Mammals of Nova Scotia with Mrs. Smith

Back Home in Sunny Florida

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:26:00 +0000

Wally and I made it home yesterday but it was a long day. We spend a lot of our time waiting in the airports. We did get to watch the sunset over the Empire State building which was pretty neat. I have been reflecting on my experiences in Nova Scotia and remembering all my new friends. We all became awesome badger dancers. ( an inside joke)

The Earthwatch Institute and HSBC Bank have allowed me to have this wonderful experience and share it with many students. I am so thankful to them for providing me with this once in a life time opportunity!
Dr. Christina Buesching and Dr. Chris Newman were wonderful hosts! Their work with mammals was so interesting and informative. I learned so much!
Since meeting them I have more respect for the environment and natures delicate balance.

Friday- Our Last Day

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:39:00 +0000

We had a very busy day for our last day of activities. It was nice talking to Megan Weller's classroom in New Jersey and also Mrs. Barron's class at Perkins Elementary in St. Petersburg. This morning we went over the data that we had accumulated over the 2 weeks. Then we got in our big van and headed out to Thomas Raddall Provincial Park. We had lunch when we got there. We divided into 3 teams to look for field signs. Field signs include scat, footprints, signs of eating such as bones, shellfish or seeds, and den sites. We found all kinds of signs, raccoon, otter, bobcat, deer and bear footprints. We found lots of scat as well but we did not see any animals except a seal and a porcupine in the tree on our way out of the park.

Wally had a great time sunning himself on the rocks. The birds were very interested in what Wally was doing. Dr. Newman lectured us on basic survival skills. We learned how to make a simple trap and also how to make a simple machine for starting a fire. We headed back to the house for a last meal together of fish and chips. Then everyone was off to pack our bags for our early morning ride to the airport. It has been a wonderful experience meeting everyone and learning so much new information. We started out as strangers and now we are all best friends. Please check back to the blog as I will be uploading some more pictures and information.

Thanks to all of you that followed along! Bye for now, Love, Mrs. Smith

Thursday Night

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:58:00 +0000

We headed out to Cook's lake for our final trap collection. Kim and I did not have much luck. I guess the rodents decided they did not like our traps. The overall capture rate was not too good for all the teams. It started to rain just as we were finishing up.

We cleaned up camp and headed back to the house for lunch. Dr. Newman did a lecture on about How the world was formed and how that impacted Nova Scotia. He also talked about all the mammals that are native to Nova Scotia. Can you find Wally? He was a very good student.

We had time for a quick walk to the beach before dinner. On the path to the beach we saw dozens of sea urchin exoskeletons. We think that some animal was eating them and just leaving the shell.

Here is some information about the small mammals we have been catching. Red back voles are the smallest mammals and beavers are the largest in Nova Scotia.

The Rock vole is bigger than the Red Back vole. Their average 20-35 gram average weight. They have the bigger eyes, purple feet and 8 teats. They are very active because they live in exposed habitats. When faced with a predator they run away. Their average life span is 6-12 weeks. They average litter is 4-6 pups.

The Red Back vole has bigger ears and has a reddish coat. Their average weight is 12-25 grams and they have 8 teats. They are not as active as the Rock vole because they live in the thick undergrowth and vegetation. They tend to freeze when faced with a predator. The average litter is 6 pups.

The Common Deer Mouse average weight is 22-40 grams. They have big ears, big eyes, long tail and a good sense of sight and smell. They are an omnivore which means they eat insects, eggs, berries, plants, and seeds. There average litter is 10-12 pups. They live in trees and can jump 3-4 feet off the ground. They use their tail for steering the direction of the jump. When faced with a predator they run away.

The short tail shrew has bad eyesight, short tail, long and mobile nose and tiny ears. Their nose can move in all directions and the have a good sense of smell. They have poor hearing but they can hear some ultrasounds. They are insectivores. The average weight is 25-40 grams. The shrew has hollow teeth which have poisonous bacteria. It causes them to taste bad when eaten by the predators. When a predators approaches the shrew will twitter to let them know that they taste bad. The poison in their saliva can be used to kill some insects.

