Flying squirrel video

After the last couple of posts, I decided to go for something a bit more pleasant for ALL, on Christmas Eve.

Minty things seem to please all cats, 

domestic and wild, according to many 

forums I’ve read. SO, I found a catnip 

spray for pets on discount at the local 

farm and garden store, and used up 

the last bit of toothpaste on my set.

I set up my Bushnell Trophy Cam HD at my home in Schoharie about 3 weeks ago, and made a “set” to hopefully lure in bobcat. Well, that didn’t work. All I captured were white-tails, crows, cottontails, and this 1 flying squirrel video. It’s not the best, but if you watch it several times, you’ll get to see him. To make the “set” for bobcat, which is a term that trappers (camera and otherwise) use when describing the area around a trap (camera or otherwise). I used a few things I read bobcats would be interested in. See picture at right.

Over a year ago now, in September 2012, I camera-trapped a bobcat in my backyard. Even though I hung a feather (which is a known visual attractant for bobcats), I think he or she was just passing through and got a picture taken. It’s a great “first” for me, but I want more! Anyway, I’ll ALWAYS take pictures or video of a flying squirrel. They are certainly a favorite of mine. For more information about them, please peruse my other flying squirrel entries.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Blessed 2014!

(by the way…the date and time are WAY off…I changed batteries and forgot to reset it!)

Yes, there's an app for that!

There seems to literally be an app (or application for smart phones) for everything these days. In this case, I'm referring to an app that helps the user log road-killed animals into a data base. Yes, you read that right. An app about roadkill.



Photo credit: abcnewsradioonline.com

I first heard of this smart phone application over the summer. Someone sent me an article about a new app that was just coming out, in which anyone who wanted to participate, was invited to stop on the side of the road and document a road-killed animal. But I was in Alaska (did you know I lived in Alaska for 3 months???), and distracted and never really read it or thought much about it.


UNTIL...

This semester I am enrolled in a course called Wildlife Techniques (FWLD 125) (3CR):

This course will cover a wide range of laboratory and field techniques related to the sampling of wildlife. Students will be provided first-hand experience with wildlife habitat improvement, developing Power Point presentations, global positional systems, digital photography, and capture, handling, and banding of birds. Field trips will be taken to examine deer winter ranges and other wildlife habitats. Each student will independently conduct and write up a field study.

Ok, so for my "field study", I've chosen to download the app and learn how to use it. This is a 100 level course, so the field study doesn't have to include any ground breaking research. Our instructor, just really wants 2nd semester freshman (which I'm not, but I transferred in and FLCC didn't have a class like this when I was there) to get excited about the field and how to access information via the college library.

I'm going to make this a beefier project and play the angle up of the "citizen scientist" getting involved. This app, if used correctly can show those of us who care, when and where animals are moving. Anyone with a smart phone can participate. You don't need to be a biologist, you just need be able to identify native wildlife. The use of modern technology as means of data collection is obviously becoming more and more popular for it's ease of use and convenience.

The other part of this app that appealed to me, is that the developer is an Assistant Professor at SUNY Plattsburgh. It's neat that someone within the college system (State University of New York) that I'm apart of came up with something so cool.

I'll be sure to update my findings and what I think of the app as I get into the project.

In the mean time, if you'd like to check it out for yourself, check out the developer, Dr. Danielle Garneau's website. Anyone with an iPhone, Android, or other smart phone can download the Epi-Collect app, then add her project (RoadkillGarneau) to start documenting roadkill! Instructions on finding and downloading the app can be found here.

AND Danielle told me to be sure to mention that "The other thing you might note is that if you don't have a smartphone, you can still participate...the google form (to answer questions, put GPS coordinates) is at the very bottom of my webpage above. This way you can encourage participation from a lot more people!"...so there ya go, you non-smartphone using wildlife lovers!

