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Wilson’s Plover spotted on the Merrimack River at Cashman Park in Newburyport, Mass.

paul — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:37:39 +0000

I was home sick for a few days this week, but even though I was under the weather, I took an opportunity to get some fresh air and spend quality time with my wife and son. On Thursday afternoon, we went to Cashman Park in Newburyport, Mass.

While we were there, we fed some bread and baby puffs to three juvenile Mallard Ducks and a handfull of Ring-billed Gulls by the rivers edge. It was low tide and birds can often be found feeding and sunning among the river grasses. My son also loves to watch and point at birds, so it was quite a treat, especially since some of the ducks were quite fearless and ate food from my wifes and my fingers.

The highlight was when a lone bird flew in low over the river and alighted onto the gravelly sand, right at the water’s edge. It did not seem bothered by us and looked like it was used to the frenzied activity of the gulls when they are scavenging food near humans.

At first we thought it was a Piping Plover, which are famous for their presence and local efforts to protect their summer nesting grounds on Plum Island in Newbury. We were a couple miles from the island and I figured it had to another type of shore bird. Upon further study I noted that it had a white horizontal stripe in front of its eyes (a white forehead) and white and black neck. The bird’s bill was black. The plumage was dark gray to light brown, with a white belly.

My wife and I did a bit of online research and narrowed it down to either a Semipalmated Plover or a Wilson’s Plover, which are very alike aside from the leg coloraton, nuances in the plumage coloration and the former has an orange bill with a black tip. The bird we saw had an all black bill.

I also thought it could be a Killdeer, which are far more common to the area. And while they are comfortable with being near human habitation, the “chronicles” state that this bird is not associate closely with other shorebirds, which were numerous. From where we were standing, it also looked as if the bird’s eye was all black—the Killdeer has an eye with an orange iris. It was a tough call.

In the end, we settled on a Wilson’s Plover.

A Wilson’s Plover

The end of varsity men’s rowing at Rutgers???

paul — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:59:19 +0000

Say it ain’t so!

My Uncle just sent me an article, The saddest stroke of all, by Mark DiIonno, from the Star Ledger, a New Jersey newspaper. It looks like Rutgers is downgrading the Men’s Varsity rowing program to club status.

This means that the university will no longer be able to woo potential rowers like other university programs still can. It also means the possible end of a powerhouse rowing program that bred olympic and international rowing champions throughout its storied history.

What’s most interesting is that the shool contributed only $80,000 a year toward men’s rowing—$5,000 for scholarships and $75 for the coach’s salary. The rest of the money used for scholarships, equipment, travel, boats, trucks and maintenance came from alumni.

The article mentions the need for either boathouse upgrades or a new one altogether and $1 million has been raised so far. So why the downgraded status of one of America’s most historic rowing programs?

I rowed in the University of Tampa back in the early 90′s; the woman’s program was varsity and the men’s program was always club status. Tampa is a small school and its rowing program is known for being a Southeast Regional powerhouse, and my boats had a fair share of gold medals. We also lost a great rower who transferred after his freshmen year to row at Rutgers. Tampa’s program certainly does not compare to Rutgers fabled program, so that was a no-brainer for him. As a small university, Tampa did not have the money to generously support rowing at that time, nor did it have a vast rowing alumni network to rely on for additional funding.

The article did not mention the reasons why the Rutgers administration decided to downgrade the men’s program from Varsity to club. Rowing alumni from far and wide have been unsuccessful in their attempt to sway Rutgers president Richard McCormick and athletic director Bob Mulcahy. Some may point to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the fact that this legislation causes schools to spend less money on non-revenue-generating men’s sports programs. But then again, the eyes—and money—of rowers worldwide is often focused on Rutgers crew. The possibility that Rutgers was only spending $80,000, and still felt the need to cut that small amount of funding seems harsh.

As a rower who appreciates the Rutgers rowing tradition and what it means to the rowing community, I can only scratch my head as to why the administration has handicapped such a great program.

Addendum (Added 31 July 2008):

I spoke to my Uncle last night and it turns out that this scenario at Rutgers has been going on for a year. Apparently the men’s varsity rowing program is a victim of Title IX legislation.

Our farm share bounty grows each week

paul — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:24:10 +0000

As the summer ages into the late July months, the bounty of our farm share grows with each passing week. So much so, that we’ve started making tentative plans for potluck barbecues with friends so that we can go through all the vegetables that we’ve been receiving.

Man, am I glad we only bought a half share.

This week, we need to eat our way through beets, Swiss Chard, two types of beans,
scallions, a lettuce, two cucumbers, two zucchini, a ridunkulously large yellow squash
and a heretofore unknown item for us: a few garlic scapes*.

* From wikipedia.org: Immature scapes are tender and edible. They are also known as ‘garlic spears’, ‘stems’, or ‘tops’. Scapes generally have a milder taste than cloves. They are often used in stir frying or prepared like asparagus.

The Hoopoe: Israel’s new national bird

paul — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:04:51 +0000

The State of Israel finally has a national bird. Behold, the Hoopoe, chosen during this year’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the nation’s independence.

The Hoopoe
(Photo by Dhaval Momaya, via Wikipedia)

According to a news brief from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the bird is native to the Middle East and has an Israeli commando unit named after it.

The Hoopoe beat out other winged candidates such as the Palestine Sunbird and the Bulbul, which is also known in Hebrew as a slang term for the penis. Last year, the Bulbul was really close to being tabbed, as reported on Haaretz.com. But by late 2007, their was a small list of contenders who would be voted on by this year’s 60th anniversary celebration.

Rather than read more about it here, watch Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report in this hilarious coverage of the nation’s new national bird.

Taking out the forsythia bushes

paul — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:00:39 +0000

Finally, the forsythia bushes are gone!

No more grappling with these oversized monsters when I mow the lawn. No more blocking the dogwood and golden chain trees of the sun’s precious rays. No more harboring of hordes of little house sparrows that chase other birds from our feeders.

Last summer, I cut all the branches of one of the forsythias down to the stump. By mid summer, it had grown back to be about four feet tall. In the fall, I hacked away at all three of them and by late this spring, they had grown back to be four feet tall. Here’s a previous post from last summer to compare a before and after.

This past Saturday, my friend Marc and I took a few hours in the morning and dug out the three forsythia bushes on the western side of the yard. With shovels and pick mattocks, we started wide holes around the bushes. Then we worked our way in towards the bottom of the base of the root system. As we hacked through particularly nasty roots and dug through the clay, we loosened each shrub from its position and rolled it out of the hole.

Paul and Marc hack away the forsythia root system entrenched in clay.

Once the bushes were out of the holes, we cut away at dirt within the root balls, cut off any long chunks of stump and carted everything off to the dump.

Rolling the forsythia stump out of the ground.

And of course, it rained again during one of my major yard projects. Never fails. But hey, no more forsythia bushes!

Piece of cake!

Protected: M grows teefs upon teefs!

paul — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:58:08 +0000

Protected: M breaks 16 pounds!

paul — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:33:44 +0000

Protected: M hangs with the big dogs on Long Island

paul — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:35:32 +0000