Things you might not know

There are more wind and solar workers in the US than coal miners.

Air pollution killed 7 million last year.

The rate at which CEO to worker pay has increased since 1950 is 1000%

Norway has hosted a bike lift for over twenty years which is 130m long and carries cyclists up one of their nasty steep hills.

Eating bananas has been associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer, breast cancer and renal cell carcinoma...they are also an excellent source of the B6 vitamin.

The Obama administration has cut the deficit from 1.4 trillion in 2009 to a projected $514 billion by the end of 2014.

Turtle remains at Sandy Point

NASA states that 97% of scientists around the world that study climate believe that man made climate change is not a hoax. Average temperatures on a global level, year over year are getting higher.

Cars are regulated; you need a drivers license, you must wear a seat belt, exhaust is regulated, you can't drink and drive, and they are not built specifically to kill. We should regulate guns and their owners the same way we do cars and their owners.

David Frum(R) says an American is 50% more likely to be shot dead by his or her own hand than to be shot dead by an assailant.

You don't have Freedom if you don't have free time.

US citizens work longer than their fellow humans in any other industrialized nation except South Korea.

The Protestant work ethic was so you could spend more time on spiritual and cultural endevors not on more possessions. Free time was supposed to make us better citizens not better consumers.

Study after study shows that over work hurts productivity.

So far in 2014 the Koch's through American's for Prosperity have aired 17,000 TV commercials while Republican mainline groups have only aired 2,100. Vast wealth is changing our democracy. It behoves all of us to think about who really represents our interests.

According to the American Journal of Medicine 62% of bankruptcies are caused by medical illness even though most had medical insurance.

Corporate Welfare

Boeing...13.2 BILLION

Alcoa...5.6BILLION

Intel...3.9 BILLION

GM...3.5 BILLION

Ford...2.5 BILLION

Dow Chemical...1.4 BILLION

Berkshire Hathaway...1.1 BILLION

and that is only a handful...stop blaming poor people and look where the real money is going.

America has the largest prison population in the world.

Why is the richest country on earth so poor?

See ya next week.

Whales Ho

This past week has been one some of us will never forget. Every season humpback whales migrate south to birth their babies in the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean. On their way they pass St. Croix and give those who are watching lively shows and close encounters.

Finfolk Caribbean Swimmers of which i'm a member organizes open water swims all around the island on Saturdays, but during the week there is a regular Mon., Wed., Fri. group that swims at Cane Bay. For years we have been hearing whales, seeing them from shore, but never actually swimming with them until this past Friday.

It was one of those barely a ripple on the surface and relatively clear days swimming at Cane Bay. We were heading east along the edge coming back from North Star when we heard all this yelling. i looked up and saw the back of a humpback whale breaching up ahead. Immediately i yelled as loud as i could WHALES to the other swimmers. He was coming towards us and i managed to fumble about and get my GoPro out of my suit and turned on. The video is not the best but if you watch the white spot in the middle which is one of his flippers you will see it grow into the whole whale as he passes underneath us.

Swiming with Humpback Whale at Cane Bay, St. Croix

We were ecstatic and couldn't believe we actually captured our experience on video. That experience was one of those touched by nature days you couldn't stop thinking about. As if that wasn't enough the next day the Finfolk walked out to the tip of Sandy Point and got in the water to swim back to Sandcastles. Not five minutes in we were visited by a pod of six dolphins. One frisky member of the pod seemed to like us and stayed around long enough to again give me time to get the Go Pro out and film. This video is actually better than the whales.

Regularly when we are swimming we encounter turtles. i had been filming them at Cane Bay and other places where we swim. A good friend took my raw video and edited it then put it to music by the Reggae band Pressure. She did a really good job. i can't post it here but check out the link.
VI Sea Turtles

i'm not sure why the whale and turtle video are on and off here on Blogger, they work fine on Facebook.
i put them up on the Finfolk Caribbean Swimmers page which is public so if you have a Facebook account you can watch them there and like us if you want to keep informed about our swims. The whale one is about 2 minutes and the dolphin one is 1 minute. You can hear our exclamations and the dolphins clicks.

