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!