I'm alive!

To my loyal readers,
I apologize for my complete lack of posting recently but blogging has fallen rather far down on the list of priorities. The summer is now officially in full swing so campers are running around everywhere, kayak trips are constantly booked and were all working off very little sleep. Not such a great combination but oh well. Anyways, to update you on recent happenings:
First, for those of you who have talked to me, you might know that I've recently had the pleasure of being a chew-toy for the various snakes of BHI. Let me tell you, cute as they may be, they bite often, hard and with very pointy teeth. Why, you may ask, am I grabbing these innocent little buggers from off the side of the road? No, its not some attempt to become Bald Head's Steve Irwin, it's in the pursuit of science! One of the other interns is doing a population study of all snakes on the island and I agreed to help him in collection. Collection consists of driving around the island at specific times looking for and grabbing any snakes we might come by. Those include black racers, rough green snakes, scarlet snakes, coach whips, corn snakes and finally my favorite...rat snakes. Don't worry Mom, luckily none of the aformentioned species are poisonous so I can pick up every snake I find here! Comforting right? Anyways, as you probably know snakes aren't really known for being cuddly animals and instead, some choose to show their affection through their pointy little teeth...hence the teeth marks all over my hand. I love snakes.
Apart from my newly found love for all serpents, I'm working on quite the life-jacket tan due to all my kayaking trips. Almost every day now I'm booked on a trip that travels through the salt marsh, looking at all the various wildlife and ecological sights. Unfortunately as you probably know, North Carolina summers are known to be hot and sticky. Perfect kayaking weather? I think so.
Things are going really well though, the internship is a lot of fun and I'm learning so much. If you want to chat more shoot me an email and we can set up a time to have a phone call (my phone barely works here).

Cheers!

Chilling with dead turtles

Its been an eventful few days since I last wrote. My day off, Tuesday, was glorious. All the interns, myself included, headed for the mainland in pursuit of cheap food, fast cars and non-sand covered things. My main intention, however, was procurement of a bicycle. Since last summer I've been without a bike and I now greatly miss it, especially being on such a small island. Anyways, I found a seller on craigslist and decided to contact him to check it out. Unfortunately, upon contacting him I could barely understand him through his thick accent and clearly inebriated voice. I eventually scratched that, especially after realizing that he probably stole his "large number of bikes" for me to look at. Gotta love craigslist. Anyways, we headed up to Wilmington to check out the scene and see if there were any used bikes at the local shops. Dismal failure on that front, so to comfort myself, I bought nachos...a lot of nachos. Wilmington is a pretty cool beach city, not as built up and touristy as VA Beach or Duck nor as ritzy as BHI. It was a welcome break for sure, as nice as it is living on the equivalent of an island country club, a little variation is nice.
By the time we were done exploring it was time to head back down to Southport for dinner with the rest of the crew. We met up at an old local's joint by the name of Provisions. Extraordinarily unassuming from the outside, Provisions is home to some of the best shrimp and crab cakes I've had. Fried in grease that was probably used as lubricant for the boats in the marina, its the epitome of a salty hangout. I was in heaven. To further the experience, Provisions is set on the Indigo Plantation marina, overlooking part of a salt marsh on the Cape Fear river. Shrimp, crab cakes and gorgeous scenery...I could do this for awhile.
Wednesday was supposed to be CPR/First Aid training. After waking up though, we learned that due to a lack of staff, the education people (that's me) wouldn't be able to participate today. Instead, we were tasked with all sorts of fun busy work. Trail maintenance, presentation practice etc. The afternoon, however, was a little ripe for my taste. Part of our jobs as conservancy interns is to deal with dead sea turtles that have washed ashore. Oftentimes these turtles have been floating for days at a time, so by the time they reach us, they re bloated and ready to pop. Wednesday was our lucky day. We got a call sometime in the afternoon that a dead loggerhead had washed ashore and needed attention. Off we went, measurement tools and scalpels in hand. We arrived on the scene just in time for the winds to turn and all be blasted in the face with the stench of rotting turtle. After resisting our collective gag urge, we proceeded to cut off a flipper (to be sent in for lab analysis) and popped her open to determine the cause of death. I think the following picture explains it all:Mmm tasty.

Today was just another day of training. Nothing terribly exciting except for an emergency call from the marina about a stranded-live turtle. For the turtle interns of the group, this was really exciting news. Thus far we've had a turtle skeleton, a freshly dead turtle and finally now a live one! We drove as fast as the golf carts would allow (around 18mph) to the other side of the island in pursuit of our first live one. Upon arrival, we found a tired and rather emaciated green turtle. Green turtles are quite rare in this region as they much prefer the warmer waters of the Carri bean. We immediately took it into our protective care and it is currently on its way to a local turtle hospital.

Alive!

