Not Good News

It's not always sunshine and beaches being a shorebird biologist. My favorite nest that I posted last week was eaten over the weekend. 

I think it was gulls that got the nest, but it could be any number of things. 

I had a training program Saturday so I tried to look "nice" for the field. Then I caught a skunk at 7:45 a.m. and all the planning was ruined. With this job (and life in general) you have to take the bad with the good. Although these aren't situations I'd choose to happen, they're experiences that remind me why I'm doing this job. They're situations that create the need for my job. I understand that depredation is a part of the natural world and the food chain exists for a reason. However, threatened and endangered species have a lot more factors than pecking order. The bottom line is I'll have a glass of wine, commiserate with my roommates, and go back out to try to do everything I can to help keep this species around. 

In a single week I collected about 100 balloons from a handful of my sites. The number of balloons on the beaches is really overwhelming and oftentimes there are too many to pick up. The most random objects wash ashore and I have to remind myself that I'm there to watch the birds, not pick up all the trash in the world. I don't know if I'll ever purchase a balloon again in my lifetime- my hatred for them is real! Increase your consciousness of your trashcan blowing over, miscellaneous stuff flying out of your car, and all other kinds of often unintentional littering - those things don't disappear, they end up on Martha's Vineyard apparently!