Frost Arrives in the Charleston Area

This morning there was frost on my car windshield.  It reminded me about Judy’s book Dewees Winter.  Inside she has pictures of ice forming in the wetlands on Dewees, among pictures of many other natural wonders.

You can see an online preview of the book on Blurb.

Call for Photos of 2009

We’re putting together a year in review of Dewees Island for 2009.  We’re looking for photos that tell a story about life on the island in 2009.  The photos might be about

• a special wildlife sighting
• the beach
• a party
• great performances by the staff
• someone’s laughing fit
• the biggest (or smallest) fish or angler

Please send digital photos to JudyDrewFairchild@gmail.com.  By sending them, you are granting our company BluePixy.com the non-exclusive right to use the photos in any medium.

Wild Ferry Ride

Joseph McAlhany, Jr. snapped the picture below on December 1.  It shows what happens when the Aggie Gray and the Parker are both out for service and the Dewees Lady loses a propeller.

Captain Rick made do with the skiff on a very cold but sunny day.  The passengers were really thankful that it was sunny.  Everyone hunkered down for the breezy ride — everyone except Collette, Bubber and Jan’s dog.  Collete’s golden curls show up in bottom right of the photo.

Dewees's minor league ferry gets called up

A Cup of Holiday Cheer

In this year’s edition of the owner/staff Christmas party, we had an open house Wednesday afternoon in the Welcome Center in the Landings Building.  The party was open to anyone on the island, and people dropped in from 1:30 to 3:30.  It was a great chance to catch up with old friends and spend some relaxing time with the staff.

During the party, Kim got a call about a water main break out on Pelican Flight, so he went to check it out.  Terry took a call detailing the incident and set out to help Kim shortly thereafter.  They were able to get it fixed quickly with no requirement to boil water.  We appreciate the dedication of all the staff and wish them a wonderful holiday season.

Intern Chrissie Lanzieri Moving Off the Island

Chrissie Lanzieri has been working on Dewees as an intern since summer 2008. We thank her for her service and wish her well. You will still see Chrissie on and off in the spring as she continues her research with diamondback terrapin. Here is a link to a video slideshow of Chrissie’s time on the island.

Click here for the video

Participate in Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count on January 3

Dewees Islanders have a great opportunity to participate in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count on Sunday, January 3rd.  If you have never done this, it is great fun, and you will be guaranteed to learn a lot.  ( I have learned to identify at least 5 new birds by sight or sound each time I participate.)  Members of the Charleston Audubon group join us, and together we compile a snapshot of information which becomes a tiny piece of a huge puzzle.  You can join us for all or part of the day, which takes place rain, shine, or fog.  Our organizational leader, Cathy Miller, writes:

You will need to bring the appropriate birding gear: scopes (if you have one); binoculars; appropriate clothing for the weather; lunch; and if the weather is warm, consider bug repellent.  But some of us should also be prepared to walk the marshes, beach, dunes, and wooded areas to fully cover the island.
Please remember that there is a $5 donation expected for participation in the CBC bird count.  These funds go towards the processing of all the data collected from across the country.  Each participant will receive a copy of the annual publication of the CBC count.

We usually start at the corner near the landings building, head up to the Fairchild’s porch for coffee and scones, then branch out to the other parts of the island.  You can join us for an hour or an part of the day.  Call Judy at 259-1713 or email her at judydrewfairchild@gmail.com if you want to join us, provide golf cart transportation for the birders, or just have a friendly cup of coffee.  We will have the phone with us during the count, so if you want to jump in, let us know.

In past years, we have seen a lot of neat birds- curlews, shrikes, grebes, orioles, owls, etc. (as well as a Red Fox, a snake in a tree, etc.)  Here are some posts from previous bird counts:

http://deweesisland.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/dewees-wins-spring-bird-count-totals/

http://deweesisland.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/audubon-winter-bird-count-results/

http://deweesisland.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/pictures-of-the-red-fox-on-dewees/

Dewees Island Partners Day makes the Moultrie News

Read the story here at the Moultrie News!

Museum Expert Says Cannonball Likely Never Fired, Offloaded as Ballast

Jill and Jim Cochran and Esther Doyle took our cannonball and some other artifacts to the Charleston Museum on Tuesday. Jill writes:

Grahame Long confirmed that we have a Revolutionary War “grape shot” cannon ball, made of cast iron, weighing 1 and 1/2 pounds. A number of balls this size would have been put into a canister which was then loaded into a cannon. The ball was never intended to be loaded with powder but was to be used for close range firing, for example, from ship to ship in order to clear the deck or to break a mast.

