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?!