getting orientedMarch 18, 2006
Me: "I could talk about the piping plover in my sleep." Nancy: "You do." I'm pretty sure she was kidding.I went to the plover warden orientation at PRNWR this morning anyway. I'll take any excuse to learn new stuff about piping plovers -- like how the population numbers are trending or what's new in predator exclosure design -- or new things about radios. No change in the radios, still useable to make you look offical or to threaten people. Only half kidding about the threatening. Actually I just wanted another excuse to watch the piping plover video in the new visitor center exhibit. Ever since I first saw it a the sneak preview for the Friends of Parker River National Wildlife Refuge during which I watched it 4 times in a row and then had to watch it one more time before I left I'be been excited about it. The exhibit has good footage of both adutls and chicks and shows just about all the adorably cute behaviors that are the main thing piping plovers have going for them. Piping plovers may not be as charismatic as bald eagles or ospreys but they are just so darn cute. Next time somebody asks me why we should bother saving them I'm going to say "just because they're so cute!"
I did a brief birding pass on the refuge after lunch (veggie sub at Angelina's, what else would it be?) but didn't see much besides a flock of pintails trying to walk on ice at the salt pannes. Ducks walk funny anyway but sliding around on ice is doubly funny. Why the pintails didn't just fly over to the next patch of open water is beyond me. I didn't see any piping plovers yet but they should be here any day now.
I was too cold to stay out in the wind very long so I went off to Plum Island Coffee Roasters, which is not on Plum Island but is in the boat yard, for a hot cup of coffee. There wasn't much space to park because the boatyard is full of, well, boats. Most of the boats are still shrink-wrapped. So no spring-in-the-boatyard bustle yet. Then it was home to watch Cuba vs. the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.
Postscript: The first piping plover sighting on Plum Island this year was reported on Massbird this evening. Here's the link.
Today's
Reading
Timothy or, Notes
of an Abject Reptile by Verlyn Klinkenborg
This
Year's Reading
2006
Booklist
Today's
Starting Pitchers
Cuba:
Yadel Marti vs. Dominican:
Bartolo Colon
Korea:
Jae Seo vs. Japan:
Koji Uehara
Ignore this nav-thing unless you are reading Journal of a Sabbatical
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Copyright © 2006, Janet I. Egan