The last days of Winter Ecology...

I last left off my Winter Ecology course with pictures of flying squirrels. The rest of the week was a crazy blur, and I will include some of the best pictures!

Scobie and Doug setting their traps.

Petra and Sean in a reed canary grass field.

Mady and I doing work!

Coon tracks

Group picture at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Park overlooking the south end of Honeoye Lake.

From Left to Right:

Tiger, Alicia, Sean, Tori, Petra, Krager-kins, Sash, Boy, Dougie

And in front:

Madeline, Alyssa

These above pictures belong to a mink. If my entire class hadn't witnessed this animal with our own eyes, we would have been only able to guess that they belonged to a weasel. The Muller Field Station shown here:

...is where we were all hanging out last Friday morning. We were all in the upstairs, where that long row of windows are, eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. As we were sitting there, someone spotted the mink running along the front of the house. We all flew to the window and watched as the mink climbed the willow to the left, and pursued a red squirrel. It was intense, amazing, and so cool to witness first hand. Unfortunately none of us got any good pictures because we didn't want to look away to get a camera. The tracks and the memories are all the proof we had of it happening!

Mink track

As the mink shimmied down the tree (he didn't get the squirrel), we watched him leap off the trunk and literally DIVE into the snow as if it were a liquid medium. It was nice and light and fluffy, so he was able to maneuver easily. Above is a track and tunnel left behind. He was moving from L-->R, and disappeared under that black line, which is the edge of a dock on the pond.

Later in the day, I had to go out to retrieve some camera traps and it was SNOWY!

Keeping VERY warm in my rabbit fur Mad-Bomber hat that I got for Christmas!

Along the way, we found this interesting track on the ice...

we (Sasha and I) believe a river otter made this slide!

Slide action, no?!

This sequence of pictures I borrowed from Jeff Dyck's Flickr page. I did a simple search in Google of otter slide, and this was the best result! I was REALLY hoping to see an otter with my very own eyes this past week, but the potential slide will have to do!

And finally, to end my pictures of the Winter Ecology course, I wanted to share this compilation I made. I stood in the same spot and took pictures. I love the colors and reflections. Right place, right time! By the way, this was taken on my HTC Incredible Android...not a fancy 'real' camera!

PS- Camera trap pics to come! We got ALOT of variety!

Winter Eco Days #2 & #3

Yesterday was the second day of my Winter Ecology course and OH MY! Very busy indeed. We awoke in the morning, had breakfast and started our day off with some round table discussion of our individual group projects. Mady from Wild Wings and Mendon Ponds Park with Mady! and I are working together...and because I have so much I want to share today, I won't get into our project today.

Mady and I spent alot of time on our wildlife Christmas tree! We "repurposed" her family's tree, and decorated it with wildlife friendly treats!

It is truly beautiful! How lucky are our squirrel and bird friends?! We do have a camera trap set on the tree, but so far...no luck.

Sometime in the morning, we noticed this nice line of tracks running along the backside of our cars.

Perhaps coyote?

Next on the list was to get our supplies together for our small mammal trapping studies. If you'd like some more background information, see my previous blog entry: A Beautiful Morning at the East Hill Campus... Below is our bin with supplies.

Our bait selections from L-->R:

Peanutbutter/"critter feed", sardines/wet cat food/tuna, and jelly/honey/molasses/oats.

The setup. We have 12 of these set up and are checking them every 2-3 hours.

The following are some of the results!!!

Here I am learning to "process" an organism. Processing includes: weighing, sexing, identifying, and then ear tagging.

Here's what the tags look like before they're attached to the animals ear.

Concentrating hard on properly extracting the animal from the trap...

Success! We use plastic bags so that we can see the animal clearly. The animal spends a minute or less in the unsealed bag, so no harm is done.

This little friend is a Deer Mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus)

Preparing the ear tag...YES it probably hurts, but it does not majorly impact the animals everyday movements and behaviors. It is used to ID an animal if it is caught again in the future. FYI this little mouse #12 WAS caught again this evening in the same trap!

*BLING BLING*

And this picture concludes day #2. A beautiful full moon peaking out of the clouds above Old Mother Willow...peaceful.

And now it's getting late...and I have an early morning of check flying squirrel traps tomorrow, so I will just post some highlight pictures from day #3!

Sean, Anthony, and I preparing a "Hav-a-Heart" trap. Target: The Mink.

Here's the cozy little camoflaged mink trap complete with alpaca wool for warmth and some Kishel's weasel scent to attract!

Professor Mr. Krager taste testing a black birch (it tastes like wintergreen!)

A scenic overlook at the Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Park.

A truly GORGEOUS Upstate January afternoon.

And finally, Madeline and I in front of this beautiful place.

I am very lucky to have gotten to know this lovely lady and call her my dear friend!

Until tomorrow...and the adventures will continue!