Goodbye Nova Scotia

Well, today was our last day here and it was beautiful.  Not a cloud in the sky and hardly a breeze.  It makes it hard to leave, but after 2 weeks I am ready to see home.

We started off the day by going over the data from this week (I'll be going over that with you when I return).  Then we went over the pictures from the camera traps.  They had been set up for a week and I was anxious to see what we had caught.  Unfortunately, something was wrong and we got NOTHING! Very disappointing.  But I did include a picture of the raccoon we caught in a camera trap down at the compost heap.

Then we went out to do more field sign transects (something I am hoping to do with students).  This was really nice, although we saw very little sign.  

Then we were off to try to catch a glimpse of the beaver that had eluded us earlier.  This time he put on quite a show.  Swimming right in front of us and slapping his tail several times to let us know he didn't like us being there.  There wasn't enough light to get any pictures, though.

I am so looking forward to getting home, but I will miss my new friends.  It has been a great experience getting to know them.  They were all very nice and very concerned about our environment.  I wish them all a safe trip home and hopefully, we will stay in contact.

See you soon!

Last Question! Write a summary of this experience in your journal.  Did you learn from this?  Give some examples.  Was it worthwhile from your perspective?  Should we do this again in the future?  If so, what could we do to make it better next time?  If not, why not?  Thanks!

October 24th Blog

Holy Cats!!!  Can you believe that its Friday and I will be coming home tomorrow.  Yes I fly in at 11:58 pm.  I can't wait.  It has been great being here, but I do miss New Meadows and the students that I love to torture.  jk lol.  See I've learned something by reading your comments.

Well this morning we did the traplines for the last time and then took down the traps.  Here are the results: NM: Brush field-1 Forest-6, NY: 3 & 4, UT/FL- 5 & 3.  Not bad, eh?  Oh, and we only had one fatality today, a red-backed vole.

After we finished trapping, we went and picked up our camera traps.  Tomorrow we get to see the results of our efforts.  I am hoping for a otter or a mink since our tap was set at a stream crossing.  If we get any good pics I will try to post them to the blog before I leave.

In the afternoon we did survival training.  It was pretty cool.  Chris is very knowledgeable and I learned a lot.  Check out the videos of me setting the spring trap and trying to make fire.  I learned that I should always carry water proof matches.

Later, after returning home I did a short hike down to the sea.  I have included a video.  Check it out.  Also, look at the picture of the white sea urchin remains I found on the shore.  Question #1: What is the sea urchin related to?  Hint: it belongs to the phylum Echinodermata.

Also, you will find another mystery photo.  I will tell you they appear to be "guts" from something mammalian.  However there is nothing else.  No hair, scat, etc.  Question #2: What do you think happened?  By the way, the coin in the picture is called a "Toonie", it is the Canadian $2 coin.

Now about your comments.  Sorry, but today I had 70!  I read all of them.  Once again, some of these have already been addressed in the Blog.  Most will have to wait to be answered when I get back.  And a lot of them can be Googled by you.  A few notable exceptions are mentioned below:

Dustin F:  "Spot on" withe the explanation of the pile of feather.

4th graders:  Good job figuring out the function of those bumps on the w.f. mouse.  Also, good math skill on the totals of rodents captured.  Are we still in the lead after today.

Laureen:  I had now ide that the white-footed mouse has its own bot fly.  Cool

Well that is it for now.  I may be posting some more this weekend, but if not I will see you on Monday.  Thanks!

Mr. R.

October 23rd Blog

Cheers from the great wet north.  How are you all doing?  Can you believe that you only have 2 more days with Mr. Howard and then you are stuck with me again.  Treat him good!  I may not get to respond to comments tonight.  Chris is giving us a lecture on "The History of Life on Earth".  4.9 billion years in one evening.  On the bright side, I may have a better understanding of how you feel during my lectures.

Hey, guess what?  The lady from UT gave me an idea.  She is going to give here students a "Blog Quiz" when she returns.  I am thinking that is a good idea.  If you have been keeping up on your journal every day, you should be fine.

Today's weather was the worst of our expedition.  But still not bad.  At least not as cold as it has been there in the mornings.  We had rain and a cold wind today.  But tomorrow is supposed to be better.  Check out the video.

So today we found 4 dead critters in our trap, 3 voles, our white footed mouse from yesterday, and a short-tailed shrew.  Last week we only found 1 dead rodent all week.  Question #1: Why do you think we are finding so many more dead today?

