Bringing in the Traps Friday Morning: A Watery Tale

We had a lot to do today! And the weather was not cooperative.

We not only had to check our traps, but we also had to collect all of them from the woods, clean them out, and haul them back to the van.

Checking the traps, we first found recapture after recapture and we so needed one new capture to be able to do the math on our own data. We not only got new captures, but we also found 3 mice in the traps! We had many traps with animals this morning -- all those traps in the soggy photo above contained animals! Any ideas for why we'd have so many more on this soggy morning? (Think, then read on.)

We think that because we had clear skies until last night, and are near a full moon, the combination of cool overnight lows (below freezing) and visibility to predators with the good light discouraged the wee creatures from getting out and foraging.

I hear that some are wondering what a vole is. Perhaps you need to do a little research. Here is a vole on the left and a mouse on the right. How are they different? I encourage you to see what differences you can, then research this question. Perhaps discuss lifestyle differences.

Not clear enough from these pictures? You could google "mouse photos" and "vole photos!"