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Day 12: Beaver Watching + Day 13: Chocolate!

Today we checked our traps for the last time and caught 2 pregnant and 1 male red-backed voles. This was exciting, because we had only caught female voles at Cook's Lake.

Two of my traps had the doors shut. Can you tell which one actually caught a vole? What are the clues to show that one is occupied and one is empty:

One of the teachers found some snowshoe hare fur stuck on some prickly plants. It was one of the softest things I've felt.

After we cleaned up all the traps, bright orange ties and labels from Cook's Lake, we went to collect the camera traps. Unfortunately, the only animals our camera traps "captured" were humans. But Dr. Newman did place a camera trap in the back of the house near the compost heap. This is where we put our left over food and other biodegradable materials that we allow to decompose to become very fertile soil. Usually what happens is that animals like to come and eat the food. What did we catch?



Here is a picture of me and the scientists' dog, Lycos, on our way back to the Yellow House in Cherry Hill.


After we arrived, I had my Skype session with all of my lovely students! Thank you for behaving so well and for your excellent questions. I have created a photo album of each student who asked questions.


Dr. Newman also showed us some survival skills, like how to make a fire, a trap, and he told us what to eat if we ever get stuck in the woods. Hopefully, I won't need to use these skills, but it's better to be prepared!



Setting a branch-spring trap.


Starting a fire using a bow

Then we finished off the night by beaver watching. Here is the lake and the beaver lodge.





We saw 2 adult beavers, 2 or 3 young beavers and a marmot! Here's a video. Can you see the beaver moving?


The beavers noticed that we were watching, so the one in the video came pretty close to one of the observers. She said that it seemed to look right at her. Why do you think the beaver would come closer and look at us?
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Now it's Friday, and here is what we did today:

• Worked on data and calculated how many different species we observed in Nova Scotia.
• Went to Kejimkujik Seaside adjunct in the SNOW! It was very cold.
  

Can you see the snow falling?





Sea gulls and raccoons like to eat the inside of sea urchins. They leave the outside parts on the beach like wrappers of a candy bar.


We saw lots of porcupine droppings. This was the largest porcupine latrine I had seen during my whole time here in Nova Scotia. Sadly, we still haven't seen a porcupine. We believe it was too cold out.

• We also had our last dinner together. Allison provided dessert:
  

Kinder Egg. Thank you, Allison!


These candies are illegal to sell in the United States. Why? Keep reading.


This is because there is a toy inside and there is a fear that children may accidentally swallow and choke on the toy inside. Do you agree?



Our Team, from left to right: Yuma, Megan, Allison, Suzanne, me.


This is my last official blog for the expedition. I have learned so much about what field research entails, the rationale for why research like this is essential, and I look forward to bringing these lessons back into the classroom and to our community in Northridge, CA. Thank you, everyone for following along in my adventures. I am so thankful to:

• HSBC for sponsoring me for the Live from the Field Educator Fellowship
  
• Dr. Marsh for supporting me and letting me go on this expedition!
  
• The teachers at James Jordan Middle School for supporting me, particularly Ms. Rubio, Ms. Woo, Mr. Lopez, and Mr. Lim for helping me run 6th grade math and the Skype session while I was away.
  
• All my wonderful students for following along and asking wonderful questions!
• Dr. Buesching and Dr. Newman for sharing their lives and wealth of knowledge, as well as being the best PI's any participant can ask for.
• Earthwatch for creating such a wonderful opportunity for educators and volunteers to get involved with field research.
  

Day 11: Big and Little Surprises

Hello, students!

Write the prompt for today:

Write your answers to all 10 questions. You will need both a pencil and pen for today.

Before you begin the blog, let me answer some of your questions:

So if you step on a shrew it will die? -Rocio (61)

Rocio, yes. But you don't even need to step on it. The shrew can be scared just by shaking it. This is how fragile shrews are.

Do you miss California? -Khaii (61)

Yes, but I will see you all soon! In fact, I'll see you today (when you read this)!

How/where did you gles found skull A & B. -Sigrid (62)

These were found on the Cook's Lake property, which is owned by one of the scientists.

Can you tells us more about the skulls? -Mohammed (61)

Yes, here are the answers from yesterday:

Question #2 What animal does each skull belong to?
Skull A - Cow (female)
Skull B - Deer (male)

Question #3 How old do you think each skull is? Tell me why you think this.
Skull A - About 100 years old.
Skull B - Less than 20 years old.

