This day marks

THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THREE DAYS of hearty, and joyful howling on Sherwood brought to you by the Sherwood Howlers.

THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THREE DAYS.

CLOSING IN ON OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY. TWENTY-TWO DAYS AND COUNTING.

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Tonight I am howling for SPRING

It is about time.

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SIXTY SECOND NATURAL HISTORY NOTE

Bird Satellite Tracking

You engineers are going to love this.

One of the most exciting recent advancements in ecology is the ability to track the movements of birds using satellite telemetry. In one method, scientists place on a bird a tiny receiver that accepts signals from 31 GPS satellites to give a correct position. They can calculate an exact location (latitude, longitude, and elevation above sea level) for the bird, in real time. The receivers are battery powered and can even be fitted with tiny solar panels for recharge.

Another technique uses Argos tags. Instead of receiving information from a satellite like GPS tags do, Argos tags send information to a different set of satellites, the Argos constellation. The satellites then send the location of the tag back to receivers on the Earth’s surface. Technicians place these receivers on cell towers and whenever a tagged bird flies within range scientists can decide its location.

These technologies have revolutionized the study of bird migration. Researchers can sit in front of a computer and watch a bird on its annual migratory journey. They can follow its every movement once it is in its breeding range, coming and going from a nest site. And they can track its movements in its winter foraging range.

Take Winnie the Whimbrel for example.

Whimbrels are wading sandpiper-like birds with striking long decurved beaks designed just right for picking crabs and other crustaceans, marine worms, and mollusks. They migrate between arctic nesting areas and wintering grounds as far south as Bolivia, sometimes having to skirt hurricanes as they fly over open ocean. The rich maritime feeding grounds of the Delmarva Peninsula (Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia coasts) are a critical “rest stop” on their migratory journey. Before telemetry we only had a vague notion of Whimbrel migration and of the extreme importance of the Delmarva Peninsula as a “refueling station”.

Satellite telemetry is helping scientists figure out precise bird migratory routes. These days one can even fit a monarch butterfly with a telemetry device.

Whimbrels have been frequenting the rich feeding grounds of the Delmarva Peninsula for thousands of years. How goes things on the ground on the Peninsula so goes Whimbrel populations. Much of the Peninsula is given over now to large scale agricultural enterprise, not good for crabs and other Whimbrel food. Whimbrel populations are declining.

Why should we care about Whimbrels? It’s simple for me. They are one of God’s creatures, just like you and me. Why not?

Researchers from the College of William and Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology and The Nature Conservancy captured Winnie on the Delmarva Peninsula and fitted her with an ultramodern satellite tracking device, which weighed just over a third of an ounce. Winnie left her winter feeding grounds on the Peninsula on May 23, 2008 and flew to breeding grounds on the Mackenzie River near the Alaska-Canada border. She sailed along at an average flight speed of nearly 22 miles per hour, covering more than 5,000 kilometers (3,200 miles) in no more than 146 hours.

“This discovery sets a new distance record in the flight range of this species and highlights the importance of the Delmarva Peninsula as a staging area for migratory shorebirds,” Bryan Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology said.

There are two distinct populations of whimbrels, a western group breeding in Alaska and the Northwest Territories of Canada and an eastern population, which breeds south and west of Hudson Bay in Manitoba and Ontario. Before telemetry scientists believed that the western birds followed a Pacific coast migration, while the eastern population migrated along the Atlantic shoreline. Both populations are experiencing a decline in numbers.

Winnie surprised scientists by making a direct transcontinental flight, northwestward toward Alaska, rather than taking the route expected for a bird belonging to the eastern population of whimbrels.

The Delmarva Peninsula has been recognized as a globally important bird area, a hemispheric shorebird reserve and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Winnie’s flight shows at least some of the birds are migrating much longer distances than scientists had thought, a revelation that highlights the area’s value as a feeding station between the birds’ tropical wintering grounds and their Canadian breeding areas.

“The discovery that whimbrels use the site as a terminal staging area before embarking on a transcontinental flight suggests that the site is uniquely suited to provide the tremendous amount of energy required to prepare birds for such a flight,” he said. Armed with such information, scientists are better equipped to argue for habitat protection and preservation.

Then there are vultures. One of my favorite birds. Much misaligned and certainly misunderstood by many of us, ancient Egyptians associated vultures with motherhood. Why? Because in actual fact they are good mothers. Now scientists can affix tracking devices to vultures and literally watch them in real time as they roam the landscape looking for carrion upon which to feed, preforming a very important “environmental service” for us human beings.

During the period of 2003 t0 2014 scientists at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania fitted a number of vulture species with telemetric transmitters in an effort to learn more about vulture migration.

A few startling findings?

One western North American vulture species migrates over 5,000 miles between the northern reaches of their range in south-central Canada and southern reaches in northern Venezuela and Columbia.

One female bird, affectionately called Leo by her research team, fitted with a receiver in 2007, returned to the same grove of palm trees on a farm in western Venezuela every year, As of 2016, she was still returning to that same grove. How the heck does she do that?