That is all for tonight... see you all tomorrow with some new info.

Thursday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:11:00 +0000

GO RAYS AND GO BULLS!

The weather this morning is overcast, cool and breezy. Probably the coolest we have had so far. Today is the last time we are going to check the traps. It has been very interesting process to be involved with. We will analyze the data that we collected tomorrow.

Here is a picture for you to think about.
Is it art or is it functional?
What do you think it means?

Here is a story starter for you. Write a story in the mouse perspective. Here are some pictures to help you think like a mouse.

More neat pictures and info later tonight. Time for breakfast!

Wednesday Evening

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:15:00 +0000

Do you figure out the picture of the wood? It was a tree that had been cut down by a beaver. Can you see how they gnawed around the tree. Their front teeth are like chisels. They are large orange in color and they have iron in them. They grow constantly and they need to gnaw on wood to keep them from getting too long.

We have couple, Andrew and Karen from Australian on our team. Here are some words and phrases that are different.
Dodgy is suspicious
Scarper is to run away
Faffing is wasting time
Singlet is a tank top
Swimmers or cossie are bathing suits
Sunnys are sunglasses
Firey is fireman
Ambo is ambulance driver
Walkabout is wandered off
Torch is a flashlight
Servo is a pertrol station(gas station)
In new Zealand togs are bathing suits

Here are some new vocabulary words to think about? Do you know what they mean?
Nocturnal
Hibernation
Torpor
Herbivore
Omnivore
Insectivore

Today we did not have an as much luck trapping the rodents. We did catch 2 flying squirrels which was really interesting. Here is a short video of his capture. One of them was released back into the area where it was captured and it scampered up trees until it got back to where we were. We got to see it glide right in front of us and land on the other side of the road. We got to take some more pictures while it sat and ate nuts. It was so cute!

Here is some information about the flying squirrels. They are nocturnal. We were surprised that the flying squirrel came back to eat. They do not really fly they glide from one tree to another. One of the flying squirrels was not very active when we took it out of the trap. It had moved the nesting material and was sitting on the cold metal. We think it had started to go into torpor. Torpor occurs when they lower their body temperature to lower their metabolism. Torpor is different from hibernation in that they can go into torpor at any time. It does not require a certain amount of day length. It can also be brought on by getting wet and cold or by physically being in bad shape.
Some examples of animals that go into torpor are bats, flying squirrels, nightjar(bird), bears and hedgehogs.

Wally was helping us look for Beaver last night.The beaver lodge is the family home. The entrances are underwater so that the predators can’t find the entrance. The sleeping chambers are inside the lodge above the water level. A baby beaver is called a cub and they stay with the family for a year. Beavers are herbivores. What does that mean? They spend the fall eating plants to get fat for winter. They also start gathering sticks and taking them inside the lodge. They will use them to gnaw on over the winter. Beavers can hold their breath for 15 minutes. Beavers have 3 eyelids. One eyelid is transparent which means that they can have their eyes closed but still can see while they are swimming in the water. While we were watching the beaver one of the adults smacked her tail on the water. It was a very loud noise and that told the rest of the beavers that there were other animals around (people) and conveyed a message to us that they knew we were there.
If you want more information go to National Geographic Beavers

In the afternoon we did 12 - 25 square meter mammal droppings transects. We found deer, snowshoe hare, spruce grouse, and chipmunk scat. We also saw 2 different types of salamanders, a smooth green snake and a purple toadstool. the picture of the salamander is an Eastern Red Eft.

Tomorrow will be our last day to check our traps in the field. I should be able to give you some totals as to how many species were found and how many of each.

Wednesday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:10:00 +0000

We are getting ready to head out to Cook's Lake this morning. Breakfast is a 8:00 and then we leave right after that. Here are some answers to some of the previous questions. There pictures of fishing traps, and boats and the questions was to try to figure out what the main industry was. Some of you said fishing which is correct. Also ,they use their boats to take tourists out to go whale watching,

In Canada, they have coins that are $1 and $2 dollars. This is a picture of a $2 dollar coin (on the right) and it is called a "twoney" rhymes with looney. The other picture is of their $1 dollar coin (on the left) and it is called a looney. If you look closely their is a picture of a loon on it.

