Mainely in Maine

Just returned from a too brief summer visit to my folks, who live in Maine. If you have never been to Maine, it is truly a special place, particularly in the summer. Not hot (at least to me, Ms. South Carolina Swamp) and it really is lovely there. A bonus is that when I visit my parents (even though I am squarely in my mid 30s) they spoil me rotten; including doing things like making my favorite foods. Like lobster, which I ate twice. Below are a list of nifty things to do in mid coast Maine.

• The Coastal Maine Botanical Garden is really a lovely place. Its brand new and located in Boothbay Harbor. The story is that 5 women put up there homes as collateral for a bank loan to purchase the land, which was for sale as new home lots. After they bought the land they began quietly fund raising, and what they have created is an amazing, enormous, plant gallery. There are some neat sculptures, nice trails to walk, really awesome stonework and a great view of a fork of the Sheepscot River (we saw a Bald Eagle).
• It seems like every Maine resident has about 1000 skills and is artistically gifted! I met one of my parent’s neighbors, who is about my age and makes nifty sand dollar jewelry sold by boutiques in Maine. This is in addition to lobstering (she has about 100 traps), having 3 children under 10, and being very active in local civic activities. Everyone up there like this! Maybe its the long winters that get those creative juices flowing. Anyway, Maine crafts are really amazing, so many talented folks! Check this out! And if they are not making lovely pottery, tiling, building furniture or sewing, they are really great artists. This is my parent’s favorite gallery. My favorite artist they carry is Andrea Peters, but I like Kevin Beers too; particularly the paintings of the house with the red roof.
• My parents live near Bath, home of the ship builder Bath Iron Works and consequently a long, long history of shipbuilding. The Maine Maritime Museum documents all this, and is fun to visit. This time, though, we went on a museum trip to Burnt Island, and island in Boothbay Harbor I gazed at every summer as a child but never visited.
• The birds, of course, are so great. My last morning I was awakened by a the sound of a Turkey gobbling and when I looked out the window there was the bird feasting on my parent’s blueberries. My parents were nonchalant about it (”oh, is that where the berries are going?”) but I thought it was cool. Other pretty birds: Blackburnian Warbler, Arctic Tern, Black-throated Blue Warbler, and Black-throated Green Warbler. And lots and lots of Ospreys.

Of course it helps that my parents are fun people that I get along well with. They are big believers in two of my favorite pastimes: nap time and cocktail hour. They make me wish I was retired!!

Introduction to Modern Dance

Last night one of my coworkers invited me to go with her to the American Dance Festival. I had never seen modern dance before, and jumped at the chance. The ADF occurs in Durham every summer, and it seems like all the cool people I attend a show or two, or in the case of my coworker, a whole bunch.

Now I must admit, I had some ideas about what Modern Dance would be like. Kinda weird, right? With some bizarre soundscape playing? I was not expecting it to be either A) hilarious, or B) featuring Donna Summer and Billy Idol (among others). But it was both of those things! I really enjoyed the performances.

The first part of the show was Larry Keigwin and Company who did two pieces, Air and Water.  Water was so humorously irreverent,  it was “about” taking a shower.  The dancers wore towels!  The dancing was amazing, too.  The second part of the show was Battleworks who did  a piece inspired by the extremely awkward square dance lessons the choreographer took as a child.  Not as funny, but it really got the point across (social dancing in 6th grade is frightening!).    Another Battleworks piece was called “Ella” and a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald.  The dancing in that was similar to Ella’s scatting style and really quite intense.

Anyway, it was a great night, and a wonderful introduction to modern dance.  Thanks, Trish for indroducing me to a great art form.

Uh, then, last night Chris and I watched Heavy Metal Parking Lot.  Which is another kind of art, really….

Dispatches from the Swamp #3

Its getting a little bit hotter and a little bit quieter in the swamp these days.  The birds are having babies and the males are spending more time with their fledglings than competing for territory with other males.   I didn’t see any snakes this week, I only saw one owl, and thanks to the drought there are almost no mosquitoes.  And all the blackberries are ripe now, so I did spend some time picking and eating. Mmm!

