May 26th

100

I am my own 100th visitor. Awesome! Congratulations to me! Turns out that I was also visitor 101, and I was responsible to 78 of the first 100 hits to the site. In appreciation of my own loyalty and continued interest in my own blog I will be sending my self a generous gift of a free Miniature Poodle Gang's greatest hits! Lucky me! A blank CD!...cause you know MPG never actually had a hit.

Maybe you dear reader will be lucky visitor # 200 and can score a free gift of your own.

The end

Well the apocalypse didn't happen yesterday. Either that or my life has been hell all along. Here is some news for you very few readers on this happy post apocalyptic day...I am getting divorced. My wife left me in October, just 6 months after we moved to Alabama, though now she says it was my fault despite my begging her to stay. The whole experience has been quite hellish. Its been over 10 years since I've dealt with the pain of heart break. Some times I feel like a teenage boy, all angsty, etc. I've reverted to listening to Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and old Radiohead like it was 1997.

So that's been kind of fun.

Delaware

Last Saturday, My graduate student and I piled our stuff in the Chevy HHR (a company car) and drove 14.5 hours from Alabama to Delaware. This is my 4th year out here on the Bay. This is part of a my major research project to develop models of population dynamics, estimate demographic parameters, and develop a smart decision making framework for managing Horseshoe crab harvests in the Bay in a way that doesn't harm migrating shorebird populations. There is a lot of technical stuff that goes along with that work. Coming up here is not about technical stuff, its about witnessing the spectacle.

This is truly a natural wonder of the world. Shorebirds that spend the winter dispersed across South America travel thousands of miles and converge on the mid-Atlantic coast enroute to the Canadian Arctic. In most years, concurrent with the shorebird arrival, horseshoe crabs crawl up on the beach by the hundreds of thousands or even millions to spawn. Walking along the beach on a calm windless moonlit night, I am often overcome with a sense of awe and eeriness. The water laps on the shore and you can hear the clicking and scraping of a thousand male crabs jostling and maneuvering for position over the hundred or so females digging their nests in the soft wet sand. The water is frothy with crab seamen, the air reeks of saltwater and the unique smell of sea life. The moon reflects off the glistening crab shells. Witnessing all this reminds me of how beautiful life is and just how lucky I am.

raa again