One of my questions asked about how you could see if the season was changing. Do you think that this picture is a good fall picture?

Mystery picture? What do you think this is?

Question to think about ? Why is it important to trap the small mammals? Keep in mind that these rodents are the bottom of the food chain What will we learn as a result of these findings?

Bye for now, time for breakfast and then off to Cook's lake! Have a great day!

Tuesday Evening

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:20:00 +0000

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.

Tuesday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:47:00 +0000

We are heading out at 8:00 this morning to Cook's Lake. We will be checking our traps twice and doing deer dropping surveys. We will also reset our camera traps. The trap my group set had a faulty battery and did not take any pictures. When we leave we are headed to a lake that has a beaver lodge. I hope we get to see the beaver.

Leave it to Wally to find some unusual sign. What do you think the sign means?

Everyone have a great day and I will post more tonight!

Monday at Cook's Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:17:00 +0000

We arrived at Cook's lake base camp to find that our gazebo was destroyed by the wind. We ended up taking it down and will do without it. Lots of leaves had blown off the trees since last Friday.

We divided into 3 teams to do 3 different jobs. One crew did trail maintenance and one did animal transects, looking for a variety of animal signs. I was on the crew that mapped out a trail using a GPS. We provided the latitude and longitude so that we could make a map of the trail.

After lunch we headed out to a different location than last week. We all had to reset the traps with hay, seed and a apple piece. Each team set 20 traps. We had to set our traps in 10 meter rows. How many feet is 10 meters? Tomorrow we will see how many mammals we caught. Kim, my partner and I will hopefully catch a few!

Dr. Chris Newman explains about the different types of scat that we found on the trail.

Monday Morning after Hurricane Kyle

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:03:00 +0000

Here are some pictures of the Atlantic. the green house is where we are staying.

The hurricane was pretty much blown out by the time it reached us. It definitely was not hurricane strength, probably some gusts between 30-40mph. Our lights flickered on and off a few times but that was all. We had a short shower about 3:30 that lasted for awhile and may have dropped a few inches of rain. The yellow house discovered that they had a leak. Other than that it was mostly a wind event. The house shook with the heavier gusts and we could here the wind howling outside for quite a while.
Chantil and I got up at sunrise to take a look at the Atlantic. Supposedly they were saying that there would be 16 foot seas at high tide around 1 AM. They might have had some big waves but we did not see any signs that the high tide was any higher than normal.
We are headed out this morning after breakfast to Cook's lake to set some more traps.

Monday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:20:00 +0000

One of my posts asked the question about how you could tell if Fall or Autumn was coming. Here are some pretty pictures of fall leaves.

On Sunday we took a field trip to Kejimkujik National Park despite the forecast of rain. We did pretty good and only got rain at the very end of the trip. Took the hike to the Hemlock Forest which was very interesting.Some of the trees were over 400 years old. They were so tall that I could not get them to fit in my camera window.

According to the brochure there are a great many varieties of mammals in the park: white tail deer, moose, voles, mice and shrews, bobcat, squirrels, raccoons, porcupine, snowshoe hare, black bear, seals, coyote and american martens. We saw a white tail deer on the side of the road.
We also saw a small squirrel but that was all the mammals that we saw.

Wally was hoping to see one of his relatives but the moose live way out in the park. The white tail deer are wiping out the moose population because they are spreading a brain worm called Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, also known as a parasitic nematode. The deer are immune to this infection but the moose are not. The moose population has dwindled down because of this problem.

This morning we will head back out to Cooks Lake to reset our traps in different locations.

Sunday Night

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:04:00 +0000

Hurricane Kyle is nothing more than a wind event here. We did not get much rain but the wind has been blowing and causing the lights to flicker. I guess at high tide at 1 AM the waves are expected to get up to 16 feet high.

