Author Archives: Marci

Thanksgiving time already???

Posted in Friends and Family, Home Life, Me Me Me! by

Well, I guess Halloween can’t last forever. But, just in case you’re sad about the season ending (like I am), here are a few pictures for you from our Halloween party!

Our terrifying living room.
We turned our basement into a spider den! Horrific!
Even more scary, I made my first attempt at wearing false eyelashes. It didn’t go too badly! Plus, they were purple.
Here’s my costume! I was going for Mad Hatter, but I’ll also accept Mimi from the Drew Carey Show (not really) or drag queen.
Christopher was the local reed dealer. You know, because he makes and sells reeds for oboe.
We had some amazing costumes at our party, including plenty of Star Wars characters. Rachael was the Death Star, her being pregnant and all.
Paul’s costume was clever – he went to the evite site and wrote all the party-goers names on name tags. His concept: identity thief.
Those eyeball cupcakes didn’t stand a chance!
Uh oh…looks like the party is getting started…
Indeed! We even had Elvis singing karaoke in the spider den!
Hey you two – no funny business! Just kidding, carry on with the funny business.
So scary! But fun! Looking forward to another good time next year!

Spider fun facts!

Posted in Animals, Home Life, Humor, Me Me Me!, Non-cats by

I did a little research, and within no time, I learned Shelob’s true identity: she’s a common European cross spider (Araneus diadematus). I don’t know why she came from Europe; presumably, she heard about how most of the humans on this continent are flavored with pork grease, corn syrup, and MSG. But you can see why she’s a cross spider – the white cross on her abdomen stands out clearly in the photo I took of her in my previous post.

Anyway, a couple of interesting things I learned about cross spiders. They are orb-weavers, and rebuild their large webs almost every day. Most suburban yards around here have over one hundred webs in them, which I can believe given the number of webs on our front porch alone. When creating the radial support lines for the web, the spider takes advantage of the morning winds (she often anchors them a fair distance away, so uses the wind to carry her to an anchor spot), and the orientation of the resulting web indicates the morning wind pattern.

Also, the females will perch upside down in the web (like in my pictures below) waiting for prey, and when something hits the web, she darts over, immobilizes it with venom, then wraps it up in silk. I actually saw Shelob do this with a bee a few weeks ago – she was crazy fast, and she wrapped that sucker up good and tight in no time.

But here’s what I’m really not looking forward to. In late summer and fall (now!?), the females will lay egg sacs, which hatch out about a gazillion little spiderlets that hang out in clumps then disperse after a few days. While spiderlets sound cute, you can be assured that several will reach adulthood and wreak havoc upon the local hobbit population (or whatever else that will make an appropriate substitute, since I believe Shelob consumed the last of our hobbits). I am not crazy about the prospect of finding over a hundred of these clusters in my yard any time soon:

Bleck!

I’m now thinking that telecommuting may be the way to go, permanently. I can send Chris out to get groceries and cat litter, and if he doesn’t make it back, well, I guess that means my arachnophobia-induced precautions will be validated. I haven’t seen Shelob in a few days now, but I’m sure that’s because she’s off laying egg sacs or planning something equally nefarious. I’m glad that I got some photos of her before she disappeared so that the police will have something to go on when they find, in response to a neighbor’s report about a “funny smell coming from the yellow house”, our cold lifeless bodies sucked dry and wrapped in silk.

Shit. I just read the rest of the spider website…I guess we’re coming up on Tegenaria duellica season: the season of the giant house spider, which are common in this area. And since I’m pretty sure it eats cats for between-meal snacks, I’m guessing I’m screwed.

This here is a giant house spider. Sorry, I did not get permission to use this photo, but it was the only one with a reference to scale so you can see how utterly horrifying this creature is. And our basement is likely chock-full of them.

And you thought I was kidding about Shelob…

Posted in Animals, Home Life, Humor, Me Me Me!, Non-cats by

So very wrong, you were!

On the bright side, I took these pictures with my new camera so I was able to maintain a relatively safe distance. On the down side, I think I still managed to piss her off because after a couple of minutes of invading her space she scrambled up underneath the porch rail, presumably to plot my demise and eventual consumption. So I guess that means that use of the front door (necessitating crossing into Her territory) is off limits, at least until the first frost. But maybe I’ll not take any chances and just wait things out until spring.

