Goodbye!

No more trapping or field sign transects... no more beaver watching or coastal walks (and no more ticks hopefully!) Here's a picture of the whole team at the Seaside National Park. We had a great discussion about environmental and conservation issues in the morning and then went for a long walk at the park. We saw 3 porcupines and some seals at the park which was a nice way to end the day.

Half the team has already left on their flights and the rest of us are waiting around in the airport. Everyone comes from different places. We have one woman from England, and the rest are from the US from different cities: Seattle, San Francisco, Arizona, Wisconsin, New York and Boston. It's been fun spending two weeks with such a great group of diverse women. We've had a lot of laughs and almost no fighting believe it or not. I will miss the team and being outside everyday but I am looking forward to getting home to my own bed.

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog and that you learned something. Thanks for reading! :)

Caught on camera!

Last week we set up camera traps in the forest. Camera traps are a great way to 'catch' animals which are elusive and especially ones that are nocturnal. We looked at the pictures from our traps today and we caught some great shots! We caught a Snowshoe Hare, a Raccoon, a Fox and a Porcupine! Here is one of the pictures of the Raccoon. He looks so cute with his little eye patch. We actually saw a baby raccoon run across the road last night. You can see lots of wildlife from the roads.. today we saw more deer and many people have seen Bald Eagles but I always miss them. I have never seen a wild Bald Eagle so I really wanted to see one but it's okay because we've seen so many interesting animals on this trip.

I've had a really great time learning about Nova Scotia and learning some new research skills. (Here's a picture of me in the field which my mom asked for!) It's been great getting away from it all and thinking about the big picture. Sometimes it's good to step out of your normal life and go somewhere different. Every time I travel I learn something more about the world and about myself.

Happy Earth Day!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day celebrating the Earth! We did slightly unusual things for Earth Day today but considering we've been helping the earth for two weeks I think it's okay. We actually cut down some trees today... I know it's kind of the opposite thing to do. But we were doing it to restore grassland habitat at Cook's Lake. There are quite a lot of species here that thrive in the grassland and don't do so well in the trees so the scientists want to pull out the shrubs and trees in the grassland.

We also learned Wilderness Survival Skills today. Chris, one of the scientists has trained with the British Army on how to survive if you are ever caught out in the wild! We learned what to look for that could be useful to build a fire, collect water, or eat. I think the most useful thing I learned was that you can strip birch tree bark and make a cup out of it to collect water. We also learned how to start a fire and set an animal trap! Watch this video to see the wild animal we caught! :)

Last night we saw lots of wild animals. We went to a local lake and sat on the banks outside a beaver lodge. The first thing we saw were muskrats which are similar to beavers but smaller and instead of a flat tail it's long and skinny. Then as it was starting to get dark we saw the beavers come out! There were three.. the male and female and their offspring (probably born last year as it wasn't too small). They swam back and forth looking for wood. One piece of wood was quite close to us and we could here him knawing on it! Then he'd break a piece off and swim back to his lodge with it. Most beavers around here do not build dams because the lakes are deep enough for them. Beavers only build dams when they need to create a deeper habitat for themselves over winter when the water freezes on top of the pond or lake. The young beaver also patrolled back and forth looking at us. When a beaver notices a predator he slaps his tail on the water to warn other beavers that he has seen a predator. The slap also notifies the predator that he has been spotted. They were a lot of fun to watch. This picture is one I took through my binoculars. I think it's pretty good. If you want to see really great photos click on the teacher blog page and click on Sue's blog. She is an amateur photographer and takes amazing photos.

Coming to you Live from the Field!

Well it finally works!!! Hooray!! I am connected to the internet via a satellite receiver that is connecting to a satellite way up in the atmosphere. It's called BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network). I borrowed another person's computer and it worked the first time. There's obviously something wrong with my computer or the Ethernet port that connects the terminal to the laptop. It's actually really cool to be able to connect to the Internet sitting in the middle of the field where there is no electricity around for miles! I just skyped with my colleague back in the office and after a little bit of finagling we we able to video chat to each other! It was pretty cool.

I better be off to work now. The rest of my team is busy restoring the grassland habitat which means pulling out shrubs and saplings that shouldn't be there. It's a beautiful sunny day and a great day to be outside! :)

Bugs

My mom has been a great commenter on my blog so I'm going to answer her question about bugs. It hasn't been too buggy yet actually. It's still too cold for most of the annoying insects like mosquitoes and black flies. In a month or two they will come out in full force so much so that we would need to be wearing nets around our heads! So we are very lucky to be on an earlier team! Today it was slightly warmer and I swear more bugs started to come out. There were some little gnats and some bubble bees. We also saw some pretty caterpillars. However the bugs we've seen the most are the arachnids...

Arachnids are the eight legged creatures such as spiders and ticks. They are not insects (these have 6 legs). I've seen all kinds of spiders, some of which have pretty patterns on them. When we were on the shore the first day we saw a lot of black spiders which scurried under the rocks. Similarly today we saw lots of little black spiders which scurried under the grasslands... I'm not sure I've ever seen so many spiders... but at least none of them were on us.

However what were on us today (and many other days) were ticks! These are wood ticks which don't carry Lyme disease and are actually quite easy to see. I've gotten used to having ticks as I've had many on me before so I don't really freak out when I find one. I've also been the designated 'get this thing off me' person. I've pulled off many ticks from my teammates including one that was latched onto some one's scalp today. That was a little gross and I definitely don't like when they've latched on. We do tick checks throughout the day and a very thorough one at night. Most of the ticks we've found have been just crawling around on our pant legs. We've all learned to tuck our socks into our pants or wear long johns to help protect ourselves. Bug spray doesn't really help with ticks so we don't really bother. In total we've probably averaged about 8 ticks each!

I got a lot of ticks today when I was kneeling in the grassland testing the satellite equipment yet again. I tried for over an hour to connect the laptop to the terminal and only connected once. I had a strong signal but for some reason it would not 'register with the network.' I must have tried re-starting it 10 times and most of the time I couldn't even get the computer to recognize that the terminal was there! It was very frustrating. I'm not sure this satellite technology is the way to go forward with our Live from the Field program. It's just too much hassle and not practical. Maybe the equipment has a 'bug'. I will try one more time tomorrow... wish me luck!

Weevlis Wobble but they don't fall down

We went to a new research site today called Cook's Lake. It's privately owned by one of the scientist's parents and has a long history of being managed by people. It has a mixture of habitat including grassland, forest, brush, wetlands and a lake! We set up traps in both the grassland and the brush in hopes of catching some larger shrew (in the grassland) and jumping mice in the brush! We'll check them twice tomorrow to see what we've got!

One interesting thing we learned about today is why trees sometimes have multiple trunks. This happens when something causes part of the stem (when it's young) to die or break off. This could be any disturbance such as a lightning strike, an animal grazing the tip or a weevil. A weevil is a type of beetle that likes to lay it's eggs in one particular kind of tree. They lay the eggs inside the tree and when the young hatch they eat their way out. You can see a weeviled tree here:

Weeviled trees are not usually good for lumber because there is no clear straight piece of wood. Thus weeviled trees don't fall down due to the logger's saw. Studies have started to show that shaded pine trees don't get weeviled but ones in sunny areas do. So foresters again should not clear-cut their forests leaving exposed trees but be selective in their logging, leaving trees to shade others.

Land of the Spirits

Kejimkujik National Park means Land of the Spirits in Mi'kmaw (the language of the Native Americans in Nova Scotia). The Park is home to the largest tract of old growth Hemlock forest left in Nova Scotia. Although a lot of Nova Scotia is forested, many of it is relatively young forest that has regrown after the Colonists cut it down 150-200 years ago. The secondary forest has a lot of tall trees but also a lot of understory and brush.

The Old Growth forest has very large old trees (300-500 years old) and not a lot of understory. It has a lot of moss to help keep the ground moist. Old Growth forest typically has very specialized species living in it and not as much biodiversity as secondary forest. When we walked through the Old Growth Hemlock forest today we often walked on raised wooden platforms because the roots of these trees are very fragile.

Fallen logs which then get covered in moss are called nurse logs because they support new life. Many fungi and other trees grow out of them as they are an important source of nutrients. Many forest managers take the nurse logs out because they are in the way to take other trees out. But actually they are really important for the health of the forest.

Kejimkujik is home to many endangered animals including an endangered turtle! The Blandings turtle population is estimated at only 300 adults. Habitat loss and fragmentation as well as road mortality contribute to their decline. They even have signs posted along the roads so people look out for them on the roads! Unfortunately we didn't see one but we did see an Osprey and some deer today!

Here I Come to Save the Day (Earth)!

On Friday we caught a mouse in one of our traps! We named him Mighty after the Mighty Mouse cartoon (hence the theme song title). It was very obvious he was different to the voles we caught because of his big ears and longer tail. I think the voles are cuter.

In the afternoon on Friday we got to visit a local organic farm who specializes in Organic meat products and Organic trees including Christmas trees! It was very interesting to hear how the managed the forest and the land without having devastating effects on the environment (hence the earth in the title). We took a horse pulled hayride through the forest. The same horses are used to pull harvested logs out of the forest when they are logging. They do not clear cut the forest but instead choose individual trees to cut down based on size and age thus leaving a lot of the forest intact and providing a sustainable source of wood. Little farms like that may actually be what we need to 'Save the Earth' and of course we need educated consumers to buy their products.

Today we had a research free day and went into Halifax the capital. We had lunch at a restaurant called the Wooden Monkey which only had Organic and locally sourced food. It was delicious and you could feel good that we were supporting local farmers and eating food which had less of an impact on the environment. After lunch we toured the city and went to the Citadel (a fort) and the Maritime Museum. There were some tragic but interesting stories to read about at the museum like the ships that went out to recover the bodies from the Titanic and the Great Halifax Explosion.

It was nice having the day off but I think I miss the woods! Tomorrow we're off to the Kejimkujik National Park to see the old growth Hemlock forest! :)

Alvin, Simon and Flash

We caught a chipmunk today in one of our traps! It was exciting as it was one of the traps in the transect I was checking. I had a feeling there was a chipmunk in it because it felt slightly heavier to other traps. They are very feisty and difficult to handle so Christina, one of the scientists, handled it. We decided to name him Flash because he actually got away before we had a chance to put him back where we found him. We also re-captured all of the voles we caught yesterday. They really like our traps. Their names are Burt, Gimpy, Brit, Babe and Feisty McFiesterson.

We also spent a majority of the day looking for snow shoe hare droppings. We got down on our hands and knees and crawled through bushes and pine trees and bramble looking for poo! Over the course of a couple of hours we counted over 5,000 droppings!!!! That's a lot of poo! That's me in the blue jacket and green hat. It was another exhausted day but once again the weather was great and it only started to rain once we were back safely in the minibus.

We've got one more day of checking the traps at our coastal site before some 'non-research activity time' on Friday evening and Saturday.

Busy as Beavers

Today was a very busy day. We got up early to check the small mammal traps we set out yesterday. Yesterday we set out 100 traps! They are laid out in a grid of 5 by 20 rows. Each trap has some hay, some seeds (bird feed makes excellent mouse feed too!), and a piece of apple. The apple gives them a source of water as small mammals don't normally drink. So when we checked the traps today we found 3 Red-Backed Voles! They were very cute. We measure and tag them (by snipping a tiny piece of their fur) before releasing them back into their habitat. We also put them through a little labyrinth maze to test their intelligence before we released them. We all got to handle the voles which was a very cool experience. They are very fragile but you can handle them by grabbing the scruff on the back of their neck. The scruff has no nerve endings (kind of like your elbow skin) so no matter how tight you squeeze it they don't feel it.

After checking traps we looked for porcupine damage on trees. They gnaw at the bark to get at the sap. Apparently they love birch trees but they also sometimes go for spruce. We found a lot of damage which sometimes upsets the locals especially the foresters. A lot of people will shoot porcupines for that reason! The scientists here think the population is declining fast but they need proof, so that's why we are taking this data.

Then we had lunch. Yum! After lunch we deployed some camera traps to catch some sneaky mammals who we don't always get to see in the daytime. We'll examine them next week when we take them down. I hope we catch something good!

Our next assignment was to do a mile long transect to look for more 'field signs' of mammals. This took 2 hours but we saw lots of signs of mammals including beaver damage and lodges, lots of coyote scat, small piles of bones and chipmunk holes.

Then after that we had to go back and check our traps again! We found 4 more voles but 2 were recaptures from the morning! Apparently some of the voles liked the traps so much they went back into them. We think they like being fed and having a warm place to stay as it was a bit chillier today.

Oh and I tried to test the satellite receiver today but it didn't work! :( I'm not sure what's wrong but I will try again tomorrow. I'm off to bed now because it's been a very long day. But I'm looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow. :)

Everybody poos!

A lot of mammals are very elusive and hard to find or track. Sometimes the best way to find out what kind of animals there are in an area is to check for ‘field signs’ which can include scat (poo), fur, scratches on vegetation, piles of leftover food etc. But poo is one of the best ways to identify a creature because they come in all shapes and sizes specific to that animal! We will be learning to identify different types of mammal scat in order to better understand the abundance and distribution of Nova Scotia’s mammals. Take a look at the photos below to see a couple kinds of poo!

To the left is coyote scat, in the middle raccoon and to the right is porcupine. I think the porcupine poo is the best because it looks like a string of pearls! You can see how different they all really are. And yes that is one of the scientists holding it! She's not afraid to get dirty an examine the scat to find out what the animal has been eating. Maybe I'll be so brave next time we find some!

I won't ask a question today because there are still no responses from yesterday... come on people! You at least must have something to say about poo!

Mammalapalooza!

We arrived in Cherry Hill yesterday in the late afternoon. Cherry Hill is a little town by the sea. In fact you can even see the ocean from the back porch of the house! See the picture to the right. All the teachers and other volunteers are lovely and I think we make a great group. There are 8 of us in total. Today we had a lecture in the morning about mammals and the research that the scientists are conducting. I learned some interesting facts which I want to see if you all know the answer to (no one is commenting except of course for one faithful friend!).

• Why are lips so important for mammals species but not other animals?
• What important body muscle do mammals have that enable them run longer than other animals such as reptiles?
• Is a cold winter or a warm winter better for mammals that hibernate?

Tell me your answers by commenting using the button below!

To answer yesterday's question Nova Scotia means 'New Scotland.' Nova Scotia is a little like Scotland with it's rugged coastline but the endless forests of pine trees make it nothing like Scotland.

On our coastal walk today we saw four mammals!! (Not counting homo sapiens and Lycos the scientists' dog). We saw a red squirrel eating some pinecones. They are much smaller than they're grey cousins. I spotted a mink walking across the sand in the distance (of course I didn't know it was a mink until we walked up to the beach and saw its paw prints). Then we found a porcupine in a tree! Apparently they love trees: they eat the bark and sleep in them during the day. Finally we saw some deer in a field on our drive home. It was a very successful day for mammals!

And tomorrow I'll tell you about all the poo...

Truro, NS... I think I like the one in Cornwall better

Well yesterday was sort of disappointing. I went to Truro hoping to see a bit of the Bay of Fundy. It's where you can normally see the tidal bore (a big tide wave that comes into the river) I knew I would miss that because of the timing ( it happens twice a day) but I thought it would still be cool to see the banks of the bay and see how large the tides got. Well I was too far from the bay and only saw the river leading to the bay. I couldn't walk any further because I had already walked an hour with my somewhat heavy backpack on and my feet were killing me.

So I walked back into he town of Truro only to have it start raining on me! I found some shelter in a shopping mall for awhile before heading back. The town itself was okay. I thought it'd be a little more quaint. There was a cool fair trade coffee shop and some fun wooden statues scattered throughout. The town also had parts of the Berlin wall which was a bit random but cool I guess. Besides for that I felt like I couldve been in any New England town despite the occasional Canadian flag.

Anyway at least I got lots of exercise in preparation for all the hiking I'll be doing during my expedition. I'm meeting my group later today but I'm going to explore Halifax a bit today before I do. I'm excited to meet everyone after emailing them for months. Next time I post it'll be 'Live from the Field!'

I'm here!!

I've made it safely to Nova Scotia! :) The ride was a little bumpy due to the small plane and some turbulence but everything went smoothly. I'm just sitting in the airport now waiting for my bus. Man this is a nice airport! There was a waterfall fountain as soon as you arrived! Much nicer than arriving into the US via JFK! They also have live lobsters here, if you were hungry enough. And obviously there's free wifi or I wouldn't be able to type this post! The weather is okay: cloudy and cool but at least it's not raining. I'm pretty tired because I was up late packing... Nothing like the last minute! But I'm feeling energized now to go out and explore Nova Scotia!!! :)

Question of the day: does anyone know what Nova Scotia means?

A Geography lesson

For my geography impaired friends I thought I'd show you a map of where I'll be going in case you didn't know. Nova Scotia is a province on the northeast Atlantic coast of Canada. I'm flying into the capital, Halifax (red dot) on Saturday morning and then taking a day trip to the Bay of Fundy (blue dot) to see the largest tides in the world! Then I'll be meeting my group back in Halifax on Sunday where we'll set off to the research site (yellow dot) about 2 hours south of the city. I can't wait!! :)

View Nova Scotia in a larger map

10 days to go!

I'm getting pretty excited about my upcoming expedition... two weeks out in the field collecting data in Nova Scotia, a place I've never been before!! I'll be gone from April 10 - 24th. My team consists of a bunch of teachers as well as a few other volunteers. Be sure to check out the links to the right to read more about the expedition and read the teachers' blogs.