Oh and in unrelated news: yesterday several members of SUNY Cobleskill's student chapter of The Wildlife Society of which I'm apart of, went to a wildlife festival at nearby Huyck Preserve. There was a wildlife rehabilitator there with some of her animals. These animals were unable to be released back into the wild for various reasons. One of them, a southern flying squirrel, had been legally purchased at a pet store under the species name of "sugar glider". A sugar glider is a real animal, a marsupial from Australia. Not the same as our native southern flying squirrel. I'm not sure why they are legally allowed to be part of the pet trade in NY, since they are a native species. And, their cousin the northern flying squirrel, is illegal to possess. The squirrel was owned as a pet for 5 years, then was not wanted anymore. Obviously it could not be released into the wild, so this rehabilitator took it, and let us handle it. SO very cool, and for anyone who's read this blog before knows that I love flying squirrels!!!

Squirrels!

Northern and Southern flying squirrel

ranges in the the United States.

Range map credit:

www.flyingsquirrels.com

I couldn’t come up with a more creative title for all of the cool pictures I’m about to share. Over the course of the past couple weeks, I was able to capture 3, possibly 4, different species of squirrels on my Cuddeback Attack flash camera trap!

I believe there are a total of 6 species of arboreal (tree-dwelling) squirrels in New York: gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), Northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus), Southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans), and the Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus).

I can say say with certainty that I have gotten the gray and red squirrel. The 3rd and possibly 4th species are of flying squirrel. In New York State, we have both the Northern and Southern. The maps at left show how the two species overlap into NY. Both species extend into Canada, but the Northern moreso.

Also, I should add that there aren’t any Eastern chipmunks showing up anymore this year because I believe they’re all tucked into their dens hibernating!

I modified the flash by taping

~2/3 over the flash with black electrical tape.

I recently wrote about and shared the preliminary results of messing with a nontraditional mounting of the camera, check that out here: A different perspective…. This was the trial period of playing with the flash (it’s way too bright for close range critters), and how to mount the camera (on it’s back looking up the trunk of the tree).

I got some interesting color variations of the two more well known squirrels…a black squirrel (actually a gray!) and an orange (actually a red!) squirrel. Sometimes people have a hard time understanding how this works. A squirrel that is black, should be called a black squirrel, right? Well you can call it that, but it’s genetics tell us it is the same species as the gray…just a different variation of color. I’m a blonde, you might be a brunette, a red-head, or gray. Those are all just variations of the color. Unfortunately, when people were first discovering plants and animals, they named them as they saw them. Gray squirrel, red fox, bluebird, white-tailed deer. All of these animals can and will show up from time to time a different color.

Anyway, here they are!

A black, gray squirrel.

A very orange, red squirrel.

Red squirrel again...

And most likely the same black squirrel again...

 

 

These top 4 pictures are taken from atop a cinder block at the base of the tree. That large branch at the right of the picture is where the camera was mounted for the rest of the pictures. That branch is ~8-9 feet off the ground.

Flying squirrel! Species unknown.

Flying squirrel again, species still unknown.

Flying squirrels are next to impossible to identify to the species level "in the field", as they say. Perhaps those who study flyers know a way to do so. The only way I know, besides examining their DNA, requires you to be handling the squirrel. You blow gently into their belly fur (both species have a buff colored underside), but when the hairs are parted, the Northern reveals a dark gray base to the fur. But, that's a difficult way to ID a wild animal.

A true gray squirrel.

 

The only complaint I have about these images is that because the lens is pointing directly skyward, as the squirrels ascend and descend the trunk, bits of bark come loose and drop onto the camera. The lens is recessed into the casing of the camera a little bit, so these pieces and condensation can collect here. You can see in the last picture a dark spot in the upper left hand corner. A small price to pay for some neat photos! Now that I have the flash issue figured out, I'll be messing with this angle MUCH more and trying to lure the flying squirrels in for a closer look.

 

A different perspective...

I've been having some camera trapping issues lately...and so in a fit of rage, I pulled the camera from where I had it, and brought it right down close to the back of my house. This tree is "the flying squirrel tree" as well as the tree that has 3 bird feeders hanging from it. There is ALOT of activity that goes on, so I *assumed* I'd get some cool images.

