Audubon Guides - When Push Comes to Shove - Purple Gallinule

I pushed my little sister off a roof once when we were kids. It wasn’t malicious behavior. My sisters and I were filming a backyard action movie and the scene required a spectacular eight foot plunge. The youngest sister had changed her mind at the last minute and with fading light, I gently nudged her. I got the shot. Looking back it reminds me of Bald Eagle chicks and the eldest who unceremoniously shoves the youngest hatchling out of the nest. One less mouth to feed. More for me. It’s called obligate siblicide and it’s not very nice.

READ THE REST AT http://audubonguides.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/when-push-comes-to-shove/

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Exclamation Points!!!

I'll spare you the year end in review. For New Year's Eve I like to clean out my desk, get rid of junk in the closet, remove animal bones from the back of my car and check for belly lint. It's my way of starting fresh. So for your amusement and to continue my tradition - here is the clean up post where I offer a few photos I've taken during the year that I had no idea where to put throughout the year. Fort Myers Beach (Feb 08) - I called and tried to explain that I was worried about the economy. They didn't listen either.

Manatee Park, Fort Myers - No crabs, no diving, but falling backwards into the alligator inhabited water is fine.

Fort Lauderdale

Fort Myers Beach - This was all the wife's idea.

Coral Springs - What kind of monster forbids kites?!?

Cligman's Dome, North Carolina - It was cold. And no one was looking.

Cherokee, North Carolina - Tempting....

I don't know why I find this amusing.

Regional Southwest Airport, Fort Myers - Something's not right? Yeah I flew on Jet Blue. Never again.

Montreal, Quebec - The old man is faking it. He has his cane backwards.

Montreal, Quebec - Amusing to me. I imagined the artist desperately trying to convey a scene of violence with stick figures.

Fort Myers - I was cold. And no one was looking.

Fort Myers Beach - Sister Mandy...my sister...she's not a nun...obviously - poses with the Photo-Op-Cop.

Home - This happens more often than you would think in my line of work.

This post didn't end well. Thankfully 2008 did. Here's to a fantastic 2009.

New Year's Resolution - Use less exclamation points in my writing and live more exclamation points. I think I can do that! hmmm.

New England Rewind 2008

I can't be everywhere, but during my latest trip to Vermont and Massachusetts I feel like I tried. Regardless, I couldn't visit everyone, so a recap will have to do. The purpose of the trip was to fulfill my best man duties at Sean and April's wedding on 8/8/2008 in Bennington, VT. Followed by a trip to Sharon, MA for Tiffers big 40th b-day with the family. So with apologies to everyone I couldn't see, this is what I saw - in my New England Rewind 2008 The Bennington Monument in Vermont - site of Sean and April's wedding
It rained when MaLe and I arrived and rained all day Friday. Thanks to Mandy's magic, her gift to Sean was a spell to clear the sky for the 30 minute outdoor ceremony. It worked. The rain stopped and resumed shortly after heading inside.

The lovely bride and groom
If you're going to do a best man toast, do it right. With the Bee Gees in the background and me with sassy pose (and one too many drinks in me), I gave my off the cuff speech which drew one audible gasp but thankfully ended with laughter and applause. I have no idea what I said. The bride made me wear pink.

But the bride may have said something to the groom a bit later about the speech.There's no intended innuendo in this picture of the monument.I'm genuinely happy for Sean and April and I meant all the good stuff I said. I miss the old days, but wish you well on the new days ahead. Hopefully it won't be another 15 months till we see each other again.

Got to spend a little time with Bill. Not enough time. He was nice enough to come get us in Bennington and travel with us east to visit Tara, Peyton and Carter.


Is Peyton not the cutest?

A trip to visit Tiffer and family is rarely without mischief. Why an 11-year old knows when to hold'em and when to fold'em is beyond me. He also knows when to run.
This is how you rock out on Guitar Hero"
Jim cookin' the dogs and burgers for the brood.
Aunt "Ga" and baby Carter
What's the problem Peyton? Why the face? (Hi Stelly - you made the blog again!)

More mischief with Abigail.
Poor Peyton - your brother gets to have birthdays too....
Nighttime geocaching with Cubbie and Little SmileyLion
The whole nighttime caching crew.
Aunt Mandy with baby Carter. Super Cheeks!

And back home on JetBlue. Only 30 minutes late this trip. Miss the family already.

Operation Angry Badger

My little sister flew into town on Friday for a weekend visit before venturing over to Miami for work. Her to-do list among other things included petting an alligator, visiting the old homestead in Venice and riding on the front of an airboat and screaming "I'm King of the World". She's not normal.

