An end to the summer in New York

I can't believe how fast this summer FLEW by. It seems like the last day of school was just yesterday! I guess that's what happens when you go on five trips in two months. I ended the summer just relaxing with family in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. We spent a week hiking, reading, cooking, swimming in icy cold water, playing games, and enjoying the cool mountain air...Well, maybe "cool" is an understatement--it was downright COLD at night and many times throughout the day. Anyway, the experience was a very nice change of pace from our busy lives. Our cabin was built in 1910, and it didn't have a TV, a phone, AC, or any of the other luxuries we tend to consider "necessities" down south. Necessities or not, it was nice to be unplugged for a week. Here are two pics of me hiking and one of a little brownish red squirrel the size of a chipmunk. The squirrels up there are so much cuter than the grey ones we have...They're also really really LOUD. I didn't know such a small animal could make such a loud noise.




So, I'm sad to say that my summer adventures have come to a close, but my new adventure at UGA has just begun. My school started just yesterday with a great first class. I also have three more classes today, another on Thursday, and prep session for the labs I'm teaching on Friday. I start teaching three sections of the labs for MARS 1010, Introduction to Oceanography, beginning next week. So students sign up for MARS 1010, go to the lectures three times a week, and then come to me for the lab portion of the class. I'm excited about teaching college kids, but I already miss my amazing seventh graders from last year--Going from 12 year olds to undergrads is a big jump! I really hope all my old students will keep in touch!

Several of you have asked whether I'll keep my blog going. Even though I'm not traveling as much, I'd like to keep posting anything interesting I see. I love taking pictures and love sharing them with my former students, friends, and family even more! Also, I do have two more trips planned. At the end of September I'm headed back up to New York to see a good friend's wedding, and in March I'm headed out on a CRUISE for a destination wedding (woohoo!) So check back for those and other around campus updates. Also, if you think of something else you'd like to see on here, please let me know! On that note, for those of you who read all summer--thank you!! Which was your favorite?? I'd love to know what you all think.

Take care, and check back soon!
Love,
Lindsay

SO much has happened!

So much has happened since I posted last!! It's hard to decide which pictures to post! Check these out... On my last Sapelo day we went seining for fish. That's when you take a giant net and stretch it out into the ocean off the beach, then turn around and come back to see what you caught. You can see the other group in the deep end through the ropes of this group. The net was 300 feet long! Found a puffer! It didn't like being picked up so much, so it puffed up with air (and floated when we put him back in the water.) I've now started my fourth trip, on St. Catherine's Island (which is AMAZING!) I'm doing a sea turtle conservation internship helping to save these little guys. This is a Loggerhead hatchling that was a "straggler" in the bottom of a nest. We dug them out and pointed them toward the ocean. Incredible. This has been my view for the past few days: from a John Deer Gator. They are SUPER fun to drive. Here we are going up a pretty steep hill. We got trapped on the beach because of high tide. Here's another one of me and a baby turtle. Adorable. St. Catherine's has a partnership with the New York Zoological Society, so there are all kinds of amazing exotic animals on the island. Here is a member of one of the Ring Tailed Lemurs that wander around. Apparently, there are six different troops! They really loved our Gators. They would lick the salt from the ocean off the sides and look in the glove boxes for food. I had to snatch a bag of peanut M&M's from one of them. We're releasing the babies tonight at 8:30, so check back for another video soon. Hatchlings almost always emerge at night when there are fewer birds to gobble them up.

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

It is so good to be back on the Georgia coast! I absolutely love it down here--I love the marshes, the wildlife, and being surrounded by some of the most knowledgeable coastal ecology professors and scientists in the world. Here at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, you can pick up a shell on the beach, walk over to a prof and here its scientific name, ecological niche, and natural history. It's science nerd heaven!

