Project Feederwatch Update

White Breasted Nuthatch-4, Black Capped chickadee-4, Pileated Woodpecker -1, Red bellied woodpecker-1, Crow-2, Northern Cardinal-2
Seems like the nuthatches spend more time head down than head up.  They seem completely comfortable going up and down. 
PS The squirrels are back on the feeder again.  No need to worry about the squirrels starving to death.

PMS (Parked Motorcycle Syndrome)

Someone close to me is buying a motorcycle on Tuesday. How very exciting! Now I will have another person to ride with.  When I look outside it seems impossible that the conditions will change enough to make motorcycle riding possible again.  A tremendous amount of snow has to melt and run off before riding is possible.  Once the city has swept the sand off the streets, I'll be on two wheels again. 

Change In Altitude

Anita Shreve wrote A Change In Altitude,  I got this book because I like Anita Shreve and because I like to read stories set in Kenya, a place I have been lucky enough to visit. The story is about a newly married couple, Margaret and Patrick. Patrick is a doctor studying diseases of the equator. Margaret is a lost young wife who eventually gets a job taking photographs for a Kenyan newspaper. Margaret is a passive character. When her husband announces they are going to climb Mount Kenya in two weeks, she hardly has any reaction. She could have said no because she really didn't want to go but she doesn't. She goes along and the trip is a disaster. She is slower than all the other hikers and feels like she is holding up the group (something I can relate to). One of the other hikers has a fatal accident and the hike is called off before they reach the summit. This accident is a challenge to Margaret and Patrick's marriage. They drift apart. Patrick becomes a shrill and accusatory husband.  For the middle third section of the book, almost everything Patrick says drives her away.  Margaret drifts in a passive cloud into love with another man. A year passes. Patrick suggests they climb Mount Kenya again, together as a couple, to patch up their marriage. He is proposing to duplicate the situation that set the marriage on a rocky course in the first place. Some parts of the book I liked including her description of the Nairobi airport, the lodge at the foot of Mount Kenya, and altitude sickness. I liked it when she wrote a few rods in Swahili because I still remember a little bit of the language and it is good to hear it again. I think Anita Shreve did a better job of character development in other books than this one.

How Many Ways?

We had a discussion at lunch regarding a local politician who voted contrary to everyone else on the board.  He disagreed with the outcome.  In fact, he reportedly said there were 13 ways to handle the problem and this outcome would be the 13th on his list.  One person remarked that 13 was a lot of ways to handle a single problem.  Then we remembered that we've heard about more.  We remembered the song, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover."  We tried to remember some of the 50 ways.  There was get on the bus (Gus), make a new plan (Stan),  drop off the key (Lee), slip out the back (Jack), and no need to be coy (Roy).  That is it.  Only 5 ways to leave your lover.  The song title is false advertising.

Boundary

This week I listened to a speech about boundaries-something that indicates a limit or extent.  He wasn't talking about fence lines or national boundaries but the boundaries between people-the line that says what is OK and what is not OK.  I am in the business of helping people.  Some of us come to this business because we have our own issues.  And if you are super busy helping others, you don't have to think about your own problems. Boundaries are difficult things to figure out in any job and more difficult in the helping professions.  I know people who have healthy boundaries and I know people who don't have healthy boundaries.  I know a person with healthy boundaries when I see them but to define how they act differently is difficult. I believe my boundaries have improved over the years.  I really wish I had heard a speech like this one many years ago when I first started working in this field. I have been able to see healthy boundaries and try to model those attributes.  This speaker made it crystal clear what healthy boundaries look like and how they can keep you out of trouble.  He described in detail how unhealthy boundaries affect human behavior, cause jealousy and create strife.  When I say in detail, I mean he gave us all the one fingered salute - and with both hands!  So I have been thinking about boundaries this week and it brought to mind a lunch I had at work several months ago.  I was innocently eating my lunch.  Part of my lunch included a serving of a certain yogurt peddled by Jaime Lee Curtis and advertised as part of a challenge.  I think you might know which yogurt I am talking about.  A guy came into the lunchroom.  I silently groaned but physically restrained my eyeballs from rolling.  If I come into the lunchroom and this particular guy is in there, I'll leave and come back later.  If he comes in when I'm already eating, I'm stuck with him and that is why I groaned in silence.  Groaning aloud would be rude.  He started talking. He talks incessantly.  This day he started talking about my lunch, about my yogurt, how it is advertised, how he sees it at the grocery store, and how it's not worth the extra money.  I really don't care what he thinks about my yogurt so I was silent but I knew another question was coming. I took another bite of food.  I knew he was going to ask so I was ready with my answer.  He's just that kind of person. I silently pleaded that he not ask this question. He asked, "How does that yogurt work for you?"  Two other people at the table just about spewed the food out of their mouths.  Their faces turned red and they looked down at the table. Because I was ready I said without emotion, "That is a very personal question," and went on eating.  I set a boundary with him.  I think I handled it very professionally and courteously.  He hasn't said much more about my lunch or asked any more personal questions so I think it worked.



Victory Doesn't Taste So Sweet

Finally. After many trials and many errors and lots of hard work, I have beaten the squirrels.  All last weekend, I had no squirrels on my bird feeder.  I did not need to bring out the super soaker.  The squirrel deterrents strung onto the line that holds the platform feeder are finally working.  I have a milk bottle, pvc pipe, a sobe enhanced water bottle and some pop bottles strung in the air over my back yard. It appears I have hung my recycling and trash in the air.  I moved the bird feeder farther down the line away from the deck.  Even the most acrobatic squirrels are unable to fling their bodies off the deck and grab onto the platform feeder.  I watched the squirrels out my window while I looked for birds.  I had only two squirrels visiting instead of the usual half a dozen squirrels. Several times the squirrels climbed to the deck and looked at the bird feeder but did not attempt to get to it.  The squirrel would stand on the deck railing with it's back to me, shoulders slumped and head down.  It looked so sad I (and I cannot believe I'm saying this) felt sorry for it.  To top it off, one of the squirrels had a sore on it's right flank.  The skin had an open red sore about a half inch long and a quarter inch wide.  For years I have yelled at squirrels, thrown things at them, shouted terroristic threats at them, and even squirted them with my supersoaker when it's cold out.  And now I'm feeling sorry for them?  I've wanted this bird feeder to be squirrel free.  I worked hard to get it.  Now that I've achieved my goal, I'm still not happy.  Maybe what I need to do is set up a small squirrel feeder.  I don't mind feeding the squirrels a little.  I do mind squirrels eating all the bird food and keeping the birds away from the bird feeders.

Project Feederwatch

American Crow-3, Black Capped Chickadee-4, White breasted Nuthatch-3, Dark eyed Junco-3, Red bellied woodpecker-1, Downy woodpecker-2, Northern Cardinal-2.

I heard (but did not see) a great horned owl.  I was getting the newspaper from the mail box about 6:15 when I heard it hoot.  I waited and waited but did not hear another hoot.  It's no wonder I haven't heard the barred owls calling.  They would be afraid to advertise themselves to a danger such as a great horned owl.  It was pretty exciting to hear a great horned owl hooting.

This week my bird watching results have also been turned into the Great Backyard Bird Count - an annual citizen science event that is open to anyone.  You can enter your results by going to www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

Driveway Details

They say it's going to snow today.  I don't believe it.  Twenty inches?  That is crazy talk.

