Earth Day 2017

The last two years on this or my other blog I’ve done Earth Day Resolutions. This year on Earth Day I marched through the streets with a few thousand other scientists, punny and error-free signs raised high, mostly quiet but some of us shouting “What do we want?” “Science!” “When do we want it?” “After peer-review!” and “Climate Change!” “IS REAL!”. It felt good to be united like that, it felt positive to be there. But at the same time…where the hell are we living right now that I had to march down the street declaring Climate Change Is Real? In NEW ORLEANS of all places, a city which could be half underwater within the next hundred years (no, that is not exaggeration). Especially because I live in a region that DOESN’T EVEN RECYCLE! Like, literally, there is no recycling plant in New Orleans. I don’t know how it works in Baton Rouge but out here I don’t think you can recycle anything but paper/cardboard and even that is hard to find. It makes my skin crawl. How did we as a country, as people get so far off track?

The next day I went out into the field for my research. I saw some really beautiful things out there that gave me hope.

Like this Roseate Spoonbill nest!

And this beautiful Forster's Tern egg.

And this sora! A secretive marsh bird I've heard thousands of times (literally just heard one from my room) but never seen before!

And these absolutely adorable Tricolored Heron fluffbabies!

And of course this excellent pelican parenting behavior!

But I also saw this:

Pelican nest made with a plastic tarp and a Slim Jim wrapper.

And this:

 

Forster's Tern nest made on a bottle and some other random plastic junk that washed ashore.

People are the absolute fucking worst, man. And I don’t mean “people who litter” or “people who hate science”…I mean PEOPLE. You and me included. It is functionally just about impossible in this world, especially in this country, to live in a way that doesn’t contribute to the plastic and acidity in our oceans, the gases warming our atmosphere, deforestation, the decline of other species. There may be a few people who manage it but I can’t imagine how. Obviously, there are people who try to limit their impact and people who don’t, or even worse who deny they even have one which is absolute fucking lunacy, but it just doesn’t feel like enough. It never feels like enough. I don’t know if it’s possible that it could be enough at this point.

But that doesn’t mean we stop trying. If we fail, we’re killing ourselves, not the entire planet. It will keep spinning without us and other species will continue to grow and evolve. Maybe a new species will develop technology like we did and be better at it (my money is on Bonobos, personally. Solving problems with sex, not violence, seems like a real good way to start towards decreasing harmful individualism). I find that oddly comforting.

This is a massively depressing Earth Day post. But then, this is a massively depressing day in a massively depressing year in a massively depressing political climate that I hope desperately will not last.

Anyway. Our work continues:

Earth Day Resolutions:

   1. Continue taking reusable bags grocery shopping – I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but also remember to bring them when shopping other places as well (works just as well for clothes, random junk from Target or Home Depot, or whatever).

   2. Rent a house where I can garden and grow as much produce as possible. I can even garden in the winter down here! If possible, also get backyard chickens.

   3. Get over feeling embarrassed and weird about asking for coffee in a reusable cup at Starbucks, etc. Do it anyway.

   4. Continue going to grad school and learning more about our environment and how to protect it.
   5. Take time to really appreciate and be grateful for the beautiful things I get to see every day. Field journal regularly!

   6. Blog more often/practice communication for a non-scientific public.

The Comeback Kid

You want to hear a story of resilience? Brown pelicans (Pelicanus occidenalis) almost went extinct in the US in the '60s and '70s. They disappeared completely from Louisiana ("The Pelican State") in 1963. As with almost all near-extinctions these days, the culprit was humans. Specifically, DDT, the chemical most famous for almost killing off bald eagles.

How do you like me now, humans?

Pelicans have big ol' flappy feet. Witness:

https://www.emaze.com/@ALFQIRFL/brown-pelican

And one of my VERY FAVORITE things about pelicans is that unlike other birds who lay on their eggs with their feathery breasts or even develop a brood patch (bare patch of skin on the chest that keeps the eggs extra toasty warm) pelicans stand on their eggs with their big ol' flappy feet to incubate! Is that not the cutestbest?! Of course, when you stand on your eggs and a pesticide like DDT makes the shells really brittle you can guess what happens.

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/broken-egg-royalty-free-image/108514822

Near extinction, is what. Luckily, they were labeled as Endangered in 1970, a regulation banned DDT in 1972, and pelicans from Florida were raised and released all across their former range. They are still a Species of Concern in Louisiana but they were taken off the Federal Endangered Species list in 2009.

