Singing in the rain, just singing in the rain.....

What We Did Today:
1. GOT WET!!

Today it poured!!
Rain or shine, we've got to check the traps - both morning & afternoon. When we all got ready this morning, we knew it was going to be a sort of miserable, cold day. I do have a new appreciation for my knee-high water boots! Matter of fact, I LOVE my knee-high water boots! Without those today, life would NOT have been fun..... I was in rain gear all day with a hood up to keep my hat a bit dry. (In the picture is Millie Wong Tang- from California, me, Mr. LongVoelkner, & Caroline Rodgers - an Earthwatch employee from Oxford, England)

Checking traps this morning, we did have 1 closed door in the wooded traps. BINGO! The trap held a Red Backed Vole. I scruffed it (reached in and pinched it between the shoulder blades- like a mama cat picking up her kitten), and its eyes bulged out of its head. When I commented on its huge teeth and eyes, Dr. Beusching casually said, "Yes. That's because you're suffocating it. You grabbed too much fur and you're pinching it too hard". Oops. The vole was fine, but probably not feeling so hot after I handled it. Further proof of its superb health showed up when we put it through the Mouse Scrambler Maze. It set a new land speed record of 4 seconds! (A little faster than our yesterday's vole which reached 4 minutes. We pulled the tape off the lid to let it go and still couldn't even shake it out of the box! 6+minutes later it fell out.)

It rained all day. Animals are smart sometimes and showed us that even they don't venture out when it's raining. No full traps this afternoon. Quiet day in the woods. We spent most of the day creating some new trails through the woods to Cook Lake. (Whilst getting very wet)

Check out this video of Dr. Beusching scruffing a chipmunk that we caught in a trap. She often does these because they get aggressive and bite quite a bit more than the mice ever would.




2. Thought you'd enjoy hearing about our accomodations. There are 2 houses that the teachers stay in: the green house and the yellow house. Yellow house is the boy's house, and according to the unanimous vote amongst them, the house strongly resembles the house from the movie Psycho. The green house is quite cozy. This is where we gather for meals and blogging in the evenings (since the yellow house has no furniture, nor heat, much less internet access.)
I attached some pictures from supper tonight (which was spaghetti).

-We all take turns doing dishes - breakfasts & suppers.
-On the stove is tonight's supper - canteen style - serve your own.
-This is our Dinner Table - packed with chairs for 13 people to eat at. Not everyone is sitting at the table in this pix, the rest are in the kitchen serving their plates.
-Last picture is one of the girl's bedrooms (Millie's & I's). We have all our wet gear hanging everywhere!)




















What We'll Do Tomorrow:
1. Check the traps again, but just in the morning. We'll take up the traps over lunch and head back to the shack to skype our classrooms at home.
2. We'll also take a look at the Field Cameras we've posted at several different areas around Cherry Hill where we stay (I'm especially curious about the one that's mounted above the compost pile in the backyard!)



For YOU.......

Not only are we in Nova Scotia, but our Scientists are from England & Germany.
Here's some Great British slang. See if you can figure out what some of these things are:
1. Baggers & Mash
2. Bubbles & Squeak
3. A Cool Box
4. An Articulated Lory
5. A Recovery Lory
6. Loo
7. Queue
8. Chips
9. Shepard's Pie
10. Crisps
11. Sticking Plaster
12. Jumper
13. Wellies
14. Rubbish
15. Brill


Tuesday's Picks:

1. We've only found woodticks so far, but Lyme's Disease and Deer Ticks are becoming much more common in this area? What's the difference between these 2 ticks?

Woodticks are bigger than deer ticks. They are much more spherical (round) and also have smaller mouth parts in comparison to a deer tick. Woodticks are usually a dark grey/black color with white marks on them (a white "necklace" is a girl tick, 2 white stripes along its back "suspenders" is a boy tick). Deer ticks are usually much smaller - in the spring time, the nymphs are small enough that you often don't even see them. Their bodies are more burgundy/dark reddish shaped with a black head. Deer ticks mouth parts are quite long in comparison for its body and it is also more teardropped shape.

2. What are Owl Pellets? Why do they make them?
Owl Pellets are really Owl ThrowUp. Sounds gross, but actually a very good adaptation for the owl. Owls are birds of prey, so they eat living things that have bones, hair, muscles, and organs. Their bodies can digest the muscles and organs just fine, but not the hair and bones. The owl stores all bones and hair from the animals it eats in a crop/gizzard structure in its throat. When it gets full (depending on how often it eats, but probably every 24 hours or so), it regurgitates/throws up this wad. We find it at the base of the trees where owls hang out. Awesome to dissect and pick apart. Always fun to try and guess what was eaten! The picture below is a bag full of the owl pellets we found yesterday under a big spruce tree overlooking a field.



See You Soon!
KVWH