This is what the driveway looks like now.  The gray areas indicate snow piled up like plaque in an artery.  There is a definite curve near the road forcing me to turn west when I leave. 

The straight across method of shoveling when the snow is 3 inches or less deep.

Sometimes I get tired of the turning involved in the straight across method so I go straight down until the shovel is overloaded, dump it, and go straight down again. More walking, less turning.

The diagonal method of shoveling is used when the snow if over 3 inches deep.

This is what the driveway looks like in the summer.  The shape resembles a backward lower case r or a handgun.  Progress in shoveling is marked by what tree I am shoveling past - the elm, hackberry 1, 2 or 3 and the maple hedge.

If It Snows Tomorrow . . .

If it snows tomorrow and you end up having to shovel or plow, here are some fun facts about snow flakes that might take you mind off your misery: 

Snowflakes come in 5 different shapes: a long needle shape, a hollow column that is shaped like a 6-sided prism, thin & flat 6-sided plats, 6-pointed stars, and intricate dendrites. Temperature determines the shape of the snowflake. When the temperature is around 32-25 F, thin 6-sided plates are formed. If the temperature is 23-21 F, then you will have long needle-shaped flakes. If you see snowflakes shaped like columns, then the temperature will be 21-14 F. If the temperature is even colder between 10 – 3 F, then you will see dendrites snowflakes.

Coming soon:  a retrospective on my driveway and how it gets cleared.

Elegance of a Hedgehog

I listened to "Elegance of a Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery on CD this week. This is a quirky novel set in a foreign country - France.  The culture and the sociological structure feels especially foreign.  The story is about a concierge named  Renee.  Sometimes they called her Michelle which confused me until I read her first name was Renee and second name was Michelle.  Renee came from a very poor family.  She tries to hide her great intelligence. She has her reasons for doing this.  Two people in the luxurious apartment building where she works see through her sham. They realize she named her cat Leo after Leo Tolstoy.  One of the two people who see the real Renee is Paloma, a sad twelve year old girl.  The other is a new tenant, Mr. Ozu.  The three of them become friends.  Most of the chapters are narrated by Renee.  The rest are entries in Paloma's diary.  Paloma and Mr. Ozu help Renee realize she doesn't need to hide her intelligence anymore.  All three of the characters help each other savor the finer moments of life.  The book has lots of philosophy in it.  Renee is the hedgehog mentioned in the title - "quills on the outside but fiercely solitary and terribly elegant within."

Dick Oehlenschlager

Last night I went to a chapter meeting of the Master Naturalist group. Our speaker was Dick Oehlenschlager, the curator at the Science Museum of Minnesota.  He was an entertaining speaker from the get go.  As I came in, I was asking another master naturalist friend of mine who lives in my neighborhood if she would let me know if she heard any barred or great horned owls hooting in her neighborhood.  I wanted the information for the breeding bird survey.  She said she wasn't sure of the difference between the owl calls.  Before I could get out my version of "Who Cooks for You?" Dick Oehlenschlager hooted out the barred, the great horned, the screech and the saw-whet owl calls so perfectly you would think there were owls in the room.  I hadn't met him yet.  My mouth hung open and I said, "Dude.  You are good at that."  This guy is amazing.  The things he knows are incredible.  As he spoke, he talked about growing up in the small town of Nimrod.  Oddly enough, I know where that town is.  Before my brother was born my parents told us he would be named Nimrod if he was a boy. I believed them. So that name has been stuck in my head for a long time.  I'm glad the parents were just kidding about the name Nimrod.  In Nimrod the town, Dick paid attention to nature.  As a child he practiced taxidermy.  Some of the birds and mammals he shot but many were caught by the barn cat.  As he milked the cows by hand, if the cat brought in a vole or a bird, he would squirt the cat in the face with fresh warm milk.  The cat would drop the prize to lick it's whiskers and Dick would scoop up the treasure.  Now he can stuff a bird or a mammal in about 15 minutes.  The Science Museum has drawers and drawers of preserved specimens. Dick is a gifted taxidermist, ornithologist, bird bander, biologist, botanist, hunter, angler, environmentalist, and scientist. He brought in a bunch of stuffed birds and rodents.  He had herbarium samples by the dozens.  He has spent a lot of time in Wadena County studying the plants and animals.  He has written a couple books and portions of several other books.  He has found many new species over his lifetime in science.  He talked about the difficulty in determining the species of blackberries.  Wadena County alone has seven species.  Taxonomy can be really difficult.  Some species of damselflies cannot be distinguished without surgical exploration of the genitals.  Who wants to put that on your resume?  As Dick talked about various animals (skunk, possum, coyote, wolf, sheepshead fish, gopher, porcupine, etc), he would often mention how good they were to eat.  Seriously, he has tasted all those animals.  He's interesting to talk to but I don't think I'd go to his house for dinner.  He mentioned how a person, if they were so inclined, could spend a lifetime studying their back yard.  You could spend years determining the exact species of every bird, bug, moth, grass, tree, weed, and mammal.  You could keep track of how each species grows, matures, reproduces, and dies.  You could track their behaviors over the years and determine for yourself if global warming is making a difference.  He was an inspiring speaker.

The Baroness of Floreana Island

We heard a dramatic story when we visited Floreana Island in the Galapagos Islands.  The story involved a Baroness, a toothless vegetarian, love and murder.  In the 1930's, a man from Germany moved to the island of Floreana. His name was Dr. Friedrich Ritter.  Knowing he would be without dental care, he had all his teeth pulled out prior to leaving.  He brought his mistress, Dore Strauch.  He claimed to be a vegetarian.  Later the Wittmer family moved to the same island.  The Wittmer family thrived on the island and some of them still live there.  I met the great granddaughter of the original Wittmers.  Two other women from our group are from Germany and they said her German is very good.  For a person who has lived that many generations outside of Germany, it is unusual to speak such clear German.  After these two families settled came the Baroness.  The Baroness preferred to be called the Baroness.  She was from Austria.  All kinds of trouble started when she arrived.  She came with three lovers - Robert, Rudolph, and Felipe.  My first reaction to hearing this part of the story was, "You go girl!"  But she brought strife with her.  On Floreana Island is a mailbox.  Letters are put on a board.  Travelers can take letters and deliver them if they happen to live nearby. Travelers can also leave letters to be delivered for them.  I didn't get to see this post office myself but I had heard about it.  It's like a honor box for candy in a small office or corn on the cob on a truck outside a corn field.  The Baroness took her neighbor's mail but never gave it to them. She just kept it.  She said outrageous things about her neighbors.  She gossiped and self-promoted.  Her neighbors would hear terrible things about themselves from other travelers - things the Baroness had told them.  She was a scoundrel.  Felipe, one of her men,  escaped from her.  The Baroness and Robert said they were leaving the islands a different Pacific island but they never got on the boat to leave.  They were never seen again.  They disappeared without a trace. The body of Rudolph was found on Marchena (a northern Galapagos Island).  A photo of his shriveled corpse was on display.  Later that year, Ritter, the toothless vegetarian, was found dead.  Cause of his death?  He died of food poisoning from chicken.  One member of the Wittmer family wrote a book about their side of this dramatic story.  If I can find a copy, I'd like to read it.