My wish list was to keep from offending anyone and avoiding another "go kart" incident like the one back in '98. Ma-Le and I called this Operation Angry Badger.

It seemed the best way to accomplish our task was to get her in a boat and paddle her out into Estero Bay. What could go wrong?Our destination was Mound Key, the largest Calusa Indian shell mound in the world and the highest point in Lee County. (our paddle trail highlighted in orange)To get there the three of us would paddle with the tide, the presumed 3 miles out into the bay, cross the bay and arrive at the island which is 40 feet above sea level at its highest point and covered with tropical hardwoods like Mahogany and Gumbo Limbo. It's a beautiful site. Crossing the bay proved tougher than I imagined as the wind was driving into our faces and the tide had turned around. With only one mile to go, we pushed on toward the island. The island is guarded by a ferocious Jack Russell Terrier with an orange vest.
The island is now a State Park and no artifact collecting is allowed. There is a loop trail that brings you up and over several massive shell mounds and around the island which is ringed with mangroves. It was hot and the badger was not well hydrated. The first mosquito bite could have been a hive of angry bees by the way she reacted to it. From the peak you can look out over Estero Bay and the Gulf of Mexico and see a multitude of high rises. The Calusa built the first!Apparently the ghosts of the Calusa are not fans of technology and my phone and Mandy's decided to turn off on their own. They were charged. They had been getting reception. They just stopped working! The Badger was getting ferocious as she combated the heat, bugs and lack of phone reception so we had to abandon the island before we had a chance to explore the whole thing. We couldn't risk a full blown tantrum.

When we returned we told the rangers that we had made it out to Mound Key. They were impressed. It turns out it was 10 miles round trip and few people are dumb enough to attempt this. It was entirely worth it to stand on the ground the Calusa once occupied. For several thousand years they lived along the gulf coast from Tampa to Everglades City and nowhere is their presence more apparent than here on the ceremonial center of their kingdom on Mound Key.

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Red on Yellow - Kill a Fellow

I transport snakes across the Everglades from time to time. Yesterday I drove my first venomous snake across.

They're display animals that I shuttle from Fort Lauderdale to Fort Myers including an Everglades Rat Snake, several Green Tree Snakes and a Florida Kingsnake among other reptiles. Yesterday the boss called and said there was a Coral Snake he needed me to transport and I would have to arrange to pick it up.

So I called Tom Crutchfield - one of the leading reptile experts in the U.S. and asked what I would have to do to get the venomous snake from coast to coast.


"You'll have to be very careful" he explained. "They're pushers and the like to push their way out of the bags". Incredulous, I told him that I would be picking up the snake around 5 PM but was not leaving the Miami area until 8 PM. So he impressed upon me that I would have to take great care. I wouldn't want a deadly Coral Snake loose in the cab of my truck as I drove across the Everglades at night.

After I hung up my mind started to race. I don't want to sound like a coward although I am and I don't want to tell them I can't do this, but I've had a Black Rat Snake escape and slither across my dashboard as I drove through the mountains of Vermont. I can imagine the red, yellow and black stripes reflected in my windshield now. Not good.

Maybe it's a Scarlet Kingsnake? - a non-venomous snake that mimics the Coral Snake in appearance, (providing a defense for itself). Maybe they're playing me? After 20 minutes the boss calls back and says there's nothing to fear. The snake will be well contained and they were just giving me a hard time.

I picked up the snake - well-contained in a plastic cookie tub, taped shut with packing tape and carefully tucked into a cloth bag which was then zip tied.



My sister Mandy was in town for a few days and was cool enough to let me drive her around Miami with a venomous snake in a bag at her feet.

Apparently, Coral Snakes are not aggressive and rarely bite. I didn't tempt it. They are also escape artists and the extra precautions were in fact necessary. Thank You. Ultimately the venom is the snakes tool for capturing prey but even the largest of coral snakes have small mouthes and recurved teeth, making it difficult to bite a human. They have to gnaw. But it could happen and antivenin for such bites is becoming harder to come by.

So if you come across one, don't kill it. Give it space and remember.

Red on Yellow Kill a Fellow
Red on Black ok for Jack



Either way I don't want to be bitten.

Powers Out - Time to Loot

CNN, who has seemingly partnered with YouTube and the makers of Jackass, has assured that the revolution will be witnessed via cell phone video in 2 minute increments right after this 15 second message from Chevy.