Anyway, we've had a great couple of days. This picture was taken on our way out to Wassaw Island, which is a National Wildlife Refuge. This dolphin swam right up to our boat looking for handouts. Our professor said that there are more and more "Beggar Dolphins" in the water these days because of people tossing them one of their freshly caught fish or what have you. However, while it might be fun to see wild dolphin up close, when they get into the habit of swimming close to boats they also have a much higher risk of being hit by propellers. That's why the state will fine boat captains $20,000, seize their boats, and revoke their boating licence if caught feeding these adorable creatures. No thank you.


During our backstage tour or the UGA Marine Extension Aquarium, Lisa and I got an up close view of Eddie the 3 year old Loggerhead Sea Turtle. Thinking that he was about to get fed, he swam right up to the edge of the tank with his mouth open wide. I had to take several pictures of my friend and Davis colleague, Lisa, here. Her image kept coming out blurry due to her jumping up and down in excitement. :) I love hanging out with fellow science nerds.



My turn! No, Eddie, my fingers are not food. He could easily snap one off with that beak designed to crack open clam shells.



So here we are on Wassaw Island. Way back in 1898, the US government built this Gun Battery on the island because of the Spanish American War. Believe it or not, this little fort was built 600 feet inland behind the dunes! Rising sea levels have buried most of it in sand, and the top of it is under water at high tide.

Did anyone ask for evidence of climate change? Well, here you go.



Here's some more. A knot from a dead oak tree that once stood in the middle of a maritime forest (that's now on the beach).



I forgot to mention our purpose for going to Wassaw. We went with a Skidaway scientist to map the north end of the island using this fancy GPS/GIS thingy. As we walked the "wet-dry" line on the beach, this contraption sent a signal to a satellite about ever second or so. Apparently, it's accurate down to 40 centimeters (much better than your average car GPS!)



When we got back to the institute, we overlaid the data we took on top of an older aerial photo of the north end of the island and compared that with previous years. Our line is the pink one and the other two lines are from 2006 and 2001 (I think.) You can really see how much the island moved! People forget that barrier islands are really just giant mounds of sand, so waves and storms move the sand around from place to place. This means that it's actually pretty stupid to build houses, hotels, and anything else permanent on oceanfront property on barrier islands because the beach has a really good chance of washing away eventually and leaving your house in the ocean. And don't get me started on sea walls! (Oy.)




Yesterday was our last day at Skidaway, so we took a hike through marshes out to a little hammock. A hammock is a small island surrounded by marsh that usually don't have beaches. All the hammocks we've seen around here have these dead trees along the edges because the trees can't tolerate the salty water encroaching on the hammocks. They make for cool pictures, though. :)



In a few hours we'll be taking the ferry out to one of my FAVORITE places in the whole world--Sapelo Island (sigh...) I'm convinced that there's no other place like it in the world. Most of the island is owned by the state as a wildlife refuge, and UGA has an amazing research facility there also. But possibly the most interesting part of the island are the permanent residents. The only people that live there all the time are the descendants of the slaves that worked the island plantations WAY back before the civil war. The government deeded the land to the freed slaves, and most of their families never left. The relative isolation has preserved their Gullah/Geechee cultural heritage (or at least way more than anywhere else.) Fascinating.

Trip #2: Jacksonville!

Two trips down, three to go! I just got back from visiting family in Jacksonville and had a great time. We ended up taking some neat pictures. And today marked the first day of my Skidaway/Sapelo trip.

First of all, though, look at the new friend Roman made! Well, he was acting like this mama Whitetail deer was his new friend, but she didn't seem to like him very much. When Roman ran out of the house on this day, she CHARGED the fence out of protection for her little fawn. At first I thought she was going to jump over and send Roman back to the Emergency Vet. But she just stood right there and kept a close eye on him. She stayed long enough for me to take several pictures and two short videos!



Here's her baby. Aaaw


OK, here we are in Florida at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. Honestly, I really wasn't that excited to go, but I ended up having a lot of fun! This is a portion of the pirate exhibit. Apparently, pirates would stick people in these hanging metal things and dangle them off the ship as a warning to other pirates or do-gooders. Here's my husband John modeling this lovely little number. (I think he looks good in there, don't you? I wonder if they'd let me borrow it sometime...Kidding! ;)


This is a big green screen that leaves a white image of your body on it after a bright light flashes.


