Journal of a Sabbatical

global warming and brown headed cowbirds

May 5, 1997

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saturday Saturday I walked with Rita around her condo complex. My knee hurt. We cut it short. Lunch was grilled cheese with Vidalia onions - a nice combination. Then on to Nancy's for Chinese food and Desk Set on the VCR. I guess I am turning into a lazy bum. Anyway, I love Desk Set and Nancy had never seen it. After we watched it, she rewound the tape to the lunch scene on the roof and we watched Spencer Tracy's character fall in love with Katherine Hepburn's character again. And that wacky computer EMIRAC and her uptight keeper! A movie that stands the test of time.

sunday

Sunday was so gorgeous neither of us wanted to be indoors. After our obligatory census taking at Watchemocket Cove we kept on going south and east. We ended up having dinner at The Commons Lunch in Little Compton after stops at: Dari-Bee in East Providence for coffee soft serve, "dinosaurs in the trees" (really The Magic Garden) to buy a pig and pose with this handsome creature, Sakonnet Point, Barrington Town Beach, the Barrington flamingo house (alas, we saw a "For Sale" sign and no flamingo arrangement), the Warren Antiques Center and wherever all else. Then back to the East Bay Bike Path for a late afternoon walk.
	Watchemocket Cove count: 1 cormorant 2 common black-headed gulls 4 greater yellowlegs 6 Canada geese 33 Atlantic mute swans 147 ringbill gulls
This Canada goose couple had their goslings right by the edge of Veteran's Memorial Parkway next to the bridge. Why there? Watchemocket Cove is big enough and varied enough for them to find a nicer place to raise children. Later on, we came back and walked the East Bay Bike Path, where we saw 70 or 80 cormorants gathering on the pilings in the harbor, and 2 brown headed cowbirds in a tree very close to the path. I'd never seen a brown headed cowbird before. I had to look it up in the book and was dismayed to learn of its parasitic nesting habits.

monday I can feel my writing getting dull and pedestrian, but oh well. I'm sitting in my office writing this instead of going to an IMAX movie about Antarctica and slide show about the trips offered by Marine Expeditions. Why am I sitting here doing this instead? Umm: my car is blocked in by some illegal parker a bunch of kids are playing in the parking lot and I don't want to get in trouble by disturbing them I called Marine Expeditions to make a reservation and got "mailbox full" errors I called Joan-east to beg-off walking tonight but her answering machine didn't pick up I don't want to try to get into Cambridge at rush hour - why did they schedule this thing for 6:00? I guess they assume anybody who would want to attend is already in the city and would come after work. I have to study for my oceanography final and finish my paper on the ozone hole Joan-east just called and basically talked me into walking tonight So there you have it, I ain't going. Do I have to see an IMAX movie about Antarctica before I go there? Is there an IMAX movie about Hokkaido? Somebody should make an IMAX movie about my condo's parking lot. Getting in and out of it is an adventure in all seasons. Driving back from Nancy's house this morning I was listening to The Connection , on WBUR. The topics today were: 1st hour - global warming; 2nd hour- decline of songbird populations. The guests on the first hour were debating whether global warming is actually happening and whether certain scientists in the pay of the fossil fuel industry are getting too much or not enough coverage in the press. Among other things I didn't know, they claimed global warming is causing increased insect populations. The second hour was about how habitat destruction in wintering grounds, predation by cats, and other factors are reducing songbird populations. One of the biggest factors in reducing songbird populations is nest parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds. The cowbirds lay their egg in a wood thrush (or other vulnerable bird) nest and the thrush incubates it at the expense of the thrush's own young. I just saw my first brown-headed cowbirds yesterday and today I find out they're a scourge to songbirds. A caller during the second hour asked if the global warming and increased insect population was affecting songbird populations. The guest ornithologist admitted he didn't know and that he had listened to the first hour dreading that a caller would make that connection. It was a lively show and I'm glad I had the time to listen to it. I should call for a transcript. Now off to pick up my laundry, walk with Joan-east, and finish my paper on the ozone hole...

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