This is enough excitement for one week...so see ya next week.

Bird Banding on St. Croix, Virgin Island

Sunrise at Sandy Point Refuge

The first recorded use of a bird to deliver messages occurred during the Punic Wars in 218-201BC. Apparently a crow was sent from a battalion that was surrounded by bad guys. The receiving end tied a thread with a message attached onto the birds leg and sent it back. From there on out warrior's and merchants used crows, falcons and pigeons to alert those in the surrounding countryside of developing activities that may affect their prosperity or health. But the actual banding of birds for scientific purposes didn't start until 1899 when Hans Mortensen attached aluminum rings to Starlings.

Sunset at Sandy Point Refuge

Rain coming at Sandy Point Refuge

The history of banding in North America saw its share of starts and stops with string, ink, and silver thread being used to mark Phoebes, Snow Buntings and Black-crowned Night Herons. By the time the Migratory Bird Treaty was signed in 1918 the US and Canada had banding programs in place. These were not completely formalized until 1996 when the North American Banding council sat down and created a set of guidelines to train banders in the safe, ethical practices needed to capture and band wild birds.

Clear skies at Sandy Point Refuge

According to Wikipedia approximately 6000 banders are active nationally. Here on St. Croix the US Fish and Wildlife Service operates the only program i know of in the Virgin Islands at the Sandy Point

National Wildlife Refuge. Banding is how Ornithologists and other interested conservationists learn about birds diversity, longevity, abundance, migration, and tracking. Ideally researchers try to set up banding sessions at regular times through out the year so that on-going scientific data can be collected and analyzed.

Rain coming at Sandy Point Refuge

Clear again at the Refuge

Here on St. Croix we just finished up a three day session and i thought it might be interesting for some of the readers of this blog to see what we were up to.

The first step in the process of banding birds is to try and capture them. To do this we erect Mist Nets that are evenly spaced and placed in an area where we know more than one specie lives. The nets are composed of nylon mesh and erected kind of like volley ball nets. When not in use the nets are rolled up to prevent any unwanted captures. The birds can't see the nets because they are set up against a backdrop of foliage which we use to camouflage our activity. Once the nets are unrolled we are on duty for it behooves us to get any bird caught out as quickly and safely as possible. Our first motto is do no harm.

Mist nets blending into the foliage

Mist nets getting cleared of captured birds

Mist Nets

Freeing an Elaenia

Almost free

When a bird is freed from the net it is put in a bag for safe transport back to the tent.

The bag calms the bird down while it waits to be written up. At the tent it is first weighed then banded and measured.

Putting a band on a Ground Dove

Measuring the wing of a Ground Dove

A Ground Dove's beautiful eye

Finishing up a Banaquit

We measure its wing length, tail length and its bill. We check for molting and brood patches and determine its sex and age if possible. If a bird has any unusual characteristics we note those also then release it back into the wild. Sometimes we get recaptures from previous banding sessions and we record all the same data for these too. We know that one of our recaptured Bananaquits is 8 years old.

A local Yellow Warbler

We do at times catch Warblers that have migrated down from North America and band those hoping that someone in the states will find them when they return and let us know their location.

Prairie Warbler

Prairie Warbler

We do at times have trouble with predators but fast work on our part puts them out of commission.

Captured Mongoose

We run the nets in the mornings and evenings when birds are most active, but if it rains we have to shut the nets down for birds in wet nets get too stressed, and again our motto is do no harm. This banding session we had Bananaquits, Grassquits, Pearly-eyed Thrashers, Ground-Doves, Warblers, Black-whiskered Vireo's, Zenaida Doves and Caribbean Elaenias.

Hope you enjoyed the pics...see ya next week.

St. Croix Mardi Croix Parade 2014

Mardi Croix dazzled the North Shore of St. Croix this past Saturday and the pics speak for themselves.