At first, I stood the camera upright, and pointed it directly at the platform feeder, hoping to get flying squirrels. I did in fact get them, but the flash on this camera is WAAAAY too bright for up close subjects. I even tried to diffuse the flash by layering a folded plastic bag (folded multiple times) over the flash. Didn't really work...

Can you tell what you're looking at? That's a flyer coming right at you, tail erect, little paws reaching towards the camera...

 

And this one, the squirrel is perched on the right edge of the platform looking out.

 

Well, I wasn't quite satisfied, so I tried a different tactic. I cut a rectangle of an empty milkjug plastic, the clear-ish kind, not the solid white. Taped that over the flash and repositioned the camera, this time laying on it's back on the branch, pointing straight up the trunk of the tree. This happens to be a Boxelder, by the way. Here's what the night time looks like:

 

 

Something triggered the camera, but got away. It's also STILL too bright. I did get some cool daytime action though...

 





 

Both the video and this last image are of a gray squirrel!

 

I know none of this is too exciting in the world of camera trapping, but I've been meaning to start playing with different angles of mounting my camera, other than 90 degrees; to the ground. I don't remember where I first saw this being done, but John at Backyard Beasts did it recently and yielded some cool results: Flying squirrel in action... which inspired me to try!

 

So I took the camera down to check it, and now THIS time, per John's advice, I'm blacking out 2/3 of the flash with solid black electrical tape. This time I just set it on the back porch railing with some bird seed on the railing (I have to get out a ladder and climb up like 8 feet to get to the branch otherwise), and will hopefully have better results with the flash. THEN I'll mount it back up the tree.

 

Any suggestions for flash diffusion???

 

 

Flying squirrel...in action!

I can't take credit for this AMAZING picture, but when I saw it posted on the NYS Conservationist Magazine Facebook page, I knew I had to share it with fellow bloggers and readers. If you've been a reader for any amount of time, you'll know that I love me some flying squirrels. They're unique, resourceful and darn cute. I know, I know...they're pests and get into all sorts of trouble. I have some in my roof, I know they're annoying. BUT they're super cool regardless.

To read my other flying squirrel entries, click HERE!

About a week or so ago (late October), I saw this picture posted on the Conservationist's FB page:

Photo credit: Michael J. Morsch, Sr.

 

Like I said, I really wanted to share it...but needed to get permission from the person who submitted it. I wrote an email to the Conservationist, and they forwarded my email on, and Mr. Morsch of Speonk, Long Island, New York wrote back. So yes, flying squirrels really are EVERYWHERE :) !!!

Mr. Morsch shared with me that he had this Cuddeback Capture IR camera set about 3 feet off the ground, and was quite surprised to see this image show up! I'll say it again: flying squirrels do not fly. Confusing, I know, but they glide rather. That large membrane of skin you can see between wrists and ankles is called the petagium, and that allows the squirrel to catch air and glide from tree to tree. I've seen this several times, and it never ceases to amaze me. Because the squirrels can't fly, they tend to lose altitude from the lauch site to the land site. So, this squirrel looks like it landed right ON the camera, from probably high above an adjacent tree. Imagine if this was a flash camera? That would have scared the bejesus out of this little one!

Thanks Morsch family for letting me share your awesome catch!

It's a bird! It's a plane! Nope, it's a FLYING SQUIRREL!

I love when stuff like this happens!

Unexpected run-ins with wild animals that leave both parties unharmed and are both a little better off! In this case, I was just standing less than 2 feet from a flying squirrel on my porch, and he was having a nice night-time snack of bird seed.

Let me back up.

Mady and I:

 

...are roommates. We became friends at FLCC where we both attended for the past two years. We both transferred to SUNY Cobleskill together for the Wildlife Management degree this year, and are renting a house together on 8 acres of land in Schoharie, NY. It's been really fun so far, it's nice to live with someone who shares many of the same interests and hobbies, and who will talk to the birds with me at the bird feeders :) That picture above is from Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina where we took Spring Break in 2012 (we're nerds, we know). 

We love wildlife, love to see it, handle it (when appropriate...), photograph it, and study it. We have bird feeders set up in the yard, a bird house, a squirrel house, suet feeder, and an ear of corn on a spike stuck to the tree so the squirrels can't carry it off :) So we've been doing a lot of bird watching the past couple months we've been here. And squirrel watching, mainly reds and grays during the day.

