so something incredibly crazy happened to me recently. a few of us mbcc'ers were at the beach minding our own business and kicking around a soccer ball in the sand. i kicked it to someone who was standing in front of the incoming waves and as i looked, i noticed some movement in the waves. i quickly realized it was a dorsal fin and tail fin of a large creature sticking out where the waves were breaking and i also realized that it was unmistakably the exact shape of fins that a shark would have and was only about 3 feet off of the shore. i, of course, immediately ran over to where i had just seen the "shark" and scanned the waves to see if it would appear again. yep, a few seconds later i saw it swimming out of the wave breaks again, and this time a large fish jumped about 8 feet into the air in front of it. i then realized that this was most definitely a shark and i should probably tell the nearby swimmers to be careful. i honestly never thought there would be a time in my life that i would yell out "shark" without it being in a joking manner, but here it was and it was awesome! now before anyone gets worried, this was only a 4'-5' shark and was some sort of reef shark which only take small prey and have never been known to attack humans. it was still crazy to actually see one right off shore and it kind of ruined my sense of safety for the ocean. i used to think, "oh, i'm still only ten feet from shore, certainly no large dangerous creatures come in this close or they'd get washed up to shore." well now i know that is incredibly naive and the more research i've done i see that even the scariest tiger and great white sharks come all the way up to the shoreline at times when hunting. *sigh* i will now have to concentrate much harder when playing in the surf to help keep my imagination from getting the best of me. this really was one of the coolest things that i've ever seen, though, and it brings me a whole new respect for these most ancient of fish.

another cool thing that happened this week was that our juvenile puaiohi are finally getting to go free! they left today for their native island of kauai where they will spend about two weeks in cages getting used to the natural forests. After that they will be released! of course, a team will stay out there providing supplemental food for the pu's for a few more weeks until they learn to hunt and forage on their own. i am so excited (and nervous) for them to finally reach freedom and a chance to perpetuate their species in the wild like it was always meant to be. i have included a picture of a newly hatched pu so you can see why i find these guys so endearing.

as part of the process of making sure all of the pu's were fit for release, a veterinarian from the san diego zoo came over and helped us to perform complete physicals on each one to make sure they are physically fit for release. we also took fecals from all of them in order to check for the existence of internal parasites that could be passed on to wild pus. the final task was bleeding each of the birds. bleeding is just as it sounds, drawing blood from the bird (often from the jugular in the neck) to be tested for avian malaria and any other blood born illness a bird could have. i actually got to bleed a few puaiohi which was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. it may sound morbid but putting a needle into a tiny 35g bird's neck and placing it into an even tinier vein really gives you a rush. i am used to holding fragile lives in my hands, but to do such a delicate procedure on one brought me a great sense of confidence that i do have what it takes to make it in this field. i am so excited to have had this experience and expect to put it to use in the future when i start doing field work that often involves genetic studies that require bleeding of many wild caught birds (don't worry, they get released shortly afterward).

in yet more exciting news i just so happen to be visiting my friend, laura, in kauai on wednesday!! and to make this even more exciting my manager told me that laura and i will be allowed to go down to the field site that all of our puaiohi kids are temporarily staying at for a day! i am so excited to see our pu's one last time and see the habitat they will soon be living in and the other native birds that live there. i will bring back plenty of pictures of everything so you guys can experience it all with me. did i mention that i'm so excited?!!

also, did i mention that i love our crows?!

it's been quite a long last month and i haven't found the time or energy to blog as of late, but i think i'm back up for the task! one of the new things i've found to do here in maui is to volunteer at the maui humane society on one of my days off from the facility. i am in charge of walking and socializing the dogs that are there. now you may think, "wow, that doesn't seem like a very big deal." but it is more important that one would think. many of the dogs come in badly abused with cuts all over them or covered in ticks and extremely emaciated from neglect. despite all they've been through, many of them still want nothing more than to lick your face and show you the love they wish you'd return. it breaks my heart to see how much these dogs give without having ever had anyone show them any kindness in return. thus i walk and play with these dogs in order to give them at least 15 minutes worth of the joy that they have so deserved in their life. volunteering there is definitely one of the hardest things i've ever done since i know that it is a shelter that euthanizes animals that are not adopted after a certain amount of time. when i see the same dog week after week i begin to worry, "will i see them next week and if not was it because they were adopted and if so how much longer do they have left here?" even if none of the dogs i walk ever get adopted i want to know that they had some love in their life and that's really the only thing that keeps bringing me back there when my heart has such a hard time dealing with it.

on a happier note, i finally got a few pictures of one of our maui parrotbill in his enclosure. i'm actually pretty proud of these pictures because these guys have the worst ADHD i've ever seen and can't stand still for more than a second. so, capturing a picture of more than just their behind hopping away from you can be quite tricky. this is our single male, gonzo, who will hopefully be getting a mate soon as breeding season is already beginning. hopefully we'll get at least one parrotbill chick this year as i hear they are incredibly cute and have included a picture of a newly hatched chick from a couple years ago. i have also included a copy of an amazing watercolor painting of a couple of our mapas that a past intern recently painted. it definitely makes me want to get back into drawing and maybe even move up to painting, especially now that i actually have subject matter that is so rare and so beautiful and needs so badly to be shown to the world.

is there anything cuter than these two little guys?! happy 2007 everyone!

it has been a while since i've had a chance to write on here. sorry about that! it's been crazy over here as we are getting everything super shined up for our iacuc (institutional animal care and use committee) inspection next week. always a fun thing, but it's good to know that all organizations like this are kept at certain standards for the animals' sake.

maui has blessed me with many beautiful sights since i've been here. the other day all of us mbcc'ers went down to the beach and had a picnic as the sun went down. the sunset was definitely beautiful over the water although i think arizona's sunsets tend to be more bright and vibrant than even this was. maui also tends to have a lot of misty rain which leads to me seeing rainbows pretty much every other day. they never cease to amaze me. i recently saw one that was so huge it seemed to span the entire island and it was a complete one! it was truly awesome. i also got to see my first "rainbow end" yesterday. i am sorry to report that the pot of gold at the bottom of a rainbow is, in fact, a myth. i know many of your hopes and childhood dreams have just been crushed.

along with amazing natural wonders, it has been a gift to see our little nene goslings grow up. our oldest ones are currently at day 38 and i will try to get a good picture for you guys soon. it was misting today when i was cleaning in there so the pictures came out a bit gray. i have included pictures of goslings in some of the other pens at various ages and you can see how big they've gotten and how they're getting their "big goose" feathers. i'm so proud of them, hehe. i've also included some pictures of our most recent nene hatchlings from the eggs we received from kauai. unfortunately, these guys are two weeks younger than any of the goslings that hatched out here and none of the families would accept them as their own. poor guys. they're now somewhat confused as to whether they're human or goose, but we're doing our best to keep them from becoming too imprinted on us. it's just hard when they're so small and can't fend for themselves so we have to give them lots of hands on care. they're finally big enough to put them outside during the day with one of our non-paired females. she doesn't treat them like little goslings, though, so we have to watch them carefully. in another couple weeks they should be big enough to stay outside all day and night and fend for themselves, though, so hopefully their identity crisis' will be put to an end soon enough!