Speaking of short-tailed shrews I took a pic of the dead one (no that is not morbid).  Notice its front teeth, see how dark they are?  That is because they are hollow and filled with bacteria.  I wonder why....?  Question #2:  Why are the hollow teeth of the short-tailed shrew filled with bacteria?  Hint:  Shrews are not rodents.  So what do they eat?

After the morning trapping we divided into groups of 4 and did a field "sign" survey along an old road.  As we walked along we recorded any evidence of any mammal we saw or heard; burrows, tracks, calls, bones, scat, and, of course, sightings.  I really liked this.  We saw a red squirrel, a vole, and a snowshoe hare.   We also found deer tracks and scat and lots of rodent burrows.  The coolest thing we found was a porcupine burrow.  We knew that was what it was by all the porcupine scat we found in it.  We didn't find any evidence of lynx or coyote on our survey.  Does that mean they are not there?  What does the expression "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" mean to a field biologist?

After lunch we spent more time clearing the grass field of small trees and then we checked our traplines again.  Here are the results from the past 2 days:

Tues AM Brush field  NM-5    , UT/FL- 3        , NY- 4     .

 AM  Forest   NM-4     , UT/FL-2      , NY-  1     .

         PM  Brush field  NM- 2    ,  UT/FL- 1      , NY-  2     .

  PM Forest NM-3     ,  UT/FL- 2      , NY- 0     .

Wed AM Brush field 3 2     6

  AM Forest 6 2     2

  PM Brush field 2 3     4

  PM  Forest 4 2     0

  TOTALS ___ ___     _____

So do the math, what are the totals?

Tomorrow we check our traps in the morning then take down the trap line.  I am still waiting to hear the results of your calculations from last week's numbers.

After dinner Chris gave us a very good talk about the history of the earth.  Very interesting.  He talked about all the times in the past when animals have gone extinct.  Question #3:  What is the difference between now and in the past.  Why do we care so much about animals going extinct today?

Well, sorry I didn't get to your comments.  But Chris finished his talk just a little bit ago and after covering 4.9 billion years of history I am beat!  Talk to you tomorrow.  Play nice with one another, k? 

October 22st Blog

Hey there blog readers.  Students of Meadows Valley, did you know 539 people in 6 countries have visited this blog.  Kind of cool, eh?  Most don't comment, but one man who lives here in Nova Scotia has, because of a comment I made about all the elm trees being wiped out by Dutch elm disease.  Seems I was wrong and there is a good, but threatened population.  If you would like to see a picture you can check out his blog.  Question #1: What causes Dutch elm disease?

Anyway, about today.  It was cold in the morning, but then the sun broke out and it was warm and I was over dressed.  Tomorrow is another story.  It is supposed to rain and wind gusts are supposed to hit 50 miles/hour.  I really hope they are wrong.

I have included the picture I used yesterday of Chris and the ice cream.  I got more comments on that than all the others.  No, I did not eat all that ice cream.  But I have eaten more ice cream here than I did all of last year.  I hope they let me on the plane to come home.

Today we checked our traps and, unfortunately, I don't have the data because the PI left with it.  But NM trapped 13 rodents, putting us well in the lead on this 1st day of trapping on our 2nd set.  Also, we are the only ones, so far, to trap a white footed mouse.  Look at the picture of the little guy.  Do you notice the little bumpies on his feet?  Question #2 What do you think is the function of those bumps on his feet?

Speaking of the trapping study.  How did you do with the formula?  What did you come up with for numbers?  

And, other than the ultracool 4th graders, no one let me know what they calculated on the tracks.  I want to hear from you!  Oh,Oh, Oh, there is a new development on the cat controversy.  Jim, the not-so-hot-Brit, found some cat scat.  So we have set up a motion sensing camera in the area and maybe we'll settle the bobcat/lynx argument with a photo.

I have also included some pictures of voles at or near our traps.  Hope you like them.  The videos (at the bottom of this page, watch them in order from the bottom up) show what checking our trap lines is like.  It is always more exciting to find them with the door closed than open.

I have also included a mystery photo.  Question #3:  What is this a photo of, and what has happened here?

A special announcement about your comments.  Please read through these.  I am getting a lot of the same questions over and over.  So if I'm not answering your question, it may be because I've already answered it.