To all my readers (all 3 of you), I apologize that my recent correspondence has been lacking. Memorial Day weekend on the island was absolutely nuts and I was immediately tossed into the fray. While still not completely trained, I have already given 4 tours through salt marsh, three of which I did alone. Rather exciting. The tours, about 2 hours long each, travel all around the winding streams of the salt marsh. Commonly seen wildlife includes snowy egrets, great egrets, ibis, mullet and the occasional heron. Supposedly, however, there are sometimes dolphins and otter who patrol the creeks for prey. The dolphins, smart as they are, chase fish up onto the creek grass where they can be easily eaten. Apparently there can be alligators as well, but they are quite uncommon as they prefer the still, warmer waters of the golf course. Plus golfer's chihuahuas make a nice snack.
Anyways, while the tours are a lot of fun to run and are quite beautiful, they are really labor intensive as they take a lot of set up and clean up. All in all a standard trip takes 4 hours with 2 hours of actual paddling time. Apart from the paddling the most interesting part is probably the travel to and from the conservancy. Because the island charges ridiculous amounts to store boats at the creek access, we keep ours on a large trailer back at the dorm. Then every time there's a tour we attach the trailer to the biggest golf cart we have and start the harrowing adventure to the dock. For some reason, residents of the island can't comprehend that while golf carts themselves are easy to control, a 10 foot trailer on the back of them, is not. Bikers, pedestrians and other carts seem to think that we should act just like everyone else with the same amount of mobility. Not so much.

Training Day 4

Today was again a lot of basic island info. The morning started with a salt marsh hike through BHI's pristine marshland. Mainly designed for the education interns (myself included), we walked along identifying plants, discussing basic ecology and catching the various amphibians and crabs that crossed our path. My favorite was the glass lizard. Apparently forgotten in the evolutionary chain, this lizard has no legs and acts just like a snake. Long and thick, they slither along the ground with the body of a hognose snake and the face of a anole. Strange combination for sure. Another amusing member of the marsh are fiddler crabs. Those little buggers crawl around everywhere, seemingly unencumbered by the mud they have to wade through. The males have it especially hard as one of their claws can grow to be the size of the rest of their body while the other is tiny. The large claw serves as a weapon and way to woo the ladies, size does matter I guess.
Anyways, after the salt marsh tour we were briefed on basic fundraising goals and the new Barrier Island Study Center. This complex, hopefully to be built by next summer, will be a unique venue where scientists and interns from all over the world can come together to try to better understand barrier islands. BHI serves as a perfect location for the center as it is one of the only islands that still maintains its basic ecological form (dune system, maritime forest, salt marsh etc). Pretty cool stuff, its our job to help fundraise for this summer though in their final fundraising drive. Fun fun, another thing to add to the checklist.
The final scheduled activity of the day was a birding adventure to Middle Island. BHI and the Smith Island complex is broken up into several different "islands" based on the location of the river. Bald Head is the most developed, while Middle Island and Bluff Island, both to the north, are much less so. We traveled to Middle Island, to the shores of the marsh and of a small, manmade lake. There we saw a great blue heron, dozens of white ibis who roost all together in one tree and possibly a bald eagle. More importantly, however, it was really nice to be away from civilization, even just for a little while. Middle Island has very few houses and is mostly comprimised of the large salt marsh that runs directly through it.
After our birding adventure it was time to head back to the house. On the way, however, Brett caught a rather mean spirited Black Racer snake. About the size of a black snake, Black Racers are fast and generally even-tempered...apparently not this one though. We took it back to the house to mark it where the fun began. While trying to measure the snake, it wriggled out of Brett's grasp and chomped his finger, leaving a nice bloody mark. It wasn't done and really didn't like getting branded. In an attempt to survey the population of snakes on the island, Brett has been capturing and marking all different species, basically a really hot piece of metal. By marking on a specific scale on the underbody, we can make sure that if its ever caught again we will know exactly who it is. This snake really didn't like it though and once again tried to get out, with Brett's finger recieving the short end of the stick. Didn't look pleasant. Oh well, it was finally time for the beach.

Training Day 3: Update

The residents of Bald Head Island love their golf and demand a great course, known fact. Another known fact, all of the world's best golf courses also have water hazards. A lesser known fact, water hazards in the coastal mid-Atlantic region make great homes for a rather mean-spirited and short-tempered reptile known as the Alligator. Why is this important? As an intern here at the BHIC, part of my job occasionally is to go out onto Bald Head's favorite golf course and find those grumpy buggers with a flashlight on steroids (massive spotlight hooked up to a car battery). Pretty sweet eh? Anyways, just got back from one of my patrols counting the number of gator we could find on the course, over 14 tonight alone! They ranged in size from a little baby that was about a foot long to a gargantuan 11 footer on the last hole. So cool, especially because the stars were were out in full force, there was only a slight breeze to keep the bugs away and the island is silent at night. To make things even better, on one of the last holes we were doing we ran into a large male who didn't look to happy. As we shined the light on him to try and gauge his size, he quickly submerged and disappeared from view. Thinking nothing of it, we turned the light off and started to record what we had seen. Suddenly from behind us on a bank we heard a loud popping noise and a huge hiss. To say that I was terrified that my ankle was about to become the brunch of an angry reptile would be an understatement. To make matters worse, the intern next to me screamed so loud that my ear drum almost fell out. Was it a gator that scared us so badly? Not at all, also included on all world-renowned golf courses are remotely-timed sprinklers. Damn sprinklers. Goodnight gang.

