Monday, June 09, 2014

Off to upper Hudson Bay...

Photos via Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences

Today listener's PhD*Son, a wildlife biologist, is headed to Coats Island in upper Hudson Bay for three weeks, to do research.  He will brave high's in the 40's and lows in the 30's, without heat, with winds of 20-30mph (higher during storms), and the threat of polar bears and grizzly bears (yes, on an island). His  team of four hopes to locate most of the 35 birds who were banded last year with a geolocator.  The device sends out a signal at regular intervals (daily at least) to create a data readout of where the bird has gone in the past year.  They need to locate the banded birds during nesting season, rig a soft spring-loaded net at their nest, catch the bird briefly to collect the geolocator, and weigh and measure the bird.  The species they are researching, the Semipalmated Sandpiper, is in steep decline and they are seeking to find out why and where the troubles spots are.  More power to them!

                                                                   Semipalmated Sandpiper sporting a geolocator

listener writes: "We will be very glad when they are safely home!  We will see PhD*Son the weekend of July 4th, assuming they have good weather and can leave on time…which has happened only once in 12 years…last year!"

Meanwhile, we can read last year's camp log here:
http://shorebirdscience.org/category/coats/

And watch for this year's camp log here:
http://shorebirdscience.org/this-is-a-test/
If the sporadic connection works, they may be able to post field notes from time to time, while there.

Last year's notes include:

"Probably not too many people carry a 12 gauge with 2 ¾” rifled slugs when they visit the loo!"
and

"Stephen keeps an eye out for bears while I sample invertebrates…"
but also:
"Perhaps the most magical aspect of working in the arctic in the summer is the midnight sun. In the Arctic Refuge the sun never sets while we are there, it circles the sky creating beautiful rosy and golden light for many hours every night. The birds are active then, and listening to Pacific and Red-throated Loons in the long light of an arctic summer night is an indescribable thrill. We find it difficult to go to bed on nights when the clouds and fog lift, suffusing the tundra with a soft magic that nourishes something deep within us. The sun dips below the horizon for a few hours at Coats, giving us our first arctic full moon rise over the river a few nights ago. We fall silent at such moments, each of us filling a place inside that renews us in the moment, from which the memory can sustain us in the months ahead."

Please tuck their well being into your hopes and prayers.  Thanks.

12 comments:

  1. Howard Dean is First!

    Brave researchers are also first!

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  2. While PhD*Son is gone, his 2nd grader will become a 3rd grader, his nursery schooler will become a kindergardener, and his wife will take an exam and become a *registered* nurse.

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  3. A busy family all around, listener! Maybe I'm just an old fogey, but I think those computerized exams the nurses and so many others must take are (to put it mildly) an expensive nuisance. Give me the paper and punch card exams any time. But the world goes as it will, and not as we would have it. BTW, did you read that "neurotheology" link I posted on the previous thread? There are things in it that actually make quite a bit of sense.

    Typical summertime humidity around here is about 16% during the hot part of the day, and 20 or 25% at night, as I recall. When the temperatures are above a hundred degrees every day for more than a week or ten days it gets to be a real drag; but 90 or even 95 isn't
    bad at all. We are spoiled--we really suffer when we go somewhere with both high humidity and high temperature.

    The vent pipe from our clothes dryer is pretty darn long, with several bends in it--it barely meets code for maximum length. Combining the advice of our washing machine/dryer repair guy and customer reviews online, we have zeroed in on a couple of low-end Whirlpool models--very unfancy, unmodern, and well liked by almost everyone who buys them. Good regular price from Home Depot, with free delivery and removal of the old ones. We will also check an old local appliance store or maybe two (if they are both in business). Since our old ones are still working, we can check out the newer ones at our leisure, and wait for a sale (likely in September or October). I would be inclined to keep the old ones until they REALLY broke, but then one can not wait. Thirty years is pretty darn good. We might get twenty years out of a new pair if they are good, but not out of the old pair. These days it seems we can have any color we want as longs as it's white...

    A couple hours ago I realized I must leave for a job in San Diego Monday evening--EEK! Well, there is time to get everything lined up, if barely. Assuming the job doesn't fall through at the last minute, I will swing by the hi-fi shop in San Diego to audition Grado headphones after work. Suitcase now largely packed, briefcase readied, auto rental taken care of, airline tickets and hotel taken care of by the Public Defender. The prosecutor could still be scared off, although I don't think I am in the same league as the fisherman whose bumper sticker proclaimed "Fish tremble when they hear my name." He had another bumper sticker: "My wife says if I go fishing again she's going to leave me. Damn, I'm going to miss her."

    --Alan

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    1. LOL Alan. Gotta keep your priorities straight, eh?

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  4. Hi Alan, I'll be interested to hear which model you decide on. I'm all for keeping it simple.

    I haven't yet availed myself of the neurotheology link, but I plan to in the next day or two. I want to check it out when I'm not running from thing to thing. Yesterday it was a trip to NH and back, then flopping on the couch posting photos and talking with PhD*Son before he leaves (momentarily now), for the wilderness. Today's staff meeting went twice as long as normal, and I have been having some housework to catch up with. It's only 79F at the moment, and only 57% humidity, but the air is thick enough that if I hurry about I'm going to feel rather sticky. But I am interested in the topic. I wonder if what the link you recommended dovetails with an article I read some years ago about how the brain synapses of long time Buddhist monks, who meditate at a very deep and practiced level, are very different than for the average person. The brain actually creates special neurological pathways due to meditation. Amazing!

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    1. What particularly struck me was that during certain types of inducible experiences evidently the part of the brain that actively distinguishes among things shows decreased activity. That makes sense!

      --Alan

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  5. What an adventure! Lucky dood! ♥

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  6. "Anonymous6/08/2014 05:04:00 PM
    So far today I have made great strides in getting nothing useful done."

    Sounds like a day well spent. LOL

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  7. I had a good laugh at myself; I was rushing to get ready for the trip to San Diego that had crept up on me, flogging myself through the day at work, and arrived at the ticket counter...a month early! It is scheduled for JULY 10th, not JUNE 10th! But I've got to say it sure felt like July today; the air conditioning compressor that cools the main lab at work broke over the weekend, and can't be repaired until tomorrow. The thermometer in the car read 109 degrees on the way to the airport about 6 PM, which is HOT. Now to re-watch a movie: "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

    --Alan

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    Replies
    1. Classic and Priceless, Alan! Did you leave a note for your future self?

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    2. It's like the time I walked into a class in junior college and no one else was there...it took a bit to figure it out...

      And a fine, fine, movie. Listened at with my Grado 60i's and Bravo Ocean headphone amp.

      Alan

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