Now on to your comments:

Ashley W:  No we are not directly studying the goshawk, since this is a mammal study, but yesterday a goshawk flew down and nailed a squirrel near where we process the traps.  Unfortunately, I was out setting traps at the time, but others got to see it.

Danny K:  Our most common bird?  Well, since we are on the coast, I would say it is some type of gull, but those are not real exciting.  I have also seen several blue jays and almost everyday we see gray jays.  The Northern goshawk would make a good minireport, though.

Klaryssa:  Yes, I tried to make that abundantly clear that you must summarize the blog and answer the questions in your journal every day.  And it will be graded.

Jill:  Sorry about your homework woes, but I didn't want you to get bored.  I don't know that his would be considered a true rainforest, but it is definitely wetter than Meadows Valley.  It is also much flatter than home, but it is not good for farming because the soil is so shallow and rocky.

Jason K: It is probably too early to make any conclusions yet.  But one thing is different lately.  While the vole populations have been normal, the mice are way below what they have seen in the past.

Dallin: Yes, I would agree with you that the main biome here is the temperate deciduous. 

Ty: I don't know how large in square miles, or km, N.S. is.  Could you google that and let me know?

Billy:  Check yesterday's blog for number or recaptures on the 1st set.  It is too soon to give you the data on the second set.

Jesse:  Good vote.  Yes we do have some monocultures near by.  Some of the ponderosa pine stands are very nearly a monoculture and north of McCall some of the lodgepole pine stands are a monoculture.  Why do you think the hemlock would try to create an acidic environment?  Is there any advantage?

Becca:  While the soil under the hemlock is acidic, it is not totally sterile.  Some things grow and some few organisms feed off the hemlock as well.  This forms the basis for a food chain.  This forms the basis of the food chain and the goshawk is one of the tope predators feeding on squirrels, birds, and small rodents.

JoshUA T: Sorry, what was Trent's question?  I think whit-tailed deer may be the most populated species here, at least in some places.  Remember, other than people, they don't have any predators.

Blake:  my favorite animal is probably the northern goshawk.  I love the way it hunts.  Do a minireport on it.  It is not endangered, but it was proposed a few years ago.

Thomas:  Yes, I have seen a few deer, and, yes, I use Canadian $.  Do you know why the $1 coin is called a "Loonie"?

Saige:  The rodents prepare for winter by stock piling food (they don't hibernate), becoming less active, and ceasing to breed.

Well, that's it for now.  I am beat (and alone once again) and I am catching a cold.  I hope you all are well.  How are the volleyball and football teams doing?  I am hopeful that I can Skype you once more this week.

Take care,

Mr. R

October 21st Blog

Hello.  How is life in Meadows Valley?  Life here is... cold!  More about that later but 1st let me address some housekeeping issues.  I know I have been gone for a while now, and won't be back 'til Monday.  But remember, I am coming back and I would greatly love to have Monday be a fun day.  Do you get my meaning?  Realize, too, that the end of the 9 weeks will be quickly approaching.  Make sure you have ALL you work in on time.  I will have lots of grading to do (especially since Brendan is slacking), not to mention grading your journals when I return.  Sophomores, you have a new student (Hey, welcome to New Meadows.  I look forward to meeting you), be sure and make him feel welcome and let him know how things work in my class and with this blogging assignment.  M/O class: How you doing on that skull assignment.  Make sure you take the quiz and test before I get back!  OK, moving on.

First lets talk about the pictures of the tracks.  We found those on the way to our trap lines at Cook's lake.  They are some type of cat track (note the lack of claws).  We were all very excited.  Christina thinks they are lynx, but Chris (who is way ahead in the hot Brit contest) thinks they are bobcat.  So I want your input.  A bobcat's paw print is usually about 1 3/4 inches wide, while a lynx's is 3" wide.  Now the pen in the picture is 5 1/2 inches long.  Now make some measurements, figure out a reduction factor, and determine the width of the tracks.  Be careful, one of the tracks has a track in a track.  Question #1:  What type of tracks are these?  Why?  Show your math!

Today we did not catch any rodents, but set up new trap lines in new areas.  So what I want you to do is some rodent math.  You might want to watch the video first so you know how to use the formula.  Here are the numbers for the last day on our old trap lines.  In the forest we caught 10 rodents (mostly RB voles), 5 were new, and 5 were recaptures.  Altogether we had marked 15 rodents prior to that day.  In the brush field we caught 14 rodents, 4 were new and 10 were recaptures.  Altogether we had marked 19 rodents in this area.  Question #2:  Using the formula from the video, calculate the population of rodents in the forest and in the brush field.  Show your math for both calculations!