Well, remember the picture at the beginning of the blog that showed some stone are work on the beach. I thought it was done randomly but found out today it was an advertisement for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The stone statue is called llanaaq and represents the Inuktitut word for friend.

Yesterday we went into a small town called Lunenberg. Based on these pictures what would you say was a main source of income for the town?

This picture was an earlier picture but I did not
get any response. Why are families cutting
and stacking wood?

What kind of mammal is this? How do you know it is a mammal? Where does it live and what does it eat? How is it important to the environment?

My favorite picture of the day... made me smile! YUM!

Mystery picture ?

Compare and contrast How your town is alike and different from Lunenberg? Here are some pictures of Lunenberg.

Saturday Evening

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:01:00 +0000

This was one of my favorite pictures I took today. I thought the vine looked interesting on the house at Lunenberg.

Many thanks for all of the comments! I am sorry that I have not had time to reply to all of them. We can talk about your comments when I get back. Please keep the comments coming. We have had people from all over the world look at the blog which is so interesting.
Friday night after dinner we headed into town to do our laundry. I think we scared everyone at the laundry because we came in with mounds of laundry and then took all the working machines. It was a big adventure! I forgot how much fun it was to watch the clothes spin in the dryer.

This morning was our free day and we took the ferry over to Lunenberg. The Ferry was a line ferry and that means that it did not need to be steered, just propelled by the engine. The cable (line) was attached to the ferry and guided it across. We did not get out of the van so I could only take a picture of the engine area.

Lunenberg is a quaint coastal town that use to be a fishing village.
There are still many boats there but most are recreational rather than for fishing. The weather was overcast but pretty warm.

Some of us in the group decided to go on a whale watching boat trip.

Wally of course wanted his own boat and crew.

The sea was not too rough but there was alot of chop. the whales might have been there but we did not see any. We did see some really cute seals and a variety of sea birds. I guess the storm might have scared them away.

After we arrived back from our trip most of us went over to the Museum to look at all the historical fishing exhibits. It was a wonderful day with a little shopping, touring, eating and boating all mixed together.

For those of you that guessed the mystery picture that looked like a pile of sticks in the water. If you guessed beaver dam or beaver lodge you were correct! Congratulations!

The cereal challenge is a little more tricky. The titles were in french but the pictures were pretty helpful weren't they. How many of you got them correct?

I had a lot questions about the spiders and I don't know what kind they were. Spiders are very important to us for many different reasons. Can you name some?

This mystery picture stumped alot of you. Some of you thought it was a fort someone else thought it was made out of lincoln logs. No one guessed that it was a foundation for a house. The picture on the right shows the corner of the house with the foundation.

I have lots more to share but will save that for tomorrow. Not sure about Hurricane Kyle ? No one has been in a hurricane except me and they are all excited about it. The locals do not seem to concerned either. I guess we will know more tomorrow. We are scheduled to go to Keji state park tomorrow, I hope we don't get rained out. The park is about the only place you can see moose in Nova Scotia and Wally really wants to see his cousins!

Friday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:28:00 +0000

Today I have some activities for you. Today’s mystery picture was taken when I was walking along the coast. What do you think it is?

Take a good luck at the sign.

Think about what it means and
write a short story about it.

Are spiders important to the environment? What is their role ? What would happen if there were no spiders?

More later! Keep those comments coming in.

Thursday Evening

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:24:00 +0000

Sorry about the missing videos from yesterday. I found out that they had blogger down for 15 minutes for maintenance. I think it must of been longer than that. We were all very frustrated not being able to get our videos and pictures uploaded. Hopefully they have fixed whatever they were working on.

We have had a busy day and a very beautiful day! The morning started off with breakfast at 8:00. We have our choices of several cereals to choose from. I am not sure which type is in each box? Can you figure it out?

