A How to Guide for Dealing with Prickly Pear Cacti.

1. Avoid walking into Prickly Pear while chasing your focal species through the Florida scrub.

2. If you fail at 1 (which frequently happens) you must assess the situation:

a. Is the prickly pear lobe still attached to the rest of the plant? If so, simply take a step back in the direction you came. The spines should remove themselves from your pants. However, you must be sure that the glochids, or small hairs at the base of the long spine, have not rubbed off onto your pants. If you can see them, cautiously brush them off, being careful to not allow the hairs to embed in your hands.

b. Has the prickly pear lobe detached from the rest of the plant? If so, there are a few situations that could arise that you must know how to deal with.

i. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant and is simply hanging from your pants leg, no puncture wounds have occurred - In this situation simply grasp the detached lobe by one of the offending spines, NOT THE LOBE OF THE PLANT, and firmly pull straight out. If multiple spines have punctured the pants you may have to repeat this process a few times. If you make the mistake of using the lobe as your pulling point you may embed the glochids in your hand, resulting in much irritation later.

ii. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant and has impaled itself in your shin. – This is initially very painful, but you need to remain calm and again, assess the situation. Treat the offending lobe in the same manner as before, grasping the spines puncturing your skin and pulling firmly straight out. Avoid the temptation to wince, and do it like a band-aid… carefully, but quickly. You may have to repeat this process if multiple spines have punctured your skin.

iii. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant and is stuck to the front of your boot. – This is an extremely easy situation to deal with once you know the right way to treat it. The right way does not involve kicking your foot forward to dislodge the spines, because if the spines do detach, they will invariably do so at the apex of the kick, aiming the lobe of pain straight for your face. The best way to deal with a lobe stuck to the front of your boot is to step on it with the sole of your other boot. If the spines remain in the boot, detached from the lobe, simply grasp, and pull to remove.

iv. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant and is stuck to the back of your boot. – This happens, but you will never know until it is too late. Proceed to the next situation.

v. The prickly pear lobe has detached from the rest of the plant, and was once stuck in the back of your boot. However, due to walking in the scrub you have embedded multiple spines anywhere from about ¼ of an inch to one inch deep in the back of your calf. – Resist the temptation to swear profusely and loudly. This will scare off the focal species. Treat the lobe the same as most situations. Grasp the offending spines and firmly pull straight out. If the wounds begin to itch, which for many people they do, DO NOT SCRATCH. This will only compound the itchiness and your general discomfort.

Congratulations, you have learned how to deal with the immediate problem caused by prickly pear cacti in the field. Now you should know how to treat prickly pear wounds.

Like all wounds, try to keep them clean and dry. This shouldn’t be hard, as the wounds are extremely small, though painful. In general, the wounds will heal without much help from you, but there are a few things that you can do to ease your discomfort. For bruises that form around especially nasty puncture wounds I have found that a homeopathic cream that contains arnica tends to speed healing. The massaging in of the cream also probably functions to increase blood flow to the area and speed the removal of pooled blood, the cause of the bruising. If you find that the glochids have embedded themselves in your legs you will probably just have to wait for them to work themselves out in their own sweet time. They are generally no more uncomfortable than a small ingrown hair. If they are not fully embedded you may be able to pinch them with a pair of tweezers and pull them out. If this is not the case I have found it best to leave them be, eventually they will work themselves out.

If you have any further questions about how to deal with prickly pear cacti in the field, or the resulting wounds afterwards, just ask any Archbold employee. They will all have their own suggestions. Choose what you think is best.

I am Destroyer.

So I’ve actually been given a nickname that has stuck. Destroyer.