BUT, one night we heard something outside in the backyard. It was a very high pitched "tsee- tseeeeee", not exactly chirping. It was dark out, but we got flash lights out and shined them on the bird feeder closest to the house and saw this:

A flying squirrel on the bird feeder!

 

So almost any given night since then, we shine the flashlights out there just after dark, and there they are. The other night Mady saw 4 at once on the tree and around the feeder! They are such a cool little critter to have around. I've heard it said that they are the most common squirrel in NY. Not sure if that's absolutely true, but there are MUCH more of them around than many people think. They're just nocturnal, so many people don't see them as often as the diurnal squirrels.

Well this evening, I ran out to the grocery store and when I came back, I walked up the steps on the front porch (porch light was on mind you) and the small bird feeder there was swinging wildly as if it was really windy...or something just jumped off of it. So I took 2 more steps up onto the platform and saw this little guy hanging onto the support!

I could not believe what I was seeing, they're usually so skittish and secretive, being creatures of the night. But this guy was in full light of the porch light, and allowed me to get very close. It was awesome. I called Mady on the phone, from the porch, and whispered to her to come to the window to see it, which she did and then it climbed into a nook and disappeared.

I came inside and told Mady my whole story (that was about 45 seconds long) and put away the groceries, and took another peek out the door to see if it came back.

Can you see him in this picture?

That's obviously the bird feeder there with the umbrella roof, and I'm standing in the doorway, and my camera is not zoomed in at all.

I took a step out onto the porch, moving slowly and quietly and was able to snap the following pictures:

Can we all agree that this little critter is pretty darn cute?

There are 5 brief things I want to mention about flying squirrels, making this post somewhat educational :)

1. Eyes: Flying squirrels have large eyes, comparatively to the size of their head. This is because they are nocturnal, and rely on those eyes to bring in as much light as possible so they can see in the dark.
2. Whiskers: Many cavity-dwelling and/or nocturnal animals have long whiskers. Often mammals who live in holes will have whiskers as wide as their body, and at the base of the whisker where it connects to the body, is a bundle of nerves called the vibrissae. These nerves are VERY sensitive, and they need to be. The head of these animals (and ours too) is narrower than the rest of the body. And if we were going head first into a hole, our head could likely fit into a smaller one than the rest of the body, but then we might get stuck once we're shoulder or hip deep. SO, these wide whiskers help to tell the squirrel: if the tips of your whiskers are touching, your big butt won't fit through. Also, they use them to feel around when feeding and navigating at night.
3. Petagium: This is probably a new word for some people reading. This refers to the flap of skin between the wrist and ankle that extends out with the squirrel is "flying". It's that dark line of fur you see in the pictures. Imagine tying a sheet to your ankle and wrist, then extending your leg and arm to make the sheet taut. This is your petagium :)
4. Flying: Now that I've said #3, let's be clear: flying squirrels do not truly fly. There's only one flying mammal in the United States, and it ain't the flying squirrel. They glide, by relying on the large surface area of the extending petagium to keep them aloft as they leap from tree to tree. I've had the joy of watching this several times, and let me tell you: it NEVER gets old. Next time you're in the woods, and you see a dead snag, bang on it a few times and keep your eyes up. You may see a flying squirrel come out!
5. Species: There are 2 species of flying squirrel in the United States, and in NY for that matter: the Northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) and the Southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans). Often, being in NY, I think of "southern" as below me on the map. Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas...etc. But in this case, the guides are referring to Southern North America. Rougly, the midpoint of North America is the border between Canada and the US. This is where the ranges of the G. sabrinus and G. volans overlap. And guess what, it's really hard to tell them apart. The only way I know how to, and if there are others- please share!, is you have to be handling the animal. You blow gently into the fur on the belly, and look for the color of the base of the fur. Both species have a white/creamy/buff underside, but  dark gray base belongs to the Northern, and a white base belongs to the Southern. So, in this case I can't tell which species I have living here. I could have both actually!

