I am beginning to think my blog should have some sort of weather term in the title since I end up talking about the weather 9 times out of 10. The thing is, my job is so dependent on the weather that my days go one way or the other depending on what it looks like outside. This time of the year, when we usher thousands of children a month through this building and on our trails, weather is critical. We have been extremely lucky these past few weeks. Beautiful weather and so the kids coming through here and going on hikes are happy. The animals are out more in this weather too, so the kids get to see more. Green frogs, bullfrogs, geese, deer with fawn, turtles, muskrat, all kinds of nesting birds.
Animals aren't just busy at Tanglewood, they are busy elsewhere too. Including in people's backyards. Consequently, this is also the time of year Tanglewood gets phone calls about what to do with abandonded baby animals (we can't really help, we have to refer them to licensed rehabilitators), and questions about bird identification. I love the calls where people ask for someone that knows about birds to talk to. Often it is me that takes the calls, then the person on the other end proceeds to try and imitate a bird they have been hearing in their backyard. "It's kind of like a cheep, cheep, creak, chitter, coo... Can you tell me what it is?" Usually I can't tell them. But sometimes I can. Then there are the visual IDs, "It is big, like a hawk, but has red on its head, blue wings and a brown tail...I think maybe it is going to try and kill my cat..." Whaaah? I had a call the other day from someone wanting me to ID a tree over the phone. "I don't think it is from this country, maybe China, has red, sticky, sweet things with no seeds..." I couldn't ID the tree, although these questions intrigue me enough to spend time trying to figure out the mystery long after I get off the phone with people. One of my questions to myself after I got off the phone this time was, how did he know the red, sticky things were SWEET? :-) People are funny and they make my job much more interesting.
Today I looked out my window to fourth graders from Cohen Elementary School braving the sprinkles to try and catch a glimpse of nature. They didn't seem to let this weather get the best of them. Their teachers were troopers and followed along, but didn't look as happy as the kids did. That's one of the differences between kids and adults. Kids don't really let weather stop them from enjoying life, adults sometimes do. I admit I am a tad grouchy when it rains, especially when it lasts for days. And cold rain with wind totally bums me out. But kids want to go outside no matter what the weather. If it is raining, they want to splash in the puddles, really windy, how about flying a kite? Sprinkling out? Let's go look for frogs. So I am going to try and get outside today before I leave work, rain and all-and I'll even try and enjoy myself.
I am actually happy to see people posting and debating and asking questions regarding my blog on global warming.
I would like to suggest people who haven't, read a few general articles regarding global warming. Like this article from Time magazine, written before Al Gore’s movie/book came out. Good information article for the layman.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html Then read the following regarding snow and global warming, they illustrate that global climate change will have different effects in different parts of the world. It is a complex system, but the general workings of climate are long known and understood. (For example, warmer temps over water equals more ability to hold moisture= more snow. We live in an area where temps go from below 0 to 95+. Global warming of 2 to 5 or even 10 degrees in our area in the winter doesn’t have to mean no snow at all, it may mean MORE snow in fact- snow happens at the freezing point and the Northeast gets a lot of our snow from fronts moving over the lakes).
Warmer temps at the poles though can have different effects than here inland because of the glacial ice melting, ice that is floating in water, which attracts sun’s rays and heats up quicker than land. This is where the problem with the sea levels stems from. There are millions of people that live at or below sea level and flooding of coastal cities can cause major devastation as we saw in New Orleans.
CO2 levels in the atmosphere ARE and HAVE BEEN rising since the industrial revolution. The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more “trapped” the sun’s rays become on Earth.
We ARE seeing a global rise in temperature, overall.
(Both of the above have been recorded and you can find the numbers/graphs quite easily if you look)
But regardless
No matter what your belief is about global warming, why it is happening, or even if you think it isn’t…what is the harm in trying to lower our CO2 emissions? What is wrong with better safe than sorry?
MONEY. More important than trying to find cleaner, more efficient ways to fuel our vehicles and heat our homes. More important than anything else….? Not to me. And frankly I hope I am wrong about global warming, but I don’t think I am and I am not taking the chance, so I teach my kids and I speak out, but I try my darndest not to be rude about it. I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and of course is welcome to express it, but it should be constructive and not mean-spirited and preferably be based on some sort of science, not just casual observation and the "feeling" that someone is trying to make our lives more difficult because of some political agenda. I, for one, don't have a political agenda, I just have the belief that we should leave a good place for our children and our children's children to live in.