So Ripley's had this rotating tunnel that you walked through (a.k.a. holy-wanna-puke-your-brains-out), but it made for some SUPER cool pictures. (By the way, to get this picture, I made John stand still inside the barfy tunnel for almost a whole minute--what a good sport!)


Here's another one. I didn't expect it to turn out like this, but it's still sorta neat.


Tomorrow we're going to Wassaw Island and using a $3K Global Positioning System to map the north end of the island to see if it has moved at all. Barrier Islands are basically just GIANT piles of sand, so they move a little bit with the currents and waves each year. I'll let you know how it goes and the cool stuff we see!

Home again!

It's probably a good thing that I wasn't able to post pictures in San Salvador because I took over 400! I would have done nothing but blog. Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.


The beach in front of the Gerace Research Center. Not a bad place to take a class, huh?


A sea urchin on the beach in front of Snapshot reef.


This is another one of my favorite spots on the island: The San Salvador Lighthouse.


When we were getting ready to head out for a day of snorkeling, one of the teachers in our group noticed this little baby mocking bird that had fallen out of its nest. He resembles a grumpy old man, doesn't he?


We went to a spot on the island known as "Trash Beach." Apparently, the offshore ocean currents wash up more trash on this beach than anywhere else on the island. It's really sad to walk around and see trash (mostly plastic) from all over the world. I found this piece of driftwood shaped like a question mark and thought it very appropriate on several levels.


Historians believe this is the spot where Columbus FIRST landed after his maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Spain erected this memorial in San Salvador several years ago.


I loved this little beach among the gorgeous rock formations.


I caught myself in "artsy" mode several times a day--the beauty of San Salvador could turn anyone into a photographer. This shrub/rock combo is one of my favorites.


The morning of our last day in paradise, I walked out to North Point with a group of teachers. This is North Point inlet between San Salvador and Cut Cay. Earlier this week we rode down the current that flows through this inlet.



This was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. Known as "Grotto Beach" this beach has it all--a nice sandy bottom, a few beautiful reefs for snorkeling, a healthy dune system, gorgeous rock formations to the right of it, a nice covered area with hammocks and picnic tables, and crystal clear water that resembles a swimming pool. I could have stayed there the whole week.

Poachers, pumps, and parades…

Yesterday was a really interesting and eventful day. After breakfast we went over to a lighthouse on the highest point on the island. The views were absolutely spectacular (sorry I can’t post pictures!) When we came down, several people were buying shells and Cokes from the lighthouse keeper who lived in a little house next door. I walked over toward the house and saw a big turtle shell (known as a carapace) on a table on their front porch. I asked the man sitting at the table whether that was a sea turtle shell and he proudly says, “Oh yes! I shot that turtle right here!” and points at his neck. I was stuck in a weird position. The teacher and environmentalist in me wanted to give him a long lesson about endangered species and how that adult turtle could have lived for another 75 years, easily, helping to make dramatic increases in the failing populations…But…the other part of me didn’t want to walk all over this man’s cultural traditions, of which he was obviously proud. I didn’t really do either. When he told another person the story about his turtle I said something along the lines of “Oh, don’t do that—they’re endangered!” I think he may have thought I was joking. How do you handle that type of a situation?? I would love suggestions.


After lunch we went snorkeling at Rocky Point, which is by far my favorite spot so far. The coral there was way closer to the surface and there was much more coral to see. I saw a Queen Angelfish, which is easily one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Anyway, we get back from snorkeling, change, shower, and head up to the cafeteria for dinner. As we’re waiting in line for the cafeteria we hear a loud whistle. The little man in charge of the center is standing at the front of the room looking alarmed with his arms up in the air saying, “No showers, sinks, flushed toilets, laundry, NOTHING. The water pump is out on our rainwater filtration tank. If we can’t get it back going we’re going to have to go on water rations until our parts come in next Tuesday.” At the dinner table the other teachers and I joked about flying home to our husbands a messy, smelly mess after not having showered in three days, but later the conversation turned more serious when we started thinking about how much we had in our water bottles and whether we had enough to get us through everything we were going to do the next two days. It’s so easy to take clean, fresh, running water for granted. But when it’s not there, you really start to appreciate this basic necessity. The rest of the day, the center’s management and maintenance people were running all over looking very concerned…Hopefully it’ll start working. The center is currently housing three high school groups, a college level group of students, several groups of researchers, and us.