I LOVE these animals- such unique adaptations, and they're hard to find, unless you know what you're doing (apparently just putting out bird feeders works). I've written a few other entries about flying squirrels, including when I got to handle them last winter!

And finally, my fellow blogger and past professor, John at Backyard Beasts JUST wrote an entry about flying squirrels he caught on his camera trap! It's very cool, so please check that out at: Flying squirrel in action!


PS: If you're interested in receiving updates when I update this blog, enter your email address at the top of the page!

Cleaning Skulls and Setting Cameras

This past weekend I went back to my hometown because we had a 4 day weekend for "fall break". As a disgruntled professor of mine said last week, "Isn't Columbus Day a made up holiday? Wasn't he like the 8th guy to "discover" America?"...well, whatever. I'll take 2 days off from class!

So while I was back, I picked up a few things from my alma mater, FLCC. Among the things, was a container with skulls in it. Animal skulls. Like, meaty, gory, brainy, yucky skulls. I know, I know...but let me explain.

Mady (my roommate) and I collect skulls. We like them because we can learn from the skulls. It's a sign that's left behind, after the animal has died. I know it may seem morbid to collect, but they're already dead. We don't kill animals for their skulls. We started last year tramping through the woods after the snow melted looking for antler sheds and skulls....we've morphed a bit, and now we do collect roadkill with the intention of keeping the skull.

See: Porcupine Paws for more information about collected roadkill :)

We've had a long-tailed weasel skull and porcupine skull sitting out in the woods, underneath rocks, rotting. Carrion beetles come and naturally clean the bones, making it very easy for us to clean up and make sanitary.

The container I had of skulls, was given to me by a taxidermist. I had expressed a want of skulls, and he hooked me up with a flying squirrel skull, coyote skull, and red fox skull.

Today Mady decided to clean skulls, which is awesome because I'm too squeamish to do it myself. I like them, and I'll collect them, but I don't like the cleaning part, unless it's passive like setting them out in the woods for 3 months.


These pictures are gross, just a warning (Well, not of Mady...the pics after that!).

Mady cleaning skulls.

After they've been outside for a long time, and most of the "meat" is rotted off, Mady boils the skull in water and hydrogen peroxide.

 

Suggestions: Do this OUTSIDE in a pot that you will never use for the preparation of food items ever again. This is our "skull pot". I got it at Wal-Mart for a few dollars, and serves it's purpose well.

A "pre-rotted" red fox skull.

Mady boiled this for a few minutes to loosen stuff up, then we put it out in the woods, where it will sit for a month or two.

This is a completely cleaned weasel skull.

 It came out really nice! I love that elongated brain case. They have a large brain in relation to their body size. They are cunning little creatures.

Porcupine skull and incisors.

Those gray blocks are just packaging material stuck to the cardboard. My computer was broken, got fixed, and was sent back with this cardboard and Mady just used this piece as a surface to work on.

 

Upper jaw of the porcupine.

Upper jaw again: Mady and I thought these teeth looked old.

The teeth are very worn, flat looking- and the dentine is evident (dark brown). Porcupines average between 5-7 years of life in the wild (according to Nat Geo). 5 years is a long time to be chewing on wood, bark, and other woody plant material, so no wonder these teeth look the way they do.

Porcupine incisors.

The darker end was the end implanted in the jaw of the animal, and the orange is the extra hardened enamel which aids in protection of the tooth. These incisors are the same teeth that beavers have, mice, tree squirrels, muskrats and woodchucks (although woodcucks don't have orange enamel for some reason). But they all share the characteristic of constantly-growing, self-sharpening, large front teeth. This makes them rodents in the Rodentia family!

Weasel skull in hand, for some scale.

Flying squirrel skull, pre-cleaning, in hand.

Gross, I know. Flying squirrels are adorable, ADORABLE, and this is not. But, look at the eye socket of this thing. HUGE eyes!!! Compared to the weasel above! Why is that? Because they're nocturnal! Weasels I suppose do move around at night as well, but not as exclusively as the flyers. Which, right now I have 3 on the bird feeder in the backyard. It's cool to peep out there at night with a flashlight and see them munching on bird seed.

