August 7th -- Claw Day!

Today Lon and I went to check the sites that are in the Blackwater Falls State Park.  On our way in to Pendleton Lake I notice a tree with peculiar marks...I then realized that those peculiar marks are black bear claw marks!  The marks were on a red maple tree and deep into the tree!  Some of the claw marks were also about 8 feet up the tree!

After we checked all the sites, I have determined to "close down" the Pendleton Lake site.  It has been a month since we first placed it and we have only got 7 hair samples -- none of which are flying squirrel hair.  Because of these statistics, it is not worth the time and money we are spending to keep going back there.  I think a months time is a good time frame to make that kind of judgment call, and Judy agrees with me.  We will be pulling the trail camera we have at Pendleton Lake, and moving it to the snare set at Yellow Birch to a tree that we have previously captured flying squirrel hair, in the hopes of catching an image of one!

It was a pretty typical day today...

 Black bear claw marks!

July 6th -- The Day of Nothing!

So today Lon and I went to the sites on Canaan Loop Road...ugh...we didn't get a single squirrel hair!  I've been playing around with different baits and someone suggested raisins...don't use raisins for squirrels, they don't like them!  That and mice keep eating all of my bait -- the mice go in, aren't heavy enough to trigger the snare, eat all the bait and then leave!

I didn't take any pictures today (sorry), but I pulled the SD cards from Flag Run and the Big Rock.  On the Big Rock I got yet another picture of a bear -- it almost looks like there is a cub hugging onto its right side but I can't be sure -- and I got nothing on the Flag Run camera because the camera malfunctioned -- YAY! -- I need to change the batteries...

So all-in-all it wasn't a very exciting day  :(

August 5th - 3 is the Magic Number!

Well, today wasn't very eventful sorry to say!  Judy and I went to check the hair snares in the State Park, which there are 3 of.  At each one of those sites we had 3 productive snares...I just thought that was kind of funny!

At Yellow Birch we saw a mouse on the trail and it looked like it was either injured or sick because it was acting pretty lethargic...I decided to put a piece of birch bark over it so it had a little form of protection and we headed on our way to check the rest of the snares.  Where that mouse was, we had to pass back by there and BOOM, there was the mouse about 10 meters away from where I had covered it with the bark!  I picked it up and moved it off the trail and we went about the rest of our day.

Other than our mousy friend (I'm not sure of specific species...I'm thinking maybe just a house mouse) the day wasn't very exciting...

A few days ago I found this old glass bottle in the woods so I picked it up to recycle, and the bottle was acting like a terrarium for some moss!  I decided to keep it, and I found faint markings on the bottle that says Crass, delicious beverages.  I looked it up and Crass was a soda manufactured by Coca-Cola in the mid 1900's -- historical and environmental...SCORE!  :)

I only have 11 work days left!  WOW!!!!!!  I'm sad to leave, but excited to head back to school!

 My mousy friend

Old bottle/terrarium-- cool, I know!  

August 4th -- Deer Day!

First I just want to start off by saying I can't believe it is August already!  Where does the time go??

Lon and I went back to the Canaan Loop Road sites today because I wanted to bait the Flag Run area (where I got the flying squirrel images) with something other than sunflower seeds.  It seems the squirrels don't like that seeds so I'm trying raisins combined with that squirrel scent lure that we purchased online.  Hopefully the squirrels will like that because if not, I will be going back to peanut butter because they really seem to like that -- but then so do the bears.  The good news about bears is that it seems, in most places, like they have moved on.  I haven't really been seeing any new piles of scat or any new tracks.  Well, until today...

At the Big Rock site, one of the hair snares was knocked down and another one was messed with -- it was still hanging on the tree but just barely.  Every time I think the bears have gone they come back to spite me!

I pulled the SD card from the Flag Run site again in hopes of more squirrel pictures, but there were only pictures of a white-tailed deer...

