Tones on Island

It was surreal to host the biologist who made me into the field biologist that I am today. It seemed like a "full circle" moment when I was able to take my dad out to my birding spots and be the tour guide. There are few places that I am more familiar with than my birding guide, professor, tour coordinator, and dad.

(if you look closely he's up on the deck in a black tshirt! I was just taking a picture of the boat in general and didn't realize until later that he was in the picture)

 
My dad made the long trek from Oklahoma to spend a few days with me on the island that I've called home for 4 months now. His requests were "go birding and eat seafood" and I think we covered those bases pretty well.

After picking my dad up from the Vineyard Haven ferry we stopped by my local fish market for some fresh lobster. 1 1/4 lb of bright red, freshly caught lobster was a nice "welcome to the Vineyard" as you can get in my opinion.

 

The next morning I didn't offer him anytime to relax- we had an appointment with one of the coolest birders/wildlife photographers I've ever met! He took us out for a private birding tour in his jeep on the beach. We saw some new species for me including black tern, whimbrel, and lesser black backed gull. It was a wonderful morning of birding and adding some birds to my life list was just the icing on the cake. 

I guess you never really take a vacation from being a teacher! My dad assisted on an otter dissection while on island.

We checked out a lot of good restaurants and enjoyed a smorgasbord of seafood including lobster rolls, swordfish burgers, crab cake eggs benedict, clam chowder, lobster mac and cheese, and lobster chunk salad. We also sampled Bad Martha's (pictured above) and Offshore Ale.

 

The talk of the (birding) town was that Angelina's dad was a pretty good birder himself! Imagine that - a group knowing me first and then my dad being a branch off of me!

It was also a strange, new, humbling experience to be asked for MY opinion on bird identification amongst a group of what I would consider 'professional' and 'seasoned' birders. Granted my "expertise" is very specific, but it was cool to know a species so well (after 4 months of close, daily observation) that I could be of assistance on ID.