In Honor Of Valentine's Day Or I'm Too Sexy For My Feet

Bird Chick had this on her Valentine's Day line up of bird mating behavior.  I had to show these boobies.  The larger booby is the female and she seems less than impressed with her beau's fine looking feet.   He does  have nice feet and he knows it.  I am amazed how blue these bird feet are.  When I saw them in the Galapagos Islands, I could not see their feet when they were flying.  But I did see them when they sat on the rocks.  Another time I saw the blue feet of the booby when I was snorkeling. The booby dive bombed at a fish right ahead of me and I could see it's blue feet as it went by in the water.

Project Feederwatch Update

Northern Cardinal-3, Crow-4, White breasted Nuthatch, Dark eyed Junco-1, Black capped Chickadee-4,  Downy Woodpecker-2

Last weekend, when I went out in the yard, it seemed devoid of all life.  The temperature was about 60 degrees colder.  No birds were out and about.  Today I saw signs of life again.  A male cardinal chased a female cardinal from the spruce tree, to the oak tree, back to the spruce tree, and to the maple tree. At that point she circled the spruce tree from the bottom to the top.  The male couldn't see her spiraling and he went into the branches at the bottom and waited for her there.  They were flying full throttle like the jet planes on Star Wars.  She probably just wanted to catch her breath.  It's nice that it's not deathly cold out today.

Avon Hills

Today a sibling and I went to a day long conference at St. John's University in Collegeville. The topic was "Living in the Avon Hills."  Our keynote speaker was Jim Brandenburg - the famous photographer whose work has been featured in National Geographic.  He has written quite a few books as well.  There was a contest recently where photograph experts voted on the forty best nature photographs.  Brandenburg had 4 selected to be in that group.  He talked about the four prize winning photographs.  He spoke for 90 minutes and he showed us slides of his work.  He is a very entertaining speaker.  He comes across as humble as any other recluse from the Ely area.  I could tell he is an artist because artists often speak about qualities we cannot measure.  And he is very funny with a wry sense of humor.  One of his last photos is a famous one of a wolf half hidden behind a tree.  Even though we were seated near the back of the auditorium, I physically backed away from the photo.  That wolf was menacing; it's stare intense.  If you get a chance, I highly recommend you listen to Brandenburg speak. After that we had chances to go to classes on a variety of topics such as saw-whet owls, bears, loons, building loon platforms, geothermal heating, forest stewardship, carving cottonwood bark, fret work, paper making, agates, beer and wine making, conservation easements, turtles of Stearns County, herb gardening, natural shorelines, songbirds, and photography.  I went to a class on incorporating stone work.  Since the stones in the Avon Hills are the rounded glacial stones, that is the kind they were talking about.  I love stone walls and gates.  I don't think I'll be making any but I sure enjoy them.  After lunch I went to a session on cottonwood bark carving, making maple syrup, and winter gardening.   I might carve some bark but I don't think I'll be building a greenhouse.  I plan to try to make maple syrup this spring.  We had a great lunch and a fun day. We saw many master naturalists there as well.



Movie About the Anoka Sand Plain

Last night a sibling and I went to a movie showing at a St. Paul Audubon Society meeting.  I have never been to an Audubon meeting before.  It's weird to be one of the younger people at a meeting. Why are birdwatchers usually my age or older?  In any case, we viewed a movie from 1960 by Walter Breckenridge, a professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota, and our state's noted naturalist of the last century.  He did a lot of work at the Bell Museum.  The movie focuses on life in the Anoka sand plain and includes footage from Bunker Hills Park, Cedar Creek Ecosystem, Helen Allison savanna and the army site in Arden Hills.  He must have been a creative and inventive guy because this was one entertaining movie.  In one segment he is talking about wolf spiders.  Wolf spiders are large spiders who build burrows in the sand.  Breckenridge takes a stick, a piece of string, and a dead insect and created a little fishing pole.  He dangles the dead insect outside the wolf spider burrow and the spider comes out of that hole so fast and grabs that insect.  It was pretty funny to see.  In another segment he is talking about a native grass known as porcupine grass.  The seeds have a long awl on them. Breckenridge wants to demonstrate how the seeds twirl around as they get moistened and dry out.  He glues a tiny triangle flag to the seed as it is suspended from a leaf.  As the seed dries out, it twists and turns many times and gets tangled with the other grasses.  He finds another porcupine seed where the heavier seed end is on the ground and the long awl is sticking up.  Again we watch the seed twist and turn as it dries but this time the other end is twisting and the seed is drilled right into the ground.  He has some good footage of scarlet tanagers, lark sparrows, hog nosed snakes, skinks, cottontail rabbits, and wasps.  The movie, although 50 years old, was fascinating.  I would like to watch it again.

Honolulu

My book club read Honolulu by Alan Brennert. Last year we read another book by the same author entitled Molokai,  Both books are about Hawaii but this one is a historical fiction about Hawaii before it became a state - in the 1920's.  The main character is born in Korea and comes to Hawaii as a picture bride.  Her name?  Regret.  Obviously she is born into oppression when she is given a name like Regret.  In her life span in Hawaii, she comes to meet several historical figures.  One of these figures is a police officer who helps her escape from domestic violence.  He is based on a real police officer who eventually was fictionalized as Charlie Chan.  Brennert teaches us about historical customs and traditions in Hawaii.  His prose is connected and flows along nicely.

I Whine

It's true. I whine.  I whine aloud when I go outside. I don't care who hears me.  I even whine inside the house when I peek out the window at the thermometer that said -18 F.  This cold weather is making me whine.  Maybe because I had a break from the cold makes me suffer more. In any case, I whine.  I whine in the morning when I take care of the chickens.  I whine in my car because I have to blow warm air on my garage door opener to get it to work.  I whine on the way to work because it's so cold my fingers ache.  I have to withdraw my fingers from the gloves and ball them together in the palm for the first 8 miles.  I whine when I get out of the car at work because, after 18 miles, it finally got warm in there.  I don't whine at work thanks to my electric throw.  I whine leaving work. I whine getting in and out of the car at the health club,the grocery store, the library and the bank.  One day I went to a meeting.  Walking to the building along Third Avenue in Anoka, the wind blew so hard I got an ice cream headache - and I didn't even get any ice cream!  This winter hasn't been that cold compared to other years and yet I whine.  Maybe the trip to Ecuador made it worse.  In that case, I should be glad I can't afford a vacation every year.

Ecuador - Day Ten

Red flower outside a playground near our hotel.

Beautiful mosaic sculpture and pool near our hotel.

My friend, my guide and myself.