Other than that nothing too exciting happened today.  Judy and I are still working on our final decision for my replacement and are going to have a heavy discussion about it tomorrow before we head out for snare work.
Today was just a nice relaxing, peaceful day.  It was actually eerily quiet at the Big Rock sight...no birds, wind or anything -- spooky!!

Ausgust 1st -- Flying Squirrel Day!

Today Lon and I went to the Canaan Loop Road sites.  We were slightly fearful because the clouds were looking very dark and like they were about to shower us with rain at any moment.  With that thought in the back of our minds we made quick work of the hair snare sites!

There wasn't much activity at the Big Rock site, but we did find a salamander!  At first I was all excited because I thought it was a cheat mountain salamander -- a rare, threatened species of salamander, endemic to West Virginia!  They are neat too in the fact that the female will actually stick around to guard her eggs!  Most species of salamander won't do that.  But, after some more investigation, I realized it was just another Allegheny Mountain Dusky...I seem to be finding a lot of those.  I would love to see a marbled salamander!

Anyway, we moved onto Flag Run and we had a few snares that had been triggered, but not a lot of hair.  I pulled the SD card on the camera even though the snare wasn't triggered, because the bait was gone so I wanted to see if I could figure this crisis out -- I think it's just mice again...UGH!!!

Back at the office I put the SD card in the computer and started flipping through the pictures and what should I find a picture of???  A FLYING SQUIRREL!!!!  Oh, my gosh I was so EXCITED!  I wasn't sure if it was a northern or a southern so I e-mailed the pictures to our 2 flying squirrel experts Dr. Flaherty & Dr. Smith, and Dr. Smith really believes it is a northern based on the size relative to the hair snare!  We found Ginny!  The only part of this that stinks is that it didn't go in the hair snare so no hair was collected, but now I know there is at least one there so hopefully it will revisit the snare!

GREAT DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Salamander

Flying squirrel!!

 Avoiding the snare and going up the tree!

July 31st -- More Interviewing/Investigating Day!

Today started off with more interviews for the flying squirrel technician position -- my position.  I just want to say we have had so many great candidates that it has been very hard, even after interviews to choose people!

After interviewing I went out with Terry from the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources to follow up on that bait site we found way back in June I believe it was.  It feels so great to be able to help out in any way I can!

After helping Terry I headed back into the office for some more interviews and then met up with Lon to go out and check the hair snares -- it felt good to be back in the routine!  We went to the State Park sites and I was very surprised that we had NO squirrel activity at all!  It was very weird!  These are the three theories we have come up with as to why the squirrel activity has slowed way down:

1) The squirrels don't like the sunflower seeds
2) The squirrels don't like the snares after we removed the plastic on the bottom because it was just catching all their urine and feces
3) There are so many food sources right now that the squirrels aren't paying any attention to our bait

Possible solutions would be to try a different bait -- the bears seem to have moved on so I could try peanut butter again to see what happens.  For the bottom plastic I was thinking of maybe cutting and placing pieces of cardboard to place in the bottom to see if that seems more appealing to them.  There is nothing I can really do about the ample food sources right now so that would just have to wait...Hopefully we can figure this out so we can continue to gather squirrel hair!

 Some starlings and robins using a puddle for a bath

 Well, even though it's spelled wrong I still find it cool!  

July 30th -- Interviewing Day!

Well, today I did not get out in the field, but it was for a good cause.  As most of you know, my time at the Friends of Blackwater is coming to a fast end -- I only have 3 weeks left here already -- which means my job is up for grabs!  I posted the job announcement on the Texas A&M Job Board and received an amazing amount of qualified applicants!  Today I conducted majority of the interviews, but I still have a few more to do tomorrow.

Good luck everyone, this is a wonderful job and a wonderful organization to work for!

Unfortunately since I was conducting interviews I didn't take any pictures today so I hope you enjoy this funny example of osmosis that I found on the internet!  :)