Tuesday Evening

On Sunday we went to Kejimkujik National Park. One of the trails that we went on was the Hemlock Forest trail. The trail went through an old growth forest and some of the trees are estimated to be over 400 years old. Most of the undergrowth dies away because of lack of sun.

The forest floor is usually covered by moss, lichens, mushrooms, rotting and decaying branches and old fallen trees. The roots of the hemlock go as far out as the branches reach. Their root system is very delicate and any minor damage to them can affect the life of the tree. There are many plants and animals growing underneath the hemlocks. When a tree dies and falls to the forest floor, sunlight is filtered in and allows seedlings to grow. Insects and fungi help the logs decay. We saw lots of fungi, many different colors and shapes. More fungi pictures later on Why is it important that this decay cycle occur on the forest floor?




Mystery picture... what do you think caused this tree to fall down?






Wally behaving himself on the walk in the woods. He only got lost one time. Did you figure out what the sign that Wally found?

In our group we have several people from England. I have learned that they have some different phrases for words that we use. Here are some examples:
the phrase”jumper” means long sleeve shirt
the word “trainers” means sneakers
the word “lift” means elevator
the word “pavement” means sidewalk
the word "bonnet" means hood of the car

Our day started at 8:00 and we headed out to Cook's lake to check our traps. When we arrived we all needed to change into rubber boots. Lots of dew and standing water. We headed out to check our traps for the first time. We all found lots of traps that had been sprung overnight. You can see how many the teams found.



We caught 3 red back voles in the first set of traps. We all meet back in a group to weigh and measure the animals.
We clean out the traps and reset them with fresh hay, seed and apple. After they have been weighed, sexed, clip marked, age them and asses their reproductive status we return them to the correct spot.
Do you remember why this is important? Here is a video of a release. When we released the voles they were scared, but this one did not run off right away. Can you see the voile in this picture? What is the word that describes how an animal blends in with its surroundings?


My trapping partner Kim and I won the competition for catching the heaviest rodent today, a whooping 32 grams. In fact we caught her 2 times. She gained a gram from the time we weighed her in the morning to the afternoon weigh time. She is pregnant and we think she will have her babies soon. We also caught a total of 9 voles today which exceeded our total for last week which was 8 for the entire week. We are wearing our prizes for having the heaviest mammal!
On the way back from Cook's lake we stopped at the beaver pond. We had to sit very still for a long time. We waited for the beaver to come out at dusk. I think there were 2 adults and 1 juvenile. We had a beaver swim by us about 10 feet in front of us. The beaver smacked his tail 2 times in the water and scared me to death. Here is a picture of his lodge.
From Vancouver 2010 Website, 30 September 08.

Here is some information that was sent to me after they read my blog. The info came from some folks who live in Canada.
From Vancouver 2010 Website, 30 September 08.
For centuries, the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic stacked rock in human form to create the inukshuk, a steadfast guidepost that provided direction across the vast horizons of the North. Over time, the inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship, an eternal expression of the hospitality of a nation that warmly welcomes the people of the world with open arms every day.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem is a contemporary interpretation of the inukshuk. It is called Ilanaaq which is the Inuktitut word for friend. This is the symbol of Canada’s Games – our friend who will help us greet the world in 2010.
The emblem was chosen by an international judging panel from more than 1,600 entries from every region of Canada submitted through the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Emblem Design Competition. Rivera Group of Vancouver submitted the design, created by a team that included company principal and creative director, Elena Rivera MacGregor and designer, Gonzalo Alatorre.