 

Flying squirrels are, by the way, the most common squirrels in NY. They're nocturnal, that's why we hardly ever see them. If you have a bird feeder, I urge to check it out at night! Eventually I'm going to rig up a camera trap on the feeder to get pics of them!

 

Then our friend and FLCC/Cobleskill classmate Adam came over to store his scent lures at my house. He lives on campus, and didn't want to leave them in his room or in his car because they're so noxious. He hung his Bushnell Trophy Cam on the tree my Cuddeback used to hang on, when I got the bobcat picture. And then he went to work setting stinky scent lures out for predators.

 

 

And on our way back down the hill, Mady set out the coyote skull and red fox skull to be cleaned up a bit by Mother Nature.

And the last pic of the day, the coyote and red fox skull side by side for some size comparison, along with the toe of my boot.

 

 

I have nothing exciting to show from my weekend away, when I checked my cameras upon my return. Crows and a raccoon. Boring! But hopefully I can do a follow up entry soon with some pictures that either Adam or I have gotten!

 

The Mystery of the Owl

Back in May (the 21st-25th of 2012), I was involved with FLCC's Conservation Field Camp, a 3 level field course taught throughout the week. Long days, nights camping out, but tons of fun. I was a student at Field Camp in 2011, but this past course I was hired as a technician for the week to work with the wildlife professors John Van Niel and Clinton Krager.

For past entries, please check out my previous entry: Field Camp 2012, as well as John's entries: Field Camp.

A couple weeks before the class ran, the 4 of us:

Photo credit: Melissa Miller

Team Wildlife: Mady (the other technician and my roommate!), Clinton, John, and myself.

... went out to Camp Cutler, a property of the Boy Scouts, to set up some equipment that would be ready to use at the start of Field Camp.

John and I had a bunch of camera traps to deploy: Cuddeback Attacks/Captures and both flash and IR. I don't remember how many we had, but I want to focus on one particular camera/location, which happens to an IR Cuddeback Capture.

John wanted to set this type of camera in this particular spot for a reason: flying squirrels. It was set on tree, about 5 feet off the ground, that was aimed at a crooked tree. John had great success with this location before, during the previous year's course. And we wanted to use an IR camera so that the flash wouldn't spook any nocturnal visitors to the crooked tree.

We got our flying squirrel (sp.), so it was a good placement!

Anyway, the REAL excitement is the picture we got of a certain nocturnal bird species. It's an owl, definitely an owl, but the specific species is under discussion at the moment. Here it is:

As we're scrolling through pictures on John's laptop, with students standing behind us watching, we get to this guy or gal. And John (a bird-nerd-camera-fanatic) and myself (someone who's aspiring to be that too) looked at eachother in disbelief. To be honest, I didn't know what I was looking at at first, but I KNEW it was something special...and possibly not an Owl I was familiar with. John was super excited, because he HAD an idea of what it could be...and the students were picking up on our excitement too...it was a really cool moment for all of us.

The species that were coming to mind: Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) and Barn Owl (Tyto alba). The EASO is common in Western NY/Finger Lakes region. The BNOW is not common. In fact, it's listed as rare.

I've referred to the NY Breeding Bird Atlas for information...

As you can see...the Barn Owl is few and far between, even more so in the last set of data collecting years from 2000-2005.

And the Eastern Screech Owl is MUCH more prolific.

So, the odds of seeing an EASO is much greater than a BNOW.

Well, this summer while I was in Alaska (did you all know I went there???), I kept thinking about this Owl thing. During Field Camp, all of the Bird Nerds that were there all took at look at the photo, all agreed it looked VERY much like a BNOW, but how could it be? BNOWs haven't been seen or reported in the area in a really loooong time.

While in Alaska, I took an eBird workshop. eBird is really freaking cool, and if you're into wildlife and especially birds, you need to create an account and get eBirding. It's like a social network JUST for Bird Nerds! Plus, it's a really great way for everyone (from the layperson to researchers) to collaborate data and see what the birds are up to.

