Holy Batblog Batgirl!: Home

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Home

At the airport in Atlanta, the customs agent is very nice, we have a happy exchange and wish each other well. I recover my walking stick, pass through the customs baggage check and am waved through and welcomed back to the US. I joke around with James at Luigi's Pizza that I’ve eaten nothing but rice and beans for 4 weeks, and am really looking forward to a slice of pepperoni. I go about 20 gates out of my way to get starbucks coffee. I sit at the table nearly flinching from all the noise, lights, and activity. Concentrating on the tomatoey goodness of that pizza slice and the creamy carmely sweet iced macciato, I realize that I’ve heard nothing but crickets and birds for weeks. What a harsh transition an airport can be, chair legs scraping tile, babies crying, lights, signs, store fronts all competing for attention. Beep, Beep, Beep, a gate shuttle wisks past. It's good to be back.

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Welcome

i have always loved wildlife. most significantly, i remember a family vacation at age 7. driving through oregon, the beauty of crater lake made an incredible impression on me. and at the gift store, my parents bought me a golden guide to mammals. afterward, it seems i had that guide with me wherever i went. i dreamed about making plaster casts of mammal tracks like the ones shown on the first couple pages. i wanted to know everything about wildlife.

twenty years later i got a job as a wildlife biologist for the arizona game and fish department. i've been privileged to work on a variety of projects including black-footed ferret reintroduction, mount graham red squirrel monitoring, habitat evaluation and planning, black-tailed prairie dog reintroduction, and bat conservation and management. in my current position, i focus on bat conservation full time. i love my job, it provides a daily connection with that obsessive enthusiasm i felt at the age of 7.