Beautiful Day

It was a very nice day today. Sunny, warm, and not too windy. It's good that it wasn't windy because we took the opportunity to get our flag unstuck from the flagpole. The flagpole is about 70 feet high and our lift only goes to about 60 ft. We tried yesterday and we thought we'd tip over in the 20 knot winds, today we got it down. This morning I also went out with the visitors (the education group) and cloned bunch grass with them. They went snorkeling this afternoon since it was the first nice day since they've been here and I think they all loved it.

Last night a visiting news columnist/bird counter (Susan Scott who writes for the Honolulu Star Bulletin) gave a talk on her sailboat travels to Palmyra and Tahiti. Palmyra is an atoll south of Hawaii and it looks a lot more tropical and rainy than here. There were a lot of great pictures.
After the talk, one of the teachers (Derek) brought a group outside and pointed out stars and constellations. I've forgotten a few over the years so I went out and did that too.

And I almost forgot, for those of you who wish you could work out here for a while, we are hiring a visitor services person who will take the visitors around on tours, snorkel trips and other projects. It's a 6 month temporary job. I'd think about putting in for it, but since I'm married now I think I'll spend some time with my wife and still take off in June. Here is a link to the job if anyone knows anyone who'd be interested. It would basically be showing other people all the things I've already shown and talked about on my blog. It's on usajobs.gov if the link doesn't work. http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/getjob.asp?JobID=67071169&AVSDM=2008%2D01%2D09+10%3A47%3A09&Logo=0&q=tva-08-003&FedEmp=N&sort=rv&vw=d&brd=3876&ss=0&FedPub=Y&SUBMIT1.x=0&SUBMIT1.y=0

Here's a view of the FWS office across the parade field that I took from the lift about 30 ft up.

This is the area we've been spraying the last couple of days.

This albatross found a spot in the Doctor's cemetary for a nest.