In 2003, four pairs were seen nesting on Rabbit Island, a tiny island in Southwestern Louisiana. This was a part of their original range but no one had seen them there for decades. It is a couple hundred miles west of the closest nesting island in Eastern Louisiana, where the majority nest, and a couple hundred miles east of the closest nesting colony in Texas. It's a unique tiny island that is technically in a "lake" mostly cut off from the Gulf, except by a shipping channel. 

Over the next several years more and more birds started to nest there. It became incredibly important in 2010 as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill gushed toxic oil into the Gulf of Mexico and a huge clean-up began, including saving and cleaning pelicans who had become oiled. 

(I don't want to put a picture of an oiled pelican in here because they are tragic and make me feel sick. Google them if you haven't already seen it)

Rabbit Island became an important release site, mostly because it was known that other pelicans thrived there and it was not affected by the oil in the Gulf. Leg-banded oil spill birds can still be seen on the island during nesting season.

Now there are hundreds, possibly thousands of pelicans nesting on this one tiny island, flying and diving and fishing and raising weird-looking alien babies and being hilariously regal. We saw at least 100 nests yesterday and it is still about a month earlier than they usually start nesting in earnest.

All of this only happened because of dedicated scientists, animal caretakers, the Endangered Species Act, and the EPA. This is one story among hundreds. It happens to be very close to my heart, but so is the fact that forty years ago Sandhill cranes were nearly extirpated in Wisconsin, Whooping cranes were nearly extinct in the wild, and gray wolves are still touch-and-go in many of their home ranges because as soon as they are delisted everyone wants to start hunting them again.

We need regulations. We need the Endangered Species Act. We need the EPA. We need big goofy birds that fly in Squadrons and have a net for a mouth and incubate with their feet.

Herp de Derp

I got to play with so many herps (bio nerd speak for reptiles and amphibians) today! It was the best day and I learned so much! I'm sharing with you both so that I remember and in the hopes that I can spread the herp love far and wide. ...Hang on, that didn't sound right.

Southern Toad
Bufo terrestris

Sounds like this. Will not give you warts, I promise.

Six-lined Racerunner
Aspidoselis sexlineata

LOOK AT THOSE AMAZING TOES! They have huge feet, super long tails, and racing stripes: no wonder they are nearly impossible to catch by hand! (Luckily, this one stumbled into our trap, muahahaha).

Fence Lizard
Sceloporous undulatus

LOOK AT THIS TINY DRAGON! Look at how bright blue his beautiful belly is! Look at those spiny keeled scales down their back which makes them feel like Velcro! My new favorite lizard, partially because of how beautiful he is, partially because this guy got out of my hands and climbed all over my back and down my leg and was generally adorable, and partially because they are big predators for bot flies and chiggers, the latter having recently become the bane of my existence. As my Magic Field Guide says: "Does no damage. Entirely worthy of protection, which it does not often get."

Black Racer
Coluber constrictor

Little, light, speedy, agile. Despite the Latin moniker, does not constrict prey. Also, this was the first snake I actually got to pit tag (basically like micro-chipping your dog but underneath their scales). He was really very sweet about it.

Gray Rat Snake
Pantherophis spiloides

Locals call this an Oak Snake, probably because they are especially good climbers and are often found up trees. This one is a baby, probably less than a year old! Isn't he gorgeous?

Corn Snake/Red Rat Snake
Pantherophis guttatus

Absolutely stunning. Look at that color! The black and white checkered underbelly! In love. Definitely the most active and squirmy of the snakes I held today, but in the exact same exploring, non-bitey way the captive corn/red rat snake we have at the office was.

Coachwhip Snake
Masticophis flagellum

Coachwhip snakes: beautiful bullwhips with eyes! I adore these guys. We caught five today! They are ENORMOUS. Just massive. All of the ones we caught today were somewhere between 5-6+ feet! Also they are fun because they are extremely menacing in the trap, wiggling all over and striking and biting the glove, but as soon as you get them in hand they go completely limp, as seen above.

Also, even though they are enormous, coachwhip snakes are super fast! Maybe even faster than black racers! From my Magic Field Guide: "Speed is phenomenal, and to catch it, one must almost reach ahead of it."

Also from my Magic Field Guide: apparently slaves were told that coachwhip snakes would whip them with their tails to scare them and keep them from running away into "unsettled country" where the snakes lived. They do not do that, incidentally.

