My summer with the Friends of Blackwater: June 18th -- Justice Day!

What a day, what a day! I started off with the Shay Trace set and there were 4 snares down -- 1 of which is completely missing. I didn't feel as bad about it this time around because one of those snares has a camera! I was so excited I was jumping up and down because ever since this, what I'm calling a "bear-splosion", I have not been able to capture one on camera! On a side note...I STILL need to change the date and time on the camera so the images say 2011, but believe me...they are from last night!!

Nothing else too exciting at the other sites. I found what I'm thinking is a barred owl feather on Yellow Birch, and at Canaan Loop I discovered a dark-eyed junco nest with eggs! I plan on visiting the nest daily and taking notes...I can't wait until they hatch, it will be awesome to watch the hatchlings grow!

One of the head PhD's on this study, Dr. Elizabeth Flaherty from Purdue University has sent me pictures of what the squirrel hair looks like under a microscope -- I thought that was pretty neat and it's nice to see the difference between northern and southern flying squirrel hair! She also informed me that the picture she sent of the northern hair, IS from one of my sites WOO HOO! As I'm working along I am finally getting to a point where I can confidently say it is flying squirrel hair, by eye. I cannot differentiate between northern and southern though because they are so similar; however, there is a microscope in my office!

Tomorrow morning I am picking up a volunteer to help me pull all of the snares from Red Run. We have decided to cut our losses with that site since there is heavy bear traffic in that area, and we don't think it's safe for me to be out there alone. I'm glad to have someone else come with me to get it done because there is just something about that area that puts me on edge. Even knowing that there are bears at all of the other sites doesn't bother me...but Red Run, it just really freaks me out!