Training Day 3: Island Crash Course

Another day, another whirlwind. Its only the third day of training and I'm already beginning to lose track of time. Bad sign.
Today was chock full of basic information on island history and ecology. The morning started with a walk through the maritime forest, one of the last pristine forests of its type on the east coast. Thick and beautiful, this ecosystem is normally one of the first destroyed by developers. Because it has been preserved, however, it now stands as a natural safe haven for many species of plant and animal. The hike itself, while not difficult was the definition of a crash course. Every few steps, Maureen would stop and point to yet another tree that looked almost identical to the one before it and proclaim that not only was it an entirely different species, it was poisonous, unlike the 30 identical trees before it. Confusing? Anyways, Maureen left us halfway through the hike for a meeting so Brett decided to have some fun with our learning. Now instead of a risk-free quiz, every time we missed a species identification we were made to do push ups. Very 7th grade gym, but reaaaaallly effective to a bunch of tired interns.
After quite the involuntary pectoral workout we all headed back to the dorm for a nap. Ha, right. Nope instead, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed right back out for a historical tour of the island. To be perfectly honest, and my collegues are in complete agreement with me, it was a gigantic waste of time. The tour guide really wasn't too concerned with getting the information across and seemed rather impatient at times. Oh well, I think I got the most important part: PIRATES. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the quaint little island of Bald Head was once home to the notorious pirate Stede Bonnet. Apparently he would lure boats (somtimes with the aid of his friend Blackbeard) into the shoals which stretch off the coastline for miles and force the ships to run aground. From there he would plunder the boats and retreat to his island fortress. I think I'm going to make my tours pirate-themed, they sold pretty sweet eyepatches in the gift shop.
Last but certainly not least, we got a chance to enjoy our inagural beach relaxation. As I've related to you in the past several days, the weather has been far from stellar. So far in fact that I might even call it miserable. Anyhoo, today was the first day where we actually saw sun for more than a cumulative 30 minutes, so at the first sign of free time we all dashed out to the beach to enjoy our new home...I got burned, I can't win.

Training Day 2

Sorry about the missed day, as you'll see from the contents of the following description, yesterday was a long day. The morning started with a briefing on individual projects by Dr Dorsey, the chief scientist and head of the BHI Conservancy. We all sat and listened as she detailed the importance of our position not only for the conservancy but for our futures as well. By working us as hard as they do in the daytime and requiring independent research projects in our spare time, Dr. Dorsey has created what I now think is a hidden-gem of an internship. As rough and busy as the next few months may be, I'm going to learn so much much, not only about island ecology and turtles but about my desires for the future.
The aformentioned project is a in-depth study of an issue of our choice. Some of the other interns expressed interest in amphibian populations, others in sea turtle nesting habitats and finally myself...the policy nerd. I must admit, I was nervous about admitting my obsession with environmental policy amongst such research-oriented scientists. Everything I had heard, seen and experienced told me that these data obsessed science jockeys might reject me for my political ambissions. I was, however, proven quite wrong. When I told Dr. Dorsey that I was interested in policy she immediatly lept on my idea and helped to expound upon it. From the looks of it, I'll be researching coastal law in an effort to help contain the dredging-caused erosion that is currently occuring.
After the meeting we were all in a bit of shock. Partially starry-eyed from the possibilities that the internship will grant us, but partially terrified for the amount of work ahead. Maureen, our immediate boss saw this and decided to take us out birding on the beach. Nothing terribly exciting to report except more sand, blowing horizontally, into my eyes.
The afternoon was alot of downtime as we all had to wait for our turn to be trained on the UTV. In order for the sea turtle interns to be able to do their job, they need to be able to cover alot of ground in a short amount of time. While they will be up all night, hiking multiple beach miles and surveying nesting habitat is a killer combination, hence the UTV. The UTV is basically a lawnmower on steroids. Its got the temper and foul moods of a persnickity grasscutter, but a much larger engine and capacity to do some damage. Our training was really just to familiarize us with the various quirks of the machine...the sticky accelerator, the occasionaly functional emergency break and the tempermental choke. Kinda glad I'm not a sea turtler...
After vehicle training we all rushed back to the conservancy where we attended a welcome potluck put on by the conservancy's board. The event, located in the conservancy's classroom was an opportunity for all the new interns to meet and greet a few of the permenant residents of the island in an attempt to further acclimate us to BHI. While enjoying their company, we were also lucky enough to be fed food far better than we could ever make. Defintely a plus in my book.
So I realize that thus far the day doesn't sound very taxing but trust me, the next part killed me. After the digesting the food, all the interns decided it was time for a game of frisbee. There was one little catch, it was a windy day, and a very light frisbee...If a tourist had passed, they probably would have seen a group of college kids acting as if they were 4 year olds who had eaten far too many M&Ms. Even the dog was tired after playing, enough said.