Outdoors Maryland; 804

Either. Coming up Calvert counties purple martins come home to roost thrill seekers test the tug of the earth from above. Scientists shoot for a way to save Marilyn for. Next going outdoors. Outdoors. Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources DNR. Inspired by Nature. On. The.

Other. Well. My interest in Martin started about 30 years ago. In 1968 my boss invited me down to have some coffee to see birds and I said well me birdwatcher never. But anyway I did go down and have coffee and I got so fascinated with the birds and I like having been in a sense. The business is purple martin the landlord Purple Martins are the only birds in North America exclusively dependent upon human build housing for their nesting sites. And so the story of purple martins is also the story of people Colonel Bob Slayback Air

Force retired and 85 years young. Is one member of a passionate network of purple martin landlords. One of an estimated million landlords in big towns and small hamlets from Canada to the Keys. Landlords are purple martins to nest by faithfully tending multi-unit apartment houses or Gord's which harkens back to an ancient tradition of purple martin landlords among Native Americans Purple Martins are renowned for the clock like punctuality. Their annual migration from the Amazon basin in Brazil to North America Martyn's often arrive at their nesting sites on the exact same day every year. MARTIN migrants to Florida traditionally arrive there on New Year's Day. Those flying on to Canada will not rest until late April or May. This spring for the first time in 30 years.

Colonel Slade X Martin houses have remained ominously empty long past the traditional date Martin usually arrive at his Bayside village in Calvert County Maryland. Traditionally the Purple Martin arrived in this locale about the 20th month of March plus or minus two or three days. Of course that pretty well dictated by weather and other factors but they're generally pretty punctual. What happens the scouts get in here and in about two weeks afterwards the main floc come then. This year I've run into a problem. I think it's because my colony was raided last year by Crozier's. I was quite concerned that maybe I wouldn't be getting word this year. The Colonel has good reason to worry. Purple Martins have arrived as expected. Had other nesting boxes in the region like those of Paige Bowen a Martin landlord across the county. Less than 20 miles away as the Martin flies

on the Patuxent River. MARTIN So you've got to be awful particular whether they like a good clean box. I'll take you down every year and clean it out and not put it up just before you think that's just got to. And he will calm and look at all the holes go out in every box and look at it. And then he will leave. And then when he returns he'll bring most of the other birds with him. If the boxes are right for him. If not he moves on somewhere else. Well of the things read about the Marten's if they are pretty bird they are clean birds. They do get a lot of insects or they wake you up every morning you know they're there in the morning. Then you go out and feed during the day and then they come back at night. I've been putting the boxes up about 10 years I guess myself. My father had done it before and you know they come back every

year so far. Back on the base side is covered county purple martins finally arrived weeks late at Colonel Slade X-boxes. They have settled down to the serious business of breeding and fledging Yong's. Meanwhile the kernel updates the purple martin hotline a service of the nature society of grigs Ville Illinois which annually tracks and publishes the migration patterns of purple martins. At this stage of the game because my birds came in late I still have a lot of birds young birds fledgeling and I have still have eggs about midpoint of pledging the birds get real busy and there is a constant traffic to and from the Freedom and fact that they will be hitting Dragonfly's. They have a Roche's appetite Sonesta absolutely clean. What happens when a discharge or feces comes out in a little

sack and the parents take out a little sack and fly away with it and drop a couple of hundred yards from the field so that the nest is perfectly clean. When the birds leave he's just is passionate about the birds and that rubs off on whoever he contacts it certainly has passed on to me. Andy Brown is senior naturalist with the Calvert County natural resources division. He heads up a new county wide purple martin project inspired by Colonel Slade X. untiring activism on behalf of purple martins. More than 20 years ago the colonel convinced county commissioners to proclaim the Purple Martin as the official bird of Calvert County ever since he's actively encouraged others to become purple martin landlords. In 1995 the Maryland General Assembly declared Calvert County the purple martin capital of Maryland. Thanks again to the Colonel.

The new Calvert County purple martin project is a direct result now that the county is known statewide for being the capital of purple martins. It's important that we try to work in and preserve this bird if we can educate the public and get folks out there putting up apartment houses and increase their population. I think it be a great tribute to Colonel slaty the purple martin population in Maryland has not always fared this well. Kathy Clemm quits wildlife biologist with a USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Bird banding laboratory in 1972 what some of you may remember was the year of Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Agnes just about wiped out the Appalachians population. Purple Martin. So I became very interested in that and follow the population back to near what was in 1972 the purple martin population in Maryland at the present time is fairly stable. The adult birds return very faithfully to the same