I wanted to share a little more about our living situation, because I think as far as work housing goes it is pretty unique.  How many jobs require you to live with your coworkers?  Many of whom you haven’t met before you started the job?  Believe me, at times it is like a less boozy Real World.  You live with a bunch of strangers, in a fairly isolated place, where you are working a physically strenuous job that requires early mornings. Most of the folks who take these field technician jobs are in school or just out, so its a young crowd.

Since I have been a full time bird geek, its not quite so extreme for me because I just come and go to the field house instead of being a full time resident there. I also believe that field biologists (or maybe field scientists in general) are fairly laid back and not prone to bad behavior.  That is not to say that in my 11 years of field work I haven’t run into some really bizarre folks!  There was a girl with rage issues (not so much fun when you are her supervisor).  A guy who spent every paycheck entirely on cds and then could not afford to feed himself and consequently fainted in the field, twice.  Two bird banders who worked together all summer and then had a big fight where it came out that the guy was in love with the girl.  Who could forget the clutzy grad student who decided one night to ride on the hood of a car armed with a butterfly net and try and catch moths and subsequently got run over (He was fine)?  Finally, there was the woman who appalled her coworkers/house mates by eating a mud snake that they found dead on the road.

Only one more month, and then we are done with field season.  At this point I am ready to enjoy a/c all the time.  So I will stay in Raleigh and stare at my computer screen until next spring when that familiar itch to go chase birds will kick in again.  Well, chase birds and  “live in a house with seven strangers…..”

Eat Your Veggies

Being someone who likes to cook, I own quite a few cookbooks. In fact, I own so many that I really actively try not to buy any more. Last year, I borrowed my sister in law’s copy of Sara Foster’s cookbook Fresh Every Day. Sarah Foster is the person behind Foster’s Market in Durham and Chapel Hill, which was one of my favorite spots when I lived out in that direction. Well, I borrowed that cookbook from Laura so long she had to sneak into my house and steal it back. So I bought it.

This cookbook introduced me to roasted vegetables. Now I had roasted all the usual veggie suspects (potatoes) but had never attempted things like peas, cabbage, or cauliflower. Its amazing what 20 minutes in the oven and a little olive oil can do! The veggies come out with so much flavor and its just so easy.

Here are some rough directions that will work for most veggies.

Take your veggies and clean and trim (for things like brussels sprouts, asparagus), chop into pieces (cauliflower), or cut into quarters (cabbage). Put in a big bowl, and toss with some salt and pepper and 2 tbsp olive oil (I throw in 2 tbsp melted butter [at Ms. Foster's reccomendation]) then pour everything on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Its not a bad idea to stir things once or twice, and please note asparagus and brussels sprouts may not take 20 minutes so you want to keep an eye on them.

Ms. Foster’s recipie for roasted peas I have now made for two work potlucks and both times it got rave reviews: roast as described above 1 package frozen peas, 1/2 pint cherry toms, and 1 small red onion, diced.

Now, go eat your veggies!

How to Spot a Wildlife Biologist

Its very easy at the beach.  Look for someone who is pasty white except for the face (and possible farmers tan) and covered with weird rashes and bug bites.   Especially on the ankles and waist (chigger bites).

Dispatches from the Swamp #2

People, it is hot, hot, hot out there and no one is more aware of it than those of us working outside. Thank goodness I am in the swamp, where at least there is lots of shade (versus working in a field, for example) and this year, amazingly, the mosquitoes are not terrible! We are also very fortunate to have a great swimming hole nearby. On the con side, our double wide trailer is an oven when we get home from work and our window A/C units cannot cut it. Nonetheless, it was a week filled with birds, snakes, and sweating.

Lets talk about snakes, baby

This week I had a lot of snake encounters. I guess because its so warm. I saw a bunch of non venomous kingsnakes and ratsnakes which are pretty nifty because they come in a variety of different colors and patterns (I searched for a good link, but no luck, go check your local library). The prettiest I saw had black spots surrounded by white outlines, really good looking. Probably on its way to eat some bird babies. I also saw a baby Copperhead and despite their bad reputation, they are a truly spiffy snake. Mostly nocturnal, so I don’t really ever see them.