So check out that headline on the newspaper.  Realize that is 5 degrees C, that is 9 degrees F.  I still get questions from you guys about why we are here and what it has to do with climate change.  This is why we monitor wildlife, even seemingly insignificant wildlife like rodents in Nova Scotia.  We can learn a lot from them about what is happening to the climate, hopefully before it is too late to do something about it.  Take a minute and read the article by clicking here.  It is not very long.  Question #3 Write down a couple of interesting fact that you learned from the article.

Oh, we had a bit of excitement today. 2 of the ladies in our group got turned around in the

woods and we had to go look for them. It just makes me realize if a person is not used to 

finding their way around in the forest how easy it is to get disoriented.

The weather has officially turned cold here. I am wearing about 4 layers of clothes when 

we are in the field. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. Now on to your questions:

Kayla: The animal in the pic is a porcupine.

Jordan N. Keji N.P. is about 400 spare km. What is that in square miles? It is inland and

toward the NW.

Liz- No, we haven't seen any albino mammals. Can you hypothesis why? Yes, there can be

albino birds. And the only wild edible plant I have seen and can ID is rose hips.

Bryan- Not sure about the exact species of oak found here. Google it and let me know. I

haven't seen any bucks yet, only doe white-tailed deer.

Saige- As far as alien species here, I saw some Japanese knot weed the other day near

Lundenberg. That can take over an area pretty fast. I am sure there are others.

Ashley W- Most common scat? Deer, by far, and we will be doing some calculation on

that soon.

Billy- We are not just trapping voles. We will trap any small rodent that goes into our trap

including deer mice and jumping mice. Chipmunks are the largest thing that will fit.

Ashley E- You can touch the soil. It is just mildly acidic.

Anna- That was a hemlock tree on the boulder.

Sierra- Yes there are still animals that live on the forest floor in the old growth hemlock

forest, just not that many. No, the hemlocks are not poisonous. There is a poison hemlock that

grows in ID. Check out the picture. It looks nothing like a hemlock tree.

LeAndra- No! I haven't ordered the ADS questions. When is the competition? Yes, I have

some cool birds. I think the blue jay is my favorite, but the barred owl was really cool. No bugs

to speak of. There are some rodents in the hemlock forest, but we weren't expecting to see any.

But we actually did. I am not sure what it was, but I think it was a juvenile wood rat.

Nathan- Hemlock is a cone bearing evergreen tree and yes it is native.

4th grade- Good theory on the tree root question. Why was I in jail? Its a long story, but

lets just say the pink bunny and I went to a BBQ.

Frances- I think I've answered this question before. So check out some of the previous blogs.

Sorry, but I'm fading tonight.

Mari- A few of the same trees, but in much different proportions. Also a lot of different

species of trees are here.

Hope- That is a good idea to do this experiment in Meadows Valley. It takes some real time

and effort, but I would like to know the results.

Sophomores- Bummer about the mantid, but it was bound to happen. Any eggs?

Luke- As I mentioned above, wood rats live in the hemlock forest. The oldest tree we saw

was 400 years.

Blake- My favorite animal here would be a lynx (if you decide that is what that track is).

John from Digby- Thanks for the info about the elms. Can you give me an estimate as to 

how many elm trees are left and roughly how old the stand is. Thanks!

Well, that is it for tonight. We have an early start tomorrow. Be good! See ya soon!

Mr. R

October 20th Videos

Oops, I missed to comments:

Meghan- No we never got 2 voles in one trap.

Liz- 3 hour time diff.  Are you ahead or behind me in time.

October 20th Blog

I'm back....

Hope you all had a good weekend.  I know I did.  I am going to do things in the opposite order this time and tell you what has been happening and then answer your questions.

First, though, I need your help with the "hot Brit" contest.  Since Anna and Ashley said that Chris (green coat) was hot and nobody said that about Jim (blue coat) a rivalry has developed between these 2 British gentlemen.  So we need your vote (and no, it does not count as a comment).

