GALAPAGOS IN OAHU

Although the majority of my friends and family have been to Hawaii before, some of them multiple times, I've never made the trip. For years I've been asked by my best buds Robyn and Stephen "When are you going to go with us?" My response was always "When you get married!" Robyn and Stephen LOVE Hawaii and go as often as they can, and I've always known that someday when they were ready to get married, they'd make it a destination wedding. So, before I get started on the many blog posts it's going to take to cover these past two weeks, I would like to thank Robyn and Stephen for tying the knot and giving me the absolute, best excuse EVER to make the trip to the islands! THANK YOU!!

So, how did it start? Jay and I left Mississippi (yeah!!) Sunday morning, made a quick stop in Dallas (my most favorite airport... or, at least, my most frequented), and arrived in Honolulu in the afternoon (about 12 hours travel time). We arrived during the daylight hours, but I didn't get that first view of the islands because we were in the very last seats on the plane, so no windows anywhere nearby (don't worry, Jay let me have the window seat on all our inter-island flights, so I got many opportunities to enjoy the view and take pictures). We met Robyn, Stephen, his best man Jake and his wife Rose as soon as we arrived at the airport. We were all convening in Oahu (even though the wedding is in Maui) because Stephen had planned some sort of secret surprise, scheduled for Monday morning... We spent the night in Waikiki, just enjoying each others company and catching up. I must say, there is NOTHING better than spending a quiet evening with good friends!! On with the photos... Here we are on our hotel balcony, enjoying a great view of "wiki wiki" beach (as Robyn and Stephen call it):

The next morning, we had an early wake-up call from Stephen. He loaded us into his rented minivan and ferried us to the north shore, still holding out on any hints as to what we were to do that day. We stopped at Leonard's for some famous malasadas on the way out of town:

When we arrived (in Haleiwa), we pulled into a marina where there was a big advertisement for Shark Cage Tours:

What?!?! Knowing a surprise was in store, I'd been having dreams (sometimes nightmares) for weeks... in one Stephen was making me jump out of a giant palm tree into a surging ocean below, in another he made me swim with sharks. Fearing this, I'd emailed him to be sure this wasn't the surprise... no, no, no he told me, no swimming with sharks. He is very sneaky though, because somehow we still ended up swimming with sharks! I was really nervous (and a little scared) from the time we arrived at the marina until we drove out to the tour site about 3 miles off-shore. Then, for some reason, as soon as Jake, Stephen, Robyn, and Jay had climbed into the cage, I felt fine and climbed right in. It was absolutely amazing! There were between 15-20 Galapagos sharks swimming around the cage throughout the 20 or so minutes we were in the water (the tour guides allowed all 6 of us to go in together so we'd have more time, and I think that really contributed to my calmness at being out there - how can you feel scared when you've got 3 big guys around to protect you?) Here are Robyn, Stephen, and Jay on the boat ride out to the tour site:

Here is my first view of a Galapagos shark, from the safety of the boat deck:

Here are a few photos from the cage:

After the tour, we went to a local cafe for a delicious breakfast, then started a driving tour of the northern and eastern sides of Oahu. Here are Jay, me, Robyn, Stephen, Jake, and Rose in front of a beautiful bay on the east side:

Here are Stephen and I also somewhere on the east side. Doesn't he look great?!?!

And finally, a view of Honolulu from the air on our way to Maui that afternoon:

FREE TIME

During our 2 free mornings at the end of this sampling trip, we went hiking and birding of course! But don't worry, we spent our afternoons entering data, checking pollinator traps, and working on other projects with looming deadlines...

Wednesday morning we went to the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (with the BLM) and hiked about a mile and a half along the San Pedro River. I saw 3 new life birds: the Gray Hawk, Brown-crested Flycatcher, and Lucy's Warbler. I didn't get any pictures of them, but I did get pictures of a Vermillion Flycatcher (we probably saw a dozen of them while we were there) and a Summer Tanager through my binoculars:

Thursday morning we got up really REALLY early and drove out to Chiricahua National Monument. We hiked a 7-mile loop trail out to the Heart of Rocks, saw many amazing views, and 3 more new birds: the Red-faced Warbler, Townsend's Warbler (surprised they're still migrating through!), and Hepatic Tanager. Here are my favorite pictures:

View from Massai Point: Above the Heart of Rocks Loop Trail:

Pam in the Heart of Rocks:

Duck on a Rock:

BLOOMS, BUGS, & BISBEE

On this month's field sampling trip on Fort Huachuca we've seen some new blooms...