Whooooops!

Posted in Home Life, Me Me Me!, Updates by

So, it looks like I completely forgot to write anything for this blog in September. Ooops! Sorry about that, folks! Because I know you were totally checking my blog at least once, twice, or maybe even three times per day to see if I’d written anything new…that’s how much you love my blog, huh? Ah, I have such a loyal audience! All three of you are the absolute best!

So now, on to a quick recap. In the beginning of September, Chris and I started our bowling league, which will go through April. Yes, every Thursday night you can find us at Bailey’s Classic Lanes, which is just down the street from our house in the basement of the Elks Lodge. It is only 8 lanes, has original wood floors, and is run by a really nice couple – Dennis and Robin. The people in the league are kinda nutty, so I guess we fit right in. I bought a fabulous pair of bowling shoes and a leopard ball, because style is apparently what I have going for me, instead of a decent average. On the other hand, I have a super-high handicap! Yay!

Yup, the shoes were the first thing I bought when it came to purchasing the necessary equipment.
That’s my leopard ball in the front there, and Chris probably bowling a strike. Too bad my ball is too light – last time I bowled with one of the house balls, 2 lbs heavier! I can’t say it made much of a difference in my score, but I was at least a bit more consistent.

We also made it out to Vancouver’s annual Sausage Fest. With real sausages. I’ve had better sausage, but how could we pass up Sausage Fest? Short answer: we couldn’t.

See – it really was a Sausage Fest. And you thought I was kidding.

    

Additionally, Chris and I spent a weekend at the coast in Lincoln City. Chris actually got me out on the golf course, where my talents were most usefully applied to driving the golf cart and keeping score. I did hit a few balls, but again, golf is perhaps something where I’ll have to get by on style and not on skill. Now, if I could trade my bowling average for my golf score, *then* I might have something going!

    

September was a good month, but I suppose it is time to say goodbye to summer. The rain has started to become more frequent, and I’m seeing new birds at the feeder. The spiders are now huge. In fact, Shelob has relocated from Mordor to our front porch and is feeding on small birds because of the hobbit shortage. We have an understanding, though – I won’t use the front door, and she won’t make me scream in terror and run around the front yard like a maniac. It sounded like a good deal at the time, but I’m ready for her to move on! And speaking of moving on, it is now October. And you know what that means…yes…Halloween!!! I’ve already got my entire costume purchased, complete with accoutrements and accessories. What will I be? Well, you’ll either have to guess or wait. But here’s a hint: we’re all mad here!

I’m already 2/3 done with my first bag of candy corn, but that simply means I get to buy more soon. I hope you have a splendid October, and are looking forward to the best holiday of the year. Because any day that combines costumes and candy is number one in my book!

And I even got it on camera!

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me! by

My little brother turned 36 on the 19th. I took him bowling and we even had an extra treat – galaxy style! The lanes were all lit up with black lights and flashing runner lights and cheesy music videos. Wowzers! Happy birthday, Paul – I’m glad I’m your sister and am happy that we got to spend a few hours together this weekend. Let’s do it again sometime!

Crater…Caldera…It’s all the same, right?

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel, Vacations by

I’m afraid not, my friends. That being the case, I propose that “Crater” Lake be renamed “Caldera Lake”, which more accurately reflects its origins and current state. The lake, of course, was formed during a massive volcanic explosion, which caused Mt. Mazama to collapse and form the lake at the top. As you may recall from Geology 101, a crater is formed by an impact (think asteroid impacts that form craters on the moon)…which is not the case with “Crater” (psh!) Lake.

One of our first views of “Crater” Lake. Gorgeous, huh?

At any rate, I thought I’d share a few pictures that we took when Chris and I went on a little road trip a couple of weeks ago. We headed down south through Bend to Diamond Lake, which is just north of “Crater” Lake by about 20 minutes. We camped with some friends for a couple of nights there at the Forest Service campground. First of all, what a gorgeous place to camp! Second of all, we need a bigger tent. My backpacking tent is just not much fun for car-camping, especially when the people you’re camping with have trailers and palatial tents with separate rooms for their dogs, for Pete’s sake!

