BettSplendens' alternate blog. This one's for nature, that one's for fandom things. That one sometimes has NSFW content, this one won't. Adult, queer, + very tired.
asked a student what their favorite animal was today and they said āa cheetah AND a slothā and I said āwow smart, youāve got both ends of the speed spectrum covered!ā and they looked at me like I was the only sensible adult theyād ever spoken to
A gay pigeon story: my grandfather kept pigeons, and though he maybe didn't know the proper vernacular, he was always an ally to the gay rights movement. When his nephew's boyfriend died of AIDS in the '80s, my grandfather was the only one at the family reunion to actually console him and talk with him about it. Not even his own father gave him the dignity of acknowledging his grief.
The reason I want to make it so clear that he was a friend to the community is because it makes this story funny instead of mean. He kept meticulous records of his pigeons, noting where each one was and who they were with and whose chicks were whose. It was not always the case that the chicks in a certain nestbox were the offspring of the parents in there. Sometimes, a mother hen would push a chick out because it was overburdened, or maybe a cock would push a chick out because wanted it dead (pigeons, like humans, can be monstrous assholes for seemingly no reason).
It is for this reason that it is very advantageous to have something rare like a gay couple in the loft. Pigeons are unique in that they make "milk" for their chicks, and cocks can do this as well as hens. So, because a gay couple can feed their young but never actually bear young, they are often the recipient of orphaned chicks.
All of that is to say this - when my grandfather passed away, my mom took over the pigeon business, as she had been helping him for years. And looking through his records, it was all very standard, very plain, well-documented minutiae about the birds and their pedigrees, save for one spot that looked something like this:
It's important to me that everyone knows that standard practice is to literally count all the pollen that is collected from a cubic meter of air. Manually. With a microscope.
KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine ā In a world where encouraging stories about conservation and the environment seem all too rare, itās heartening to hear what has happened in the last 44 years to piping plovers in Maine.
In 1981, according to Maine Audubon coastal bird biologist Sophie Garland, the state had 10 pairs of plovers nesting on its beaches. This year, there are 174 pairs.
That dramatic increase did not occur by accident or happenstance. Back in 1981 , the Maine Audubon began monitoring, counting, and working to protect plovers as part of its Coastal Birds Project. The mission goes on today on 26 beaches stretching from York County to Reid State Park in Georgetown.
Garland and another Audubon coastal bird biologist, Katie Burns, spend much of the summer walking those beaches, binoculars in hand, scanning for plovers, which are an endangered species. To the untrained eye, the birds can be difficult to spot because their feathers blend in so well with the sand as they nest.
While the locations vary, a key part of the job does not.Ā
āKnow where the nests are,ā Garland said as she stood on Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport. āKnow where the pairs are that are nesting, and know where their chicks are.ā
The other part of the job is educating the public. Garland and Burns spend a lot of time talking to visitors on the beach, explaining why the tiny plovers are so vulnerable.
People who donāt know better can step on nests, get too close and stress plovers, or let dogs threaten the birds by running unleashed. Management areas have been set up and educational signs posted on parts of the beach where the birds nest.
āWhen you see [a management area marked with] stake and twine, don't sit right up against it,ā Burns said. āGive it plenty of spaceā100 feet, if you can."
If you're planning to toss a frisbee or build sand castles, sharing the space is particularly important.Ā
āIf you're playing catch on the beach, do it towards the shore away from the management area so you don't disturb chicks or the nest," she added. "Basically, just give the birds as much space as you can.ā
The education efforts have clearly paid off, as the growing numbers of plovers in Maine demonstrate. After talking with some folks on the beach who were delighted to receive one her āPlover Loverā stickers, Burns offered a final thought to them: āThank you for caring about the birds.ā
Plovers need to sit on their nests to protect their eggs from the sun, and can only briefly leave for food. If something scares them enough to stop them returning, or frightens them off the nest, it can quickly kill whatever's in the nest. When the babies are more mobile, they need to be able to get down to the water to feed, so you don't want to go between the nesting site and the water either. Just stay far away, and if you have to go by the site, avoid walking between it and the water.
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