Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Baseball and Bones

Our baseball team actually won! The Ballenas have finally won a game! How great is that?! Yes, the Whale Museum does have a baseball team and, until now, they have never won a game. But they won tonight!

And also, remember the first day of boiling baby whale bones? Those bones are now all ready to be placed in the case--so that's what we did!


Comparing this little baby's scapula to a full grown Orca's. So sad, right?

Here are the bones!


And here's me putting them in the case!

Monday, July 29, 2013

Baby Whale Bone Soup, 2.0

So we finished up the whale bones today. I'd have to say the highlight of the event was when I opened up the box holding the disks and went, "Cookies?" ('cause that's what they look like, I tell you!)

We were joined by Melisa and Brittany, both eager to help with bone cleaning. We got a whole lot done!

Scapula





Saturday, July 27, 2013

New Faces

My boss Cindy, while not only a fantastic Education Curator is also a vet technician and fosters kittens. Some of you may know of my obsessive love for the kittens she fosters and keeps in our office and my sadness when the Verys left us. NOT ANY LONGER.

MEET THE NEW CUTIES OF THE OFFICE!





They don't have names yet, but are some of the fuzziest fluffybottoms I've had the chance to meet. They're still small enough that they need their biological necessities stimulated and are bottle fed.

I am in love (again)

Friday, July 26, 2013

A Very A-Seal-ing Movie

I went on a walk with some of my fellow co-workers down the dock and who did we see, but a very hungry fellow. Jill had her cell with her, so she was able to capture video. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!


FYI: Popeye is a local seal who likes to swim around the Friday Harbor Marina and is known for only having one eye--this is not her, but at first we thought it was.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Lime Kiln Sunset

So there was some sort of event happening out at Lime Kiln at sunset today. So I said, what the heck, let's go and went. There were no whales but there were free tours of the light house and a gorgeous sunset. I only brought my cell phone camera, but was able to create some very interesting settings using my rose-tinted glasses (I have real ones, I swear!)










Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Marine Naturalist Training Wrap-up!

So to wrap up the training, we went on a chartered whale watch boat (and this is the first thing I went on once I arrived at the island). Oh man, oh man, oh man. We saw bald eagles, we saw seals and their pups, we saw porpoises, but we did not see a single whale. That's because the salmon's down this year and the equation is no salmon = no whales. But I did get some glorious pictures!

The first animal we spotted just as we left the harbor: a bald eagle!


Little did I know that that would be just the start of it!


Wild goats, I believe

Mom and baby hauling out

Look at the rack on this deer!


A place where seals come out of the water is called a haul out

Seals and an Oyster Catcher

Cormorants

Pigeon Guillemont (you can tell by the bright red feet)



Cormorant again

Bull kelp

Interesting rock formation


Mount Baker

Haul outs also happen on kelp


It's pupping season right now, so the mother seals are often with their pups

This Juvenile Bald Eagle flew right over our heads

And this Bald Eagle put on a show for us



At the conclusion of our boat ride, we had a party back at the Whale Museum with the most delicious cupcakes as well as a talk by Rosie of the Samish Nation about the unique relationship between the native peoples of this area and the Orcas.


Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Marine Naturalist Training: THE LAST DAY

So for the final "educational" day of Marine Naturalist Training, we had quite a bunch of subjects to go over! We had a Orca identification lab, a bunch of information about the different birds, mustelids, and various wildlife that is associated with the ecosystems here, as well as a talk on Orca acoustics. I am in love. There is just that thrilling feeling you get when you hear someone talk about the different Orca languages and get to hear how their language is evolving and how the different pods have different accents and the different ecotypes can't even really speak the same language.

THRILLING, I TELL YOU.

Then we had a dinner lecture on how to effectively communicate with your audience. Gosh, do I love this sort of thing. It's the informal education experience that I've always wanted. I am going to try and do so much with what I learn!

Monday, July 22, 2013

Tidepooling~

TIDEPOOLS ARE MY NEW BEST FAVORITE THING.

I don't even care if that isn't grammatically accurate. I had so much fun today with tidepools. So much fun!

In Wisconsin, there are no tidepools. I had no idea what I was missing before this. It is GLORIOUS. Rather than going into a giant spiel, I'm going to show some of my favorite pictures that I took and explain about what's in them.

Barnacles--they will sometimes sound crunchy under your feet and they are EVERYWHERE

Mussel

Blood star

Look at those tube feet!

And here's a decorator crab

And a suckerfish

I found this sea cucumber! It's a baby~!

Anemones are super pretty when they're not all closed up

Aren't the colors gorgeous?

These are baby jellyfish attached to a bull kelp leaf. They're not even old enough to go off on their own yet!

This is one happy, fed anemone
STARFISH (actually called "sea stars")

TUBE FEET!
This is a special type of starfish called the sunflower star

Another sunflower star, with tube feet!

And my purple buddy's been returned to his natural habitat

We were seeing quite a lot of blood stars

And then a nudibranch!

Isn't it a cutie?

Baby blood star

Older blood star

And poppies (not in the tidal zone, but coming back from it)




In conclusion, I have discovered a love for tube feet, I need to go to more tidepools, and buying a waterproof camera is surely in my future.