We found this sign at the Crooked River overlook. Dogs are so dumb.
Our campsite at Diamond Lake. Mosquitoes are dumb, too.
These are dragonfly nymph exuvium that I found on the shore of Diamond Lake. Dragonflies are definitely kewl. I am obviously a nerd.

Our second day in we spent the day at “Crater” Lake. While it is misnamed, it *is* beautiful. Wowzers! And there was still plenty of snow up there. We drove around the lake, stopped at the visitor’s center so that I could get my National Parks Passport stamped (heh heh), then took the hike down Cleetwood Cove trail to the lake shore. From there, we took a 2.5 hour boat tour around the lake where our guide talked about the geology, mythology, and biology of the lake. We even got to see several hundred kokanee swimming below us at one point! They aren’t native (along with the rainbow trout), but the lake hasn’t been stocked since the 1940’s. It’s America’s deepest and most pristine lake, so removing the fish would be very difficult and the Park Service has decided to just let them persist. The hike back up the trail was not all that fun, but the weather was warm and sunny so I’m not going to complain much here.

Me and Chris at “Crater” Lake. The scenery was nice, too.
Our friends James, Becky, Wicket, and Willow. Even at the end of July the road was closed because there was still a little bit of snow around!
At the bottom of Cleetwood Cove Trail; that’s our boat waiting to take us around the lake.
Our view of Wizard Island from the lake surface. The water was really calm and clear.

The next day we stopped at Lava Butte National Volcanic Monument (and got another passport stamp – cha-ching!) on our way back home. It’s just a few minutes south of Bend, and it pretty darn cool. We drove to the top of the butte and you can see its huge lava flow – almost 7000 years old and the pumice field looked as sharp and jagged as ever.

The forest ends abruptly at the lava flow’s edge; yes, that wall of dark brown rubble is all sharp pumice from the flow!
Chris, in front of Lava Butte.
The view from the top of Lava Butte. You can see the lava flow extending out (dark brown) and then the forest beyond. 7000 years later and the rocks have not eroded or been colonized by plants!

Chris had a great birthday weekend, and I decided we need to go camping more. With a new tent. And possibly a queen-sized air mattress. But first thing’s first: where to go next?

Happy birthday, my love! You are smokin’!

Bikin’ It!

Posted in Home Life, Me Me Me! by

The weather is finally nice here in the Pacific Northwest, so I figure that I have at least another month or two of a suitable climate for biking to work. Yes, I’m kind of a fair-weather biker. But my bike it totally pimped out now and is great for commuting!

  • Note the rad fenders that prevent skunk stripes on my back (for when it rains, and when I have to bike in it, which will probably not happen very often)!
  • Observe the cushy seat that provides more padding for my bum!
  • Marvel at the bike rack that Chris just installed so that I don’t have to ride around with my backpack on, rendering my hands tingly and my back achy (and I also don’t resemble a turtle so much)!

And I’m all safety geared up too, with lights (when I need them), a reflective BRIGHT neon yellow jacket, and aerodynamic helmet (although, this does little for diminishing my turtle-like appearance).

It’s only 4.3 miles to work if I follow a route with bike lanes, so I figured I should probably try to bike more. So far this summer I’ve biked to work 7 days (biking 60.2 miles), which has saved the environment 48 lbs of carbon dioxide, 1309 gms of carbon monoxide, and 2 gallons of gasoline. Some people in my office bike 60 miles per day, so I know I can do better – how ’bout I update you at the end of the summer and let you know how it’s going?

In the meantime, read this: On Biking – Why Can’t the US Learn Lessons from Europe?

Meandering around Multnomah Falls

Posted in Day Trips, Travel by

I decided to extend my Independence Day weekend and took last Tuesday off to spend it with Chris because he has been away on tour for the past week. What to do? It was a beautiful day, so we decided to hike up Multnomah Falls in the Gorge. We hiked up to the top of the falls, then took the Wahkeena trail down past Fairy Falls, then back to the base of Multnomah.

This is basically the loop that we took, with the exception that we walked the trail that passes by Fairy Falls. In total it was about 6.2 miles.

It was a beautiful day, and we got some good exercise. We definitely took our time – I’m a bit slow on the uphill, and there were a ton of wildflowers to take pictures of. We capped off our victorious climb by stopping at McMenamin’s Edgefield Power Station Pub. Yum!