We headed out to Cook's lake to check our traps. It takes about 40 minutes to drive out there and then we have about a half mile hike to the gazebo base camp. We were all excited about the prospect of finding more small mammals. It is about a 20 mile hike through a tall forest, a bog area and then finally a dry area. Kim and I are in charge of zone "c" area traps. We had 2 traps that had been sprung but only one had a rock voile in it.
After we checked all the zones we moved to the forest site to check those traps. This time we had one that had been sprung but no mouse or voile.

It was about lunch time so we headed back to base camp. Lunch usually consists of meat, cheese, egg salad, tuna salad, crackers, chips and cookies. We are usually pretty hungry by the time we get back from checking traps. After lunch we divided into 2 groups.

One group did deer dropping counts and the other group did trail maintenance. I went with the trail maintenance group and we chopped, trimmed and sawed the trail to make it a little easier to follow. I am cutting down a little Christmas tree.

We checked our video trap to see if any pictures were taken and we think there was. We checked the counter number and it indicated that the camera took some pictures. The cameras are triggered by motion sensors. We will leave them up the entire time and check them on the last day.

We left camp and headed to a pond. Can you tell what this is a picture of?

Here are some of the videos from yesterday that I was not able to post.

Here is Dr. Chris Newman telling us about the importance of trapping small mammals.

Dr. Christine Buesching talks about
the procedure for capturing the small
rodents such as voles, mice,
lemmings and flying squirrels. still having trouble loading this video.

Here is the video of me getting my first capture out of the trap. It was an exciting experience for both of us!

Here is the answer to the math problem
Yesterday we had a very busy day. On the way to Cook’s lake we stopped to fill up the van. Here is a multi part math problem for you to solve. Answer will come later.
Petrol (gas)costs $1.25 in Canadian dollars for 1 liter. If you buy 25 gallons of gas how much will it cost in American dollars?
First you need to go to the web and find a currency converter to determine what a dollar is worth in Canadian. Here is a link to a currency converter. http://www.xe.com/ucc/
1.25 CAD = 1.20799 USD
1 liter of gas cost $1.20.
Then you need to find out how many liters are in a gallon of gas.
Go to a metric converter http://www.worldwidemetric.com/Measurements.html
Find out how many liters are in a gallon,
There are 3.7 liters in 1 gallon. To buy 25 gallons of gas you would have to get 92.5 litres

1 litre of gas cost $1.20 in American
For 25 gallons of gas you would need to buy 92.5 litres
92.5 x 1.20 = $111.00 US dollars

Did you get the same answer? There are several ways to get to get this answer.

I hope to have some more videos tomorrow. The scat video being one of them. I also have some pictures to share.

Wednesday Evening

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:28:00 +0000

We are having trouble uploading videos so hopefully we will get it fixed soon!

We had a wonderful day out at the field at Cook's lake. Yesterday we set 100 traps in hopes of catching some small mammals.

The day started out by checking our traps that we set out yesterday. Dr. Christina gave us a short demonstration on how to get a small mammal out of the trap.
Video of Christina going over the directions on how to get a small mammal out of the trap.

We all had high hopes that our traps would be full.
Kim and I had one trap that had been sprung and the door was closed.
Sadly, when we got back to the base camp there was nothing inside. It was just a false alarm.
Out of the 50 traps we caught only 8 rodents. We had 5 redback voles and 3 rock voles.

Once we bring the sprung traps back to the base camp we have to get the animal out. We remove the pieces of the trap and the nesting grass. the animal is in the plastic bag and we gently grab them by the scruff of the neck and hold on carefully. We examine the animal to see what species, what sex and check the reproductive organs.We clip their fur on a certain side to indicate that they have been caught. Then we put them back in the bag to get weighed. Once the information has been recorded we return the trap and the rodent to the same location. It is very important that the rodent be returned to the same area where it was captured as it a territorial animal.

After we checked the traps we headed back to base camp for lunch. The next task for us was to set up some camera traps in various areas. My group set up the camera trap so that we could hopefully catch some deer drinking at the stream. The camera works on infra red and a motion sensor. when an animal walks by it will trigger the camera to take a picture.

