We’re walking around the island in a cloud. He reminds us of this fact as he shows us how to collect fog water from an old whiskey bottle lashed to the base of a metal screen stuck on a pole in the middle of the field. Small aliquots are taken during the entire time fog blankets the Bay. The record is 63 consecutive days. Thick canes of raspberries loop through the thigh-high timothy and perform their own disappearing acts. In the south field where savannah sparrows care for their second broods, white stakes are set at measured intervals along a site line. This allows us to rate the density of fog and determine droplet size. These measurements, along with wind direction and velocity, temperature, rainfall, date and time, are written on each sample bound for the lab. Originally, they thought the salt spray from winter storms caused large stands of native spruce to turn brown and drop needles. But his records proved that it was acid fog. “Low pH,” he says, “as low as 2.4. That’s like vinegar.”

cloud physics 
saving the scary stories 
for firelight 

Bio: Cherie Hunter Day