area same colonies where they have now seen in previous years. However the yaun that are hatched in that colony frequently establish new colonies and do not return to the Natal colony by late summer purple martins leave their nesting sites and begin gathering in huge staging flocks of tens of thousands of birds feeding and then resting in night roofs that may linger for for weeks once they're fattened up the birds will break up and begin heading south to Brazil's Amazon Valley. The new fledglings will be the last to go on their own following only instinct this first year of migration is the most dangerous. As many as 50 percent may perish the purple martin Conservation Association in Edinburgh Pa. studies all aspects of purple martin ecology in North and South America

researchers checking bird bands at the huge staging area near eory spotted birds gathering from 70 miles away. They judge this year to be one of the best in the past. Teams close purple martin breeding success spells good news hopefully for the Colonel's landholding prospects next spring. Over the years we've done Martin a lot of good I think in actuating population here in the county anywhere between the 15th and the 20th of August. Let's the end of the purple martin save. For a purple martin landlord. When that happens the little piece of news overwhelms. From the legend of vigorish to a giant leap across outer space.

Mankind's need to break the bonds of Earth has been a driving force. For some. It's enough to turn the pull of gravity into their own form of flight. We're going to go forward. Good. Always good. OK. OK now we want to do is you want to you know you want to follow me. Jerk your leg right. OK. And then you can hear them OK. They're in their car. I started skydiving has some friends at work work. We're coming down here and they knew that I was into one high risk sport rock climbing stuff so they I wasn't really interested but I decided that I didn't want to say no. I to get away from the stress. It's really enjoyable.

So I'm very much a social sport for the thrill for self-satisfaction because I love the air because it's a rush. It helps me relieve the stress of the week and it's fun. And people here are my family. I love the job because it's the ultimate form of freedom. Absolutely. Falling is a lot like. If you've ever thought about how a bird flies it's got items like that to me. That gives you that same feeling of flight. Surreal is a good term to use to describe the experience because we were dreamlike not realistic. It's almost as if time stands still. There's no depth perception.

You feel like you're floating. You don't feel like you're falling. Very. Dreamlike. One of the least fun things about skydiving is packing your rig. Getting that thing back into the back of the rig at least fun thing. Bad weather. Packing packing a parachute definitely packing the parachutes packing. Heat. Packing. Packing is a necessary evil. It's work sometimes when it's really hot but I don't mind doing it. It's comforting to know that you've packed a good parachute. I think that a really good pagal will do it exactly the same way every time. From beginning to end. The same exact placement I'll take this band on the left side the first.

One that will be the first band I take every single time I'll never take this one and said even though it wouldn't really matter. I'll do the same thing every single time. So consistency. Is a good way to prevent a malfunction. Who are these people who travel each weekend often more than a hundred miles to fly through the air. My real life I'm a property manager. Skydiving is my real life and in the phony world I'm a contractor and I do programming computer programming. I'm an officer in the military I'm in the air force. I do computer graphics. This is my real life. There's no denying the adrenaline rush of free fall. Yet there's more that binds these people. Being with other people. It's very much a social sport. So that's one of the funnest things about being in skydiving. And that's one thing about skydiving is the teamwork the camaraderie. The motto everybody goes by. The. Square. In the door.

Thinking you want but you probably better get over that because well that was a very slow turning. Lot of the most fun thing about skydiving. I think it's it's the unity that the skydivers have with one another. That those friendships that we build. And build. Around. When were. Cool. Is. A. Bright. Side. Team. That's involved. You have eight 10 12 20 people all interact. Everybody do their job perfectly. When you're on hold hands up you're in freefall. You can feel the electricity travel throughout the whole group. When. We're in a formation or when this bill.

Is. Where. They want if you get into skydiving you're going to lose everything else you know because it becomes your world and it seems silly at first when you hear that and you laugh but it's actually. Pretty pretty accurate. It's people become your family you love them whether you like them or not. Which. Is. Pretty. Serious. I mean we're all having fun but it's

serious and we're looking out for each other. But skydiver's approach to risk is as diverse as are they. I don't think about dying when I'm jumping into a very safe sport. Have to make sure you take care of your gear and your mind and then you should be fine. You go through phases when you do think of death throughout different phases of the journey whether it be under canopy or riding up in a plane. But it's it's it's phases you go through when you get over it every once in a while you get a little anxiety but you never really think about dying. While you're jumping. I don't think about dying I think about safety. Yes. I do think about. Death everyone somehow fears good. Fear keeps you on your toes. Yes when you think about I think about dying sometimes for Peggy fears spurred her on. There's a lot of people who've always considered me friends of mine family and I have always considered me like a daredevil a thrill seeker and I've never thought of myself as that kind of person I've always been