...the beginning of some agave bloom stalks...

...and a huge insect called the "tarantula hawk"

One afternoon we took a drive over to Bisbee, AZ for lunch and window-shopping. Bisbee is a National Historic Landmark, a copper-mining town that had it's hey-day back in the 1920s when the population peaked at 20,000, and was at that time the largest city between Los Angeles and St. Louis. It's now more of an artisan community, with lots of photography, paintings, pottery, weavings, jewelry, and copper-art. Most of the stuff is created by local artisans, but some is purchased from Native Americans and sold by local entreprenuars (the weavings and pottery are gorgeous, authentic, and REALLY expensive - I saw some upwards of $2k). By the way, they not only mine copper in Bisbee, but also turquoise. Authentic Bisbee turquiose comes from either the Lavendar Pit (the really expensive stuff, often with copper spider web patterns) or Shaft (with black spider web patterns, found elsewhere only in China). I highly recommend Gloria's Jewelry and Gemstones if you're ever in the area! Her selection was the best and she had a lot of great stories to tell! Here I am in front of historic downtown Bisbee: And here is a picture of the mine:

1 OF 13...

It's snake season! Did you know that there are 13 species of rattlesnakes in Arizona? Here is the one we found in our sample plot at 7am this morning...

For those who are interested in details, it's a Mojave Rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus)

YOU HAVE THE CUTEST ACCENT!

Jay took a last-minute work trip up to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin this weekend. For those of you who don't know where Fort McCoy is, it's right in the middle of nowhere. Well, it's actually in the middle of Tomah and Sparta, but you get the idea... Anyway, Jay went up there with his boss and co-workers to run an experiment burning COMP-B in the grasslands. He sent me this photo from the burn (and I'll let him explain in more detail below):

Jay says the experiment was conducted to see the effects of prescribed fires on the removal of unconsumed explosives, which greatly reduce the potential of environmental contamination that is inherent with a majority of explosives. If there is sufficient biomass to reach ignition, the reduction can be upwards of 93%. Cool, eh?

A beautiful sunset over the Mississippi River, way up north.

And of course, you can't visit Wisconsin without purchasing some cheese (even though California is technically The Dairy State now... they even have Happy Cows, according to my parents). Oh yeah, and their waitress at dinner that night told them they all had "the cutest accents"! Jay thought that was pretty funny, considering her accent. Also, it made him think he might be starting to blend in around here a little too well...

By the way, Happy Cinco de Mayo (and Happy Cinco de Ryano too)!

BEST IN SHOW

We took a long weekend and went home to Florida for the Beaches Sandcastle Contest. We found a cheap (and direct) flight out of New Orleans, so we spent a few hours in the city, taking in the sights and eating at one of the open-air restaurants. Here we are in front of Jackson Square:

The sandcastle contest was on Saturday morning. The start of the 2 hour contest looked something like this: During the contest, we paused for photo ops with Amber and Ryan: The finished product looked great! A landscape of 4 pilings with a pelican and a rock jetty in the background. The boys won Best In Show (second year in a row)! Although I was technically part of the team, I lack creative and artistic abilities, so I was basically the water girl (running buckets down to the ocean for sand-packing water - I stopped counting after the 7th...) We had a great time, got some good (and bad) sun, and enjoyed a celebratory lunch afterward. After lunch, we returned to the beach to do some swimming and found a ghost crab hanging out by the boys' sand sculpture. Weird for it to be out during the day... We wonder whether it thought the rock jetty was real, because it climbed up into it right after we took this photo! Or maybe we just built our sculpture on top of it's home...
We had to leave Sunday, but not before a good-bye lunch with the Birdsongs at the Fish Company! Jean joined us too of course! We didn't get to spend as much time with her as usual this trip, but it seems we never do on these long (but not long enough) weekend trips...

