Earthwatch Team

Saturday, March 31, 2012

My Earthwatch Expedition is over and I am on my way home. I'm in a LaQuinta in Mount Pleasant, TX. Tomorrow I will continue up 271 to Paris, TX, and then west on 82 to I-35N and Stillwater, OK.

This Earthwatch team made me feel very ordinary and unaccomplished. Here is the lineup:
--Wit Ostrenko, president of MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry) Tampa, FL. His blog contains some pix and an account of our Expedition (www.mositravel.blogspot.com).
--Jody Rosengarten, dog trainer & behavior therapist, published author, world traveler, and owner of a house full of rescued dogs and rescued parrots (www.thebarkstopshere.net).
--Karen Glum, Science Department Chair, Seven Hills School, an independent college prep school for pre-K-12 in Cincinnati. Her school sends her on extraordinary trips. Her favorite was Alaska, but she may change her mind after her trip to China this summer.

Betsy Snow, me, Darwin Long IV, Karen Glum, Wit Ostrenko before our first loon catching night

--Diane Brookshire, a Cyber Science Teacher who conducts her classes live online to students who for some reason or other cannot attend regular school. She conducted a live classroom session with Ann and Andrew.

--Ann Tompkins, a neonatal nurse who will turn 79 next month. Ann is not "entirely retired." She still puts in one 12-hour night shift at the hospital each week. Ann is the grand dame of Earthwatch Expeditions, having been on 21 of them, more than any other volunteer! Her two favorites were working with women and children in Africa and orangutans in Borneo.

Jody, Andrew and Ann cutting up before our Tuesday evening meal of shrimp, crayfish, and dirty rice.

--Peter & Betsy Snow and Ann signed up for the two-week expedition and thus were "old hands" having been on task for a week by the time I and the second week participants arrived. Peter and Betsy have a place in Marathon, FL, but they are there infrequently. Several years ago they quit their well-paying jobs. They have been traveling the world, visiting places of interest, and working with Earthwatch ever since. Both of them worked on the Cloud Forest Birds of Ecuador Earthwatch Expediton that was my introductory expedition--they at a different date than I, though. Peter & Betsy deserve a special thank-you for a very generous donation they made to the Judith Karman Hospice. Thank you Peter & Betsy!
--Andrew East, coordinator and team leader of the project, as well as an excellent cook. Andrew is starting his master's degree at the University of Southern Maine where his thesis is . . . you guessed it . . . the winter ecology of the common loon in the Gulf of Mexico.
--Dr. Jim Paruk, Director of the Center for Loon Conservation at Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI). Jim is the PI, or head Earthwatch Scientist for this project and is Andrew's advisor. Jim was at the LA field  station only for the first evening. He had to fly to Maine on Monday to teach a class. It was our loss because he took us newbies on a bird walk and proved to be a very knowledgable and interesting guy.
--Mark Pokras, senior veterinarian at the Wildlife Clinic at Tufts. Mark has conducted over 500 loon necropsies. We watched him perform a necropsy on an adult Maine loon that had ingested a large fish hook and a lead sinker. Though it had lead poisoning, neither the hook nor sinker caused its death. It died of blunt trauma injury, possibly from being struck by a boat.
--Darwin Long IV, Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI). Darwin, an avian biologist, has worked since 2003 with loons, first in Morro Bay, CA, and now with the study of the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Gulf Coast wintering loon populations. Darwin is also an aviculturist with the Audubon Nature Institute of New Orleans, specializing in penguin biology. Darwin netted and worked up the three loons that my group captured--one adult, that I got to hold (see photo below) while it was being worked up, and two juveniles.

This is an adult loon just getting its breeding plumage. We were taught to tuck the loon's head under our arm. Here I have released the head for the photo but am wary of the long, sharp bill. This bird was large and strong. It actually let out some tremulous yodels while I was holding it, almost as if to say, "Oh, oh, oh. Oh no. What's happening?" Below are internet pix of a juvenile with a grey bill and brown eye and an adult with black bill and red eye in breeding plumage. The adults in their winter plumage look quite similar to the juvenile loons.

Below are a juvenile and an adult in breeding plumage from the Internet. Actually the loon on the left may be an adult in winter plumage. Adults in non-breeding plumage and juvenile loons look very similar except that the adults have a red eye and a more pronounced triangle of white on their necks. The juveniles have brown eyes and gray bills:

Below, we are in the Gulf  Delta waiting for the sun to set so that we can spotlight and capture loons for banding and workup. When the loon is caught in the spotlight, it freezes and then the boat slowly closes in on it until it can be netted. This was no easy task. Our first night, we were on the water from 7:30 p.m. until 3 a.m. Our group found maybe four loons and captured only two, an adult (the one I'm holding above) and a juvenile. The other group was unsuccessful in finding and capturing even a single loon that night. Loons are fairly solitary by day, some forming small, loose rafts at night (see below).