One more tick mark for Ben and I for saving another sea turtle! The juvenile green was reported in the 4-wheel-drive area and when we picked it up, he was in really good shape, no injuries, just really cold! We took him to the vet where he will be examined, warmed up, and released into the Gulf Stream where he will be much warmer and can reunite with his friends in the Sargasso Sea.
He is very proud of himself for "carving" out this pumpkin. For some reason, whenever he walks past it, he takes a few chunks out with his teeth, and spits them on the porch. Good thing we have a shelled-pet that eats all those little pumpkin pieces.Sadly, Ben and I still haven't carved our pumpkins. And we even had a day off from work today. Maybe tomorrow. It gets dark so darned early (is dark when we're walking home from work now at 5 o'clock!) Roasting pumkin seeds sounds like an excellent stay-inside-where-its-dark-and-cozy activity for tomorrow eve.
Not only did I get to see the red wolves... but Ben also sent me on a safari to Pelican Island AND... banding hummingbirds!
We went to the island to band monarch butterflies on their migration to Mexico, but we didn't see any, so we enjoyed the pelicans instead. And the pretty view of the Bodie Island Lighthouse.
for a birdie to fly into the trap. Out of nowhere, and very fast, a ruby throated hummingbird arrived, took a drink, and snap, the little bugger was trapped inside the wire box.
toe from some stockings, to keep him stationary, while she did a series of tests. She measured the length of its wings and bill and then took a straw to blow air onto its chest to check its level of fat. This was the cutest thing ever- they do not have feathers on their breastplate, so that they can keep themselves from overheating, so when she blew with the straw, all you could see was a 
pink chest! She said he had lots of fat on him, which meant that he was going to migrate further south for the winter. We could tell he was a boy hummer because of the red feathers on his chin- look closely, there are only a few. That's because he's a baby- probably born in August! The males get lots of red feathers on their chin, hence their name, but the females just keep the white feathers there.She attached a band, the size of a sprinkle (it weighed .0017 grams!), and off he went, at the speed of light. What a cool job, to band hummingbirds! After our 
program, she was on her way toward Raleigh to confirm a rare sighting of a broad-billed hummingbird, which would otherwise reside on the West Coast of the US. Her advice for backyard hummingbird feeders was to make your own sugar water (1 part sugar to 4 parts water ratio) without food coloring. She said anything else can be harmful to these cute little birds.
I've been stretching out my birthday as long as possible (like I do every year!) and this past weekend I got to enjoy the last of it! Ben somehow finagled me a seat on the Exclusive Red Wolf Trip in the Wings Over Water Nature Festival. I was one of only four people that got the rare chance to see the red wolves of NC! Just like in Yellowstone, the reintroduction of wolves to the area has its opposition but the story is really neat: Way back in my Charleston-days, I took a field trip to a red wolf sanctuary where the government was working on a project to increase the population of red wolves. It was so cool to see these beautiful, Maverick-like creatures, and know that someday they were be released into the wild again. As it turns out, they are now located in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, just an hour's drive away from where I live now! And that is the ONLY place where red wolves are wild in the entire world! 
Texas, through the mid-west, and up the Atlantic coast. But due to over hunting, only 7 individuals remained. They were all captured, taken to a facility in South Carolina, fed and bred, and now there are 220 in the wild and over 100 in captivity. Biologists with the US Fish and Wildlife Service want that number increased by 100 more in both the wild and captivity. To do this, they take captive-born wolves, mate them, and then deliver those babies, when they are only a few days old, to a wild wolf mother, and sneak them into the den with her other babies, and she will take care of all of them as her own. I asked how they get them in the den with her in there and they said that she is afraid of them and runs out, they put the babies in with the others, take off, and she returns to nurse them all. Really amazing!Our trip started with a tour of the housing facility where these endangered creatures may visit, if their radio collars need changed or if genetics are needed to determine if they are pure wolf or a coyote hybrid. Here, there were 8 or more captive-raised red wolves, that are either part of the breeding program, or are being housed temporarily until another facility needs them (a zoo, for example). The red wolf is smaller than the grey wolf and very shy. In fact when we went in their pens to feed them, they either hid in their dog houses or paced along the back of the fence. Maybe it is the nursery rhymes that I grew up with that scared me, but I was surprised at this docile behavior when I was putting raw meat in their feeding area- but also delighted that they were not going to eat me!
After the tour there, we went out with the biologist a used radio transmitter to locate a pack that was close by. He heard the pups howling before we got out of the car, so he howled back to see if he could keep it going. Unfortunately we didn't hear them, but he said that they were really near where we were, hiding in the woods. He said that the pups are very curious and they probably had poked their heads out of the vegetation to see what we were but then ran and hid while we waited for them to howl. Check out this video of him howling- it is pretty neat.
Believe it or not, Ben has begun his very own blog: Birding with Ben, isn't that cute? He's quite a fanatic this time of year (its migration season) so he has lots to share. Check it out at birdingwithben.blogspot.com!
DAY 15
DAY 18
Banquet Servers! Who gets married on Halloween? Seriously! Both Ben and I had to work yesterday, but it really was a beautiful wedding. The food was excellent, as always, and we brought home two bott
les of wine, sangria made by the chefs, and some fruit salad for Otis. The wedding coordinator used apples and pears on the tables as decorations so we brought those home too! This was a partying group, so the bar was extra stocked and if you look closely in the picture, you can see a canoe in the background. We tip in up on a rack and load it up with beer and ice and people love it, and its much easier on the bartender. People seem to drink more of it that way, too, and we m
ake more money in our paychecks! It got really REALLY cold last night under that tent, so they brought in heaters, thankfully! We were running around clearing dishes and freezing, I can't imagine what those girls felt like in strapless dresses!
(semi-) warm temperatures. When we took Mav out this morning, the thermometer read 38 (its in the shade), but by the time we got to the beach, we had all taken off our jackets (I had to help Maverick, as he lacks thumbs to open the velcro on his own, haha). The beach was absolutely gorgeous, possible mid-60s, no wind at all, and tons of shells! There were no people around anywhere, either, it was truly a delight! You'd think 
that the water would be too cold for our maniac dog, but he doesn't seem to mind. He's a nut for seashells no matter what the weather!
