Notes from Hawaii

Having snuck off to Hawaii for a well-deserved rest, the first thing I did upon reaching our condo on Kauai:

From our lanai you could see whales breaching off the north shore, which was pretty cool. I wish I could take pictures of that, but my binoculars came in handy.

I set about quickly identifying all the birds in the area, including Laysan Albatrosses flying overhead, and Hawaii’s native goose, the Nene, pecking about on the lawn:

The coastline below our condo is beautiful, but maddeningly hard to reach:

My co-conspirator in relaxation, in between getting work done:

A beautiful church on the way to the end of the road in NW Kauai:

Today we spent some time hiking the trail in the NW corner of Kauai, which runs along the wild coast. Many slippery rocks later, we were rewarded with amazing views of the coastline and gorgeous jungle foliage:

There was a fast-flowing rocky river at the entrance to the first campground, where we stopped for lunch. You can get a sense of the size of the surf from the woman in the photo, but these were by far the smaller waves - there were 16-ft swells coming in at the time and it was quite spectacular. I spent almost an hour watching the waves and getting ready for the hike back, after which a quick dip in the ocean was required. Due to the difficulty of the hike it was almost 4 hours to go 4 miles.

Birding in Panajachel

Near my hotel just outside of Pana, there were two birding attractions, aside from the many trees surrounding my own hotel, which were full of warblers, hummingbirds, tanagers, orioles, and grosbeaks. First was the botanical gardens at the neighboring hotel, which also had a very nice restaurant with an excellent view of the volcanoes - perfect for a sunset dinner, especially since the restaurant at my own hotel was closed for lack of guests (!).

Second was the nature reserve (above), which was just down the road and a little different from what I was expecting. As it turns out, most of Guatemala is very dry, at least on this side of the mountains. So hiking up there, especially in the oak forest part, felt a lot like hiking in California. However, other areas were quite different, like the shade-grown coffee plantations with monkeys and coatis in the trees and suspended bridges over streams and waterfalls. Here are some of the cool birds I saw there (and before you ask, sadly no, these are not my pictures):

Grey Hawk

I got a great look at this handsome bird, which I have only seen once before from a distance in Arizona.

Rufous Sabrewing

This picture hardly does this giant hummingbird justice. One of the largest ones I have ever seen, brilliantly colored green along the back and cinnamon underneath.

Yellowish Flycatcher

Now you might not think this anything much, but it has a very limited range and I was happy to see it :)

Long-Tailed SilkyFlycatcher

This one is prettier, I admit.

White-Faced Ground-Sparrow

Also one with a very limited range, but easily one of my favorites as he looks just like a little clown-face :) Found him feeding peacefully in the grass at the botanical gardens.

Slate-Throated Redstart

A pretty little bird that continuously fans his tail feathers, flashing the white spots on them.

Meanderings on a Blue Moon

Disclaimer: There’s a reason this entry is included in the Random Walk category… :)

Tonight I was driving home from Seattle, having just visited one of my oldest friends who has been living in London and was in town visiting. We had stayed up half the night, and it was past midnight when I hit the freeways heading home. It’s just a couple days past the full moon and it was nothing like the Blue Moon it was supposed to be. Instead, it was orange, hazy, and bisected with blackish horizontal clouds. The overall effect was misshapen and distorted, pieces separated from the whole and offset strangely.

It is quite unsettling when celestial bodies don’t look like themselves. I could just imagine villagers centuries ago huddling around the village square, muttering about dark portents and omens. I found myself continually checking the moon on the drive home to see if it had changed. It did change, but not necessarily to anything more reassuring.

In a strange segue from the past into the future, it occurred to me to wish that I could snap a photo of it for this blog, so you could all see what I was writing about. I had the random thought that maybe someday that will be possible - with a blink of an eyelid we’ll be able to take a quick photo, later to be downloaded into a computer. My mind seems to work that way already, it’s just a matter of technology catching up. I’m the one that always comes back from vacations without any photos, because I’ve stored all the images in my mind and they’re perfectly good that way.

And then there’s the fact that this Blue Moon isn’t even a Blue Moon for everyone, which makes it just a little bit stranger. One friend in a group of close e-mail friends had the idea of doing a goal-setting event, since folklore says that a Blue Moon is a good time to set your intentions in action. Since a Blue Moon only occurs once every 2+ years (it’s the second full moon in a month), she asked us to state our goals and intentions, and she would remind us again on the next Blue Moon.

The problem is, this one is occurring on the last day of the month. On the west coast of North America, it was around 6pm - on the east coast, 9pm. For our friends in Europe, it wouldn’t be until the morning - which would be June, not May. For them, the Blue Moon would be the second moon in June, offset from the rest of us by a month. All well and good and natural from an astronomical point of view, except we like to do things together.

Ah well, it’s not like we haven’t bent the space-time continuum before ;) We’ll be together, even if we’re not.