Mr. Long’s guess is that when the British ships were sailing past Dewees Island on their way to the fort on Sullivan’s Island in June, 1776, they dropped weight (including these cannon balls) in order to move faster in the water.  While this ball that Esther found was encrusted with some rust, it was in very good condition because of being covered in silt on the ocean floor.

Dolphin Necropsy Fascinating for Onlookers

Last Friday morning, James Powell from NOAA, and a grad school researcher named Nora Sturgeon arrived on the 10:00 boat with a cooler and a lot of equipment.  A small crowd gathered at the North Beach to observe the necropsy.  It was like CSI Dewees.  In the group of Dewees observers, there were several people with professional interests in the experience:  a dolphin researcher, an retired inhalation toxicologist, and an NIH researcher, as well as various students and people who poke dead things with sticks. 

The dolphin was in a more advanced state of decay than it had been on Wednesday.  Birds had been investigating the carcass, and an eyeball had been removed and was nearby on the ground.

Between James and Nora, they were able to do their work and explain their procedures and some fascinating facts to us.  SC gets 40-50 stranded marine mammals per year; 80% of which are bottlenose dolphins.  Humans contribute to dolphin mortality– rope entanglements are a major cause of death, as well as boat collisions, net entanglements, and plastic ingestion.

They began by observing the carcass and taking some measurements. 

It turns out that there are two distinct populations of Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins in our area; resident river dolphins who stay in our inland coastal waters and just offshore, and offshore migrants who regularly pass through our areas.  The populations don’t really mix with one another, don’t mate with other or produce offspring, and don’t even eat the same food.  For now, they are viewed as the same species, but since they are so different (and genetically separate) they may eventually be classified as different species.  James takes some measurements and samples for further testing.

This was a fairly young dolphin, because the teeth are clean and sharp.   James and Nora will take teeth back to the lab for samples.  Because of the delay in being able to examine the carcass, any various toxins may not be able to be measured accurately, due to the fact that they begin to leach out of the body at death.  An interesting toxin fact:  Toxins bioaccumulate in the food chain, with greater concentrations occurring in top predators.  In female dolphins, an interesting thing happens:  once they have their first calf, their levels of toxins drop off sharply.  It seems they “offload” toxins, mostly through breast milk, which is produced by using stores of fat in the body where toxins accumulate.  This leads to higher mortality in firstborn offspring.  While there is no official calving season in our local dolphins, there is a higher infant mortality rate in October and April, leading to a sense that there is a peak in calving activity during those times.

This is a male dolphin– with decomposition and bloating, the physiology is now visible.  If it were a female, there would be mammary slits on either side of the genital area.  The researchers insert a temperature probe to determine the internal body temperature, which will help gauge the level of decomposition they can expect inside.

After alerting observers to stay out of the “splash zone,”  James and Nora began the real work of dissection, peeling away the ribs one by one to check for breakage and expose the thoracic cavity, obtaining a cross-section of the lungs and extracting several lungworms to take back as samples, collecting muscle tissue samples to check for viruses and skin samples for genetic analysis.

James was incredibly patient with all of our questions, working professionally and quickly with Nora and answering us with articulate, informative explanations.  I think we all came away with an increased understanding of the threats facing dolphins in the ecosystem and the complex challenges scientists face as they try to understand and explain dolphin strandings in our area.

DD

Christmas Cards, Stationary, and Jim Cochrane’s Dewees Book for sale

Announcing the first Dewees holiday card, with an archival theme.  A percent of the proceeds of this card will be used to support the nature center and the archives committee activities.  The card features an image of the Huyler family “Bringing home the Christmas Tree with Jane the Mule in 1925″, and is printed on 4×6 card stock on recycled paper with soy ink, wrapped in biodegradable raffia.  The cards are printed by Judy and Reggie Fairchild’s company, bluepixy, and can be purchased in the nature center or ordered directly from them.  Cards are $10.00 for a set of 10, shipping additional.  email admin@bluepixy.com or call Judy at 843-259-1713.

Don’t forget that books and stationary make great holiday gifts.  If you would like to give someone a signed copy of Dewees:  The Island and Its People, by Jim Cochrane, please email Jill at jilljimc@aol.com or call her on the island to arrange to get a copy.

Bluepixy also offers note cards which can be great stocking stuffers.  Currently we have two designs:  a turtle hatchling and a beautiful photo by Bubber McAlhany called “Sweetgrass Hands.”  Cards are $10 per set of 10, and can be ordered from admin@bluepixy.com,  or purchased in the nature center.  These too are on recycled paper with soy inks and hemp strings to minimize environmental impact.