Today was the last day of our trip and we knew it would be a long one because our plane left at midnight:thirty.  We had breakfast at the same place.  The same Siamese cat was there.  Our friend from Germany, Jutta, picked up the cat and stroked it.  The cat's eyes were wild.  I told her the cat looked frightened.  She said, "It just needs to know it can trust me."  Then she told us that on  her hike in Peru (just prior to coming to Ecuador) people ate cats.  I told her that kind of talk was not going to get the cat to trust her.   For breakfast we had fruit chunks (papaya, banana, watermelon and apple) covered with granola and yougurt, guava and tree tomato juice, eggs (scrambled or fried), and toast with guava marmalade and butter.  We said goodby to two people on our trip who were staying on for 3 extra days of scuba diving.  They left to scuba dive at Kicker Rock again. We were jealous.  We had the morning to ourselves.  Many people hiked to a beach nearby and did some body surfing before hiking back to shower before we had to meet at 11:30.  I would have liked that but I was having a severe reaction to the sun.  Much as I love the beach and being in the water, I knew I had to stay in the shade.  We went back to the hotel and sat in the hammocks in the shade for a time.  We did a little shopping.  We watch the sea lions at the beach.  One sea lion got into a fight with another one.  The sea lion  closest to us pushed the other one backwards into the ocean.  He pushed the sea lion back about 5 feet. They barked and swung at each other with their necks.  They fight like I saw giraffes fight - by swinging their necks and striking with their heads.  After being shoved back 5 feet, the sea lion closest to the sea had enough.  He bit the pushy sea lion.  I could hear flesh tearing.  The pushy sea lion didn't like being bit and he quickly propelled himself sideways down the beach and into the sea, giving his opponent a wide berth.  I watched a more peaceful scene of a sea lion nursing her pup.  My friend wanted one more of those chocolate ice cream bars she enjoyed and I thought, after my good experience yesterday, that I would have another coke light.  We went through every market and every store we could find.  We could find coke and juice and beer but no coke light.  Funny how you think you might like a coke light but once you start looking, you REALLY want a coke light.  We never found one.  We met at the pier for a group picture.  We were taken to the airport.  Each one of us hugged Pablo goodbye.  He told me, "Continue to be a good example."  Our flight landed in Guayquil.  I bought a coke light at the airport.  It was good but nearly as good as the one I had yesterday.  I guess you have to go a week without one for them to be really good like that.  Then we took the half hour flight to Quito.  The weather here was much different.  Rain fell and the temperature was in the 60's.  A big van took our group to the Sierre Madre hotel.  We had just enough time to change into our Minnesota clothes before going out to dinner as a group. We were walked to a Asian fusion restaurant run by people from New Zealand.  The name of the place was Dr. Ho's.  They sold t-shirts that said I (heart) Ho's.  We had a delicious dinner.  For appetizers we had calamari, breaded meat, egg rolls, and vegetarian spring rolls.  For my entree I ordered from the column called "Traditional Ecuadorian Food."  I had tofu in a sauce with onions, garlic, tomato and coconut.  It was served with rice.  I could eat only half of it.  They encouraged us to order dessert.  I wasn't hungry but wanted to take full advantage of my last meal in Ecuador.  I had chocolate cake and it was good but not nearly as flamboyant as what other people had.  They had breaded, deep fried banana with nutella filling and a waffle coating and doused with amaretto and set aflame.  My friend and I took a taxi to the airport.  When leaving Ecuador, you pay a fee of $40.80.  This must be paid in American cash.  We waited in line.  I saw my friend chatting up a couple handsome young men.  I thought, "Already she has made a friend, isn't she something."  Turns out they weren't friends.  When I got up to them, they turned to me and said they were cops.  I thought he was kidding.  They both wore jeans and t-shirts and had ball caps on.  They certainly didn't look like cops to me.  And what kind of cop says, "I'm a cop?"  Don't they identify themselves as police?  They were both wearing identification tags around their necks so I gave them some credibility.  They said they were looking for drugs.  I answered, "Oh."  One look at me and he must have decided I wasn't a danger and they left.  At customs, I came across my first less than pleasant person in Ecuador.  She spoke to me in one word phrases like, "Completo" (translation - fill out your paperwork) and "Finito" (move on, I'm done with you now).   We got to the gate area.  When they went to inspect my suitcase, a very muddy pair of formerly white socks rolled out onto the floor. These were the socks I wore hiking the volcano and they were nasty.  The inspector didn't dig much further into the suitcase.  I think he had seen enough. He took my steel water canister and shook it.  I told him I had water in it.  He pointed at a big potted palm.  I said, "You want me to dump the water on the plant?"  He indicated yes so I watered the palm tree and came back.  I didn't know the rules at this airport.  Then we had 90 minutes to wait at this gate without water and without a restroom. I was pretty tired by this point. As soon as the plane took off I used the restroom. I was so happy to have an entire row to myself.  I stretched out on the three seats and rested my head on three pillows. The airline staff woke me up to offer beverages and breakfast (at 2 a.m.) but I declined.  I had to be awake enough to drive home from the airport in the morning.  Our trip was over.  It was an AMAZING trip.  Would I go there again?  I am not sure.  Things could never be as exciting as they were on this first trip.  I didn't get to see a red footed booby or a flightless cormorant.  I would love to snorkel those reefs and rocks again.  I loved Ecuador.  I was impressed right when I got off the plane 10 days earlier to see recycling containers for plastic, cans and paper.  Even the Minneapolis airport doesn't have those.  Pablo said the Galapagos Islands were lucky that a small country took ownership of them.  When I questioned him on that, he said smaller countries take more care of the ecology.  He told me about the ecological disasters on the Hawiian Islands.  He said there are no native birds on Guam.  I wondered if that were true but I looked it up and he is right.  So I like Ecuador because as a nation, they appreciate and want to preserve nature.  I think if I were to go back, I would focus on the other end of Ecuador - the beginning of the Amazon basin.

Get Ready for Valentine's Day

If you are looking for ideas for Valentine's Day this year, go to birdchick.com.  She is doing a series on the mating behaviors of birds that is just hilarious.  Beside the red winged blackbird, she has video on grebes, prairie chickens, hooded mergansers, albatross and flamingoes.  You might get some good ideas for your sweetheart!

After participating in the breeding bird survey last year I wondered, do birds watch us like we watch them?  Do they see people making out under the bleachers at the high school? Do they notice people arriving in separate cars at cheap motels?  Do they watch us at the beach or at outdoor concerts?  When I see a bird, I imagine that several birds have already been observing me without my knowledge.