When we returned we worked on deer dropping counts. We created a grid 10 meters by 10 meters. Then we lined up on one of the lines and walked the grid looking for deer droppings. We were not too successful and only found droppings on the last grid. Not very good statistics for 8 grids.

The next task was to check the traps one more time. Once again Kim and I were very excited as we thought we had caught a critter in our trap. The team caught a total of 10 rodents in the afternoon.
Video of opening the trap.

Wednesday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:39:00 +0000

We are about to head out to the field again for another long day of setting traps and looking for mammal sightings. The picture at the left is of cook's lake. I will be posting when I get back tonight. Sorry I will not be able to skype during today. Hope you enjoy some of the activities I left for you. xxoo Mrs. Smith

Yesterday we had a very busy day. On the way to Cook’s lake we stopped to fill up the van. Here is a multi part math problem for you to solve. Answer will come later. Petrol (gas)costs $1.25 in Canadian dollars for 1 liter. If you buy 25 gallons of gas how much will it cost in American dollars?

We saw a wooly bear caterpillar. The picture is not real clear because if you touch them they tend to roll up in a ball. There is an old farmers saying that if you look at the length of the black center stripe and if it is long than you are going to have a long winter. If the center stripe of black is short than you are going to have a short winter.

Here is a vocabulary word for you to talk about.
What does the word environment mean? What type of environment do you live in? How does your environment differ from the Nova Scotia environment?

While we were taking a walk along the coast we came across some unique art work. What do you think of it? Could you make something like this? Do you think it is really art or just something fun to do?

Tuesday Afternoon

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:06:00 +0000

Here are some answers to the questions from this mornings and yesterdays post.
How many of you guessed Cranberries for the mystery picture? Since we don't grow cranberries in Florida you probably did not realize what they look like on the plant. If you got the second part of the question which talked about eating them at Thanksgiving time then you were correct.

One of the classes wanted to know if we would see any of Wally's relatives. Yes, when we go to Kejimkujik National Park we should see some them. Wally is really excited about seeing some friends.

What signs do you think we would see since yesterday was the first day of Fall? In Florida we do not begin to see anything obvious mostly it is just a feeling of air that does not have as much humidity. In the northern states the trees begin to have the leaves change color and eventually fall off. Here is a web link that will help explain it more. Fall leaves web site
Nova Scotia has not had real cool weather yet so many of the trees have not begun to turn colors. There is a flower that only blooms in the fall that is called Golden Rod. Here is a picture of it.

Today was our first full day at the Cook's lake site. We walked into the forest all the way to the lake. Dr. Christina Buesching shared the local history of the area as well as the flora and fauna.

As we walked to the lake we found a cow skull. We learned the difference between the cow that has horns and the moose that has antlers. The cow has horns that are part of the hair. They grow straight and tend not to curl too much. They do not loose the horns.
The moose has antlers that they drop at the end of the year. When the antlers are velvet they are growing and have blood flowing through them. After they are done growing they loose the velvet and have a hard antler remaining.
Both the cow and moose use their teeth for eating plants and are considered ruminants.

We found some interesting animal prints in the mud.
This is a bear print. There is a quarter next to it to show the difference in size.

By the time we had lunch at the base camp we were pretty tired. After eating we got our energy again and then started out to the area where we set out 100 small rodent traps.
The traps need to be assembled with grass for bedding, seeds and a little piece of apple.
Rodents do not drink water but get their liquid from eating their food. The little piece of apple provides them with the liquid that they need.

We set out 50 in an area that had been reforested. Watch the video to see what the area looks like.

Then we set another 50 in area that had heavy forestation. It was a lot harder to set the traps because it was so wooded.

Tomorrow we will see if we caught anything? We will also talk about various animal scat.

Tuesday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:10:00 +0000

Here is short clip of a description of what we did yesterday.

If you look carefully you can see a picture of the cute mammal in the tree.
He is a cute little porcupine hiding in a tree.

Yesterday was the first day of fall. What do you think we should be noticing here in Nova Scotia that we would not notice in Florida?

