These Arms Did Swim Until The Lungs Pulled In

Hi nerds. What did you do today? Spend too much time on facebook? Ponder why your favorite football team got destroyed yesterday? Suffocate your soul behind a desk? Deviously plan doing something passive-aggressive to your supervisor?

Today was my last day of work as a Bat Conservation International employee, and it was pretty mellow, as has been the last couple days. I even got to get some low-intensity birding in yesterday afternoon, the highlight of which was hanging out with some Pectoral Sandpipers. Yeah, you know me, always flexing my pecs. Right.

So to be honest, it's really strange to know that I don't have to stare at the ground to look for dead things anymore. The end of the season really crept up on me. But I am stoked to be free once again, and I need to plan the first part of my road trip, down to Maryland and Virginia. I also need to figure out how to make potato salad, which I've never done before. Which is neither here nor there.

I know what you're thinking. "Steve, what do you think about wind power?" And by that, you mean "Steve, what should I think about wind power?". Which is a heavy question, to be sure. I'll have to brew and stew for a bit, and then I'll get back to you. It's not an easy conclusion to come to. I'll have to confer with Felonious Jive, the great ornithologist.

Fall color is in full effect now, and the forests are beautiful!!! The weather is awful, but the view anywhere I look makes up for it. I'll be sad to leave it behind, but at least I can follow it down the east coast. And once I'm mired in the swamps of Florida, I don't think I will mind.

Yours Truly,

Seagull Steve

We're Born And Then We're Dead

Most of my life, at least in the past few weeks, has been spent walking under gigantic turbines, some of which are pictured here. It's kind of eerie to have these massive, white, clean, very Orwellian looking structures towering over you at all times....and when the wind is really whipping, it gets loud under there, and you can't help but ponder the amount of power thats getting generated right next to you, only to be zipped off to be released out of some lady's hairdryer. In fact, sometimes I think the comparison goes beyond Orwell to Orson Wells and....I can't quite explain it....but keep in mind that these turbines are about 400 feet tall, and they weren't built to fuck around. They generate an enormous amount of power. These turbines are a part of the heralded Green Revolution that is beginning to take a foothold here in the United States (particularly now that Bush and his wankers have left Washington), and I think in general, they can be a Good Thing. However, it is unlikely that the world's bats are very enthusiastic about the prospect of giant hulking turbines the size of skyscrapers popping up everywhere.



People are just beginning to understand the effects that wind projects have on wildlife......but certainly the most affected are birds and bats. In this area, it is bats that get the brunt of the blades, with about 30 bats killed for every 5 birds at a turbine per year. It's thought that birds will usually go out of their way to avoid the turbines, whereas bats may actually be attracted to them somehow. But it's all hypothetical at this point. I'll try to remember to get some pictures of the next bat I find......