Basically you input sightings and observations. Each region has a moderator, so that if some astronomical number of birds, or a strange species gets reported, they can contact the observer and figure out what the sighting was all about.

So, guess what I did? I reported a 'rare' species in Naples, NY.

A day later, I got an email from the moderator, who I shall keep anonymous. He wanted to know every piece of information about the sighting, as well as wanted to see the pictures that I had. It was so exciting! I felt like I was really contributing to the bird world, and this expert in the field was asking ME for my thoughts. I sent the below pictures to the moderator. One is the"The Owl" and then the second picture is an American Crow taken in the same spot (yet during the day, hence the presence of color).

 

 

Thankfully, I had a couple of bird enthusiasts in my corner to help with me the verbage and vernaculum. I was with John when this picture was captured, so of course he was the main source of information. He has instilled in me this skeptical and critical way of thinking. I try not to take anything at face value, but ask why, why, why, why, why...until it probably gets tiresome. ((sorry everyone))

I also have Dr. Losito, my new advisor here at SUNY Cobleskill AND the resident ornithologist. I'd call him a Bird Nerd, but I don't know him that well yet...! I sent Dr. Losito the pictures as well, and as I expected- he got fired up. I mean, in the grand scope of the world's goings on, this Owl thing is null. But, in our backyard here in NY, this is big news for birders.

I'm going to share comments that I received from my professors, and from the moderator. All anonymously and leave it at that.

"Not a Barn Owl. Too much streaking below, legs look too thick/short/heavily feathered, proportions look wrong. Much smaller than the crow - an overexposed Screech Owl. The facial disc doesn’t curve around at the top like a Barn Owl-more like the shape of Screech up towards the folded back ear tufts. The dark on the edge of the “cheek” portion of the disc is exactly right for Screech too."

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I measured the tarsus length of each of the three species in involved in this scenario from study skins in the college collection and came up with the following:

BAOW = 80mm (hence the nick name long-legged owl)

AMCR = 65mm

EASO = 40mm

Ratio of EASO:AMCR = 0.615

Ratio of BAOW:AMCR = 1.23

Here is a rough measurement of the tarsus length of the birds in the photographs:

Owl = 19mm

AMCR = 29mm

Ratio of Owl:AMCR = 0.655

Therefore the final ruling is that it has to be an EASO based upon these morphological limits.

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I think EASO is correct relative to the BAOW question. The EASO is only 8.5 inches and the BAOW is 16 inches. The American Crow is 17.5. So in looking at the relative size of the birds the owl in the picture is relatively small - more toward 8.5 or 9 inches as opposed to the larger BAOW and Crow. In looking at the squirrel it looks large relative to the tree to the tree is probably around 9-10 inches across. Again the Owl in the picture is small relative to these two metrics. So based on size alone it looks like an EASO.

 

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So, birders: what do we think?

 

Camera trapping at its finest!

Last week I received my 5 Cuddeback Attack IR cameras that I will be using this spring for my research project at the Muller Field Station in Honeoye, NY. In this past entry: Research Methods in Biology and in this entry: So Very Thankful I outline my plans. After the hard work of detailing and outlining my project, and the anxiety of waiting to hear if it would be approved...I WAS approved and I received funding to buy materials. This past week I participated in a Winter Ecology residential course at the same field station, and my classmates and I put the cameras to the test. Below are the best results!

Red fox

Tori the Yeti

Mink

Clinton "Critter" Krager-kins

White-tailed deer

My FIRST flying squirrel 'trapped' on camera!

Beaver

Red squirrel (another first!!!)

Gray squirrel

Classmates of mine: Adriel and Anthony (aka Boy and Tiger)

I purposefully did not pick out the critter in this picture...if you can pick it out, I'll be amazed! It took alot of conferring and we blew the picture up on a projector to pick it out!

Mouse species...probably deer or white-footed

Eastern cottontail

And to follow up...some videos! We had an AWESOME and productive week!

And that's all I write today! I know 2 posts in one day! I have a LOT to catch up on though...I hope you enjoy the pictures and video! What's your favorite critter above??? Mine is either the flyer or the mink!