Another fun fact I learned today: technically all snakes are venomous - they all have the venom gland - they just don't all have fangs to deliver the venom. Coachwhips do not. But! All snakes have anti-coagulant in their saliva so if you do get bitten by any snake it will bleed. A lot. Luckily, I did not learn this the hard way. Also luckily, most snakes, venomous or not, really don't want to bite you.

Reptiles and amphibians are fantastic! The vast majority are not scary, and even the scary ones pretty much just want to get away from you. Not a single one of these guys tried to bite me once they were in my hands or once I released them. Reptiles are friends!

SNAKE HUG! ...For real he just wrapped around me and rested like that. <3

Earth Day Resolutions 2016

Last year on Earth Day I got incredibly fed up and ranted on my personal blog about how frustrating I find the lackluster celebration of this miraculous place that we live and are also slowly killing on a daily basis (here) and called for an Earth Day tradition that will actually accomplish something, even in a small way. Everything I said in that post is compounded by the recent scientific study showing that 93% of the Great Barrier Reef is bleached and 50% is dead (here). The video in that last link is heartbreaking. One of the greatest and most meaningful experiences in my life - personal and professional - was living at the Lizard Island Research Station in Australia and snorkeling on the GBR every day. I cannot put into words how beautiful, otherworldly, and completely transformative it is. The fact that National Geographic reported that it's possible the entire reef, the largest living organism on the planet, could be dead by 2050...it's too big and too sad to comprehend.

And that, I think, is the essential problem. Climate change is too large to hold in your mind. If you actually thought about the impact we are collectively having on the planet and what it will mean even within our lifetime it would crush you and so you don't think about it all that much. That is certainly my instinct. It is so hard to care about something so big and so hard, especially in our disposable, consumer culture which constantly tells you not to care. But I really think no one has said it better than the Lorax:

The Lorax, Dr. Suess

Last fall I was lucky enough to work on and attend the Midwest Youth Climate Convergence, in which youth from all over the Midwest came together to talk and learn and strategize. It was an incredibly reifying experience because there were hundreds of us who gave up our Halloween weekend to come together and learn about the climate fights we're all fighting - from high schoolers who volunteer for interfaith groups encouraging sustainability to folks who started their own companies to reforest parts of India or to help get neighborhoods switched over to renewable energy sources, to a group who started an organic farm co-op in southern Minnesota. We brainstormed about stopping oil pipelines and getting universities and cities to divest from fossil fuels and how to grow a green economy. I went to talks on how the current system is being maintained and why it is necessarily broken and also how to use the system to create companies to do good (taught by the same guy, who was awesome) and through all of it we focused on justice and compassion and love. Although the issues we were tackling were huge and terrifying, it was probably the most hopeful I have ever felt because we all cared so much and we were all acting and we were all together.

The climate movement is real. We're not alone. It's hard, being fairly nomadic and isolated at this time in my life, to feel that way but there is a great community of folks doing a huge diversity of things who all care passionately. And so despite the broken system and despite the warming planet and despite the doomsday news there is reason for hope.

But we need more folks, to do big things and small. And so I am once again challenging you to make some Earth Day Resolutions! Remember to make them achievable, something small you can keep in mind even when you can't hold the enormity of climate change. Here are mine for this year:

1. Bring reusable bags to the grocery store every time. This INCLUDES the reusable mesh bags for produce. I made this one last year and was not the best at following through. Just keep them in your car all the time and don't forget to bring them into the store!
2. Continue to improve my outreach skills, talk about issues, and volunteer to help with social media/media outreach. I like writing about things that I'm passionate about. I think I'm pretty good at it. I want to get better. It's hard to volunteer from afar and it's hard to try to plug in to new groups wherever I go, so it might even just be blogging here more and trying to get folks excited about the things I love about nature. To love a thing is to defend it.
3. Buy locally sourced (at least domestic, and as local as possible) produce. Learn to cook more things if the thing I want isn't in season (this will be considerably easier in Florida, I imagine).
4. Buy second-hand stuff as much as possible.
5. Recycle some old shirts I don't wear anymore and use them as rags and brush cleaners so I don't use as many paper towels.

Those are mine. I look forward to seeing yours. Remember: we're all in this together.

When is an Oak Tree an Evergreen?

When it's a live oak!

One of my absolute favorite trees is the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana). They range from Virginia to Texas, mostly along the coast as they like moist sandy soil and flooding. I love them because they are huge, gnarly, excellent climbing trees that are green all through the winter.