Now you get introduced to my pet peeve: people who think that every snake is venomous. I understand, completely, that a lot of folks don’t really like or are afraid of snakes. That is understandable: I don’t like and fear heights, and lots of other things too. But the mass hysteria surrounding snakes is really unbelievable. Do you live in a suburban or urban area? Guess what, that is NOT a venomous snake in your yard! North Carolina alone has about 25 species of snakes and only 4 of them are venomous. And venomous snakes are not only rare, but they can’t tolerate people and development.  It makes me sad because so many other species of snakes are killed because they are mistakenly identified.

Anyway, enough preaching.  Here is a handy link that can answer all your snake questions!

Strawberry Bliss

One of the nice things about living in NC is that we have a very, very long strawberry season. It starts in Late April and goes until June. Consequently, I have been consuming them by the ton, as has my husband. They are one of his favorite foods. However, I haven’t done any baking with them, namely because every time I threaten to Chris looks horrified and asks “why can’t we just eat them plain”?  He has a point, they do taste pretty darn awesome on their own.  The other reason is because I just haven’t found a strawberry cake/tart/pie recipe that is really calling to me.

Recently in my strawberry buying at the farmer’s market I have come across these smaller berries, a different breed than the big ones.  I can’t remember the name, maybe Cavendish?  They are really delicious.  Smaller fruits and very sweet.   I still have not baked with them, but instead made a strawberry milkshake.  You know what?  It rocked!!  Nice strong berry flavor (and these were so sweet, I didn’t add any sugar).   Even Chris was happy.  Well, he would have been but he didn’t try any.  Maybe the strong pink color scared him off?

One thing I have not done is make Strawberry Daiquiris.   You can use frozen strawberries more easily on those and it gives the drink a nice icy texture.

Strawberry Milkshake

1 cup strawberries (if the berries are not sweet, add some sugar to taste)

1 cup vanilla ice cream

1/3 c milk (less if you want it thick)

Throw all that in the blender and puree.  So good!

Strawberry Daiquiri

1 package frozen strawberries (not the enormously sized bag)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

a few ice cubes, maybe 5

rum (as much as you like, I usually eyeball it)

tablespoon or so of lime juice if you want to kick it up.

Throw all this in a blender.  Blend until ice is well crushed….no little pebbles of ice should remain.

Next month….Peaches and Peach Margaritas!

100 bands in 5 days

Yep, just returned from our annual Memorial Day beach trip/music festival in Wilmington. This post title is a total misnomer, because even though Wefest boasts that many bands, I actually didn’t see that many.  In fact, I only went two nights (hey, someone had to stay at the house and drink gin and tonics).   I wanted to tell you about a few that I thought were pretty cool though.  Before I dive into that, a little background info.  Wefest is a 12 year old,  smallish festival.  Wefest this year asked various musically inclined alumni to host nights and pick the line up (they used to do the bookings by sending around mix cds and asking folks to vote on who should play!).  Its a great place to hear new bands.  The Soapbox Lounge, the hosting venue, isa fantastic 5 story venue in downtown Wilmington.

Some of 2008’s highlights:

Ear PWR

A duo from Winston Salem consisting of a guy who looks like Will Ferrell doing Napoleon Dynamite and a girl who looks like an elf with very, very large sunglasses.  They will have you dancing!  I LOVE “Sophie” because of the hilarious chorus.  Plus, I love when people write songs about their pets.

Midtown Dickens

Girl punk bluegrass.  I was so bummed that they did not play “Tetris” because that song was in my head all that day, but apparently they are moving away from cute and into bluegrass more.   They have a xylophone, AND they play the saw!!

Red Collar

This band reminds me of some of the newer Superchunk; rockin’ so hard (and boy are they great live, I have seen them a few times before, because my pal The Professor LOVES them) plus really tuneful and poppy.  I love Stay and the song with the chorus “we’ve been workin’ over time” that I don’t know the name of.  The version of Stay on the myspace page does not do the live show justice!