Yesterday, our long-time friend, Buddy the Groundhog, died. He turned 10 this spring, which is at least twice what he would have lived in the wild. I hope he had a good life here. He was brought to Tanglewood as a baby and has been here ever since. Liz, our dedicated animal care volunteer, took care of Buddy from day 1 and after saying goodbye to him during his burial today, will no longer volunteer with us. It was a sad day for everyone- we lost Buddy and Liz. But I appreciate all the people that touched Buddy's life and I think all of the thousands of kids that Buddy helped us teach are grateful they got to meet him. Those of us who spent every day with him have wonderful memories of his antics. Buddy was a personality. He was Houdini- he could get out of any cage or carrier, but he never went far. He knew where his bananas and cheese crackers came from. He could dance, he chewed on things he probably shouldn't have, like pant legs, and he had a habit of trashing his cage like a madman every spring when he "woke up" from his long winter nap. We sure are gonna miss him. Goodbye Old Buddy and Thanks.
When I was first approached about doing a nature blog, I wondered, what in the World would I write about several times a week? Sometimes I stretch it a bit- it's not always exactly about nature, usually because I have had a busy week of meetings, classes, lacrosse and soccer games, no exciting encounters in nature. I've been doing this since March and today I got my first comments to my blog, at least the first that I noticed. And they weren't nice. They say my blog is boring, my life is boring, to get a real job and something about tanning? (yes, I have tanned, but not recently and never again and funnily enough...forget it, my man knows the story). So yes, I am sure my musings might be boring to some people. But it's someone's life. My life. I most certainly don't expect everyone to want to read about it. And I don't expect everyone to agree with everything I write. But I write it because I was asked to, and because it forces me to focus on nature, when sometimes I seem to be too busy to.
The negative posts to my blog gave me pause though. At first I was kind of mad, but after I had time to think about them, I was thankful. Thankful because negativity can be useful if you let it be. I have been writing this blog for several months, with no comments at all. The first comments I get are negative. Disappointing? Yes, a bit. But the negative comments were a reminder to me to not judge people or be mean. I have been through a fair amount in my "boring" life. From the death of my Father at a fairly early age, to taking care of myself for most of my teen years, to getting married early, to working my way through college to a divorce after being married for almost 15 years. I have learned a lot. I have made mistakes. Some that I regret, but I learned something from every one of my mistakes. I try to learn as I go and become a better person. We all need to be reminded to try and be better people. So thanks "anonymous". I know you were trying to make me feel bad for some reason, but you just reminded me to try and be kind and not judge. And you reminded me I am glad for my boring life.
I decided this past winter that we needed to do something about the invasive Autumn Olive bushes that are littering our upper meadow. We have a species of bird, the Grasshopper Sparrow, that is on the DEC's Special Concern list and they nest in our grasslands. But our grasslands are being taken over by this invasive shrub and the birds don't like shrubs. I tried to write a grant to help fund removing the bushes, but it didn't come to fruition, so our Board and some devoted Tanglewood members took the project under their wing, so to speak. We made a plan to work on removing these bushes one by one. Mind you, we have hundreds of them. And some of them are big. And to top it off, they are thorny. Maybe they are Russian Olive? I'm not sure. Regardless, they are non-native and taking over. We won't have the Grasshopper Sparrows much longer if we don't get rid of them.
So, one Saturday in April, nine men headed up the hill to tackle these stupid bushes. Nine men and nine chainsaws. I was working that day, so I stayed in the building for the morning (I joined them for the afternoon), but I got reports as to the work being done and the state of being of the men. Suffice it to say, when all was said and done, I'm not sure who fared worse, the bushes or the men. They made great progress up there and I am SO appreciative. But not at no cost to the men. Reports of injury or other such discomforts included: One not-to-be-named former banker that, after about an hour of work was seen laying down in the grass, spent. Another, former Anesthesiologist, whose wife has forbid him to do invasive species removal again because he lost use of his wrist for a time after. Another, somewhat retired lawyer, with various cuts on his head from the spiky buggars. Another, former science teacher with sore arm syndrome. And another, insurance man/NFL ref that mysteriously "disappeared" after lunch...? Let's just say that everyone except my firefighter and myself (dubbed "Herbicide Elaine" for the day), was nearly 60 years old or over. And despite their various maladies, they were the hardest working group of people I have seen in a long time, maybe ever. The next generation should look to them with admiration and awe. I don't think 20-somethings could have handled it any better and I don't think they would have worked from 9 to 4 on a snowy April day with only a lunch break for nothing but a small brown bird that they have never even seen. Thanks guys!
I am the Director of Tanglewood Nature Center in Elmira, NY, I love my job the fabulous view out my office window and the people I work with. I have a great family- my firefighter husband, 3 kids, 2 stepkids, a pound puppy and 2 lizards. I am not a huge fan of cell phones and IMing. I think both are ruining our relationships with other people and our social skills. Kids don't need cell phones- not debatable with me so don't try.
