Barren Islands Update #1 (9 AUG 11)

It's right around week 2 of our 8-week field season and things are now routine. This is both a blessing and a curse. It's nice to generally know now what type of work I've signed up for, but the monotony can become a bit draining. On the bright side I've been finding numerous artistic endeavors to occupy my non-work time. Before leaving for this trip, I was sparked by some women I met on a tour I led at Nisqually NWR. These women were part of the Guild of Natural Scientific Illustrators and were in Olympia for a yearly week-long conference. We got to talking and it turns out they are both professors down at the University of California at Monteray Bay, where they teach a graduate program in Scientific Illustration (http://scienceillustration.org/). If you search for Scientific Illustrator Program on the U of Cal website you can look through examples of their students' work. Prepare to be blown away! Anyways I was sparked just before I came up here, so I figured the only thing to do would be to bring art supplies with me and start working on creating a portfolio! And that's just what I have been doing. I have a sketch book, graphite pencils, watercolor pencils and watercolor paper (thanks Zeb!) and undistributed free time, a perfect combination!

I bought a copy of Betty Edwards, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," which is a phenomenal book for beginning drawers. She is an artist/teacher who believes that drawing is a teachable skill and is more about learning how to see than being skilled or not. I love that idea of learning to see. I'm finding that it fits well with my job right now, specifically monitoring common murre plots. We take photos of our plots and on rainy days use the computers to look at the photos and record bird postures. We are looking for indications that birds are incubating an egg. Murres have a specific way they hold their body while incubating. In order to get their brood patch (that is vascularized patch of skin used for incubating) on the egg, they must hump their back, round out their body, and generally look like a football. So our job is to go through these photos of rocks ledges where 50+ murres are crammed and record a posture for each one. I had the epiphany the other day that I have been training for this work since I was young by doing "Where's Waldo!" It's amazing how direct the correlation is between the skill sets needed for those picture puzzles and this...

Plot M4-F

My main point is that while the work here can be monotonous I have been loving being able to draw, read, and write poetry and songs on cliff tops. I might be realizing that I'm not heading towards becoming a full-fledged scientist, but I sure do like the work environment!

I thought I'd share a poem I wrote the other day while monitoring my plots...

8 AUG 11

Impressions of a Murre Mother

Under a rock overhang you lay, black beady eyes half closed,

bill tipped heavenward and wings folded tightly at your sides.

I can imagine the egg underneath you, the life you are sheltering,

growing, incubating with your bare skin.

Are you dreaming of the life abreast your feathers?

Do you imagine the time when a cracked egg brings forth a downy chick--your downy chick?

Are your instincts like those of a human mother or do you represent a more

distilled, primal sense of motherhood?

I look to you and see an image of responsibility, a clear sense of purpose.

You are feathered incubator,

mother of one,

guardian of the next generation.

Love to you all and more to follow later!

Margaret Alice