Ecuador-Day Nine

The fish market

Pablo had told us that our hotel was next to the "policia" station.  So in the dark morning of my ninth day of my trip, when I heard running footsteps and people chanting, "Uno, Dos, Tres, Quattro," I assumed I was listening to the police force doing their physical training and singing a running cadence.  The police in the Galapagos Islands are uniformed and always travel in white pick up trucks with extended cabs and ride four at a time.  This seems expensive to me because I am used to seeing only one or two police in a vehicle.  I went back to sleep because the police were running about 5 in the morning.  Breakfast consisted of fruit topped with granola and yogurt, eggs and toast. cheese slices, pineapple, grapes and melons. The food here is very good.  We walked to the Charles Darwin Research Center which has partnered with the National Park Service.  We discussed the problems with invasive cotton scale killing the mangrove trees.  This little bug forms a white, cotton like film on the trees.  The government tried to solve the problem by bringing in spotted lady bugs.  So far, this solution seems to have worked. The spotted lady bugs have taken care of the cotton scale and haven't started eating anything else  yet.  We had a good discussion on the role of the government in running the park service versus the needs of the businesses or the families who live there versus the role of conservation.  We got a good look at our first saddleback tortoises.  These tortoises have shells with an opening so the turtle can reach it's head up to eat.  Saddleback tortoises lived on those islands without plentiful food on the ground.  We saw "Lonesome George."  Lonesome George was the very last tortoise to be found on Pinta Island. No one knows how long George lived alone. We're not sure how old he is but they guess he's between 70 and 100 years old.  Pirates and buccanneers took all the other tortoises.  Because they can go a year without eating, the tortoises could eaily be store on the ship and eaten later.  George isn't lonesome anymore. He was removed from Pinta Island and brought here. He shares his enclosure with two other females.  He probably wouldn't get as much good publicity if they called him Lucky George. As of last month, he has two new female friends who have a closer DNA match to his own.  Researchers hope George will successfully mate with these females.  Otherwise George is the end of the line for the Pinta Island saddleback tortoises.  They could clone him but they'd only get another male.  It is possible to extract sperm from a tortoise.  The method of doing this is different than extracting sperm from mammals and involves electrical stimulation.  People don't want Lonesome George to have to go through that.  So if George wants any offspring, he'd better get to it the old fashioned way.  After our tour of the Charles Darwin center, I stopped at the gift shop to get a coke light.  There is no diet coke here, only coke light.  It's the same thing. The air was hot and muggy.  I slugged that coke light down and proceeded walking back to town.  Oh, my, God.  When that caffeine hit my system I FELT GREAT!  I felt like I could skip back to town.  I had energy.  I had good feelings.  Even though I had a burning rash on my neck and face, I felt great.  I was bursting with strength.  It's amazing how good a little caffeine can do you when you've been without for about a week.  I decided then and there to have a coke light every day.  On the way back to our hotel we stopped by the fish market (see photo).  A man and woman were cleaning tuna. They had about 5 huge tuna to clean.  The tuna looked to be about 20 pounds each.  They cut up the fish and wrapped the meat in plastic wrap.  A dozen brown pelicans surrounded the cleaning area, begging for scraps.  They got a few scraps but a lot of the fish heads and backbone were kept; maybe for stock.  Some of the pelicans actually stood on the cleaning table but away from the actual cleaning.  One of my fellow travelers thought this was unsanitary.  She wasn't feeling well.  Since I don't eat fish I wasn't worried about it but I shared my immodium with her.  At the back of the photo you can see some people at tables.  They were making signs.  They had big posterboard and were writing words on them.  We tried to read the signs but all we could make out was familia (family).  The people and the signs moved up the street.  Later we moved aside as two police trucks, each with four police, went up the street with lights flashing and siren blazing.  We wondered if the people with signs were protesting fishing rights and the police were going to break up the demonstration.  We'll never know for sure.  We stopped for lunch and to change clothes and we were back in the boat again.  I love being in the boat.  The boat cuts through the swells.  When the boat is on top of the swell, everything looks lower. When we're at the bottom of a swell, the waves tower above us. Sometimes the boat lurches on a wave so hard your stomach feels like you are on a rollercoaster.  Your body leaves the seat and you land either farther back on the seat or closer to the edge.  Petrels fly by the side of boat floating along just above the water.  Ocean waves don't make white caps as easily as lake waves. We are off for our fifth and final snorkel at Santa Fe Island. For the first time I get the wetsuit on all by myself.  Nobody has to zip me up this time.  I jumped in the water and swam close to the shore.  I heard sea lions barking.  I thought it was one of my fellow passengers who sometimes like to bark like a seal but this time it was a big daddy sea lion guarding his pups and warning us to back off.  Some people were too close.  Sea lions touched their masks. I saw a parrot fish and a sting ray.  I wanted to follow the ray but I had to stay with the group.  We saw schools of big angel fish. We came upon a huge school of white fish.  These white fish were about a foot long and had big black eyes.  I'll bet there were a thousand of them. Mixed in with the white fish were some blue and orange fish.  The fish turned as a group, first swimming one way and then turning in unison and swimming the other way-sort of like a flock of birds in the fall.  It was amazing to swim in a huge school of fish.  I tried swimming right down the middle of a group.  Half went to the right and half went to the left.  When I got through the two halves joined again.  We watched sea turtles flying through the water. And then it was time to get out of the water.  I didn't want to leave.  The wet suit and the salty water make me so buoyant I can hardly get below the surface.  I  have to snorkel again.  I think I'll plan my next trip around snorkeling.  We took the boat back to San Cristobel and checked into the Hotel Casa de Laura again.  We got the same room with lime green and lemon yellow walls.  We met at 7:20 for dinner.  This was a new restaurant to us and we ate on the second floor overlooking the bay.  The salad bar had 8 kinds of salad.  I had vegetarian spaghetti.  We talked about our highlights of the trip.  For some people it was the group camaraderie.  For others it was the swimming with turtles.  I liked the education I got.  Some people loved the hike to the volcano.  For those few that hiked right onto the lava fields they had a moment of silence to appreciate the stillness. There was no life on the lava fields. No plants, no animals, no birds, and no sound at all.  I wasn't there but I heard it was a very moving moment.  Some people liked the beaches the best.  Pablo was the last one to speak. He said one person on the trip was the best part for him; a person with determination and courage, fortitude and enthusiasm.  He went on and on about this person.  And then he said it was me!  He said the trip wasn't easy for me but I kept at it, kept trying, had a good attitude and enthusiasm.  He said I was an inspiration to him.  (Can you believe it?)  Then he mentioned my reaction when I saw the albatross.  He said when he makes a connection like that, when he sees us smile or start taking pictures with our camera, that is what makes his life worth living.  He thanked me.  "De nada!" I replied blinking back tears.  He likes it when people get impressed with nature. And he wants us to take this forward.  When we see something in nature or even in our yard, show the people we love how amazing it is so they can know it too.  I left that dinner feeling on top of the world. 

How much do I love snorkeling?

View from our hotel balcony

Project Feederwatch Update

Dark eyed Junco-1, Black capped chickadee-3, White breasted Nuthatch-1 

I wasn't home much this weekend but I wasn't getting many birds at the feeder.  I believe they don't like my new bag of sunflower seeds.  The feeders I filled 8 days ago are still half full.  All I can say is they better get used to the new taste of sunflower seeds.  I bought a fifty pound bag and it was expensive.

Don't Trust Any Friends Named Judas-Fighting Invasive Species on the Galapagos Islands

As Pablo took us around the Galapagos Islands, he told us about invasive species.  After spending hours this fall removing buckthorn from my yard, I sympathize with trying to fight invasive species from taking over the native plants. We asked him if anything could be done to fight the raspberry, feral pig, feral goat, rats and other invaders.  He told us a story about one of the smaller Galapagos Islands.  They tried to rid the island of the feral goats.  On an island the size of Isabella, this would be an impossible task. But this was a small island.  First they brought in sharp shooters.  (Here Pablo would imitate the sound of guns firing).  The goats would freak out, run around, and many would get shot.  Only the goats smart enough to stand still in the brush during the chaos lived.  So then the scientists brought in dogs.  Again, only the smartest goats survived the dogs and guns.  So the feral goats remaining were smaller in number but higher in intelligence.  So the next step was to take a goat, castrate him, inject him full of hormones, insert a GPS device into his body and set him free.  After a week the scientists would locate him, bring in the sharpshooters, and kill all the goats except for the one with the GPS.  The one with the GPS was named Judas.  After that goat massacre, Judas would be sent off on the island again to make new friends only to have them shot the next week.  Every week Judas would make new friends until there were no friends on the island left to make.  The result was successful eradication of feral goats on that island.