But the day didn’t end all bad. We caught wind of a neighborhood “Fish Fry” going on about a quarter mile away from us down at the pier. Several of us planned on going, and were looking forward to it. Then at dinner, a lady from Massachusetts in charge of a group of high school kids came over and told us that there was going to be a parade beforehand. Then she goes, “And do you know why they’re having this parade celebration?” (…dramatic pause…) “Because the LAKERS won the NBA finals!!” Why the people on this little island would be so excited about a basket ball team 5000 miles away is beyond me. Also, this news was especially funny coming from a lady from Boston. Anyway, we were excited about experiencing the culture and going to a party. After a visit to the computer lab, I hear boom, boom, ba-boom, boom from a subwoofer coming down the road. My thoughts immediately jump to my camera sitting on my bed, so I start running toward my room. On the way, I see my roommate and yell, “CHERYL! The parade’s starting!!” However, by the time I grab my camera and get back up the hill the parade was already over. Apparently, a “parade” on this island is just a line of about 5-6 cars driving about 20 miles an hour in a row down the road while honking and playing music. I’m sure the locals got a big kick out of me getting all excited and running across campus yelling about the parade for what was just a caravan of cars… I felt pretty silly.

At around eight o’clock, we walk down to the pier toward the music. The menu at the Fish Fry included fried chicken, coleslaw, and cinnamon buns. When we asked a nice man behind the counter who we should pay, he waived his hands and said, “Nothing! It’s a party!” Their generosity and hospitality was a very nice surprise. It’s not too often in the states that complete strangers can walk up to a party on the beach and be welcomed with open arms. We really enjoyed ourselves. The music was great too. They had a DJ who played everything from a knock-off of Usher’s “Yeah” to “YMCA” to “We are Family” to some traditional island sounding music. I’m sure the islanders thought we were pretty funny dancing around (well, more like hopping and waving our arms…They didn’t dance quite like that—haha).
By the way, since I wrote this, we’ve been giving the OK to flush toilets and take 2 minute showers. So we’re not completely out of the woods, but it seems like we will at least have enough drinking water. :)

Sea Eggs and Foreign Invaders!

Hola from San Salvador! After taking a car, to a train, to a jet, to a van, to a bus, to a little bitty plane, to the back of a flatbed truck I finally arrived in San Salvador, Bahamas! I was worried about riding in a little 7 passenger plane, but it really wasn’t bad at all…Actually, I loved it! I enjoyed being low enough to see the water clearly and flying right through the fluffy clouds where I saw rainbow after rainbow. Anyway, we’re staying at the Gerace Research Center (pronounced “Jer-ace”), which used to be an old naval station set up to track Soviet activities during the Cold War. You can tell it’s an old military post, too. The buildings are all plain, white, cinderblock-stacked rectangles, which are very functional and practical. But the best part about the center (besides the window air conditioner that they installed the second day I was here—Hallelujah!) is that it is just steps from the most beautiful aqua blue water I have ever seen. Actually, I’ve spent the better part of the past three days inside that water. I’ve already snorkeled five different reefs and went SCUBA diving on two other reefs—one of which was named “Lindsay Reef.” :) I wish I could have posted sooner, but they’ve kept us really busy—I had to wake up early just to type this out. I could write a page about each one of my snorkeling/SCUBA trips, but I’ll give you the shortened version.