When power came back on here in Fort Myers after plunging us into...sunlight for the last 3 hours, I quickly checked the Fox News online crawl to see if an Osama, Hussein or Barak was to blame for 4 million powerless Floridians. I then hoped over to CNN's website where the headline read "Massive Power Outages in Florida" followed by the I-Report banner asking "Are you there? Send us your photos!". This is CNN's method of creating community among the nation's gawkers, bystanders and slackers. Take a picture of the shooting rampage/plane wreckage/burning orphanage and upload it for free to CNN! Your grainy phone-cam footage of you fleeing the scene of the latest catastrophe can be right up there with other news like "Naomi Campbell hospitalized" and "Lindsay Lohan in rehab". News is fun!

But really how much fun would pictures of a blackout in Florida be? And should you be wasting battery life when the juice is running out? It's stupid when you think about it. Even when you don't.

When the power went out I had a funny feeling. After 10 minutes of no Internet, radio or TV, I called my sister Tiff and asked if anything was on the news. She accessed the Internet with her Palm at the Panera (which I wanted to say mostly for anyone who has recently been thawed from a block of ice they have been frozen in since the 40's - like Captain America - and will be blown away by the technological advances we have made). Tiff said nothing was reported online yet so I went back to sitting around doing nothing.

After an hour I figured I'd check out what post-apocalyptic Florida looks like and drove to the bank for reasons I will leave mysterious. The roads were jammed and police directed traffic at most major intersections since the lights were still out. I gave the less reasoned sister a call and this time Mandy surfed the web at work (Captain America is freaking out! What's a web?!?) and this time got the report I wanted. Major power outages in Florida. Mandy suggested I return home immediately as the looting would start shortly. I didn't have the energy to loot but I was headed home anyway - mostly because I wanted to eat the ice cream in the freezer before it melted. It's a traditional blackout event.

A call here and there revealed that the rumor mill does not run on electricity. A few suggestions as to the cause of the massive power outage included:

• Terrorism
• Severe thunderstorms
• Too many people playing War Craft at the same time
• Liberals
• A dump truck backing into a power pole in Juno, FL
• Fidel's final revenge

Honestly I thought I had caused it from running the dishwasher and the Tivo at the same time.

Which brings me to my last comment. My shows aren't going to be recorded on Tivo

I can survive a few hours. But what happens when the power stays out. For days.

My cell phone was on one bar. My laptop was useless. We just got back from Fort Lauderdale last night and the fridge is empty. Truck's gas tank is half full. The banks were closed. The grocery stores were closed. It wouldn't take long before things descended into chaos. We're trained to be prepared for hurricanes. We usually have time to procrastinate and forget the things we need to survive days after a hurricane. But something like this is so sudden. We are so used to flipping the cell open and making a call. Opening the fridge and having cold food. Turning on the computer and accessing the Internet. For all the technology we have developed to make our lives more convenient. In a flip of a switch it can be anything but.

Backup

My Computer crashed. (Did I capitalize computer or did it? That concerns me) I'm now in the process of doing what I do every time I panic and worry about losing everything stored in this mysterious little box - I backup.

I'm basically copying files to an 80 GB backup hardrive and I'm currently watching it scan through 37 years of photos. It's freaking me out. The files are flying by and the computer is counting down. "214 minutes remaining". A file from a trip out to Montana just zipped by. That was almost 7 years ago? The Grand Canyon from 2002. The computer shuffles through several dozen files from the Vermont Butterfly Survey in Manchester with Kent in 2003 and the numbered files topple like dominoes. Here comes 2004 and the 2 trips to see Ma-Le in Ecuador. 1200 photos and they rocket past so fast. 2005 - new pictures of baby Peyton, my sister Mandy's wedding, Ash & Kate's wedding, Christmas with the family at Disney and the last picture of my mother - the moment is gone. "42 minutes remaining". The blur and pain of 2006 tears by with digitized moments that seem too quickly forgotten. I did that? Lost in a fog of coping. "19 minutes remaining". I'm watching the last of the photos and my mind hears the sound of driving on the rumble strip that separates the highway from the side of the road. DSCN3384, DSCN3385, DSCN3386 - no time to change the file name. The moment is here and gone. "2 minutes remaining". Does my computer know something I don't?

When I was a kid days seemed endless - now they go by too quickly. I've been back in Florida for a year now. It's been a great year for the most part but I can't help feeling like I'm driving downhill in a fog sometimes. Gotta keep going forward. Have to enjoy every bit of every day that I can. I never know when the ground is going to drop out under me. I can look back - I just can't backup. "finished"

Hey Cupcake

Happy Birthday to me! (EVERGLADES-FREE WARNING - the Everglades is mentioned briefly in this post - deal with it.) I've never been one to advertise my birthday but I must admit that I do celebrate it and try to enjoy it like anyone deserves to with a whole lot of "it's my birthday so I'm going to do whatever I want". Of course I've always felt that a mother has every reason to celebrate that day as well considering the work they put in.