Apparently the name had its origins during the hiring process for my job. When deciding between the last 3 candidates our names were on a whiteboard in the office. One of Travis, Michelle and Gina’s friends walked in and, without looking too closely at the names exclaimed, “Wait? Is one of them named Destroyer?!” So somehow my last name was transformed to Destroyer. And the friend’s vote was for me. On the basis of his mis-reading of my last name. When he came to visit about 2 weeks ago he only referred to me as Destroyer. It’s gotten to the point now that I will actually respond to it to when people call me from the other room. It’s a fitting nickname, as I have done quite some damage to my ATV already. Ran out of gas one day (and didn’t have any reserve because it was switched the wrong way… oops…), broke the kick shift another day (it was going when I got it), had a water bottle explode in the back welded on box (which promptly turned spilled dog food used for supplemental feeding of territories to a nauseating mush), broke the box of my first aid kit, and somehow had my fire extinguisher explode in the back, coating everything in a nice fine yellow dust. In my defense, the sand roads are actually pretty rough. There’s all these washboard like bumps at strange intervals that make for quite a bumpy ride, as well as rolling lumps that make you feel like you’re on a mechanical bull at times. Travis says that his go to karaoke choice while riding the ATV is Eddie Vedder, a la Pearl Jam. The washboard bumps enable him to get that signature vibrato just right.

I’ve started my own research project which if I get some interesting data, hopefully I should be able to write something up… and possibly get it published in a small journal. I’m testing the theory that as the stages of the nest progress, from empty, to with eggs, to with nestlings, that the breeders will defend it more vigorously, because a loss of that nest to predation later in the process represents a greater loss of time and energy that they had invested in their genes in the next generation. I’ve been collecting data with all my nest checks that I conduct in the afternoons. I’ve been doing it for 4 days now and I’ve already got lots of data. I’m excited that I’m going to have such a large sample size. I’m also excited that I’ll be able to look at the overall population, as well as individual breeding pairs fit into this theory. And I’ve only been pecked by angry momma jays 3 times, (2 of those times being by the same one.) Here she is… looking rather cross with me. I had to give her about 5 peanuts, and then pretend to walk away from the nest before she hopped off and I ran back… then got pecked.


I’ve also been on a roll as of late. I’ve found 7 nests in the past 4 or 5 days. I’m definitely getting the hang of it. The birds are crafty. Today I had a male who I’m sure knew I was looking for his nest, because he led me right to a nest that was probably about 3 years old, filled with old crusty leaves. But I stuck around… and with a mix of luck, and strategy I found the nest… with the female on 2 eggs. Sometimes it really is a battle of wits out there. The birds are still winning, but I’m trying to close the gap.

Lots of nest checks.

So we've got about 30 nests that we are monitoring now. Some are starting to have eggs. Which means that when we head out there we make a small dot with a sharpie on the broad end of the egg indicating laying order. The eggs are speckled brown, so a few small dots blends in enough that the birds usually don't notice. Then we pull out our scales and weigh the most recent egg. All the while the parents are screaming at you from approximately 1 meter away. Scrub Jays are loud. I usually take out all the supplies I'm going to need before I get to the nest and disturb the breeders. I feel it's best to get in there, and get out, while most importantly, being careful not to do any harm to the eggs.

The latest in the GCB-I saga is that we still do not know who he is breeding with for sure. We think it may be the more experienced female, CL-B, who moved into his territory from hers after her old mate died last year. H-FCP, the other younger female, is almost as ridiculous as GCB-I. She's not hand tame, but she's definitely not afraid. She'll sit in a scrub oak 2 feet from me and just stare. Waiting for a handout. The tameness of the birds works against you when trying to nest search. Instead of acting like a normal Scrub Jay should, they sit and stare. Not helpful when you're trying to watch their behavior for clues as to what's going on where. They're more interested in the possible peanut you're going to give them than plucking fibers or breaking sticks to build a nest with. Yesterday while trying to nest search and SSHC without giving him anything GCB-I decided to sit on my head. Then when I didn't feed him after 10 minutes, and was clearly more interested in what CL-B was going to do, (because she still acts like a normal Scrub Jay), GCB-I got upset, started making his grunting noises, and then proceeded to peck me twice on the head.


