Happy Valentines Day!
Category Archives: Birds
Monday Morning, Can’t trust that day
Monday morning, sometimes it just turns out that way (The Mamas and the Papas)
I woke up bright and early Monday morning. The weather report had said a storm was rolling in with high seas, rain and winds. Well it was certainly windy last night. With that in mind I thought after breakfast I’d give the GPS another chance. A folder with a bunch of GPS tours came with the unit. I could drive around and see if the weather cleared. My first whale watch wasn’t scheduled until Wednesday.
I sat at the table watching the sunrise. Maybe its because I was on the top floor but I had a lot more birds visit than when we were here in November. Oh the ever present Mynas were there but so were little finchy type birds including a pair of Redheads.
While I was kicking back I got a rather uncomfortable feeling. The meds I take for diabetes have the unpleasant side effect of making me prone to UTI’s. Now if I were at home such a development would be handled with a quick call to my doctor but she’s 3000 miles away!
To try to keep the situation under control at home I’ve switched to cranberry juice instead of orange juice. Luckily that was what I picked up at the TIMES grocery store last night. So out came the big glass and I rapidly downed 2 big glasses. My fingers are crossed that I caught it in time. I refuse to let a illness sideline me on this trip!
But back to my view from the pent house, I’ve heard we can see the whales from here and I’ve been watching all morning. So far nothing but I’ve got my binoculars handy in case.
The sky has cleared considerably and the sun has come out. Even the surf has settled down a bit. I think it might be a nice day after all.
OOPS! I may have spoken too soon!
Into The Harbor on a Wildlife Cruise
The cruise was a “sell out”. Many of the people I spoke with had been on the cruise in previous years. They only run it one day a year and they go out rain or shine or snow. There were National Park Rangers, Aquarium naturalists, DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation) employees and volunteers to answer questions. The boat was well stocked with food and beverages in the snack bar. two decks were heated if the outdoor space got too cold. They really went all out to make it a special day.
At 10:35 the loading began and by 11 am we were all ready to head out to the harbor.
Our first destination was Logan Airport. Logan Airport is home to some migratory snowy owls. Because of the damage they can do to a jet, the Audubon Society has a trap and release program. Snowys are trapped at Logan and released elsewhere, often at Duxbury beach.
I was on the 2nd deck when the cry went up that a snowy owl had been spotted. Unfortunately it was too far away. I couldn’t see it with my 300 mm lens. A photographer standing next to me with a gigantic lens on his camera said he couldn’t see it either. It looked like a snow pile or a white plastic jug, just a spot against the dark gravel.
That pretty much set the tone for the trip. It would have been more accurate to call it a bird watching cruise. We saw lots of birds but they were mostly fast and small. I soon got tired of trying to photograph them and settled for just watching them.
The only “wildlife” we saw were some seals hauled out on the rocks. Since it was low tide they were a good distance away from us and the sun was at the wrong angle to see much. It was more the silhouette of their “banana pose” that gave them away.
It had warmed up a great deal and the sun going in and out behind the clouds. The harbor was amazingly calm for a winter day. We cruised past Boston Light into the outer harbor.
One of the volunteers explained that they almost never get to go into the outer harbor in winter. It’s just too rough but we made it all the way out to Graves Light and even there the waves were only gentle, rolling swells.
Graves was the end of the trip. We did our turn around right in front of the light house. The return trip was leisurely as we passed the various harbor Islands, Georges Island with it’s fort, Peddocks Island with it’s 4 headlands to name only 2.
Georges Island, Boston Harbor
Peddocks Island
It turned out to be a beautiful day for a boat ride. I may not have seen much Wildlife but I had fun all the same. I’ll watch for this next year. I wouldn’t mind a repeat.
Cold feet!
It’s amazing to me where my mind goes sometimes. As I was driving to work I passed the Norton reservoir and noticed that the ice has melted in the recent warm spell. (January Thaw). Out in the middle were about 5 or 6 swans. Made me cold just to see them but then I wondered, why aren’t their feet cold?
I thought it would be a short , easy answer to share but even the short answer I found on Askanaturalist.com wasn’t so short.
Let me see if I can give you the Reader’s Digest Condensed version.
Warm blood flowing from the body into the legs and feet passes close to the veins carrying the cold blood back to the body. This warm blood starts warming the cold blood and in doing so loses some of its heat so by the time it reaches the feet it’s cooled off. This keeps the feet just warm enough to avoid frostbite.
This also reduces heat loss to the outside environment. When we go out without a hat we lose a lot of heat from our head but since the blood in the duck’s feet has already cooled , it doesn’t lose much heat to outside air, water etc.
Literally “pretty cool”.
To take it a bit further, are they uncomfortable at all in the cold?
It seems that the answer is no. Since their feet aren’t “cold” they can sit on that ice with their feathers all fluffed out and be quite content. We know those feathers are warm. That’s why we have down comforters, down sleeping bags and down winter coats. We think their feathers are pretty warm too!
If you want to read the more extensive version with the details about the arterial blood and venous blood heat exchange, here’s the link. They have nifty diagrams too.
http://askanaturalist.com/why-don%E2%80%99t-ducks%E2%80%99-feet-freeze/