DAY ONE: SCUBA across from the San Salvador High School
I hadn’t been diving in over 8 years, so this first trip I stayed with the instructor who helped me practice clearing my mask and doing all the safety things you have to do. Didn’t really see much, but I made a complete fool out of myself trying to get my fins on. Another lady who was also somewhat inexperienced told me to put them on in about knee deep water (mistake). We ended up losing our balance and flailing about like a turtle on its back since we had the heavy tanks strapped to us. We then went back and snorkeled with the rest of the group at the pier, where I’ve never seen so many conch shells. They harvest them at the end of the pier then throw the empty shells in a pile at the end. I picked up the one I thought was the prettiest to bring back.

DAY TWO: North point and Lindsay Reef
In the morning we snorkeled out along the sea grass beds all the way up to north point collecting small specimen for a temporary aquarium we’d set up in our lab. I saw a sea turtle for a split second :) and walked on a beach with pink sand—well, pinkish sand from dead conch shells. Pretty cool! I got a little bit of sunburn on my back from all that snorkeling, though. The water tricks you into thinking you don’t need sunscreen. Ug. I had much more success on SCUBA diving Lindsay Reef this day (no flailing), and I picked up a cool looking piece of dead coral from the bottom of the ocean.

DAY THREE: Telephone Pole Reef and Snapshot Reef
These two reefs were very similar and both stunningly beautiful. I wore a long sleeve shirt and shorts to snorkel today to avoid the same mistake I made in day two. The most interesting thing I saw at these two reefs was by far the HUGE lionfish at Snapshot. I saw the SCUBA divers all motioning to one another to come over and see something that was hiding inside one of the big sections of the reef. I asked one of them what they were looking at and she spelled out L-I-O-N with her hands. I waited above a hole in the reef until I saw it. I’ve heard ocean water makes things look 20% bigger than they actually are, but this thing looked like it had to be a foot and a half long.

This is especially concerning since lionfish aren’t even supposed to be anywhere near the Atlantic Ocean. They’re native to Indonesia and a very popular item in people’s fish tanks. They’ve somehow been released into Atlantic waters, and now they’ve been sighted all up and down the east cost of the US. They have strong stinging bars on their backs and sides, so nothing eats them and they eat everything else. They’re beautiful, but they’re like the kudzu of the seas now. I heard a speech last summer about a dive group that spears them on sight to try and save the native Caribbean fish populations. On the way back in from Snapshot I found a really neat sea urchin shell. They are so fragile that I decided to carry it instead of putting it in my bag. When we stopped in town at the Straw Market, a lady stopped me and said “Sea Egg.” When I looked puzzled she explained that the locals call sea urchin shells sea eggs and to be careful because the live ones “could stick you.” I thought that was pretty neat.

TODAY we’re going out to the old Lighthouse on the north end of the island, snorkeling across from the high school again, and going back to Lindsay, Snapshot, or Telephone Pole Reef. I’ll try to be better about posting more often so that my posts don’t have to be so long. I wish I could post some pictures, but we don’t have a strong internet connection here and it couldn’t handle uploading that much data (check back on Wednesday June 30th for pics).

Countdown to San Salvador

I have less than a week until I board a little 8-seater plane and head to San Salvador, Bahamas! You're probably thinking, "San what?? Where is that?" Actually, that's what most people have said when I told them about my trip, so I thought I'd post a little something about the island.

Located 360 miles southeast of Miami, San Salvador is one of the less developed islands in the Bahamas. This island is also known as Columbus Isle because most historians agree that it is the island where Christopher Columbus first made landfall in the "New World." Apparently, Columbus himself said, "The beauty of these islands surpasses that of any other and as much as the day surpasses the night in splendour." Pretty good recommendation, huh? I guess I'm in for a pretty cool trip! This website has some more cool information about San Salvador.

So we're going to stay at the Club Med on the island...Haha--Just kidding! The Gerace Research Center will be our home-base on Columbus Isle. We'll be staying with other researchers in dorm-like facilities and snorkeling/SCUBA diving daily--Can't wait!