If you're keeping track I'm 37. Which is pretty good considering the doctors didn't think I would survive through my first Christmas. I was born with something of a superpower in that I could vomit across the room thanks to a cinched pyloric valve. I survived, as you may have noticed and have enjoyed 36 Christmases/Saturnalias/Hanukkahs since.

Just for fun - here's a look back at a few memorable birthdays (or the ones I have pictures of).

1977 - I'm the bushy-haired one enjoying Dr. Seuss' The Lorax on reel-to-reel. A movie that had an impression on me and yet continues to stress me out. "Unless"? What did it mean? I could have understood "Rosebud" but "Unless" was to abstract for me. Regardless, I speak for the trees as well as the metaphorical Barbaloots and Swamee Swams.

1979 - I hate clowns and yet celebrated my 9th birthday at McDonald's. Now I only go to McDonald's to cure the common cold. It works. Sister Tara is in the back in a Battlestar Galactica shirt. Sister Mandy trying to hog the spotlight and sister Tiffany stylin' in a McDonalds hat which she would trade in a few years later for an employees hat at the same place. As would I for $2.39/hour.

1980 - Continued the fast food themed birthday's by celebrating at Burger King and got a really cool Pac-Man glass and several Star Wars people. Times were good.

1987 - Thinking all day that everyone had forgotten my birthday - I decided birthdays were awful and cruel and I would never celebrate another. Later that night I was surprised to find my girlfriend had organized a cow-themed surprise party. I was relieved but now hate surprises.

1988 - Spent my 18th at Penn State during my freshman year where I took in my first college football game (89,000 people in attendance) and was later talked down off the roof of my dorm by a a resident advisor who thought I was going to jump when in fact I was just throwing pumpkins. Kids don't try this at home. Go to college and try it. I didn't drink then and still rarely do, but I ended up in the hospital that night with a concussion after running down a water soaked hallway, sliding and landing on my head. Kids don't try this. 1997 - Enjoyed this one in sunny Bradenton, Florida with a friendly squirrel who was interested in the box of cookies and cupcakes I had received from home. This may be the start of what others assumed to be my love for squirrels. I don't think people appreciate them enough, but I don't love them. Or at least not like I love cupcakes. Still, my niece has found every type of nick-nack with a squirrel on it to have her mom buy and send. And I love them all.

1998 - The traditional birthday during the mid to late 90's included a trip to the Gould's Orchard pumpkin patch in upstate New York. This was during the "stache" years and was just days before I pulled my snowbird routine and drove back to Florida for the winter.
1999 - Let them eat cupcakes! Who doesn't like cupcakes? My birthday request for 2007 was simply to have all of the nieces and nephews eating cupcakes on my birthday. (I'll post if they send pictures.) But here is Abigail stuffing her face as a baby. Start the bad habits early! (Note to Tara - 2 month old babies are too young for actual cupcakes - try pureeing it.)

2000 - The whole family was together for the big 30 and the one thing I remember above all else is watching the little sister and then boyfriend (and now husband) get into a scuffle, lock into combat like two sumo wrestlers and actually tumble down a hill like two raccoons in an over sized Wal-Mart bag. Good times.

2005 - Niece Estelle shares the same birthday and so in '05 we all trekked out to find a geocache I had hidden under a boardwalk on White Horse Beach in Massachusetts. The cache - called "The Siren of Sea" was buried under the sand during a storm back in the winter of '07.

2006 - My first birthday in another hemisphere. Ma-le and I spent a few days traveling along the coast in Ecuador, stopping in the port city of Salinas and desperately looking for Sangria which was the only thing I had hoped for. But the Ecuadorian presidential elections were on that same day and no alcohol could be served for 3 days prior to or during the election (a punishable offense that could and often does lead to incarceration). The day was redeemed when Pia and Johnny Garcia (Ma-Le's parents) had a Frutilla Cake waiting when we arrived back in Guayaquil. It was delicious. (And aren't they cute?) 2007 - Today I'm heading over to Fort Lauderdale like I do every week and then in the afternoon I'm heading into the Everglades National Park's Shark Valley. I've been just about every where else so this will be my birthday treat. Ma-Le's in Ecuador for a few more weeks so I will have to eat all of the cupcakes and lick the bowl. mmmm.