Finally, Vultures are monogamous – devoted to each other for life. Who knew that such vile creatures could possibly have that kind of dedication?  They have this marriage thing figured out. They literally take a vacation from one another for part of the year, migrating separately along the same route to and from summer and winter grounds and spending their winters separately. But as spring comes on they return to their summer homes, find their beloved, mate and start new families. Their commitment is built into their genes. They are bound to find one another or die trying. How do they do that?

What bird gets the prize for the longest migration?

Miniature telemetric transmitters show that the tiny arctic tern makes the longest migration of any animal in the world. This 4-ounce bird follows zigzagging routes between Greenland and Antarctica each year and builds up 24,000 frequent flyer miles each season. Arctic terns live 30 years or more. Over that lifetime, an arctic tern migrates about 1.5 million miles, equal to three trips to the moon and back.

The more we learn about bird movements, the more their marvelous nature is revealed. Its spring. Baltimore Orioles, Tree Swallows, Black-billed Cuckoos, Cedar Waxwings, Cliff Swallows, Chimney Swifts, Common Nighthawks, Eastern Kingbirds, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Indigo Buntings, and so many other species are arriving, taking up residence in our forests, and fields, or passing through on their way to breeding grounds further north, each hoping to find a mate and raise a family. Just like us.

What a beautiful story.

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AMERICAN TRAVELS

May 16, 2014

A Map of Our Travels Today on the ICW. Click on the Mark.

We are anchored in Adams Creek, a tributary to the Neuse River. Mile 187 of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Light E winds, seventy degrees, clear skies. Dolphins came by. Expect to see them less often as we move north. A pleasant night, however, this morning the usual fleet of power boats coming by. A couple thoughtlessly throwing up big bow waves. One that almost knocked our coffee pot over, an offence punishable by death.

On the move at 10:30 hours to enter the Neuse. Oriental lays to the north just across the river but we bear east northeast down the Neuse, avoiding Gum Thicket Should, then round Maw Point at the confluence of the Neuse and Pamlico Sound. We take a left into the Bay River and reentered the ICW at Mile 160. Stopped at RE Mayo’s where shrimp boats bring their seafood delicacies. We tied up at the dock and bought ocean scallops. Paid eighteen dollars a pound which is exorbitant, but these scallops could have not been fresher. Straight from the catch boat into our boat. Are we looking forward to tonight’s supper? You will think so.

We continue past Hobucken Bridge then to Campbell Creek, where we anchored at ICW mile 154 after a 33 mile run.

Dinner time!

Cocktailed up, enjoyed the evening, anticipating those super large sea scallops. Into the pan they go, swimming in butter, pepper, and garlic, simmered for no more than four minutes, served at once. Lip smacking good! Carrots and rice side. A couple of ice cold IPAs wash down.

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The Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) found off northeastern United States and eastern Canada was our dinner tonight. We eat the adductor muscle, the larger and ever so tasty muscle responsible for opening and closing the scallop shell.

Unfortunately, the harvest method involves dredging or bottom trawling, both methods which cause significant damage to other bottom flora and fauna.

There are better ways.

I don’t know why I feel compelled to tell you these things, I just do. Maybe it is my firm belief that life is to be savored every second, not to be taken for granted, and shared. Every second is a gift, a treasure.

Tomorrow, onward into Pamlico Sound and Ocracoke, NC.

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COVID 19 IN VIRGINIA, STAUNTON, AND AUGUSTA COUNTY

Today’s Trends and Notes

1. The state seven day positivity rate is dropped slightly to 5.4%.
2. New cases per capita in Virginia are holding steady, at 226 today.
3. New cases in last 24 hours in Staunton and Augusta County are in single digits and have been for a week.
4. Augusta County and Staunton’s case curves still trending down.
5. The average 14 day case rate for all localities I follow rose today for first time in a while.
6. In the past 24 hours VDH reported that 994 people are in hospitals currently with COVID 19, a rise from 978 yesterday.
7. Virginia administered a total of 3,075,086 vaccinations to date.
8. Virginia is now averaging 46,772 vaccinations per day. I have read that soon vaccine supplies will increase. This should increase the vaccination rate if Virginia can find added vaccinators.
9. At this rate it will take 160 days to vaccinate all Virginians and 136 days to get to herd immunity.
10. 1,114,156 people have received two doses.
11. 13% of Virginians are fully vaccinated.

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QUOTES OF THE DAY (CORONOVIRUS)

“Vaccines don’t cause autism. Vaccines, instead, prevent disease. Vaccines have wiped out a score of formerly deadly childhood diseases. Vaccine skepticism has helped to bring some of those diseases back from near extinction.”

Alex Pareene

“I don’t believe the FDA is telling the truth. The vaccine is not ready yet and people I know who have taken it are having serious side effects and doctors are covering it up.”

– 42 year old, female, black, independent, North Carolina, “definitely not”

“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

Donald Trump

“I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.”

Donald Trump

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