Turtles, Birds, and TMI

The Original TMI

On Sunday, my friend and fellow sunworshipper, Robin¹, took me on a canoe trip with the Natural History Society of Maryland. The stated mission was to find the northern map turtle.

A northern map turtle (front) and red-eared slider (rear), with another map looking to join the sunbathers.

With the four cooling towers of Three-Mile Island within easy paddling distance, we set off with turtle expert Howdy Knipp taking the lead with his net and kayak. The rest of us—four pairs of paddlers in old-timey aluminum canoes—followed closely, waiting for the magic.

The original TMI, and it’s closer than it looks.

My role, in exchange for this free trip, was Event Photographer. And though we were there particularly for turtles, I spent a lot of my focus on birds, specifically a pair of great egrets.

Every time we got a little closer, they went to the next little perch.

It was chilly and not consistently sunny, so the beginning of the trip yielded next to no turtle sightings. The birds did not disappoint. We saw cedar waxwings, tree swallows, grackles, flickers, red-tailed hawks, catbirds, goldfinches, a single cormorant, and some geese and ducks. We stopped on an island with picnic tables to eat lunch, and we all pulled up Merlin on our phones to hear, but never see, the warbling vireo.

While we ate our sandwiches, I tried to catch the flicker poking her head out of her nest and chased the squeal of hawks.

Nesting flicker, possibly laying or sitting on eggs.

The next phase of the trip was crossing the river in chilly, heady winds. It wasn’t hard, but by the time we made it across, we were all hot. As we headed toward our launch spot, the sun began to shine, and we all agreed to take some extra time to explore farther downstream. That’s where we hit the turtle jackpot, apparently spying red-eared sliders, painted turtles, northern map turtles, and, possibly, a red-bellied cooter.

Fancy meeting you here, Mr. Turtle. Now, are you a red-bellied cooter?

Though the lists are impressive, most of you are probably stuck on that ominous photo of the nuclear power plant, the site of an infamous meltdown in March of ’79. As Robin pointed out, the original TMI is planning a comeback. In an agreement with Constellation Energy, Microsoft will use the space for a new data center in exchange for supplying Pennsylvania with enough energy to power all the homes in Philadelphia.²

At what cost? Just a bunch of radioactive waste. At this point in history, it feels less dangerous than the radioactive waste in D.C., the effects of which will probably be felt for just as long.

Once again, a northern map turtle.

1. Robin is a founding member of this Substack and a patron of my artwork, in addition to being an astoundingly good musician (flute, sax, fiddle, etc.) and a neurologist, who very kindly squeezed my stepfather into her busy schedule. For all these things and more, including the avoidance of sunscreen and the coinage of this subtitle, I praise her.

2. Read it and weep. Or not.