Postcards from the Bering Sea

I just had to share with you these pics from a friend of mine who is captain of a NOAA research vessel, currently in the Bering Sea (Mike Francisco, for those of you that may remember him from back in the day). Baby seals, which are part of their subject research - too cute not to post! Hope these put a smile in your day :)

Spotted Seal (credit: Ensign Carl Rhodes, NOAA)

Ribbon Seal (credit: Dr. Peter Boveng, NOAA)

A tiny ray of hope

Those of you who read this blog know that I often post on issues related to global warming and the environment. In general, I think most environmental scientists have a pretty pessimistic view of the state of things to come and the challenges we’re going to be facing over the next 50 years, largely due to the magnitude and variety of impacts related to global warming, along with many unrelated issues.

One of the scary things that hasn’t really gotten into the public consciousness yet is the acidification of the oceans. The CO2 we’re adding into the atmosphere is counterbalanced somewhat by the ocean, which acts as a giant reservoir into which some of the CO2 can dissolve. Unfortunately, when it does so, the oceans become more acidic. The amount of CO2 that has been added to the oceans has already started to tip the balance, and there are measurable changes in pH. This process also reduces carbonate in seawater, which makes up coral reefs and the exoskeletons of small organisms important at the base of the oceanic food chain.

I know you’re still waiting for the ray of hope, so here it is. There’s a fascinating short article in Science (Mar 30 2007) which describes an experiment in which a variety of corals were exposed to more acidic ocean water, to see what would happen. The fossil record suggests that corals have survived periods of global warming in past geologic history, but no-one was quite sure how. It turns out that in fact the corals do lose their skeletons, and the little critters inside have their soft bodies exposed.

Astonishingly, they can live that way. They seem to grow and thrive perfectly well, as long as they are attached to a hard rock that doesn’t dissolve. We would still lose the coral reefs and all the structural diversity they provide, but the living beings in the coral would survive. And the research showed that once things get back to normal again - the critters build their little exoskeletons and the coral rebuilds itself. !!

I for one found this pretty amazing. Of course there are still 900 other things that can and will go wrong, but it’s just such a relentless tide of bad news that it’s wonderful to see one little part of the ecosystem that can adapt.

Small pleasantries

The things I am happy for this week -

This may sound funny, but the honking of geese :) We have a wetland behind our houses here, and the geese migrate back and forth in the morning and evening, quite low to the ground. The flock rather loudly and musically honks at each other as they fly over and it always makes me smile.

The incredibly gorgeous beautiful green that is bursting out all over in the forest behind my house. I may have to even take the screen off the upstairs window so I can take a picture of it. I love that time of year when the trees and shrubs are all finally filling in with their particular shades of new green, and it all sparkles in the alternating rain and sunlight.

The little zipping noise that lets me know that the brilliant red hummingbird is back and drinking out of my waterfall again. I’m not even going to try to take a picture of him (with my slow digital camera shutter speed). But he’s fun to watch :)

St. Patty’s anti-green

Wow - I have been so busy I feel cut off from my own blog - working until midnight or 1am each night, trying to finish an editing project. It’s done now, and I am just starting to relax - getting all the little things done that have been left to languish for two weeks - like grocery shopping (up next - after the blog. Does that say something about my priorities??). Times like this I feel like I’m waking up, looking around, only to realize something that everybody has already noticed but me. This time it’s St. Patrick’s Day.

Now truthfully (and hopefully I won’t offend anyone here - but hey, it IS a blog), I hate St. Patrick’s Day. It seems like one of the worst examples of American commercialism, and it seems to have no purpose to start with. I mean, why celebrate one saint out of all of them? And why celebrate some Irish tradition? We don’t have days for Chinese, Russian, Native American, Norwegian, or Japanese culture, all of which are far more integral to Seattle’s history than the Irish. OK - maybe it’s important in some East Coast cities - but so were/are the Italians, Poles, Jews, etc. right? What gives with the Irish?

How anyone can stand the little green leprechauns, clovers, hats and silly greeting cards is beyond me. And how many times can you get asked why you’re not wearing something green before you want to brain someone? So in the spirit of anti-Irish anti-commercialism, today’s blog is dedicated to all things green that are NOT Irish.

First, let’s start with a tour of the garden. Here are my roses which are leafing out against my express orders ;) since I have not even had time to prune them!!

A lovely red currant against the moss-covered stump…

A salmonberry, which does not even have its leaves, but which is already trying to entice a hummingbird :)

The Indian Plum behind the salmonberry…

The pond, peeking out behind the white flowering currant - yes, the pond is a bit greener than it should be… time to do some yardwork!

Moving to the inside of the house, a few green things that give me comfort… the teapot on the stove which I just like the look of, even if I don’t drink tea all that often

The comfy couch which the cat loves and I like to snooze in, with my lovely green chenille blankie :)

OK, I cheated a little on this one :) The candle does smell wonderful, kind of a fresh linen/leafy scent. But the cat makes me happy, and she’s definitely not green! Closest thing to a leprechaun around here, but far, far improved :)