Question #4
How do you think each animal died?
Skull A - shot in the head (there's a bullet hole on the top of the head)
Skull B - Probably eaten by a coyote

Why don't you try to invent a trap to catch snowshoe hares? -Carolina (63)
I'm going to let the Poo Master answer this question during our Skype session. :)

Do the dropping's of the animals smell bad? -Sinthia (63)

No! Actually, some smell sweet, others smell stinky. The Poo Master can tell us which one smells better or worse than others.

what is your favorite thing to do when your not working/studying? -Joanna (62)

Here in Nova Scotia, I enjoy talking to friends, listening to music, and just relaxing.

Today we did another final field sign transect. Luckily, it didn't rain as hard or as long as yesterday. Because of yesterday's rain, we had to deal with the flooded trails.

Some of the field signs we saw along these flooded trails were:

• Coyote Scat. See the video:
  

Question #1: Why do you think there is slime or mucus on the coyote dropping? Hint: if any of you have dogs, you may have seen this happen to your dog.

We also saw evidence of Chipmunk feeding.

Question #2: What was the chipmunk eating and where was it sitting? Describe where you think it sat and why.

Here is my team searching for snowshoe hare and white-tailed deer droppings

This snowshoe hare dropping had a small slug stuck to it.

Question #3: Why do slugs appear after it rains?

So I found this while searching for droppings today.

Question #4: What do you think this is? (Use pen for this answer).

Scroll down when the whole class has written their answers down to find out what it really is.

If you said "King Alfred's Biscuit," otherwise known as Daldinia concentrica, a fungus that grows on trees, then you are correct! At first, I thought it was a dropping from an animal that was stuck to a stick. But apparently it is a fungus (like a mushroom). Now, you can't eat this, even though it is called King Alfred's Biscuit or Cake. Why is it named after a dessert? Here's the story:

A popular legend, originating from 12th century chronicles, tells how King Alfred was given shelter by a peasant woman who, unaware of his identity, left him to watch some cakes she had left cooking on the fire. Preoccupied with the problems of his kingdom, Alfred accidentally let the cakes burn and was taken to task by the woman upon her return. (Wikipedia.org, "Alfred the Great")

You are probably wondering what we caught today in our Longworth traps.

Many of you will be happy to know we caught something other than a red-backed vole.

Can you tell what we caught today?

Question #5: Using pen, write down what animal you think is in the bag in the above picture.

What did we catch? Watch the video to find out!

We think that this new animal is either a short-tailed weasel, which has never been spotted her in this part of Nova Scotia, or it is just a very malnourished ermine. Malnourished means it did not get enough food or nutrients, and was therefor very small and skinny in an unhealthy way.

We couldn't get a good look at the animal because it was quite scared and we wanted to release it. For now, I am calling him Herman the Ermine. We hope he is doing better tomorrow. I hope to be able to tell you at the Skype session that we'll have on Thursday.

We caught Pam, the pregnant red-backed vole twice today.

Question #6: Why do you think the pregnant vole went into the trap three times so far?

Then we caught a male red-backed vole who looked like he came out ready to fight.

Question #7: Why do you think this vole was holding the piece of hay?

Here's a video of Alison releasing the male red-backed vole:

What do you think? Do you think we'll see the fighting, hay-holding male red-backed vole again tomorrow?

Question #8:
Answer the question that I ask at the end of the video.

Alison, the ecologist, has been finding owl pellets and today she shows us what it looks like to go through them. Owl pellets are the droppings of owls. They are usually quite dry, but because of the rain, it is very wet. If we inspect the contents of droppings, we can find out

What did we find inside?!

Some of the bones we found in the owl pellet:

Question #9: What are the two things above? (Write your answer in pen)

Question #10: What is this in the picture above? (Write your answer in pen)

Question #9 Answer: We believe that this is the top and bottom part of the skull of a mouse or vole.

Question #10 Answer: This is the skull of a pygmy shrew. Pygmy means it is much smaller than other related species. The pymy shrew is the 2nd smallest mammal on earth! How exciting to find its skull.

This picture was found through flickr.com

If you look closely at the teeth, it has little red dots on it. That's because that is where the bacteria is. You might think this is a bad thing, but it actually helps the shrew when it eats. Shrews like to eat insects and the bacteria helps to kill the insect, therefor making it easier to eat.

Now go over the answers as a class. People can volunteer answers.

This is the last post of the week! I will still post this weekend so you can view it at home. Your teachers may show you the blog during class after your history final.

Good luck, everyone! Have a very safe and happy Spring Break.

-Ms. Ryu

Day 10: Rain, rain is here to stay

Hello Students! I will be answering your questions throughout today's blog.