Don't you just NEED to climb it? This is "The Big Tree" in Texas, about 500 years old and not even the oldest one!

Yes, they are an oak species (Quercus is the same genus as the bur and white oaks in the Midwest) that keeps its leaves all winter! It's wonderful! It makes all winter seem like early spring to someone who is used to snow and everything looking dead. The crazy part, though, is that they lose their leaves in the spring and grow new ones basically immediately, which means that springtime in Charleston (and anywhere else there are a lot of live oaks) looks like this:

But then also like this:

The live oaks do a neat trick of growing new leaves as the old ones fall so they never really look barren and dead even when dead leaves are strewn around their roots in huge piles. New leaves look like this:

You might recognize that as "not what oak leaves look like". They usually look like this:

http://justpict.com/image-white-oak-leaf.html

Live oak leaves are thick, leathery, waxy, unlobed, and much smaller than species like white and bur oaks. The thick waxiness helps them withstand salt spray in their coastal range. I couldn't find anything in my research as to why their leaves are shaped so differently (I looked). My best guess is that the adaptation helps them survive in the high winds of the coast. They are extremely sturdy and durable trees and in many areas are constantly windblown. I think large, thin, lobed leaves like other oaks would blow off, killing the tree even though it is strong enough to withstand it.

And they are extremely strong. They live for hundreds and hundreds of years in incredibly harsh conditions - windblown, salt-sprayed, surviving hurricanes and floods. They grow fast and they grow heavy and tough. Before they were largely ornamental shade trees, they were used for shipbuilding. In fact, the USS Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides" was actually made of live oak. For context, it was launched in 1797, survived several battles at sea during the war of 1812, was active for nearly 100 years, and still sails - the oldest warship still afloat.

http://newenglandboating.com/

Whooops I digressed from Natural History Nerd to just plain History Nerd. Sorry about that! Anyway, the point is: live oak trees are the greatest. They are beautiful and wonderful and they live so long that they've collapsed spring and fall into the same season. There is basically nowhere better to be than up a live oak tree.

YOLO (You Obviously Love Owls)

Welcome to my new nature blog!

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but I love owls. I mean, I just had one permanently etched into my skin, so...yeah, I'm pretty committed at this point.

"But, Karis!" I hear you all cry in unison, "How do you possibly remember what all the different owls sound like?"

WELL, I'M GLAD YOU ASKED THAT, INTERNET.

I'm not going to cover all owl species in this one blog post, and - like most animals - owls make a variety of noises and I'm just going to cover the most common ones, but here are some of the most likely responses to "I HEARD A  BIRDLIKE THING AT NIGHT, WHAT WAS IT?!"

Let's start with the one everyone learns first:

Barred owl

Strix varia

Says: Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you aaalll? (Four staccato notes repeated followed by a longer trilled note. Sometimes heard without the long trilled note (the "aaalll" part) but it is still a barred owl!)

More about barred owls

The one that is frequently confused with the barred owl:

Great horned owls (the kind of owl that lives on my side)

Bubo virginianus

Says: Who's awake? Me tooooo. (Three staccato notes followed by two long notes)

More about great horned owls

If you hear an extremely stereotypical owl it is probably:

Long-eared owl

Asio otus

Literally just says "Hoo." I didn't think any of them actually sounded like this, but they totally do.

More about long-eared owls

If you hear a noise that sounds like a tiny tiny horse (and you are East of the Mississippi) it is probably:

Eastern screech-owl

Megascops asio

These guys make a lot of noises but the most common/cutest is called the "whinny". Seriously. A tiny tiny horse. They also trill a lot. They're adorable.

More about the eastern screech owl

If you are West of the Mississippi and you hear something that sounds like a bouncy-ball dropping with increasing frequency it is probably:

Western screech-owl

Megascops kennicottii

They don't really sound anything like the eastern screech-owl. Bouncy-ball increasing in frequency is really the best way I can describe it.

More about the western screech-owl

If you hear something that sounds like A NIGHTMARE TERROR BEAST it is probably:

Barn owl

Tyto alba

Seriously. Like nightmares and/or murder victims.

More about the barn owl

And that's owl for now! I will probably do another installment with more owl noises in the future. Let me know what you think of my new blog and if there is anything you particularly want to learn about and I will see what I can do.

Also, title stolen from Jeph Jacques. You can totally buy a shirt that says it here.