By the way, look who stopped by to say hello the other day? My husband is "deathly afraid of snakes" and has a most unfortunate, self-proclaimed "Brick Throwing Policy," which he says he will implement at the sight of any snake. Actually, it should probably be called the "Throw-your-hands-over-your-head-and-scream-and-run-down-the-trail" because that's what he did last time he saw a snake. Anyway, with THIS guy around, he's off Brick/Run-and-scream duty because this is an Eastern King Snake. These guys actually eat other snakes and regularly eat pit vipers like cottonmouths, copperheads, and rattlesnakes because they're immune to their venom.

So the moral of the story is: Don't throw bricks at snakes or any other wildlife. They all serve an important purpose in the ecosystem--some of which may benefit you too!

Whachu got, shark?? (Brazen Blue Crabs and other Linsky adventures on Tybee and Williamson Islands)

Ah, the beach…What’s not to love? The sound of the surf, soft white sand, and massive barges. Well, at least that’s the view here on Tybee Island.

Saturday marked the official start to my summer adventures. All the teachers going to the Bahamas in two weeks traveled to Tybee on Friday for a prep session. I woke up early Saturday morning to take a stroll on the beach--one of my favorite things in the world to do. There’s nothing more peaceful that standing on the water’s edge, feeling the pulse of the waves lapping over your feet, and looking out over the seemingly endless expanse of the natural world. However, my serene escape from my busy life was somewhat disrupted by this little reminder of my proximity to the port of Savannah.



Actually, the people of Tybee put up with a lot of headaches for these shipments. The Savannah River needs to be dredged up several times a year to keep it deep enough for the jumbo barges, which prevents the beaches of Tybee from getting the natural source of sediments. So every 7-9 years the beaches have to be “replenished.” This means the sand you see in this picture probably came from a sand bar out at sea somewhere. Also, additional crews have to go out with plows to make sure the new sand isn’t packed down too hard for nesting sea turtles.



Anyway, back to Tybee. This island is the most highly populated of the Georgia islands, but I was really impressed with their environmental initiatives. A lot of their street signs are shaped like sea turtles, there’s a great Marine Science center, and every beach access point has this trash/recycling set up to keep the beaches clean. I assume the ATV-like tracks next to the bins were from people collecting the trash/recyclables. Hopefully they know what sea turtle tracks and nests look like...Some of the tire tracks I saw were right next to the dune line, which is where turtles like to nest.



Speaking of the dunes, check out the footprints right next to the “Keep out of Dune Area” sign. Ug. The dunes protect the upland from hurricanes and are home to an entire ecosystem of organisms including many endangered birds that nest on the ground. If you’re ever on the beach and see a bird flying really close to you or limping around like its hurt, it might be a mama bird pretending to have a broken wing so that you will go toward it and away from her nest. Cool factoid, huh?



But I digress… So after my morning walk, I joined the other teachers on a pontoon boat, and we headed out to Williamson Island. If you’ve never heard of the island, it’s because its completely undeveloped. It’s a tiny barrier island which is so small that it doesn’t appear on any of the maps Google images has to offer (sorry--I tried). Anyway, as we were pulling up, we saw this non-nesting sea turtle crawl. In other words, a mother sea turtle came on shore to nest then changed her mind and went back.



These guys were also trying to lay eggs on the beach, but didn’t have as much luck getting back. We saw these live horseshoe crabs stranded on the beach trying to make it back to the water. According to horseshoecrab.org 10% of these “living fossils” die from shore strandings. We weren’t entirely sure if all of them were stranded or still nesting…We put several of them back in the water, though.



A little farther down the beach we saw another sea turtle crawl and what looked like a nest. We were concerned with the nest’s location because the eggs would probably drown at high tide. However, I now think this was another non-nesting sea turtle crawl because it didn’t have the “thrown sand” like in nest 07-024 on the St. Catherine's Sea Turtle Conservation Website. Mother sea turtles throw sand as they dig their nests, so no thrown sand around a body pit like this means it‘s not a real nest. Again, something spooked this mama turtle, which made her go back to sea without nesting.