How come there soliders in Halifax. -Manuel (63)
The people in the picture that I showed you are not actual soldiers. Instead, they are young men who are dressed as soldiers, although they really know a lot about being soldiers. Canada does have a military today. But this fort used to be used actively when there were many attacks by other countries many years ago. Now it's just used to show tourists like myself.

How does the camra sence motion? -Gerardo (63)
The camera uses something called a Passive InfraRed (PIR) sensor. Anything moving will send out a wave that the naked human eye cannot see, but this camera can see it. When it senses that motion, it will take 3 pictures.

What is a skype? -Janet (62)
Skype is a free computer program that anyone can download. It lets you talk or web-conference (meaning you can talk to them and see them), even to people in different countries! Tomorrow during Skillbuilder class, all the 6th graders will have a web-conference with me using Skype. So, I'll see you all tomorrow!

Is there any natural disasters over there. -David (62)
In Nova Scotia there are a few hurricanes each year. Every once in a while a big hurricane, like Hurricane Juan, will hit and cause a lot of damage. Here is an interesting sign we saw someone had outside their house. We saw this on one of the first days during our first field sign transect:

Do you have gun's to Defend yourself's -Jordan (61)
No, we don't have any guns. It's very safe here. Dr. Newman says that the thing he worries most about is skunks. Once you meet one, you need to be very careful otherwise it will spray you. Once you are sprayed, it is very difficult to get rid of the smell. As you can see, it's quite safe and we don't need to worry too much. It's so safe here that Dr. Newman and Dr. Buesching rarely lock their doors.

What kind of breed is Lycos -Abraham (61)
Lycos is a German Shepard and Husky mix.

Now get out your packets and write down the following:

Prompt: Answer each question. Number and write your answer in on today's page in the packet. There are 10 questions, so there should be 10 answers.


Today we returned to Cook's lake to check our traps. It was so rainy though, so by the end of the day, all the teachers and scientists looked like a bunch of wet mops. It rained all night long, so we hoped that some mammals would decide to go into a trap to stay dry and comfortable.

We caught two female red-backed voles!


This is Pam the Pregnant Vole. Doesn't she look really round? Dr. Buesching (in the picture) said that the vole was pregnant. I just thought the vole ate a lot of food. Don't worry, the vole wasn't hurt-- we just did a clipping of a tiny bit of fur so that we will know we caught her in case we catch her again. (That is a water droplet on the camera as it was raining so hard.)

Here is Ms. Megan holding Pam.

Question #1:
We set up 100 traps and only two of them caught something. What percent, fraction, and decimal of the traps caught voles? Show work!

Yesterday, Dr. Buesching showed us some skulls.

Question #2 What animal does each skull belong to?
Skull A -
Skull B -

Question #3 How old do you think each skull is? Tell me why you think this.
Skull A -
Skull B -

Question #4
How do you think each animal died?
Skull A -
Skull B -

Skull A

(This picture is courtesy of Ms. Megan's blog)

Skull B
(There are two pictures of Skull B)

Question #5
What do you think those squiggly lines are on the skull B?

What do U guys do at night -Hanna (61)

Let me give you an example of what we did today AFTER our research in the field:
4:30pm - Arrived at the Yellow House in Cherry Hill. Then we all changed out of our wet clothes and changed into our dry clothes. Some people even took showers because it was so muddy.
5:30-6:45 - Dr. Newman gave us a lecture with a Powerpoint discussing the different animals
7:30 - Dinner
8:30 - 10pm - I am writing emails and writing my blog.
11pm - Go to bed!
Sometimes we play games like Rummy and spinning tops. Sometimes we learn new songs and cool things from each other's cultures. I learned a song about the mouse in the windmill (see the older post with the Youtube video) and we learned some new tongue twisters.

Okay everyone, you get 30 seconds for each tongue twister.
Try to say each of these 10 times fast:

The first two were given to us by Dr. Newman:

"Pass the pasta past her, Pastor."

"Three thick thistles think thistley thoughts."

"Nama mugi, nama gome, nama tamago."
This is a Japanese tongue twister that Yuma taught us. It means: Raw wheat, raw rice, and raw egg.

Erre con "erre" cigarro, "erre" con "erre" barril. Rápido corren los carros, Cargados de azucar del ferrocarril.
This is a Spanish tongue twister. I shared it with my teammates. It means: "R with an "R", cigar. "R" with an "R", barrel. Rapid run the cars (of the train) loaded with the railroad's sugar."


Now back to the research!