Ecuador-Day Eight

This morning we had our last breakfast on Isabella Island.  While we ate breakfast, four pink flamingos flew past the third story windows.  We had eggs, french toast, croissant, bananas, mangoes, pineapple and juice.  We took our boat to Santa Cruz.  We had a little less than a 3 hour boat ride.  We had time to check into the Grand Hotel.  Our room had a balcony overlooking the bay and a green marble bathroom.  We were given 15 minutes to get ready.  They keep us so busy on this trip.  We have no time to relax or get bored.  We took a bus to a location higher in the hills.  We toured a lava tube. The tube was about a mile long and I would guess it was 8 to 10 feet below the surface of the earth. See the photo of the lava tube?  Pablo made amazing noises imitating what it sounded like when the lava rushed through the tube and formed the rest of the island.  The tube was located on a private farm next to the National Park.  Galapagos tortoises liked to wander on this farm because the national park is overrun with small trees and they can get stuck between trees.  It's much easier for them to move around in the pasture. We saw tortoises walking through the pasture and bathing in the ponds.  They are gigantic creatures.  We counted 30 tortoises in the pasture in about 5 miles of road.  Cattle egrets stood on top of some tortoises.  At the farm they had coffee for sale and some craft items.  In one shaded section, they had an empty tortoise shell that people could crawl into.  The youngest and skinniest one on our tour got into the shell for a photo.  I thought that looked like fun.  I laid down on the stone floor and wiggled myself into that shell feet first, belly down.  People turned around and were amazed that I did that.  That was fun.  The shell is actually very comfortable and smooth inside.  My ankles and feet were out the back and only my head and arms were out the front.  We took the bus back to town.  This island is very different from Isabella.  It has more people, paved streets, more stores, and is more touristy.  We had lunch near the windmill in town which was about 8 blocks from the Grand Hotel.  The vegetarian lasagna was very good.  We were given 15 minutes to walk back to the hotel and change into swimwear.  We were going to Tortuga Bay.  Tortuga is Spanish for turtle.  I took a taxi to the park entrance.  From there Genevieve and I walked 2 kilometers to the beach on a cobble stone path that went on forever.  We didn't think we were ever going to get there.  The path was crowded with mangrove trees.  I saw Galapagos flycatchers in the woods.  Eventually we got to the beach.  We were headed for the second beach.  The first beach had high waves, treacherous currents and was about a mile along.  We both enjoyed walking in the water barefoot.  I was watching the sandpipers,  ruddy turnstones and lava gulls.  Genevieve saw a naked man in the surf.  I guess the difference in our ages is apparent in the wildlife we observe.  Eventually we got to the second beach.  We had to step carefully around the marine iguanas to get there.  We kayaked in the protected cove.  It felt good to use my arms.  We saw lava herons, great blue heron and a brown pelican very close as they perched in the mangrove branches.  The sun was very hot and beating down on us.  I kept reapplying sunscreen but I felt burned, red, hot, and itchy.  We walked back down the beach.  I fell behind the group on the 2 kilometer cobblestone path.  My left knee, still sore from the volcano, was very painful.  I tried leading off with my left foot on  stairs and that helped but it was hard to remember to do it. My knee did not hurt on level surfaces or going up hill, only going down hill.  By the time I got to the park entrance, I was in a lot of pain.  I got a taxi ride back to the hotel, swallowed more 12 hour pain reliever, and had just enough time to shower and change for dinner.  I had basil pesto spaghetti for dinner with ginger cake. I went to bed exhausted.

Ecuador Day Seven

Today turned out to be one of my favorite days of the whole vacation.  Although my left knee and back were sore from all the walking yesterday, I kept going.  For breakfast we had pancakes, toast, guava jam, quiche and fruit.  Most people walked to the pier to get on a smaller boat but Pablo got a taxi for me and another traveler.  We got on the boats to look around the bay.  We say American Oyster catchers, Galapagos penguins and lava herons.  It was so strange to see lava rocks, penguins, sea lions, and cactus all in the same view.  Galapagos has some amazing landscapes.  We walked around a rocky peninsula.  A white lichen grew on one side of the lava rocks.  As of 2005, this lichen was determined to be a new species.  We saw lots of lava lizards and marine iguanas.  At one point, we looked down into a protected bay off the reef to see a Galapagos shark move toward us, turn, and move away just like a model on a runway.  Maybe you can see it in the photo above.  We got back into the boats and into our wetsuits.  Once in the water we swam with the fishes.  Schools of angel fish swam by me.  It's hard to judge the size but I would guess they were almost a foot long.  I saw parrot fish, Mexican hawk fish, pink octopus, sea cucumbers and sea urchins of green, black and blue. Snorkeling is so relaxing.  We were in very shallow water and we had to be careful not to touch the coral.  The blue eyed damsel fish acted especially aggressive.  Sea lions and penguins swam by us.  I wished I lived here so I could snorkel in my free time.  I forgot my underwater camera for this snorkel but that was okay because I could focus on the experience instead of monkeying with the camera.  We saw more of those chocolate chip sea stars.  Pablo told us to swim over here.  Where he took us was deeper and there was no coral and no fish.  The bottom was sandy and uninteresting.  We kept swimming. The water was very clear.  Up ahead we saw a sea turtle resting on the bottom.  We kept swimming.  Soon we saw six sea turtles.  Then we saw a dozen sea turtles.  We floated quietly in the water watching. The sea turtle would raise it's head, give me eye contact, and then slowly raise up, fly to the surface, take a sip of air and go back to the sandy bottom.  It was amazing.  Some turtles had fish rubbing them and massaging them with their mouths.  I don't know if they were eating something off the turtle but it looked affectionate.  I adopted one turtle.  When the turtle swam, it's fins looked like wings.  When my turtle flapped it's wings, I flapped my arms.  I imitated everything the turtle did for about five minutes.  This was an incredible experience; truly amazing.  We swam with the turtles for at least half an hour.  I will never forget it.  One turtle rose to the surface right in front of me.  I put my head up and we were almost nose to nose.  Then it swam down and I had to arch my body away so I didn't touch it.  We got back into the boats and headed to the pier . We walked to our hotel and had time for a quick shower before lunch. For lunch we had a pureed vegetable soup, coleslaw, potato, broccoli, carrots, rice and a fried egg.  The carnivores had fish or chicken.  After lunch we headed to a Galapagos tortoise protection center.  Here they had rescued tortoises from a lava flow.  These tortoises are producing enough young to put 300 back into the wild each year.  The tortoises fly in nets below helicopters.  I can only imagine that to be more scary for the tortoise than the zip line was for me.  These tortoises have a life span of 150 years. They mature sexually at age 25.   We saw tortoise eggs and week old tortoises.  After visiting the center, we took a ride up this amazing road. The road was sometimes on the beach and sometimes in the woods.  The trees covered the top of the road. Sometimes we were surrounded by mangrove trees and other parts of the road were in a cactus forest.  The prickly pear cactus grow 30 feet tall here.  At the end of the road we came to the "Wall of Tears."  (See fourth picture).  This huge lava stone wall was built by prisoners of Ecuador from 1946 until the prison was closed in 1960.  I cannot imagine moving these heavy rocks in this harsh climate with no sunscreen.  Some men died in the process are their bodies are still lying inside the rock wall.  This was a very sad place for me.  To cheer us up, Pablo brought us to the beach of love.  We watches the waves crash to shore and the birds flying overhead.  For dinner that night we met at the Endemic Bar.  My friend and I took the path along the shore to get there rather than the street.  It was dark and eventually the street lights didn't light the way anymore.  We saw red lights in the distance and figured that was our destination. It was.  The bar has hanging lights.  Red bulbs illuminate a cactus bark shade.  I had vegetarian spaghetti.  The others had fish or chicken.  As we walked back to our hotel, I appreciated the small town feel here.  The streets are made of sand. The sidewalks are of lava rock and are a good 2 feet above the street level.  A heron walked along the sidewalk hoping to find insects below the street lights.  Today was a good day.