 

At the base of Multnomah Falls
Me and Chris at the top of Multnomah Falls
Weisendanger Falls, upstream from Multnomah
Lovely larkspur!
Oregon iris – see the bee in the upper right petal? She’ll be off to pollinate another plant soon!
Columbia tiger lily
Fairy Falls on the Wahkeena Trail
At the bottom of Wahkeena Falls

One small step for fish biologists, one great splash for bull trout!

Posted in Accomplishments, Animals, Career, Me Me Me!, Non-cats by

**Please note: this is my personal blog and reflects my personal opinions. Any questions about this project relating to agency positions should be directed to either the US Fish and Wildlife Service or the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Thanks for reading!**

Sooo…this post is going to be about work. Which I rarely blog about, but last week was a good week, so I’m going to go ahead and share. One of the first projects I became involved with when I started my job here almost two years ago was the reintroduction of bull trout in the Clackamas basin, a little bit southeast of Portland. Bull trout once coexisted in the basin with a suite of native fish species including salmon and steelhead. However, bull trout disappeared from the basin in the 1960s (the last confirmed sighting was in 1963) largely as a result of overfishing and habitat degradation. So, now that many of the issues that caused bull trout to be extirpated have been addressed, the Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Forest Service, decided that the time was ripe to reintroduce bull trout into the Clackamas to resume its spot in the ecosystem.

Bull trout in the Kootenai River drainage in Montana. Photo by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Stock (used with permission).

The reintroduction project has been in the planning phases since the mid-2000s. Bull trout were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999, and reintroducing them to a part of their native range falls under recovery actions planned for this species. Our office provides technical assistance to the regulatory folks, and it was my task to perform the preliminary bioenergetics modeling for bull trout, as well as lead the development of the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for the project, which is anticipated to continue for up to 20 years (and perhaps beyond that). I am currently the chair of the M&E committee, comprised of biologists from several of the agencies involved in the project. It was a big task to complete the M&E plan, but a necessary one for a couple of reasons.

First, the bull trout population in the Clackamas is an experimental one. The major benefit of having a strong Monitoring and Evaluation program is that we will learn something no matter what happens – we will learn why the reintroduction succeeded or failed. Either way, we will know more about what might work for the recovery of this population as this project progresses, and ultimately for this species elsewhere in its range.

Second, we need to pay close attention to what these bull trout do in the Clackamas because there are other listed species in the basin, such as Chinook, coho and steelhead. In fact, this project has been fairly controversial because of concern for these other listed species, which makes it all the more important that we have a strong M&E program and dot all of our regulatory i’s and cross all of our regulatory t’s. Because bull trout are top predators, where these species overlap in time and space salmon and steelhead may face an increased risk of being eaten by bull trout. Of course, bull trout eat plenty of things other than salmon and steelhead (other fish, insects, etc.). But part of our monitoring program focuses on the interaction of all of these listed species so that project managers can take action if it looks like the impacts from bull trout are greater than anticipated.

Anyway, there’s a bit more to the story, but I’ll cut to the chase. Last week was a big week for us because we finally completed all of the regulatory requirements needed to get fish in the water. About 30 subadult and adult bull trout were collected from the Metolius, implanted with radio tags so we can keep track of their whereabouts, trucked over to the Clackamas, and released in the Big Bottom portion of the upper basin. Yay! There was a fair amount of press there, and it was great to see these beautiful fish swim in waters they hadn’t seen for 50 years. Let’s just hope they stay there! We’ll continue to move juvenils and subadults/adults through July, and our monitoring program will kick in almost immediately.

You can see some of the video footage and pictures that were taken here:

From the Oregonian – http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/06/bull_trout_released_in_upper_c.html

From KGW News Channel 8 – http://www.kgw.com/video/featured-videos/Bull-trout-released-in-Clackamas-River-124829994.html

And here are some pictures I took – enjoy!

There were plenty of people on hand to witness the first bull trout release!
Above, this bull trout was just taken off the transport truck. The cooler was walked down to the banks of the Clackamas and the bull trout swam in the waters of its new home a few moments later.
This was the first bull trout back in the Clackamas! Good luck – we’ll be keeping track of you!