to go out in the swamp for three days.  We'll come out of the swamp, get a night of rest with showers, then go on the St. Mary's river for another night.  Then he'll leave for home early next Saturday. I've finally finished the newsletter - in an on-line and mail version - and expect to have bee labels by the time I'm finished playing.  And my new side project is to photograph as many shelters as possible as well as other features, together with their coordinates so the Georgia River Network can use the pictures in their interactive digital map of the Swamp. And two new friends have invited me for two different weekends, and an old work buddy from last summer is bringing his girlfriend to visit me for two days over spring break. (He attends graduate school in Jacksonville.)  

So blogs may get skipped sometimes, including this Wednesday, unless I end up with more time  that I think I'll have.  But I will have lots to share about my Wilderness Camping and the exploration of St. Mary's River.

And the last thing  on my bucket list I got done today was to take pictures of the only dogwood tree I've found, one right in the picnic area.  Monday morning, there was enough light but not enough flowers were out.  Then we had rain and heavy clouds the rest of the week. But Saturday afternoon, everything was just right. 

Dogwood

Yes, a very good day. Tomorrow I work and entertain Pat with refuge activities, then Monday we go paddling and camping.  See you next Sunday.  Now back to cleaning up for company and finishing my packing for canoe camping. 

Looking Back at 2013: Work and Play

While I actually do a lot or work, I don't have much documentation of it.  So I'll throw in some of the pictures of me in play.

This first picture represents my favorite job.  I got to develop and then give a program on the bees to the Montana Conservation Corps kids. My goals were to collect bees to establish base line information of what bees were present, while getting the kid interested in helping to save the bees, to Citizen Science, and perhaps consider a career in Biology. From the kid's point of view, it was a day off from pulling invasive weeds, or stacking fallen trees to be burned in the fall.

I set out bee cups the day Tuesday mornings, then picked them up on Wednesday with the kids before they netted bees.  One day, I remembered to bring my camera and caught this picture as they started up High Point Trail. I missed the picture of the little bear coming through the pasture where I had one of my bee transects on another day but we all got to watch him for several minutes.

Bee catchers and bighorn sheep

 Didn't use this in my work but did take the certification course with two young guys.  And passed!

Certified to drive

 Another program I worked closely with was Talk-to-a- Biologist.  I helped produce the brochure, and also worked most Tuesdays on it, after we got it started. I even got to impresenate a Biologist.

Talking pollinators

 Here at Okefenokee, I helped with educational field trips. I love the intensity with which these guys are checking out their catch in their net. Children can learn so much more by doing than by being told.

 Last winter, my job fell through when the refuge had a major sewage problem in the the volunteer house which they could not afford to fix.  So I did a lot of playing - mostly paddling.  This is one of my favorite places, Choke Canyon State Park.  We are paddling on the flooded Frio River.

 This is Turtle Bayou, very close to Anahuac NWR on the upper Texas coast. It is through a swampy area.

This picture was from the same trip.  I'm paddling in the bow of Natalie's boat, with Zootie, her dog and her daughter, Ellen.

In September, I got to paddle in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota with friends. Bob, Andrew, and Natalie for the first week, and only Bob and Natalie for the second week.

I also did the work of cooking and drying our meals, then reheating and serving them.  Bob and Andrew did the heavy lifting of the canoes and a heavy personal pack, as well as the food packs.  Natalie and I only had to carry our packs and day packs and light stuff like the paddles on the sometimes difficult portages.

I got in a lot of hiking while in Montana and during the two weeks I traveled towards  the Boundary Waters with Bob G.  One of the best hikes was with a family I met the first weekend I was at National Bison Range.  This is me at the start of that hike.

Boundary Waters Bob also came up and visited me at National Bison Range before we went to Glacier National Park. We ended up camping with another couple.  Karen and I hiked the Grinnell Glacier Trail while the guys fished.

Karen

Karen's picture of me in front of the Grinell Glacier Lake

Bob G. and I went on a guided tour while at Grand Tetons. He took this picture of me in a beautiful grove of old trees.

On the way back to Galveston  from National Bison Range, I spent two nights at Palo Duro Canyon State Park so I could get in a hike. This is a self-portrait among some of the wonderful boulders carved by nature. 

And of course you all remember that mystical swamp paddle the Cindy and I recently did at Banks Lake NWR.  It will be a favorite memory forever - or until Alzheimers sets in - both because it was so magical and was my first paddle in a Georgia swamp.  Cindy took this picture.

What are your memories of 2013?  I'd love to hear from you.  Leave a memory in the comments  or a link to your memory blog.

And I hope you are getting a quick start on making 2014 memories.  May you all have a wonderful year.