Baby Right Whale

On Tuesday, a baby right whale beached itself ALIVE! Not only are these the most endangered whales ever (as in only 300 exist in the entire world) but seeing one alive is extremely uncommon. He was about 16' long and weighed right around 2000 pounds... and he was just a few days old! The adults, who can live to 70 years, are around 50' long and can weigh up to 200,000 pounds!! The reason these guys are so few in number is because they were the "right" whale to hunt- slower than others and therefore easier to catch, more fat and therefore more oil than other whales, and because of that, they float when they're dead, so they were easiest to bring to shore after the hunt.

There is nothing that you can do with a live animal of this size so he was euthanized and over 20 people came to town for the necropsy, from all over the place- Woods Hole, Massachusetts; Brown University in Rhode Island; Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission in Gainesville; University of NC- Wilmington professors and students; NOAA Beaufort lab; National Park Service; Virginia Aquarium; Roanoke Island Aquarium; Fort Fisher Aquarium; Maritime Museum; and a few of us from the Wildlife Resources Commission.

The basic findings, without the pathology lab results, were that the baby was malnourished, either through the mom's milk not having enough nutrients or him not being able to digest the milk. He hadn't taken a poop yet as a newborn (which means his fetal waste was making him sick maybe?) Tons of samples were taken and Karen and I were lucky enough to end up taking the head back to our center for education. Of course, we had to haul it to the bone yard today and it was back-breaking heavy! I'll post more pictures when its all cleaned up (months from now!)

Maverick the Black Nosed Reindeer

We're really getting ready for the holidays around here- even Maverick is in the spirit! He can't wait to deliver loads of gifts to PA in the Subaru sleigh this weekend :)

Check out the snazy gingerbread house that we made with friends this week! It really was easy and tasty- thanks to Trader Joe's! I've been munching on it for three days, yum! Then we decorated our little pine with some homemade ornaments (seashells, parts of Mavie's wiggle giggle that he tore off to help out, and handdrawn cardboard decorations) and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which is my all-time fav movie this time of year! We invited our "Otis-watchers" over for a nice dinner with Chef Benjamin and enjoyed the wine from North Georgia. We've been baking cookies galore and enjoying a little Muppet Christmas on tv, too :)

'Tis the Season

Even though we have a very small house, we're getting into the Christmas spirit! It all began when UPS delivered a lovely balsam wreath (thanks Mom!) and it smells just as good as it looks!! We hung it on the inside of the door (since we don't have any neighbors this time of year!) and have been enjoying it all week. Maverick likes to lay on his big bed and look up at it- he actually rubbed on it when we took it out of the box, haha!

Over the past weekend, we had three holiday parties to attend: the 3rd annual Black & White party hosted by Sarah M. in Williamsburg, the Outer Banks Center employee party, and the Sanderling dinner. We had a blast at Sarah's and it was so pretty to see Colonial Williamsburg all fancied up for the holidays! We had great food at both company xmas parties and even ended up with our very own (live!) tree in the white elephant gift exchange. We've added some jingle bells that were given to Maverick at the Outer Banks Center party and plan to do more decorating this week.

And last but not least, Ben made me our very own "Cartridge in a Bare Tree" because he is the most festive person I know. This guy loves Christmas in every way- cookies, decorating, carols, birds. And to add to the list this year... a white Christmas!

Mola Mola

Yesterday afternoon a call came into work that a live Mola Mola, or ocean sunfish, had washed up on the beach. We grabbed some gear and headed out to take a look. They are HUGE fish that usually swim on their side, using their giant dorsal (top) and ventral (bottom) fins to swim. I've actually seen one swimming in the ocean in Florida, and one at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California (it has since been released), but this one was literally right at my feet! Check out this video I found on youtube that shows a mola mola swimming underwater!

It was sad because the fish was still wiggling its mouth, eyes, and gills, but was certainly not going to make it. We took lots of measurements (it was just over 5 feet long!) and then asked some people painting one of the nearby houses if they could give us a hand on moving the fish. It took 6 of us and we estimated that the fish weighed about 420 pounds! This may sound big but they are usually around 2000 pounds (with a record-breaker once weighing in at 5100 if you can imagine that!) Click here for lots more info on wikipedia.

Snickertooth

Mavie had quite a time on his Thanksgiving vacation, but while we were far away from the Outer Banks, he fractured a tooth, hence the nickname Snickertooth. We didn't want the pup to be in pain so we took him to his old veterinarian and found out that he would need to be put under anesthesia so they could tell if the root was exposed through the fracture. If so, the tooth would need to be extracted. We were not in town long enough to schedule the surgery so we gave him extra TLC and made an appointment at the Animal Hospital back at the beach. In the meantime, the silly dog played so rough with the rope that he knocked out the fracture, leaving behind a pearly-white with no root exposed! We took him in today to get it checked out and to our delight, no treatment necessary. I guess he was giving us a nice christmas present by tearing out the broken part and eliminating all those big vet bills during the holiday season! Way to go, boy :)

AeroGarden Missed Us!

Look at this monstrosity! The AeroGarden had a field day while we were away for a week! I think that Ben, myself, and Otis will have plenty of salad this week without even having to visit the grocery store :)