The other act that is newsworthy is Poingly, just because I found him so…..nearly naked as to be distracting.  And not in a good way!  Not sure about the music….

We had a great time with our usual gang of pals we vacation with: late night card playing, beach going, went and saw Iron Man (which is a great flick) and sleeping real late.  Fun times!

Yes, I speak Okie

I just got back from the SPNHC Conference (we academics call that “spinach”) meetings in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City is really neat! We had a good time exploring, when not in meetings and at social events. The conferences were great, very motivating. It is nice to hobnob with people who do the same thing I do. In addition, bonding time was had with my own coworkers.

Here are a few things you should know about Oklahoma City if you ever plan to go there:

1) They have the coolest state bird ever, The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. Awesome!

2) They have a street named after The Flaming Lips

3) The city has done all these really neat urban renewal and art projects. They have built a new stadium for the baseball team, turned an area of old warehouses and puddles into the very hip Brickyard area, turned a vernal river into a nationally renowned kayaking/sculling center, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Its a fun place to hang out.

4) Being in the middle of a tornado area, they have a big research center at OU. You can pay to go chase tornadoes!

5) The Sam Noble Museum is really great, especially the trail of tears exhibit.

6) I found the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial very moving. They have made beauty and brought hope out of a horrible tragedy.

7) Our hotel ruled! It was very swanky, though I was bummed we didn’t get to meet the ghost.

Oklahoma is flat, and breezy. Apparently the weather there can be quite intense…very hot in the summer. We hit it at just the right time! A great conference, and a very nice city. And trust me, its not a party until someone does the limbo under the Wooly Mammoth statue….

Dispatches From the Swamp #1

I will probably have a number of swamp dispatches this summer, considering I am spending a LOT of time down there, chasing Swainson’s Warblers. The swamp I work in is on the border of Marion and Horry (pronounced oar-y) counties in South Carolina. Its a red water swamp, and filled with cool birds: Prothonotary Warblers, Kentucky Warblers, Summer Tanangers, Acadian Flycatchers, Swallow-tailed Kites, and of course, lots and lots of Swainson’s (SWWA). This past week I did radio telemetry, which is where you follow around a bird that is wearing a tiny antenna. When you get a visual of the bird you take a GPS point and a lot of notes. Its actually sort of fun, except that some of the birds are real weenies and fly across really deep sloughs or have territories that are really hard to walk through: full of briers and whatnot. Two birds (there are 11 currently with antenna) named Channel 2 and Channel 3 and are my favorites to work on. Paired up, they are always together being real cute, plus their territory is easy to traverse. Best of all, it is an area I know well enough that I don’t worry about getting lost. On my final visit, she was preening and he was foraging in vines around her. Sweet!

I did have some really cool Barred Owl encounters this week, which was probably the highlight. Barred Owls are active in the day and at night (we academics call that diurnal). They eat most everything, and make all kinds of bizarre noises. At one point, I was standing on the bank of a slough (slow moving creek that runs through the swamp) and one flew in, grabbed a frog from the bank 5 feet away from me and flew off. Later, after work one flew in and landed in the dirt road where I was parked and ate something (a bug, I think) and then flew off and stared at me until I drove off. Another I saw on my way back to Raleigh was taking a sun or dust bath in the dirt road.

Its worth describing our living conditions when we are working. We live in a trailer park, though, trailer park is a pretty fancy name considering its actually where trailers go to die. Its a hunt camp, so there really is not much going on in the summer, when people only come occasionally in to fish. Our project, over the last 8 years, has lived in nearly all of the trailers in the park. Most are single wides with an addition built on, some are true shacks, and some are pull behind the car trailers with additions on them. Quite a hodge podge. Birding is great in the trailer park though, its sandy soil and pine trees, so Orchard Orioles and Summer Tanagers and Chuck Wills Widows abound.

More to follow, as the summer adventures continue….