Wunderkind

This has been a crazy busy month so far.  Gotta say that 3 is a bit of a challenging age.  Quinn is very opinionated and likes to complain LOUDLY when things don't go exactly according to plan.  But that said, he's also a lot more fun, communicative and has very sweet moments.  He's not the most confident child, so we've been encouraging him to try things on his own more and more.  He recently mastered riding his bike with no training wheels and is currently enrolled in swimming lessons.  He's far from the greatest swimmer, but we celebrate every little victory.  He's starting to really enjoy it and you can see the pride on his face when he does something new!  I love it!

Recent trip to the Dino Museum (Natural History Museum) with Towhee the bunny

Another thing Quinn has been really interested in lately is letter and words.  We got him a little magnetic board with letters and he'll spend up to an hour sitting and playing with them, writing all of our names.  

Last week he was playing by himself and he came out very excited telling us that he'd spelled his name all by himself.  This is what we found.  

But this week he tried again and got it right!  And when I tried to turn the Q right-side-up he quickly turned it back on its side and exclaimed that's how he wanted it. 

 We'll end with a couple of very flattering shots and a video of the swimmer in action.

Birds birds and more birds!

This year instead of being stuck in the office 100% of the time from September on, the USGS crew has continued to get in weekly trips out into the field.  We're conducting a genetic study on two really cool species:  The Coastal Cactus Wren and the California Gnatcatcher.  

Taking a genetic sample from one of these birds involves: 1. Finding the birds; 2. Catching them in a mist net (very thin net that is virtually invisible to the birds); and 3. Pulling either a growing body feather or extracting a drop of blood from a trimmed toenail.  In the photos below you see Scarlett Howell taking a pin feather from a Cactus Wren and me trying to find a pin feather on a Gnatcatcher.

Both of these species are year-round residents of southern California and reside on arid hillsides in coastal sage scrub or cactus sage scrub (for the cactus wrens).  The Cactus Wren is a species of special concern in California, because the coastal subspecies is isolated and declining in numbers.  The California Gnatcatcher is a federally endangered species with a range that is restricted to southern California.  With all of the development happening in this part of the state there is growing concern that the remaining populations of both species may become genetically isolated from one another, which could impair their ability to adapt to changing conditions, etc.

Anyway, my whole point here was that it's nice to get out of the office a little bit each week!  And aren't those cute little guys?  

OK, so this one might not be so cute, but it was the first scorpion I've seen here.  This female was carrying her larval young on her back, but was fighting to protect them from the predatory ants that were attempting to eat them.  A pretty cool sight, albeit a little bit sad for the mama.

No Training Wheels!

So Quinn mastered the balance bike ages ago (probably almost a year ago), but he's been fearful of pedal bikes.  Slowly, over the past few months, we've been encouraging him to pedal a tricycle and a 12" bike with training wheels.  He finally got it, but then became very attached to the training wheels.  Even though he could easily balance on his balance bike he was horrified at the thought of pedaling on his pedal bike without training wheels.  A couple of weeks ago I took the pedals and the training wheels off of his bike and had him ride it around like a balance bike.  Then this morning I threw the pedals in my bag as we walked/rode to our normal breakfast spot.  On the way home from breakfast I convinced him to try the pedals.  So we attached the pedals and off he went.  Never thought it'd be so easy.  He rode his bike all the way home and is very proud of himself!  :)

Beach, Boats and More Beach

It's been a busy few weeks.  Actually, more like a busy few months.  I have not posted much.  Finally a little flurry of activity over the past 2 weeks has meant that I actually finally have a few photos to share. It's been hot here in SD (not that I can really complain about that after living in NC).  As a result the water has been very appealing.  We were invited last week to spend the day with Biggy, Janet, and Don at Janet's beach house in Mission Beach.  What a great day! Even though it was overcast, the water was actually fairly warm.  Quinn and Jeff enjoyed some time in the water.  

And Quinn and Janet enjoyed a game of Oceanopoly on the stair landing in the house!

After dinner we walked down to the bay.  It's always great to see Biggy, Don and Janet!

Other big recent news is that we found a home for the kitty we've had since early July.  She's going to be living just down the street, so we'll be able to visit from time to time.

Thursday was Quinn's last day in the Caterpillar classroom.  He's had a great year with Mrs. Milligan and Ms. Prough.  I know he'll miss them, but luckily his two buddies (Madin and Oliver) will be joining him in the Fish classroom.  The new year starts on Tuesday!

Yesterday we took Quinn down to the waterfront for the Festival of Sail.  We thought he'd have a great time, given that he loves boats and has recently started talking a lot about pirates.  What we didn't anticipate is that he would freak out about pirates and cannonballs upon our arrival.  He was actually pretty scared the whole time we were there.  We went out for a boat ride during which time two of the tall ships were having a mock battle.  Q was not a fan of the canons.  Towards the end of the day he settled down and enjoyed touring a couple of boats...a bit of treasure from a couple of friendly pirates didn't hurt either.

Today was yet another beautiful day in SD.  We headed to the beach with our friend Denise and her son Evan, who is almost 2.  This photo was taken just before Quinn dumped an entire bucket of sand over Evan's head...oops!

