Beach Walking



Beach Walking

I’ve forgotten how,
To walk on the beach.
Finding that line
Where the sand is firm,
But not so hard it hurts my feet.
Sand—fresh washed by the sea.
“I agree,” I say to no one.
Permanence is an illusion.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Monarch Butterfly's Mulit-generational Migration and the Bicycling Biologist Sara Dykman

Image
The Monarch Butterfly’s Multi-generational Migration Overwintering It’s March 2017, in the volcanic mountains of central Mexico. Millions of monarch butterflies cling to the branches and trunks of the towering Oyamel pine trees. These butterflies are about to begin an amazing journey. Sara Dykman, a biologist and founder of Beyond A Book is migrating with them—on a bicycle! Sara and four generations of monarchs will travel approximately 10,000 miles from Mexico, across the USA to Canada, and back again in nine months. Weights and Measures Sara feels a kinship with the monarchs by bicycling. She’s using her legs to pedal while the butterflies use their wings to fly. With all of Sara’s luggage—tent, sleeping bag, camera, computer, phone, clothes, toothbrush, stove, pocket knife, tools, and more—her bike weighs about 32kg (32000 grams). A monarch weighs up to 0.75 grams and they don’t carry any luggage.    Mass Migration Sara knew it was time to leave when mi
Read more

Interview with Whale Biologist Christine Gabriele and the Whale with Three Names

Image
The Whale with Three Names Chris Gabriele, a whale biologist at Glacier Bay National Park (NP) in Alaska, never expected to be holding a rope attached to a 35 ton humpback whale. A call to park headquarters had come in at 3:00pm—a dead whale was floating in the bay. It didn’t take long to identify the whale as Snow, a female, biologists had tracked since 1975.  The nickname Snow came from the spray of white dots on her flukes. Fluke markings are unique to each whale just as your fingerprints are unique to you . “Snow’s was one of the earliest recorded flukes in the Whale Tail Catalog,” says Chris, “her second official name was Whale #68.” From the SE Alaska Fluke Catalog. Photo credit NPS No one at headquarters could believe Snow was dead. “Snow was a healthy adult,” says Chris. “We agreed a necropsy should be performed to determine the cause of her death.”  Three boats dragged the 45.5ft whale ashore. Dr. Gulland, from the Marine Mammal Center in California, and a six-person
Read more
Image
This blog post first appeared on Curtis Buffer News blog Dec 2020 Thanks to all of you who have stopped by to offer encouragement and help over the past year as we continue our invasive remediation work along Rock Creek. I feel like we could use one of those “Under Construction” signs as we clear new areas of vines and other plants damaging or killing trees.  Ballroom covered in knotweed and vines Ballroom after cutting vines and knotweed We now have a crew of 8 volunteers! We’ve made more progress than we ever thought possible in one year, especially with a pandemic raging. We started the year at the upper reaches of the creek in the arboretum where a combined sewer overflow directs street runoff into Rock Creek. We’ve installed erosion markers which we are monitoring to see the effects of storm damage. Each month we assess the water quality and flow so we can get a fuller picture of the health of the stream over time. We also did our first detailed annual wildlife habitat survey. A
Read more