RIVERFEST & RIVER-FLOOD

This weekend was the annual RiverFest event in Vicksburg. It's a mix between a music festival, carnival, and flea market - a unique event for a unique town. The headliner this year was Rick Springfield, but there were a lot of blues and soul groups. We started the day with a few hours window-shopping at the booths and taking new photos of the river at the estimated peak level for this flood. These pictures were taken at the same "parking lot" next to the Horizon Casino (where we posted pictures from about a week ago). The wooden planks have been added (with tar in between) to hold the Yazoo River behind the flood wall. The water level is just below the 51.6ft flood mark from 1973. And although you can still see that "No Parking" sign, it's not like it was last week!

That evening we went over to Sandy's apartment (always the gracious hostess) to celebrate with our coworkers. We overlooked the goings-ons from her balcony, listened to the music from the south stage (a stones throw away), and eventually ventured out into the crowd. We didn't take many photos, but here are a couple of Jon riding The Bull and some of the group looking on as another party-goer gives it a shot.

THE BIG 400!!!!

Hooray! My LifeList topped 400 today!! I spent a few hours at Ramsey Canyon Preserve (TNC) this morning and saw/heard 5 new species. Starting out, right there between the parking lot and the visitor center was a Whiskered Screech Owl (one of the volunteers pointed it out to me): Then I heard a Dusky-capped Flycatcher while walking around one of the loop trails, where I also came across the protected pond where a population of Ramsey Canyon Leopard Frogs lives (see them in there?):

Back at the visitor center, I sat around and watched the hummingbirds for a good long hour. I saw 6 different species of males (the females are a little hard for me to ID), 2 of which were new to me: the Blue-throated and Magnificent Hummingbird! And what a great bird to be my number 400! Magnificent (just below center in this photo)!

After hiking the mile up to the overlook (about 700ft elevation gain), I saw a Hutton's Vireo on the way back down the switchbacks. Here is my photo at the "top" (Miller's Peak was actually quite a bit further up the mountain, but I didn't have time to go all the way up):

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good day, and a great way to end this trip! Next month, I plan to see the elusive trogon...

BUG SUCKERS

I'm back here at Fort Huachuca and actually sampling this time around. We're halfway through our week and have completed 5 out of 8 sites. Our technique has much improved over the past 2 days!

This is our new collection method: the Bug Sucker 2008 (created by Robert and Neil). No more backpack vacs for us, and no more wimpy dustbusters... this thing actually works!

Pam, Rick, Robert, and I - ready to sample our first plot.

And off they go... We're each walking a transect and collecting everything on flowers.

Some of the neat pollinators we've collected so far (native bees and butterflies).

These European honey bees are stealing pollen from each other (kinda funny, eh?)

And this is how we'll store our samples, once they've been identified (these are just practice samples that we'll be using for our reference collection).

FLOOD STAGE

For those of you who haven't heard, the Mississippi River is above flood stage (43ft). Right now we're just under 47ft, with expectations to reach 48ft tomorrow. Don't worry about us, we're high and dry on the south end of town (and our house sits on a hill), and the downtown area is protected by a US Army Corps of Engineers flood wall. However, the delta north of town is extemely flooded and some areas south of us are flooded as well (roads covered in water, etc.)

Here is a view of the high, rushing water under the Mississippi River Bridge (photo taken near the Ameristar Casino):

Moving downtown, this is a view of the parking lot next to the Horizon Casino (just through that blockaded Exit) on the Yazoo River:

And here is the Horizon Casino, floating. See that structure off to the right? That is the outer portion of the "slip" where the casino boat is usually dry-docked. Also, see those flood level markings on the flood wall? Remember them from an earlier blog post (Mother's Day weekend, May 2007)? Compare the pictures to get an idea of how different it looks. The lowest mark (the lowest white bar on the right side of the flood wall) is at 47.5ft.

Another view, from the flooded parking lot, of the swollen Yazoo River: