New year, new blog title, new camera trap!

Sasha amongst all the critter tracks

Naples, NY - January 2, 2013

Happy 2013! 

I'm happy that the world didn't end in 2012, that I'm healthy, that friends and family are around, and that I live in America (well, not economically speaking). I've been MIA the last week or so due to the holiday hustle. But I'm back, and hopefully blogging on the regular now. 

So I have a new blog title: Nature in a Nutshell.

I started blogging in March 2011 under the "pen name" BearlyAlyssa. The title of my blog was "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey!", but I've morphed now into being truly myself, Alyssa Johnson, and blogging shortly and sweetly, thus "Nature in a Nutshell". My goal with this blog has been to share my comings and goings in the natural world, and to be able to explain my findings in a way that's relatable to all. I think I'm doing it.

Yesterday I was able to catch up with a handful of some of my most favorite people, the 2nd day of the new year. I met John (past advisor and professor at FLCC), Sasha (past mentor and staff member at FLCC), George (lifelong conservationist and one of the most generous people I know), and Becky (caretaker extraordinaire) at Finger Lakes Community College's East Hill Campus yesterday morning, which is in Naples, NY. This is the heart of the Finger Lakes region. We've had probably close to 2 feet of snowfall over the past week, and the woods just look lovely all soft and snowy looking. The sun was out and the sky was blue too, which made for a fantastic day outside, although really cold. After catching up around the kitchen table and watching the bird feeder visitors (Redpolls, gray squirrels, Red-bellied WPs, Juncos, Cardinals, Jays, etc), John, Sash and I decided to take a little walk down the road to look for tracks.

Sasha pointing out a weasel (
Mustela sp.) tunnel in the snow.

Because the snow is so deep, we didn’t “off-road”, but just looked from the edge of the road, from beyond the snowbanks.

Around the little stream Sasha is standing in, we did find some weasel tracks which was a cool find. They bound through the snow (which is a very particular gait), as well as tunnel through the snow. The picture at right is a cool picture of a tunnel (click on the picture to enlargen)!

At some point this winter I hope to be able to write a whole entry about tracking wild animals in the winter snow. But, in the mean time, check out my other blog for past entries on tracking wild critters.

I also just purchased myself a late Christmas gift: a new camera trap! I’ve been wanting a new one for awhile now, since the camera I’ve been using (Cuddeback Attack flash) has been misbehaving to the 3rd degree. I wanted to try a different brand and newer technology, and I shopped and shopped online reading reviews, looking at images and videos. 


Bushnell Trophy Cam HD

The best resource out there, for anyone who wants to get into using a camera trap (or trail cam/game cam), PLEASE check out Trailcampro.com. This site is awesome!

Everything you could possibly want to know about what cameras are out there, is on this website. Except Cuddeback. According to this website, and a customer service agent I spoke with from TCP on the phone, Cuddeback removed themselves from this website. One can only speculate why. And I won’t, at least not now.

Here’s why I like this new camera:

Price- $199.95,

Size- fits in the palm of my hand,

Batteries- takes 8 AAs,

Settings- MANY options to choose from,

Trigger speed- < 1 second!,

Photo labels- I can put my name and the temp on the pictures!

The Bushnell's view into the woods.

I literally just hung it out, and have yet to see any pictures from it. I'm really anxious, and I'm going to try and leave it alone for 5 whole days.Wish us luck!

River Otter Dissection

Last weekend (September 28-29-30, 2012) I travelled back west to the Finger Lakes region to visit my family and some old classmates and professors. A class I took 2 years ago, in the fall of 2010, was in progress that weekend at FLCC's Muller Field Station on the South end of Honeoye Lake.

Muller Field Station - 9/29/2012

The class, Wetland Mammals, is taught by Professor John Van Niel, and Conservation Tech Sasha Mackenzie. It's taught over 2 weekends, where the class eats, sleeps, and learns at the field station. I believe there are also some meeting times outside of those weekends in the traditional classroom. All in all, it ends up to 3 credits worth of face time with John and Sasha, and one of the best classes I've taken yet. And I took it the first round, when they were still figuring out how to run the course...I could tell this past weekend they really had established the class and articulated what they expected from their students.

I was barely able to contain my jealousy, I'm not sure those FLCC students realize how lucky they are to have classes like this available to them! :)

The part I wanted to blog about from my experience hanging out with them for the day on Saturday (9/29/12), was the river otter dissection I got to watch. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Region 8 Furbearer Biologist, Scott Smith, came to guest speak on the ins and outs of trapping in New York. I first met Scott when I was a student in this course, and have since gotten to work with him a couple times (Honeoye Fur Auction). He's a great biologist, down to earth, and really willing to talk about his job. He's great addition to the course.

 

Scott ran through different types of traps, methods of making a set, using scent lures, the biology of how the animals actually die (FYI, it's not drowning, it's high levels of CO2 in the blood stream), and set them all up so we could see how it was done. He explained the necessity of trapping: I am not a hunter or a trapper, but I realize the importance of these methods of harvest for managing these species of wildlife.

Scott also brought with him some road-killed specimens of interest. It's great for FLCC's conservation faculty and staff and the local DEC biologists to have such a close relationship. The students get to totally take advantage of that relationship and shadow the biologists, and also get cool presents like dead beavers, bobcats and otters delivered to them in class!

Sasha and student Rodney checking out the beaver.

Bobcat

...and student Luke with the river otter (and a couple of really excited classmates behind him)!

A side note before I talk about the dissection:

One of these is the tail of the beaver, and one is the sole of a porcupine foot.

Both have similar textures, and are REALLY cool! Glad I got the check them out.

(The porcupine picture was from the Porcupine Paws entry I wrote recently..)

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 **WARNING**

The following pictures will be increasignly gory.

If you have a weak stomach, please don't continue.

This otter was killed by a car, retrieved by the DEC and saved for educational use. It's opportunities like this that allow students an up-close chance to appreciate a rare, BEAUTIFUL animal that's slowly making it's way back up in numbers.

 

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So Scott took the otter, and strung it up by a foot for easy access and leverage while skinning.

 

 

Once he made it down the tail, around the ankles, and around the vent, it was just like "pulling a sweatshirt off"...gross, but I guess true. An analogy we could all relate to :)

On one leg, he found these parasites. I don't know what they were, but it seemed very strange to me that they were between the skin and muscle. I would expect to find them in the organs, but Scott seemed unsurprised.

 

Once the skin was totally removed (it was going to be saved, tanned, and used as an educational skin), we moved the group outdoors. A naked, dead, thawing river otter smells a bit...ripe...and we needed that fresh air.

 

Scott took the lead on the dissection, with John as back up...and as you'll see in a few pictures, a ton of student help as well!

 

Working up the animal: I thought these round, bulbous features were testicles, making this a male otter. WRONG, these are scent glands. Otters are in the Mustelidae family, along with weasels, mink, fisher, badger, and wolverine. All are stinky critters, and possess this scent gland. Both males and females have these glands, and this, by the way is a female!

 

Scott cut through the sternum and through the diaphragm to expose the internal organs.

 

Kidney(s?)...very different than what we "know" kidneys to look like. This is was all segmented and in one group, rather than separated into 2 halves.

The heart- we all agreed it seemed relatively large for the size of the animal. A human heart is about the size of our fist, right? Well I imagine if this otter made an adorable little fist with it's paw, this heart would easily be twice as large.

Gall bladder- full of bile, which is apparent because of the color of the organ.

We had a visiting professor, Lisa Tracy (North Hennepin Community College, MN) with us for the weekend, a professor of biology, who had a lot to share. It was really neat to have John (the wildlife educator), Scott (the practicing biologist), and then Lisa (the lab biology educator) all on the panel dissecting the otter. Having taken this class 2 years ago, and watching John go through this alone, I had something to compare to. Lisa talked a bit about function of the parts, and how they connect.

 

THEN...they took the large intestine and stretched it out. This picture only shows part of the students holding it. To my left there were 2-3 other people standing, stretching the organ out. It was REALLY impressive!

OK, this is the part that got me and made me walk away for a minute.

They began squeezing the contents of the intestine out. Along the way were various levels of digested food matter. Otters eat fish and small invertebrates, which stink on their own. This was truly a smell to behold in person. I'm sorry I can't convey it through my blog.

Jackie sorted through a bit of the "scat", and found these indigestible parts. There's a bone there on the right sticking up, and the thing in the middle looks like part of some kind of carapace. Belonging to perhaps an insect or maybe a crayfish?

It was really cool to see all the hands in on the dissection. Morbidly, it was like kids and play-dough! I love this kind of learning, and haven't really had the opportunity to "get dirty" yet here at Cobleskill. I know it's gross to look at, but for people like us who want to learn to be biologists, this is a golden opportunity.

 

 

 

That pretty much ends the dissection, and I walked away shortly after the squeezing of the intestines. I'm pretty tough, and can handle doing this kind of stuff. But the smell was a little overwhelming, kudos to those who stuck it out!

 

 

I miss this place, but I must move on for now!

And come back to visit as often as I can.

Thanks to John and Sasha for letting me hang out for the day!

 

Northeast Natural History Conference 2012

Tomorrow I'm attending the Northeast Natural History Conference at the OnCenter in Syracuse, NY! Not only am I attending, but I'm presenting the study I've been involved with entitled "Black Bear Trails and Sign" that was started by a class I was in last year.

We have this 2 semester class, Black Bear Management I, II, that is taught by John and Sasha. The course focuses on the natural history, ecology, and management of black bears in general, and more specifically in our region of NY. John and Sasha also bring a research component into our classroom/in the field for us to work on. In my class, we studied this interested series of markings that black bears create. So, over the past year I've been talking to various people around the country (including KB! at Rompin' Rollin' Rockies), reading a ton, we visited some people in MA last summer who are studying the same thing, and now I've been presenting what I've learned. So far I've presented at:

-Rochester Academy of Science
-Finger Lakes Research Conference
-State University of New York Undergraduate Research Symposium

The other presentations were really exciting, slightly nerve-wracking, and alot of fun...but I'm most excited about tomorrow's event.

For more info: NENHC 2012

I feel like my study will best fit in with this crowd, and I'm really looking forward to meeting others studying natual history in the NE! Below is the poster that I created for this conference.

Also this week, Tuesday night actually, I'll be doing a local public presentation at the Muller Field Station. That one will be alot of fun too, because the audience will be people living in fairly new bear country...and let's be honest: bears are really cool animals. I'm hoping for a full house!

Wildlife Wednesday - Passerine bird banding

Today was our 2nd Wildlife Wednesday of the semester, and today's theme was mist netting and bird banding any of the Passerine's that came our way.

What does Passerine refer to? Perching birds, and commonly referred to as our song birds.

Several students, myself, and Professor John, and Conservation Dept Tech Sasha all met up at our East Hill Campus in Naples this morning. Last week John and Sasha went to the EHC to scope out a place to mount the mist net, so today all we had to do was set up the rebar and netting and walk away.

In my opinion, we were wildly successful, meaning many birds were caught, and there were a variety of birds!

Sasha, John and Adam setting the rebar.

We set the net between the woods/shrubby area, and the bird feeder :) , and walked away for 10 minutes to set up the banding station inside the house (doesn't everyone get to experience field work and animal processing in the comforts of indoor plumbing and heat???).

Sasha pulling the mist net across.

After 10 minutes had passed, we went out to check the net: 3 Black-capped Chickadees! Never have I personally been so excited to see such a common animal. I find myself realizing this time and time again recently- some of the most common animals are still REALLY cool! I see them often, yet at a distance, I just take them for granted. Up close though, those BCCs have beautiful plumage and such bright little eyes!

Here's the net completely set up.

The net is so fine and light, that the birds don't even see it, and easily get VERY tangled in it.

See below.

Black-capped Chickadee thoroughly tangled in the mist net, but comfortably being untangled while in the banding grip!

Before I continue on with the cool bird pictures, I want to show the "tools" of the trade.

John's banding tackle box with all of the essentials such as: different sized bands, special pliers meant for banding, cloth bags to store the birds during processing, and hand sanitizer.

Two different sized bands. On the left, probably appropriate for woodpeckers, and on the right, appropriate for BCCs.

Here are the pliers and the size bands we used for most of the birds.

This card is used to determine band size, if you are unsure. Just slip the bird's leg into a slot until you find one that's not too big, not too small...but just right!

John has one freed BCC and Sasha works on another, while students watch...

Inside now, John has the BCC in a 'photographer's grip', commonly used for getting good pics of the birds! About to clamp the first band on!

Because birds are migratory, and can be relatively long-lived...bands are managed on the state and federal level. Age, sex, location of banding, species, and band # all have to be recorded on a data sheet and submitted. I don't BELIEVE there are 2 numbers the same (someone correct me if I'm wrong?), kind of like a license plate. So, the theory is...if one of the birds we banded today, migrated to Tenessee, and caught there...it could be traced back to NY with all it's information in tow. With mammal tags, they are not as closely regulated because, and especially small mammals, they have VERY short life spans. Like, less than a year. And, they don't mass migrate over long distances like many birds do. In the picture to the left, it may look like John is nipping that little BCC's leg off, but no fear- he's not! The pliers have a hole in the nose that fits the specific band sizes and NO SMALLER. So, you can only clamp it as small as the band, which is just larger than the diameter of that birds leg. I'm sure accidents do happen where the ends of the band don't line up as they should, or it over-pinches/crimps, but that happens less than when all goes the way it should.

I was given a bird to release! I think I stated this in an earlier blog...but it's QUITE the rush to release a wild animal from your hands! I try not to think of it as a terrified little creature trying to escape, but as an amazing tiny organism full of energy and life returning to the wild!

The NEXT capture, was very exciting! A lively, vivacious, "bitey"...

Blue Jay! By the way, all of those above adjectives are all good things for a wild animal to be while handling them.

Sasha struggled a bit getting this guy/gal out of the net because of the height of it...and because he was clenching his feet around the net in a death grip! ...(perching bird)...

Inside, we got to check out the beautiful plumage.

My dear friend, and NON Conservation student, Julie tagged along for the morning. She had never experienced bird banding before, and was a little nervous to tag a little guy. So, with some gentle encouragement, she agreed to band the Blue Jay!

She just sent me a text message, and she had a great time!

Looking forward to having her along for the ride again...

We also caught many Dark-eyed Juncos, but my phone died (and that's what I was taking pictures with...I know, get a real camera!). If I can beg, borrow, or steal some pictures from someone else who was there, I will add Junco pics below! They are a pretty, slate-colored little bird...

Thanks to John and Sasha for facilitating and thanks to the birds for flying into our net!