"Desert Solitaire" is NOT about Card Games

Salvin's Mollymawk
Thalassarche salvini

(No, we don't get many albatross out here...)

Well, it's been a while, but I finally have the two things required for successful blogging: (1) an internet connection, and (2) enough time to become bored. Funny how it works out…the only time I ever feel compelled to write about my life is when I'm bored with it.

Life in the desert proceeds much as you would expect: mountains, sand, cacti, vicious water politics, unbearable warmth, roadrunners, coyotes, lizards, rattlesnakes, mesquite, border control stopping anyone who looks like they have tan (no, of course our government's policies aren't racist, how dare you suggest that!), beautiful sunrises, tarantula wasps hunting tarantulas, circling vultures, and what-not. After six months jumping from one island to the next, the change of environments couldn't be more dramatic for me. I believe we have had less than 1 cm of rain in the last month, most of it evaporating before it actually hits the ground.

Another big change from the first half of the year are the people; traveling around Aotearoa with a bunch of youths constantly searching for sustainability, dealing with Kiwis who are (as folk go) pretty open to environmental thought, and then working in the Bahamas with field biologists who panic over rising sea levels, I now have no ability to interact with normal human beings. For example, the landlord of our house informed Diane, my boss, that she was going to get our sprinkler system fixed so we could water the lawn.

Me: You mean…she wants us to put water...in the grass?
Diane: Yeah.
Me: Water? During the drought?
Diane: Yeah. It's required by the subdivision–everyone who lives here wants green lawns.
Me: Can we hurt them?

Okay, so my social skills have become rusty. On the bright side, Diane and my co-worker Lindsey are as left-wing environmentalist as I am, so we get along just fine. It's just when I leave the house that I'm in trouble.

Work itself is pretty fun–even though we're mostly surveying restoration sites, we still have been able to see some really nice wildlife.

Black-tailed Jackrabbit
Lepus californicus
(Gotta love the auricular cooling system)


Desert Iguana
Dipsosaurus dorsalis
(An incredibly endearing species–just look at that face!)


Black-necked Stilt
Himantopus mexicanus


A very bedraggled Bell's Vireo
Vireo bellii
(It got caught in our mist net when we were attempting to band cuckoos...)


Pallid Bat, fighting for freedom!
Antrozous pallidus
(You show that glove who's boss!)

The last picture is from last week, when Lindsey and I helped some bat-netting folk. T'was was a blast! Didn't ever realize the little biting buggers were so cute, but oh man, I'm in love with them now.

Well, there are more pictures to come, but I'll need to get them off of my camera first. Until next time, this is me, riding off into the desert sunset...