Ecuador-Day Six

Breakfast at our hotel consisted of Ecuadorian coffee, tea, tree tomato juice, bananas, mango and pineapple, scrambled eggs, bread that looked like a hot dog bun but tasted like a croissant, butter,  and guava marmalade.  After breakfast a table was set out where we could make our own picnic lunch.  We had delicious homemade bread, tuna, and a whole host of other ingredients.  I made a peanut butter and guava jam sandwich with an apple, a box of juice, and a chocolate bar.  We drove quite a few miles to the base of the volcano and proceeded to hike on up.  The hiking was difficult.  I had my cane and 4 people brought hiking sticks to help them keep their balance.  The landscape changed as we walked up the hill and into the cloud forest.  We saw vermilion flycatcher, Darwin tree finches Darwin ground finches, warbler finches, smooth-billed ani birds, Galapagos mockingbird, and Chatham mockingbirds.  After 45 minutes we reached the rim of the caldera.  The clouds covered the bottom of the caldera.  My original intent was to hike this far and let the group go on ahead.  Pablo brought his younger brother, David, along to escort me back.  I didn't think I needed an escort but he wanted me to have one.  I knew the hike was a 7 hour hike and was too much for me.  But I was doing well and thought I'd go a little further.  As we walked along, I saw portions of the trail were dug up.  Later we saw feral pig tracks in the freshly dug ground (top photo).  Feral pigs dug up the trail rooting for fresh roots.  I asked if feral pigs would attack a human.  Pablo said  male pig might attack if it felt cornered.  Suddenly I was fine with having David walk me back. If we saw a pig, I could throw David to the pig and run away.  Pablo told us what it was like to live on the island during the 2005 eruption.  He came up here to see the hot lava flow.  He uses his arms and face a lot when he describes things.  And he makes noises to help us understand how the lava sounded.  He has the most amazing sound effects. The sun was hot but the clouds covered it occasionally and a light mist fell keeping us at just the right temperature.  I was walking good so I kept going for a couple hours.  About noon I told Pablo I was done walking.  He asked me to keep going for 25 more minutes because then we would be at the lunch spot and there would be a tree there for shade.  I agreed.  Another person mentioned when they were little their parents would promise a McDonalds at the end of the trail to keep them going.  I said a McDonalds wouldn't do it for me since I don't eat meat.  But then I wondered why I was walking 25 more minutes (50 round trip) for a freaking tree.  We eventually got to the tree and the picnic tables spread beneath it. The tables and benches were full of college students; mostly girls.  They got up to make room for us.  Turns out they were students from Gustavus in Minnesota.  We sat down to have lunch.  My pb&j sandwich was delicious.  I think this was one of the best meals of the trip.  I was so hungry and the setting was so pleasant.  Darwin finches and yellow warblers hopped around our feet.  The birds and animals are so tame here.  In Minnesota, if I get a glimpse of a yellow warbler, it's only long enough to make a good identification.  They won't sit still at all.  Here they hop around at our feet.  One yellow warbler even jumped on my backpack at my side.  The rest of the group hiked on while David and I hiked back.  David was in his early 20's.  He graduated with a degree in economics and was taking time off to relax before looking for a job.  He lead the way.  He had very skinny legs and long black hair.  From the back he looked exactly like a nephew of mine.  Hiking back was fun as long as we were around the caldera.  The trail went up and down a little but was easy to walk.  Heading down the volcano was more difficult because of the steep steps down.  Rain was falling steadily now and the mud was slippery.  David was very gracious. For all difficult steps, he offered his hand to help me down.  It was really nice to have a personal escort down the big hill.  My joints were aching before we were done.  My left knee was especially painful because I kept stepping down the difficult steps leading with my left knee.  I tried to alternate but habits are hard to break.  When we got to the bottom the Gustavus students were also coming down.  David wanted me to take the bus with the Gustavus students back to town.  I said I would wait for my group to return.  David got on the bus with the coeds - smart boy.  I waited at a table for a little over an hour before my group arrived.  They looked tired.  We took the bus back down the hill. As we drove past one farm I saw a big stack of meat in the bed of a pickup truck.  I later learned that that farmer had successfully hunted a feral pig.  We were on our own for dinner tonight.  As a group we all decided to go to the same place for dinner.  This was a BBQ named Three Brothers; Tres Hermanos.  The choices were chicken or fish.  I ordered the sides - rice with beans and tortilla. Tortilla is not what you would expect.  In Ecuador a tortilla is a fried patty made of mashed potatoes with a cheese filling.  All the carnivores got their food.  We arrived at this restaurant about 7.  By now it's 8 o'clock.  My peanut butter sandwich on the volcano was a LONG TIME AGO.  I was so hungry I could have cried.  Eventually my food came.  Another person on the hike said I had hiked most of the way.  They didn't go much further than I did.  She figured that I had hiked 8 miles.  No wonder I was so hungry.  Today I really pushed myself.  I hoped I wouldn't have to pay the price by being in pain tomorrow.   

Ecuador-Day Five

The fifth day of the trip was an exciting bird day for me.  I saw a phalanthrope, some brown noddy, a whimbrel and pink flamingoes.  The most exciting bird was the albatross. Earlier I had asked Pablo if we would see an albatross and he said, "Maybe."  We got up early, packed all our belongings into the boat, and headed out to sea.  We boated around Elsmere Island to see the nesting frigate birds, pelicans, and others.  We snorkeled at Elsmere and at Devil's Crown.  The sandy bottom made the water turqoise.  We spotted a chocolate chip sea star, 2 manta rays, sea turtles (see photo), a blue star fish and a yellow starfish.  Back at sea, the boat motors suddenly stopped.  Pablo said, "Susan, luke, luke."  I love the way he says my name.  He accents the second syllable and now I want everyone to say my name that way, thank you very much.  He pointed to a large bird gliding just above the waves.  He said it was an albatross.  I got very excited. I've heard about these birds.  I went to a lecture on the mechanics of bird flight.  More than any other bird, the albatross has a hard time getting airborne because of their huge wingspan and heavy body.  Once airborne, they can lock their limbs and glide for days at a time.  And one of my former bird teachers talked about seeing albatross when he was a pilot in WWII.  So I was excited to see an albatross.  I turned to him and said, "Thanks, Pablo" and went to give him a little side hug of appreciation.  The boat lurched and he got a much more enthusiastic hug than I intended on giving.  What can I say?  I got excited.  You think about seeing a bird for years and then you see it - it's exciting.  An hour later he spotted another one.  This albatross was sitting on the water and as the boat approached it took flight.  I really enjoyed watching it take flight.  And then we saw two orca whales playing in the water.  The boat followed them for quite a time and once we saw both of them breach the water at the same moment.  Pictures don't do the moment justice.  We stopped at Floreanna Island, population 70. There is a very interesting story about the early settlers at Floreanna that is worth another post later on.  We met a granddaughter of one of the originial inhabitants.  We had a picnic lunch on the veranda of the visitor center. This center was in front of a inorganic black sand beach.  After lunch I walked the beach for a while.  The black sand was coarse and reminded me of coffee grounds. Soon we were back in the boat and headed to Isabella, the largest of the Galapagos Islands.  This island is only a quarter of a million years old where the other islands are two million years old.  This is the island where Pablo lives.  In contrast to the other islands we saw, Isabella was green and lush.  The town was small and did not have cobblestone pavement.  Here the roads are sand and the town felt more like a small town than a city.  We went to our hotel, La Laguna.  We had time for a quick shower before we got a walking tour of the town.  Across the street from the hotel was a brackish pond.  Pink flamingoes hang out here with their heads upside down eating in the water.  Ruddy turnstones walked on the shore.  We walked around the town and along the shore.  We ended up having a drink at the Endemic Bar and watching the sun set over the sea.  I had a coke light (it's the same thing as a diet coke). Four flamingoes flew by.  Marine iguanas crawled over the rocks at the side of the bar.  The Endemic bar has unusual decorations on a tree in the sand on the beach, just beyond the hammocks (see photo).   The last photo shows a view from the rooftop deck area of our hotel.  I feel a little dangerous up here.  After spending so much time in the boat, I still don't have my land legs.  You can see the flamingoes in the foreground.  In the background is a volcano.  This is Sierra Negra volcano and we'll be hiking up there tomorrow.