On Friday we collected our rodents and picked up our traps for the weekend.  Here are our results:  NM- Brush field-1, Forest- 1, NY 4 & 1, UT/FL: 4 & 2.  All of the are from the morning, because  we picked up the traps. Bringing our totals for the week to NM-12, NY-19, Ut/Fl-25.  So as you can see... we are loosing.  But next week is another week!  Altogether we caught 33 in the brush field and 25 in the forest.  Bryan,  you asked how many of the rats were recaptures.  On the last day 10 out of 14 we captured in the clearing were recaptures and  5 out of 10 were recaptures in the forest.  Later this week, I will give you some numbers and ask you to use a formula to compute the density of rodents in both habitats.

The rest of Friday was spent Skyping with you, which I found very enjoyable!  That evening we went to Liverpool to do our laundry.

Saturday was a "research-free" day.  We went to Lundenberg to see the sights.  I got thrown in jail with a hardened criminal (see pic.), but still managed to do some mammal watching (pink bunnies are an endangered species in N.S.).  Lundenberg is a port city and is very beautiful.  If you every get to N.S. you should check it out.  What did I eat?  For lunch I had the fish cakes and for dinner I had mussels.  Good eating!

Sunday  we went to Kejimekujik National Park.  We did a 3 1/2 mile hike and visited an old growth hemlock forest.  Look at the picture of the forest floor and watch my video.  Question #1:  If we were to set our rodent traps here, do you think we would catch more or fewer rodents?  Why?  Also in the Keji we did scat surveys again.  This time we found NOTHING.  

Hey, check out the picture of the tree growing on top of the rock.  That is a hemlock tree.  They have very shallow roots that can't dry out.  So how do you thing that tree got to be over that rock like that?  Question #2:  How do you explain this?

In Keji we saw a porcupine and a red-backed salamander (see pics).  The salamander, of course, is not a mammal, but an amphibian.  Question #3:  What is the difference between a newt and a salamander?

Tomorrow we return to set some new rodent trap lines and do more scat surveys.  The weather, however, is turning nasty tonight.  As I sit here typing (again the only person in the house still up) I can hear the wind howling outside.  By Wed. they say we may get snow.  Not good!

Now let me try to answer some of your questions:

Mrs. McConnor: No acid rain is not a significant problem here.  No elm trees remain.  All have been wiped out by Dutch elm disease.  

Jason:  Owls are the voles main predator, also the weasel to a lesser extent.

Nick:  RB voles usually live only 12 weeks before they are eaten or die of disease.  But in captivity, they can live to the ripe old age of 18 months.  And they have 4-6 young.

Andrea-  Digby clams are still famous around here.

Sierra-  We are studying other mammals, but not as extensively as the small rodents.  Animals with a short life span are more sensitive to climate change.  The data being collected is primarily for climate change research, but they collect more info than needed so it can be used in other studies.

Kayla-  Their fur won't grow back until spring or fall (that is when they molt), so many of these will be dead by then.

Jesse- Nice job on identifying the leaf.  I am not sure of the species found here, but Google it, and the ID species, and let me know.

Abbie-  I have now idea how many plant species are in N.S.  I think it would be a great topic for a minireport.

Ty-  What types of scat have I found?  Deer, snowshoe hare, grouse, and mouse so far.

Dustin F-  Odd you should mention the endangered Blanding's turtle.  We were in the nesting ground of that turtle today while in Keji N.P.  Didn't see any and very unlikely that we will see on in our camera trap.

Joshua T-  You asked about indigenous species to N.S.  I am sure there are some, but there does not seem to be any mammals that are found only in N.S.

Dixie- Yes we see the same side of the moon here and in exactly the same phase that you do.

Danny K-  I am hurt that you would even question if I am getting along with others here.  Of course I am the "bell of the ball".

Klaryssa- Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

Bryan: see above

Michaela:  How do we calculate deer populations from their poop?  Well, if you know that an adult deer deposits 20 piles of scat/hectare/day and that it takes 40 days for the scat to degrade that comes out to 800 piles could be deposited during that 40 days.  Then depending on how many piles you find in your 10 X 10 spare you can calculate it out to see how many are there total.  I will work through the math with you when I return.

Alyssa- I may not always say your name right, but I think I spelled it right!  The national bird of Canada is the Common Loon.  It is on their dollar, that is why it is called a "Looney".  The motto is "From sea to sea".  And what do mean "Trim my beard"?  I'll trim it when I get home.

Well that's it.  I am going to bed!  I will blog you tomorrow.  Be good- mill you all!

Mr. R