I love the marsh. It’s one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet. I look at this and can’t help but think about the marshes in Louisiana. Getting oil on the beaches is bad, yes. But the marshes is where the majority of the ocean’s fish and shellfish go to breed. No marsh=no sea life.



A little later in the day we broke out the seine to see what was hanging out in the ocean around us. We stretched out the net, took it out to about waist deep water, and then turned around and came back to shore. After we checked out the catch, we threw back the fish and other things we found.



We caught this teeny puffer fish all puffed up from the seine excitement :)



We also caught this gorgeous juvenile Bonnethead Shark. As we were marveling at the shark and preparing to throw it back, a tiny blue crab approached it with pinchers out at the ready as if to say, “You wanna piece of me??? Whachu got, shark? Bring it!” He was completely unfazed by the shark thrashing around (double click the picture to enlarge.)

Coming up: I leave for the Bahamas in less than two weeks! I’m not gonna lie...the thought of a little 8-seater plane is a little unnerving. Also, I can’t decide if I should go SCUBA diving or just snorkel. I’d love your input!

Exotic Suwanee, Georgia

I've got two and a half weeks until I board an eight-seater plane and head to San Salvador, but my lovely hometown has given me several reasons to break out the camera to capture images of wildlife!

First, look "hooo" stopped by last week! Seemingly unfazed by our 85 lbs Bernese Mountain Dog, this is a Barred Owl landed on our back fence and seemed to study us at the same time we were studying him. Check out this website:http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Strix&species=varia He was making the "Scream" sound (which is more like a wheezy squeak), but we hear many variations on the call. What does the "Typical Call" sound like to you? Bird lovers like to think the call sounds like "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?"

He stopped by again the next day. These guys are causing big problems in the Pacific Northwest because they're much more aggressive than the smaller spotted owl--check out "A new wrinkle" at the bottom of this site: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0722_040722_tvspottedowl.html

This little guy knocked on our door last weekend. He is a Green Tree Frog. We hear them singing all the time, but this is the first time we've actually seen one. This is what they sound like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fWjKQaPc0c

Roman (my unofficial blog mascot) found some exotic wildlife of his own at Suwanee Town Center Park. This unusual specimen of the bipedal smoothie variety frightened my four-legged best friend, so Roman proceeded to tell the fruity monster how he felt.

COMING UP: I'm headed down to Tybee Island tomorrow for a prep session for my Bahamas class. We're going to spend Saturday on an undeveloped barrier island--check back Monday for more info!

Last Day of School!

It's the last day of school here at Davis, and I'm gearing up for my fun and exciting summer!

Here's what I'm doing:
1. June 20- June 29 “Interdisciplinary Marine Science Field Studies!”
In this program, a group of 18 teachers and educational professionals travel to San Salvador, Bahamas and stay at the Gerace Research Center for nine days. Activities include field observation, sampling, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, and hearing field station specialists’ lectures.

2. July 8-16 Field Study in Oceanography and Marine Methods!”
12 other teachers and I will spend 3 days at the UGA Marine Extension Service at the Skidaway Island Institute of Oceanography where they hear lectures from some of the country’s most respected coastal ecology researchers and participate in several field experiences. Next, participants travel to Sapelo Island, Georgia where they aid real scientists in their field research.

3. July 16-22 “Sea Turtle Natural History and Sea Turtle Conservation:” This course sequence includes one intensive field study summer experience and one distance learning follow up course in the fall. Each July, teachers travel to St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia where they act as sea turtle conservation interns. Activities include patrolling the beach for nesting evidence, nest relocation, nighttime beach patrol, and nest monitoring. In the fall, teachers implement their sea turtle units and discuss the students’ progress via an online course forum. Teachers also meet again for a follow up meeting on St. Catherine’s in the fall.“

4. July 24-August 1 Lastly, I'll spend a week in the Adirondack Mountains of New York!!

Check back for daily updates on the cool stuff I see and learn!!