Of Water, Birds, Burrows and V.

Well, what happened this last week?
The great drama this week was that we ordered a Golden Pheasant from a farmer up in Tennessee... Kinda leery at the whole mail order bird thing, but I did it anyway, as I thought it would bring Phoenix some joy.
That was the good part...… it all went down hill after that. It seems that the post office thought "Express" service was "Priority" service, and the bird that was supposed to come Tuesday, or at latest Wed., came Friday. After Wed, I (and Phoenix too) thought were indirectly responsible for killing a bird. It made us quite depressed (and put Phoenix in tears).

Friday, Phoenix got a package, which miraculously contained not only a live bird, but a bird in good health! He now is a happy denizen of the aviary along with all the others. The problem we have now is that he is quite bigger then I imagined, and he can fly. When he does, every other bird in the aviary has a heart attack and flies about willy nilly. The bad part of this is that one of the Gouldians hurt herself when this happened and has an infection on her wing. We have her put in a cage and are giving her antibiotics so she can get better. The pheasant is very pretty.
More baby birds this week, Phoenix has pulled 3 more baby Parakeets and two more Lovebirds from the nests to hand feed, and she is a bit overwhelmed. That makes seven Lovebirds and six Parakeets, with more to come!

Saturday, Phoenix and I went out Kayaking, and went out to the Florida Coastal Waterway... Very windy, and we went upstream, but it was much fun. The hope is to get some fishing gear here soon...

Sunday, we went out to count more tortoise burrows, and our count is up to 40. The disappointing thing is that even though we retook some of the readings, some of them are still in the parking lot on google Earth. *sigh* just cant win.

Saw V is for Vendetta on Saturday night, and I loved it! For some reason I canÂ’t get my mind off of it. Not the movie persay, but Guy Fawkes, and Guy Fawkes day: Remember, Remember the 5th of November gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason, that gunpowder treason should ever be forgot!
Reading the history on it is fascinating on its complexity, the politics at the time, and all that it inspired afterwards. Amazing...
Well, that's about it really...… I hope all of you are doing well!

Holes in the ground

Much has happened since last post...

First, Phoenix had an operation. And it sucked.

She was told not to eat 12 hours before the surgery, and when asked about crashing blood sugar (she's diabetic) she was told, don't eat even sugar pills.

This was obviously stupid, and we were told after (because she had to have a shot of glucose because she crashed at the hospital) that it would have been alright to eat upto about six hours before hand.

The surgery, which was supposed to be a 20 minute procedure with local anetheitcs, turned into a 12 hour ordeal with her being put under. The worst part, they didn't do it right. (they cauterized her uterus, but missed part, so although it will fix some issues, it may not fix all her problems.)

Did I mention that I think the whole surgery was barbaric in the first place?

Well anyway...


Last weekend was much fun. We went to "World of Orchids" which was a disappointment as most of the cool stuff was blown away by the hurricanes last year. However we did start the survey work on the Smyrna Dunes park and did 21 burrows... Used the GPS that we got for the work, but I think that I have to re-do some of the readings as on the map some of the burrows are in the parking lot of the park.




Daytona Bike week was last week, and made traffic hell... Lots of cool looking bikes on the road though...

This weekend, we go kayaking again... This time on the coast. Sunday, more tortoise hunting!

Sore muscles, and turtles..er I mean Tortoises

Well, this weekend was busy busy busy!!!! Pheonix and I started out by kayaking the entire length of the eastern shore of Lake Monroe, and it was a very hard trip. The main problem was we were going against the 10 -15 mph wind, 2 -3 foot waves and upstream. The other problem was that it was 10 miles round trip. 5 hours later, we were pooped, cold, sore and a little cranky, but it was all good! Good exercise to say the least. The next day we went to Smyrna Dunes Park to talk with the park manager to start doing the surveying of the Gopher Tortoises. He showed us what had been done before, 25 some odd holes were documented, but had to be re-surveyed due to the fact the documentation was fairly poor. The thing that hit me is that this is a massive project. If the density is the same over most of the park compared to the small area we saw, we are talking about 300+ holes. Then there is the capure and tagging! Oy! Here are some pictures of the park Phoenix took from the observation tower…

Snakes, Horse Pills, Rock Pills, and SHOCKING surgery

Ahhhh… Friday at last.

Itinerary for this weekend, Kayaking on Sat.and Smyrna Dunes Park on Sunday…

Got to clean the Aviary fountain out, and get more filters. Got to build more nesting boxes.

My poor Phoenix is sick. She finally got to the doctor to get her new meds (good thing too). So now instead of being depressed or manic, she is vomiting and dizzy. *sigh*
I wish there was something more I could do to help her with these things. I had her call the doctor back, and did some research to see if any over the counter anti-nausea meds might help. The documentation for the meds (Geodin and Equetro) say this is common at first, but get better over time. Where the hell do they come up with these names? Geodin sounds like a rock formation (like say a geode), and Equetro sounds like something you need to ride horses. The good news is that I talked to my boss and he said that I could go to my wife’s surgery (they are putting an electrified net inside her uterus and cauterizing the entire inside… freeking barbaric… treating symptoms, not the cause as is usual with the medical community).

Smyrna Dunes Park has a serious problem at the moment. Volusia county has been taking sand from various sources to replenish the beach erosion caused by the 2004 hurricanes. One of these sources is a place called “Rattle Snake Island”. Well, it seems there has been a huge increase of rattlesnakes in the park. I worry about the endangered Beach Mouse and the Plover nests. Too many snakes tend to eat whatever is available. At least they won't eat the Gopher Tortoises…