I've always been fearful. I don't ever want to not do something because I'm afraid of it if I'm afraid of something I'm more challenged by it. I think that there's just so many beautiful things to experience in life that people don't because of fear and to me that's the reason to fight it I don't want to be one of those people who don't experience life because I'm afraid because everything and there's something to fear and everything. I guess I have the understanding now that I can be afraid of something and do it and get beyond the fear to a place where I can enjoy I can do anything I've done. I love the beauty of it. Towering trumps a thick green canopy arboreal splendor. And a bit of a mystery. Dr. Jess Barker he's a forest ecologist at Sirk the Smithsonian

environmental research center in Edgewater Maryland. Kirk That's a pretty good one. Let's see if we can get over it. One. On. One of the things we've learned from our study of the development of forest is that they're always changing. And if you blink really for a moment or for 10 years and come back you'll see the forest are totally different. So rather than think of a set of words as a fixed entity we think of it as a point that's moving in time that we just happened in Iraq for US study. Parker hopes to gather enough data so he and other scientists can help the world's forest survive. That's an important endeavour when you consider that most of the world's deciduous forests are located in mid-latitudes like Maryland where most of the world's people live and the trees are crucial to our planet's survival.

Forests in the vicinity of where you live have a lot of impact on you and how you live. Besides offering sort of a pleasant living atmosphere that control the climate where you live the microclimate That's obvious when you're inside the forest is cool. It's calm it's humid it's not very noisy. That's an obvious thing that for us to do for you. They provide habitat for all kinds of animals that we like that we are concerned with preserving forest contribute to sort of the local climate regional because plants reflect radiation because the forest evaporates water it cools the air because fourth takeup CO2 that can reduce the concentration of that greenhouse gas. A lot of the things that we want to learn about the way the world is organized especially the forest canopy we can learn with fairly low tech solutions we don't need a 200

million dollar satellite to figure out the issue of how bumpy the top of the forest is. So my approach in this project has been to take lots of fairly cheap numbers and look for patterns. If there is an interesting pattern something intriguing about the way the force is organized that we can return and use a more appropriate device than the cost for the time being. We're trying to see how far we can get with a fairly simple minded approach. Parker is using an inexpensive laser on a consumer video camera. Later he'll attach the laser to a computer to analyze the data he collects. When your first. Flight. The. One of the things we're hoping to find out this summer with the research program we've got in mind. Is. To what extent is the shape of the top of the

canopy that you can see when flying over in a helicopter. Tell you something about the internal structure. And about how the forest induces extra turbulence and mixing and possibly changes the way the gases mix from the lower atmosphere into the canopy. Now. We're pretty lucky in our in our work today from the helicopter. I think we can play it from the map that the transect with about 12 kilometers long and we were taking about 200 samples every second. So that translates into a measurement on the top of the canopy every What about four inches. And we've got about a hundred and forty nine thousand of these in a file that we've created from that barely fits on a floppy drive. So. Not bad for a half an hour work. A tower like this one hundred sixty five foot

fixed aluminum mirror Parker's office is the traditional method for Forest researchers to climb into the canopy on eight levels of the tower. Devices charge temperature light wind speed humidity and carbon dioxide. Where they see an internal Sirk is working with Parker on her summer research project. Scientists know that leaves at various high so zones in the forest canopy react to sunlight a lot like a photographic light meteor captures and measure it. She hopes to find a way to extract this kind of information from leaves. That way they could be analyzed to indicate forest health. I have a lot of interest in just the structure of the canopy and I've always had interest in anything that you know. It's a little bit inaccessible. You know it's a little bit like almost a frontier in that you know people have looked a lot

at the forest in terms of what's happening on the ground what's happening the light environment on on the ground. But it's a little harder to get here now way up here and see what's going on like you know 35 meters up or something. And here you see the seedling of the Virginia creeper it's not going to make it here because it's going to become too dark for us for it to survive this red maple will do just fine sweet seedlings. They're not going to make it on this dog. He's going to do fine. And this victory over here he's going to do just fine. He's going to grow very slowly. So here on the fourth floor you can see the blueprint for the future for him. We didn't take any light readings per say in her experiment because frankly even a hundred even a thousand of them at one one week wouldn't have told us much. Because light is constantly changing in the force. What we didn't say if we took a photograph. Right above the

leaf a photograph of the whole hemisphere in the sky. And we analyzed it for a reasonable index of the potential light there. So what she did was to show that at the location where a leaf is found in the can be a reasonable estimate of what light might be found there. Really very close for the things like health that belief is a big belief of how much nitrogen is in the way. Now we can go the other way and say if we can just measure something simple about the leaves such as the thickness or the size or how much nitrogen we have a very good idea of what the light was during the entire lifespan of the late. So really I could go into the woods and pick up a leaf on the fourth floor. And if you told me what species it was and I did a few measurements I can probably tell you a lot about where it lived. His methods seem unconventional but the splendor and mystery of Parker's forest might someday be better protected and explained by the answers his studies uncover. For us learning about structure and its relationship to function is the best

clue that we can have. Too late what goes on in any form. To the way it behaves with its surrounding landscape. Thursday. In