The Squirrely Trip

We went on a field trip to the Airport Ditch area with Tania.  The snow was so hard we could walk on it.  The tracking substrate was poor because the snow was hard and the tracks were getting filled in with new snow.  The reason we went on this trip was to collect data for our year-long study about birds and animal sign.  We found a bunch of squirrel middens under big spruce trees, trails leading into holes and middens, and squirrel tracks.  We were lucky enough to see an actual squirrel!  We found three boxes that looked like boxes for trapping.  We discovered moose beds and three kids could fit in one!  While we were walking we saw either big dog or wolf tracks.  What kind of tracks have you seen lately?

We have some questions:
1.  Do we have any mammals in Gustavus that truly hibernate?
2.  Why are raven's feathers black?         
3.  How far down into the ground do squirrel middens go?
4.  Do squirrels eat in their middens?
5.  How big is a squirrel's territory?
6.  How many squirrels live in one midden?

Duck Pond Pictures

Duck Pond

    On December 5, 2012, we went on a trip to the duck pond. The reason we went on the trip was because it was one of the sites we choose a few months ago, and so we decided to go to it because we hadn’t been to a marsh or water body yet this year.  It was 26 degrees Fahrenheit and we saw a couple of birds. One of the birds we saw was the black-billed magpie and the others we couldn’t identify. We also saw a vole hole and lots of moose sign such as willow browsing. That trip was our first field trip with snowshoes. It went really well. It was kind of hard to get the snowshoes on and to walk up the hills but we had a lot of fun.

Pictures From The Moose Field Trip

Moose Carcass

We took a trip to a dead moose in the park on the 29th of November that was hit by a car  on November 9th. We went to the dead moose because we are studying animal sign and birds, and during the trip we saw bird tracks and wolf tracks by the dead moose and wolf scat . The moose was very smelly in some places and not so smelly in others. It was a  tremendous walk through snow, ice, water, and brush. The walk was 0.8 miles long one way. We know this because Greg told us.  We saw wolf tracks, moose tracks, moose rubbing, wolf scat, common ravens, magpies, an eagle, eagle tracks, and a dead moose. Jack was leading us with a compass through the woods and only had us off a quarter of a mile, but it was a fun walk back to the van!         

Motion Activated Camera Pictures of Glen's Ditch Beaver

Glen's Ditch Beaver

By: Faith

   

    In August a beaver showed up and started to try and make a dam in Glen’s Ditch. The dam was flooding the ditch and started to worry some people about their houses. The 4th-5th grade class really wanted pictures of the beaver so we set up a motion activated camera with Tania lewis’s help. We have some really good Pictures of the beaver so far.

    The beaver was accomplishing his dam building so some people had to discourage the beaver. The beaver started building another dam upstream from the first. That didn’t help people at all.

    Hank Lentfer was asked to live trap the beaver but he learned that if he tried to put the beaver in another pond the beaver would just get beat up and and be ran out by the other beavers. Other reasons were that the beaver could find his way back and build another dam and that trying to transport the beaver would stress it out. So we decided it would be best to use a conibear trap. Sadly the beaver might have to die.

    The beaver actually doesn’t have to die because the beaver left. Nobody has been seeing signs of the beaver for the past couple weeks so Hank hasn’t set the trap yet. Lori Ross did a really good job discouraging the beaver so we don’t have to deal with it anymore. I hope he finds a better home that won't be disturbing anyone.