Why are you only talking about voles? -Ivan (63)

This is because they are the only ones we've caught. The scientists think that the mice had a very difficult winter and aren't awake yet. Many of them probably died off, which means it will be more difficult to find them. But don't worry, I'll be discussing a new mammal today.... SHREWS!

This is a picture of a shrew that we saw while we were counting deer droppings today:

Here is a video that I tried to take of the shrew running away from me:



This was probably a very mean thing that I did to this poor common (or masked) shrew. I was just so excited to see one. All I did was try to take a video of the animal, but they get very nervous and die of heart attack easily. Don't worry, it escaped successfully.

So you may be wondering if we ever catch shrews. Well, do you remember when I told you about traps last week? I didn't mention one part of the trap: In every trap, there is a small hole. It's so small that my pinky finger won't fit. In fact, this is called a "shrew hole," intended for a shrew to squeeze through a hole the size of about your pinky.

Everyone, take your pinky. Now imagine a hole that your pinky could go through. Imagine a small animal that looks like this going through that hole:

Picture from ecologist Alison Fure

So tiny, right? Shrews eat only insects. The problem is that if they get caught in a trap, many times they will get so stressed out that their little hearts will fail right there are then. Now, voles, mice, or chipmunks on the other hand can handle lots of stress and won't have a heart attack if they get caught in a trap. This is because they are very resilient.

Question #6:

Write 4 new facts that you just learned about the shrew.

Question #7:
You and I handle stress everyday. Give an example of where you might have some stress, but you survive. Write what you do to survive that situation.

How are you doing. Arent you tired of having to wake up so early -Giovanni (62)
I am doing wonderfully, Giovanni! Yes, I am having a hard time with the time difference, but it's just so exciting to do and learn new things. You never know what you're going to see. For instance, we saw this:

We found this nearby where we saw the live shrew. This is a dead and decomposed shrew. Obviously, it wasn't eaten.

Question #8:
Given what you just learned about shrews, how do you think it died? Why didn't anything eat it?

As I was checking traps, I saw this damage done to the base of a tree.

Question #9:
What do you think this is?

Question #10:
Which animal created this? How many animals made it? What does it remind you of?

Day 9: Cook's Lake and New Field Signs!

Hello, Students! I hope you did well on the math final!

Best of luck with your other finals.

Are you coming this week or in two more weeks -Khaii (61)
I will not be back until after Spring Break. Do you all miss me? I definitely miss you all!

What animal have you sen the most? -Diana (61)
Other than Lycos the dog and the other homo sapiens I am working with, I have seen many squirrels. In terms of droppings, we see coyote and snowshoe hare the most.

what sign's do you see when you walk? -Norman (61)
What an excellent question, Norman! This is a perfect introduction to what my team and I did today.

As you know, last week we collected the traps at East Port Medway. We've taken those traps and set them at a different location called Cook's Lake.

Again, we set 4 rows of 25 traps. How many traps is that?

We took a tour of the area around the lake and here are some of the field signs that we've spotted at this new location:

As before, we've seen many snowshoe hare droppings, seen and heard some squirrels chatting with each other, and saw crows and some jays flying around.

Beaver damage on some trees so that the beavers can create their lodges. These must be some pretty big beavers to eat through such big trees!

Raccoon prints. Can you tell which is the front and which is the hind foot?

Warning: Those with weak stomachs, you may want to turn away for the next picture. It is quite disturbing! But it is a part of nature that is a fact and cannot be avoided.




Evidence of a coyote's kill: a vole with it's head eaten off and fresh coyote droppings!

Dr. Buesching believes we must have bothered the coyote with our noise and so it left it's meal. Do you agree with her? Why or why not?

And most exciting of all... Bobcat droppings next to the fur and jawbone of a young deer. What do you think happened here? Why were the bobcat droppings right next to the jawbone and fur of the deer?

Dr. Buesching was driving the van on our way over to the lake and saw a bobcat. This was her first time she's ever seen one in the wild in this part of Nova Scotia, so she was quite excited.

Here is a picture of a bobcat that I found on the internet, since we were not fast enough to get a picture of it:

Although it would be nice to see all the animals in the wild, many times the animals do not want to be seen because humans may be a threat to them, they might be sleeping, or might still be hibernating. Instead we see field signs.

Prompt: Why do you think Dr. Buesching saw her first wild bobcat today, even though she's worked here for many years? Why do you think it's difficult to spot animals, such as a bobcat? Why is it that we have seen so many snowshoe hare droppings, but no snowshoe hares? Do you have any suggestions for the team to help us observe these animals? Write 4-5 sentences.

Finally, a glimpse at Lycos catching some apple pieces: