Grosbeak Sign from 3-7-13

Flying Squirrel Scat from 3-7-13

The Even Crappier Trip (2/14)

We went on a field trip to Ula’s house, and it is a meadow/marsh. We saw 175 piles of moose poop. After that we saw coyote poop and goose poop. We saw two species of birds; canada geese and white winged crossbills. Then we went into Ula’s house and ate lunch. For a desert Tania made us cream puffs with extra whip cream and hot fudge and raspberries. After that Tania let us use Kevin’s collared moose tracking device. We picked up almost all of the moose but four of them.  Then we walked back to the van and drove back to the school.

The Crappy Field Trip

We went on a field trip to the airport clearing on January 24th. The weather was sunny but cold. The snow was kind of icy. When we were walking we saw a squirrel! We also saw an old vole hole in the icy snow! There were a lot of moose there. We could tell because there was a lot of browsed willow!

We saw so many piles of scat that we called it the “Crappy Field Trip.” We saw 112 piles of scat! Greg also came along. He taught us that in the winter there are tiny pieces of moose scat. In the summer there are big pieces of moose scat! He taught us about dog tracks and how you can tell them apart from coyote tracks. He taught us a lot about tracks. We wouldn’t have learned about tracks and scat if it wasn’t for Greg.

Glens Ditch Beaver Part 2

On our last beaver update we told you that the beaver had left. But actually the beaver was just hiding. After hiding the beaver started working more on his dam. Hank had to then set the traps. Mossy wanted the beaver to stay so she volunteered to tear down the dam each day. So now the beaver should be staying.


Two weeks ago we went on a walk to where we put our camera on Glens Ditch. While we were there we saw lots of beaver slides and chewed down trees. After walking for a while we saw a hole in the bank that might be the beaver’s den. When we got back from our walk we looked at photos from our camera. We got some really good photos of moose and the beaver. This week we will be moving our camera to a different place to try to get pictures of other animals.

We caught moose # 76 on our camera on January 6, 2013.

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?