The boys had a great time together playing in the sane, running through the water and checking out sand crabs.  Here is Quinn showing the crabs to Evan.  He was trying to get Evan to hold one, but E wasn't so sure.

Loving this nice, long weekend!  

Boulder Basin Camping

Last weekend we went camping with our friends Lisa and Jeremy and their two boys, Ian (4) and Andrew (2).  It was the first time we've ever been camping with another family and it was a ball.  The boys (especially Ian and Quinn) had a ball playing with sticks, climbing rocks, dragging ropes, hiking and goofing around.  

brief glimpses of Panama

I (this is Jeff for once) have been in Panama since June 12, attending the annual Scientific Committee meeting for the Int'l Whaling Commission.  Following the meeting, I've managed to get away for just a couple days to stay at the "Canopy Tower", situated in the Soberania National Forest, just north of Panama City.  Here's a picture of the place, lifted from the place's website (rooms are just below the visible observation deck):

Each of the last two mornings, I've taken a birding tour with our adept tour guide, Domi.  In two mornings, I've probably seen about 70 or 80 new bird species.  Colorful highlights include toucans, aracaris, caciques (related to oropendola) parrots, mot mots, cuckoos, trogons, honey creepers, hummingbirds, tanagers, and less colorful but still often striking wood creepers, wood wrens, woodpeckers, doves, and all the ant-eating types: ant-creepers, ant-wrens, antbirds, ant-vireo, ant-shrike, etc.  Plus much more.  Oh yeah, don't forget the plain chachalaca.

But I have to say some of the highlights have been the handful of mammals I've seen on the trip, including 3 species of monkey (howlers, tamarins, and...best of all... night monkeys!), 2 species of sloth (2-toed and 3-toed), and agouti.

I don't have a camera, except for the one on my smart phone.  Our guide carries a spotting scope.  You may be familiar with digi-scoping, i.e., putting your little camera up to the eyepiece of the spotting scope and taking a picture.  It's hard to do with a smart phone, but as the following photos attests, it can be done.

Here's an aracari:

 

Can you find the night monkey?  They come out at ... night.  But our guide knows a popular day roost (in a tree cavity).

I have seen about 5 slots on this trip.  Usually they sit in a ball in a tree and you are lucky to even see their face.  This one (three-toed, as you can see) was busy grooming and eating...

And here's my attempt at videoing through the telescope (it's roughest at first but gets more watchable after 10 sec):

Here is a nice view from the observation deck of the Tower (maybe you can see the Panama City skyline far in the distance).  As you might expect, there is a lot to see without having to try very hard.  Birds and monkeys come right to you.  

A lovely view outside my window just after the rain...

Finally... at sunset (not too bad for a smartphone camera):

My Glamorous Job

It's the story of the Least Bell's Vireo.  At USGS we have several sites where we monitor the reproductive success of these cute little birds.  The first step is to identify the singing males:

Once the males establish a territory we wait for the arrival of the female.  That's when things get busy and we start searching for nests.  Below is a photo of a typical nest, suspended on a forked branch.  

If we are lucky, a full clutch looks like this, with four white vireo eggs:

Unfortunately, at my sites there is heavy Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism.  Cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.  The eggs hatch more quickly than the vireo eggs and the young cowbirds will outcompete and even sometimes push the vireo eggs and young out of the nest.  That's why we remove any cowbird eggs that we find.

Usually once the vireos are beyond the egg-laying stage and into incubation the threat from the cowbirds diminishes.  Below is a male vireo sitting on his nest.  I was trying to get him to flush so I could count his eggs and remove any cowbird eggs, but he would not budge.  Not surprisingly, I've never found a cowbird egg in any of his nests.  Good job, buddy, for sitting so tight!

After about 14 days of incubation the eggs begin to hatch and little pink naked nestlings emerge.

They grow quickly and after just a few days gray pin feathers start to emerge.  They eat a LOT.

 At some sites we band every nestling with a colored aluminum band on one leg.  These bands identify the drainage of origin for the bird.  We do this when the nestlings are between 5 and 8 days old.

 The nestlings remain in the nest for about 12 days.  Below is a  bird who is ready to fledge.  His nest-mate was already out of the nest, calling nearby, but this guy really liked his cozy nest.

The first few days out of the nest the fledglings stay close to the nest and are not very mobile.  The adults will continue feeding the fledglings for 2 weeks or more.

Another part of our job is banding the adult vireos.  At some sites we attempt to color band every territorial male.  However anytime a natal bird (adult with a single aluminum band, which identifies it as a bird who was banded as a nestling) is found we attempt to capture the bird and give the bird a complete color band combination, which allows us to identify the bird as a individual from a distance.

That's the bulk of what I do, but we also do surveys for Southwestern Willow Flycatchers, a species which continues to decline precipitously.  Additionally we are conducting a genetics study of coastal Cactus Wrens and California Gnatcatchers, which requires capturing adult birds and collecting blood and/or feather samples from them for analysis.  Finally we operate a few MAPS (Mapping Avian Productivity and Survivorship) stations, where we use mist nets to passively catch and band passerines.  I'll close with a couple of the more striking species we've caught at MAPS this year, a Lazuli Bunting and a Costa's Hummingbird.