A theoretical assertion on my part:

It is the end point of migration that drives strategy, everything else are opportunities.

Del-aware:

I am taking the family to Delaware for 5 or 6 days at the end of the month for some much needed change of pace and scenery. We've rented a small house on the beach so that we can witness the spectacle of shorebird migration and horseshoe crab spawning and build some sand castles maybe play in the water. The end of May in Delaware really is a wonder of nature, as hundreds of thousands of shore birds stop by the bay during their epic northward migration form South America to Arctic Canada. They stop there to gorge them selves on horseshoe crab eggs that were deposited by the millions of spawning crabs, coinciding with the spring tides and lunar cycles. I plan to get some field work in, joining the Delaware shorebird monitoring teams in their effort to capture and resight banded birds to collect data for the study and management of the Delaware Bay ecosystem.

We really need the break from our routine as things are getting more and more tense relating to our upcoming move to Alabama. The result of the move and the new job will be great and totally worth the stress after its done...but getting it done is difficult.

Here are some photos of the events in the Bay from our trip last year:

Friday night, I walked my dogs. We ventured off road, guided by moonlight, through the woods, down the gravel path, to the sump near our house. The dew chilled my naked toes and I was glad for the last second decision to wear a fleece. The dogs sniffed the ground and pulled their leashes with inappropriate urgency on this cool and quite night. The killer instinct is hard to quell in these poodles. Perhaps they'd caught the sent of a fox, a raccoon, a rabbit, or some vile neighborhood cat unleashed and on the prowl. There by the sump, little traffic noise disrupted the night. As I walked I listened to a single spring peeper and three or four bull frogs calling. The desperate male frogs, hoping for a female, calling slowly out into the pale darkness "I...Know...its...cold...but...just..in...case...you're... there...wo...man...I...am...willing...and...able to...fer...til...ize...your...eggs."

Nu beginning...?

I went and deleted every post on this blog and on my old blog "distraction" which dated from April 2001 - June 2008. Something about a public record of my pre-parenthood drunken escapades, liberal political rants, and horrendous spelling -- spanning two blogs and 9 years of my life from 22 to 31 -- seemed like a potentially bad thing to have out there on the internets for anyone to see. Despite having not blogged since about February 2009, other than cute pictures and videos of my young daughters on my members only parenthood blog, I still sometimes find the urge to write a blog post...writing can be cathartic and facebook status updates sometimes just don't cut the mustard. So we'll see what happens here.