Ecuador Day Four; Part Two

Here are some shots I took of some scenery on my walk back to town from the Interpretive Center.  The first shot shows a hilly road with attractive gates and colorful homes.  When I saw it I thought it looked like a scene from a fairy tale.  The next three shots are of a home under construction.  The owner must be a beer drinker.  This is the first beer bottle fence and beer bottle art I've ever seen.

Ecuador Day Four

Today we went snorkeling.  Our boat was named "Pacific."  We had two captains.  They helped us aboard.  The boat had 3 200 HP motors and could really tear up the waves.  We ended up spending about 12-15 hours in the boat moving from island to island during our entire tour.  Although the ride was bouncy at times, I really enjoyed the time in the boat.  Sometimes we were so far out we could not see any land at all.  We plowed through the waves and bounced in our seats.  I don't get sea sick. As we motored along, I was reminded of driving down a county road with fields of corn and soybeans on both sides.  Instead of the straight rows of vegetables, I had rows of waves and all the bounty was below us instead of on top.  We donned our wetsuits in the rocking boat and that was no easy task.  We had to help each other zip the suits up the back.  To get into the water we had to sit on the side of the boat with our legs over the edge, hold onto our masks, and slide in.  We had 3 or 4 feet of air before we hit the water.  As I sat on the edge of the boat with my hand on my mask, I was fearful of sliding in.  I didn't know what was down there.  I didn't know how deep I would go and how long it would take me to get back to the surface, clear my snorkel of water, and take a breath. And then I thought, "This has GOT to be easier than ziplining," and plop, in I went. I kicked up to the surface in no time.  It wasn't that bad.  I put my face into the water and WOW, everything was so beautiful. We were in a protected channel next to the island. Waves weren't bothering us here.  The bottom was sandy so the water looked turquoise blue.  I could see all kinds of fish.  I saw blue fish, black fish, white fish, green fish but my favorite was the black fish with yellow lips and yellow tails.  I was totally relaxed watching the fish. I looked up once in a while to make sure I was near the group and near my snorkeling buddy.  I freaked out once when the long cord on my zipper touched my arm.  I thought a fish was touching me at first.  Pablo, our guide, found a yellow starfish and he held it so we could see it close up. I used my $10 disposable underwater camera to take some pictures.  As I floated on the water that was maybe 15 feet deep, I saw a large fish come under me from behind. It was maybe 5 or more feet below me.  As it got right below me I realized it was a shark.  I screamed into my snorkel.  My scream was 25% fear and 75% joy.  The shark swam on by.  Golly, that was exciting.  My heart was pounding.  Later I learned it was a Galapagos shark and not dangerous to people.  Sea lions swam in the water with us.  After about an hour, we got back into the boat.  I was reluctant.  I wanted to swim longer.  They lowered a ladder.  The bottom rung of the ladder came just below the surface of the water.  We had to take our fins off in the water and hand them to a person on board.  The rungs were round and hurt my feet.  It took some maneuvering to get my foot on the lowest rung.  And it took some arm strength to pull myself up.  I must have looked like I was struggling because people were pulling and pushing me.  I made it though, it wasn't that hard.  Back in the boat we went by some bird nesting areas.  We saw Magnificent Frigate birds nesting.  The male frigate birds indicate their willingness to mate by inflating their red double chins so it looks like they have a big red balloon on their chests.  We saw blue footed boobies.  Their feet are not visible when they're flying but when they're standing around, we could see that their feet and bills were as blue as the sky.  They fly around over the water and suddenly dive into the sea at high speeds for fish.  We saw brown pelicans, Elliot's storm petrels, great blue heron, shearwater, Nazca boobies and swallow tailed gulls.  My favorite was a tropicbird.  It is a white bird with a tail 6 times longer than you think a bird that size would have. I don't know how it was able to turn around with that big tail. We saw Pacific sea turtles mating in the water.  Pablo, our guide is very enthusiastic.  "Luke!  Luke!  Luke!" he would say and then add, "It is amazing."  He said things were amazing about 10 times a day.  He is passionate about nature and once he explained it, we would agree that yes, it WAS amazing.   As a biologist and environmental educator, he knew the nature in this area very well.  I told him I liked birds so he made a special effort to make sure I saw them.  Then we snorkeled at Kicker Rock, also known as Las Lobos (sleeping lion) rock.  See the top photo?  We snorkeled through that passage on the right.  The rock extends 500 feet up from the water and several hundred feet straight down.  When we got into the water at this spot, we were surprised how cold the water was.  My hands got numb.  I was cold for the first 5 minutes and then I must have gotten used to it.  The sides of the rock were covered with beautiful coral of red, orange, deep blue, purple, white and black.  The swells were bringing us up and down in the water and the current pushed us through the passage. Once we got to the other side, the water temperature warmed up about 15 degrees.  Again, I wasn't ready to get out.  We got back into the boat and motored to a bay.  We had lunch on the boat.  We waded to shore to look around. We saw 4 white cheeked pintail ducks and a yellow crowned night heron near the shore.  Ghost crabs lined the shore and disappeared as soon as they heard us coming.  We found a pelican skull.  We headed back to town.  We were given a few minutes to shower and change clothes before we headed out to an interpretive center.  After learning more about the Galapagos Islands, the group hiked up to a frigate bird nesting area.  Because it was getting dark and I'm a slow walker, I opted to hike back to town.  I will add another entry on the sights I saw on my hike back to town.  We were on our own for dinner.  Three of us decided to eat together. We got recommendations for places to eat but ended up not being able to find any of them. We wandered around town looking for a good place to eat.  Two of us were vegetarians.  As we strolled by one place I saw corn on the cob on an outdoor grill.  We decided to eat there.  I had corn, rice and beans.  The owner was Juanita.  She didn't speak very much English and we didn't speak very much Spanish but we had fun trying.  I knew enough to say, "No carne."  She was born on the Galapagos Islands.  My bill for dinner came to $1.50.  I gave her a big tip. As we left, we noticed there was a black hair dryer on the grill; the cold side of the grill.  Why the hair dryer?  We could see it was splattered with grease.  Was it used as a bellows to stoke the coals?  What other reason could there be for a hair dryer on a grill?  We left there confused.  As soon as my head hit the pillow I fell asleep.