In the Spirit of Darwin

Well, the night of the Big Apple Cricket Crawl is almost upon us--barring a weather crisis--and all around the City the excitement is palpable. The members of the Feller Expedition must rely on all their self discipline to stay focused on their preparations and pretend not to notice the awed stares of ordinary New Yorkers as the team moves about the City making certain everything is ready. (OK, I admit I'm just guessing about some of this since I'm down here in Maryland and at the moment don't actually even know who's in Mike Feller's courageous crew...But I did GROW UP in The City That Never Sleeps and I DO know Mike, although we've been out of touch for eons--in fact, he hired me as a naturalist fresh out of college, many many moons ago, after somehow convincing his supervisor that my knowledge of natural history was more important than what I wore to my interview, a feat of persuasion for which I will always be grateful.)

Mike is Chief Naturalist with the NYC Parks Department (Natural Resources Group) and has an excellent knowledge not only of critters (sensu lato--I include plants here, Mike), but also of the natural and somewhat natural and not-so-natural areas of New York City. So if anyone knows where to find some nice big choruses of Pterophylla camellifolia (Northern or Common True Katydid) it would be Mike.

One concern: Mike is apparently not a big fan, or at least not an undiscriminating one, of 21st century technology (back when I worked with Mike, there WAS no 21st century--we still thought the 20th century was cutting edge--so this is just hearsay). Although he may have been exaggerating when he claimed in an e-mail to have no idea what a blogger is, I am nevertheless slightly nervous that he will remember to grab his pith helmet, but forget his cell phone (critical for our real-time data acquisition, Mike!) when he leads his team out into the darkness tomorrow. So, Feller Expedition, please make sure at least one of you has a phone and the phone number to leave me voice mail keeping me apprised of your adventures.

OK, let's all try to catch a few Zs while we can...