Scrub Jays are not the only hand tamed birds on the station. There is a red bellied woodpecker, who we affectionately refer to as Tony, who is also hand tame. Of course, I didn't know about this the day he decided to introduce himself to me. It's one thing to have a Scrub Jay flying straight at your head to land... It's another entirely when a woodpecker is headed for you. They use those bills to inflict some serious hurt on some trees. Eventually I was informed that you give him a peanut, and he goes away. I had to pay the Tony toll at the ATV gate across State Road 8 just an hour ago.


I had a day off this Wednesday and drove out to Sarasota to visit with Memere and Pepere. We played some cribbage, and went to Siesta Key for the day. It was a very relaxing break. The Great Blue Herons who were nesting in the tree in their backyard are still there. The 2 fledglings are huge now. They barely fit in the nest together. The first got very upset when the second decided it was sick of sitting down and almost toppled the first out of the nest. They also fought when mom came back with a crop full of food.


I've got the beginnings of a research question formulated that I think may work out... Time for a brainstorming session.

The "real" Florida...

So the slogan of the Florida State Park system is "The REAL Florida." Which I find amusing, and sad, but true. Of course, my concept of Florida was originally based on Mickey Mouse, themeparks, and beaches. I'm now beginning to see a much different picture. Florida really is unique in the wildlife hanging out here. Case in point, the Florida Scrub Jay. Not found anywhere else. It would be a travesty to see them go if development is unchecked. All the princess castles in the world do not compare to the natural beauty of the unique ecosystems here.

This past week we made an afternoon trip to Highland's Hammock State Park.
We spent a few hours just wandering around on boardwalk trails through the old-growth cypress swamp, taking pictures of and just enjoying everything from the lichen on the trees, to the colorful spiders in their webs, to the American Alligator lounging in the lilly pads.




The Florida Scrub has it's beauty too... but it was nice to see a totally different ecosystem down here. I think next I might see what birds there are to check out along the coast of Lake Placid.

another week

So the birds are still winning. The nest that I thought may not have actually been active wasn't active, like I suspected. And the first real nest that I found abandoned a few days later. But I did find another nest, which is still up and running, and may have eggs soon. I hope it does because I feel like I'm treading water at this point and not making much progress. It is a little comforting that other people are having the birds get the better of them as well. Today I searched the territory that the tame bird, GCB-I, who thinks everyone is his buddy lives on. I spent a good deal of the time with him sitting on top of my baseball hat while I offered palmetto fibers to the two females he's hanging out with, hoping one of them would pick them up and fly them over to the nest. If there even is one at this point. Which I don't think there is, as both females were doing a hiccup display and singing... with the other around... and no fights broke out. I think GCB-I is confused. He clearly has two lovely ladies and is more interested in standing on the brim of my hat and peering under to look at me. Checking to see if I have any peanuts in my mouth I'm sure. Either that or perching on my shoulder like a pirate's parrot.

In non bird related news we had a Sunday brunch/ BBQ/ gathering at the director of the bird lab at Archbold's house. There was so much good food... I was stuffed for hours. We played "Bags" which I am a newbie to. Apparently it's a regional US thing which I had never been exposed to before. Basically there are two boards with a hole cut in the middle, spaced about 30 feet apart. Two teams of two compete, throwing bean bags and attempting to get them in the hole. It can get pretty intense. We're having a tournament at Lynx Cabin in a few weeks. I had a good time playing that and acting pretty much like an 8 year old and jumping on a trampoline with another bird lab intern.

Last night we went to an awesome Mexican restaurant for dinner in Sebring. Then we came back and had a good time just hanging out in the cabin and playing games. It was a late night, and everybody's a little foggy today, but of course, we were all out there stalking the birds at 7... like every morning. I wonder if they get lonely if the biologists don't come visit...