Mystery picture hint. This is a low bush that produces a berry. It does not grow in Florida. We buy the berries at the store at Thanksgiving time.

While on our walk along the coast yesterday, Wally came across something in the grass. Write how you think Wally felt and what he should do about it.

Today we will be out in the field all day at Cooks Lake. We will learn how to set the longworth traps to catch small rodents. The traps do not hurt the animals at all. We will be setting 100 traps and then checking on them again in a few hours. When we catch the animals they will weighed and measured, then returned to the area where they were caught.

Many thanks to Mrs. Weller's class, Mrs. Bate's Class,Mrs. Laughlin's class for answering the questions.

The answer is yes, they do have reptiles in Nova Scotia. We saw 2 snakes and a frog yesterday.

Monday Afternoon

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:16:00 +0000

We just got back from a 4 mile hike around the coast of Nova Scotia. It was very beautiful and great weather. It was probably in the high 60's with no wind, full sun. There was very little wave action.
Wally had a good time, great spot to view everything.

The goal of the walk was to look for mammal signs such as footprints and scat. We were very successful in finding both. We found evidence of these animals: porcupine, otter, deer, raccoon, coyote, rabbit. We saw a snowshoe hare, green frog, several sea birds and a porcupine.

For the mystery picture I asked what it was.
Well here is a closer picture. Can you tell what kind of fruit it is?

Some of you might be wondering why counting mammals is important. It is important for several reasons. Mammals are a good indicator species to show environmental changes, especially climate changes.

What does this picture tell you about Nova Scotia? Why is it important?

Nova Scotia is considered a frigid isotherm. That means the soil can be frozen or not. Since the conditions are cold do you think that Nova Scotia has reptiles? Snakes, frogs, lizards?

Question for Mrs. Weller's class

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:16:00 +0000

I know you all are studying animal prints. What type of animal makes a print called a slot?

Mystery Picture????

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:52:00 +0000

Can you tell me what this is a picture of? Is it important for the community?

Teachers Just click on the comment button and let me know what your class answer is? You can go in as anonymous and then just sign your name at the bottom. The answer will be later.

Monday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:22:00 +0000

Today is going to be a busy one. We are meeting in the morning after breakfast to learn about Mammal Monitor Science. In the afternoon we are driving to Broad Cove for Field Sign Transect training .

Yesterday I asked you why it got dark so early, around 6 o’clock? Did you talk about the sun,the distance from the equator and the seasons? For more information click here .

Wally has learned a lot about Halifax. Here is a picture of Wally right after he got off the plane. Did you know that Halifax is part of Canada? Why are there maple leaves around the word "Canada" in the picture?

Did you know that Nova Scotia is twice the size of the state of Massachusetts? There is nowhere on the island that you are more than 35 miles from the sea. Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia and is halfway between the equator and the north pole. Can you tell me what the words Nova Scotia mean?

I am getting ready to go for a sunrise walk. It feels pretty cool out, jacket weather. I am not sure what the exact temperature is but it is breezy. the thermometer says 45 degrees. What is the temperature difference between St. Petersburg and Halifax?

Everyone have a great day!

Time for Bed

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:36:00 +0000

It has been a long day and Wally is tired. Our room is the purple room.
We are sharing the bedroom with Chris from Wisconsin.

I Made it to Halifax

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Smith) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:49:00 +0000

Hi Everyone, Wally is all set for his trip, He is in the chair for the ride to the shuttle. The plane flights were wonderful.

I flew from Tampa to Newark New Jersey and then to Halifax. We were even ahead of schedule. Wally had his own seat on the plane.

Wally is posing at the Newark airport to show the HSBC Bank logo.

We have quit a diverse group of volunteers . There are 2 folks from Australia, 2 from Great Britain, 1 from Japan, 1 from Switzerland, 1 from California, 1 from Indiana, 1 from Wisconsin, and 2 from Tennessee. Here is the group waiting at the airport for all the members.

I was very surprised that it got dark so early, around 6:00. Why would that happen?