I went with the trapper and refuge biologist to collect for the diet analysis portion of my project last week....We have 4 more stomachs to look through now....and I removed them myself. It was quite an experience.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Phosphorescent Algae, Shooting Stars, and...
...lots of lightning....sigh. Still getting locations on the 3 family groups and praying we aren't struck by lighting while doing so.
Monday, July 12, 2010
The Bird Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNDxH9ik4MI
Thank you to Jess and Gillian for identifying the bird for us!!!
It is a Greater Shearwater - one of the sea birds that rarely come close to shore....so I have been informed it was probably not a healthy individual before we hit it....BUT apparently people pay a lot of money to take trips out into the deep water to see them hahaha oops
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Update
Where to start....The mink are beginning to move around more, and this makes acquiring locations a little more challenging. I actually thought we lost one of the females last week, but we found her about 100m across a section of marsh.
A few nights ago, we were driving up the Intracoastal after finding my mink, and a juvenile laughing gull (maybe?) came flying out of nowhere and hit Michael (video to come). Luckily he was fine, so we turned around to make sure the gull wasn't hurt either. I didn't see him over the water, so I checked the boat and there he was! He didn't appear to be injured - just dazed. So we set him on the bench behind the console and he just hung out there while we put the boat up. We left him next to the boat ramp, and didn't see him the next morning. Now we keep an eye on the sky for storms and confused birds:
Speaking of storms, I tried to beat a storm to get points the other night....it didn't turn out so well. We had to speed back under the most amazing storm clouds I have ever seen (the pictures below totally don't do it justice). Definitely something I will never forget, but definitely something I do not really wish to experience again. While I was trying to quickly locate one of the animals, I noticed the boat stopped moving toward where I needed it to be. I turn around in a panic since the storm was really beginning to build around us, and I find Michael leaning over the side of the boat with a dolphin swimming up to his hand!!! Of course that was the day I removed the camera from the boat!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Lightning Everywhere
We were so close to catching 2 more family groups last night! I had 4 kits in my hands (their eyes are open now, and they should be swimming soon!) when the sky lit up like the 4th of July. So I had to put them back and call it a night. So frustrating, but oh well.
Below are pictures of Camilla's kits:
Friday, June 11, 2010
Random
In order to protect my transmittered mink from the biologist, we went out spotlighting a different area in the refuge last night. We ran into a sandbar/submerged part of the marsh, and I almost flew over the front of the boat. Hilarious!
I also seem to have developed some sort of infection in my ankle from a bug bite more than likely (I have quite a lot of them). What's a field season without a trip to Urgent Care and a few x-rays!
And the water coming out of the camper's shower is a nice dark grey color these days.
Fingers crossed that we catch two males tonight!!!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Trapping Again
Trapping again this weekend.
I have been warned by the refuge biologist that she will be out shooting mink this weekend...she has refused to let any of my mink live if she finds them.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Releasing Cleo and Camilla
Releasing Cleo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWZZaK9iESs
Releasing Camilla: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnEeICUfqUo
Camilla's Surgery Part 1
The first half of the first half of the surgery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFFPJRjcbPU
The second half of the first half of the surgery:
Trapping
We head out into the marsh at sunset during the highest tide of the month and use spotlights to find the mink. We need tides of 6.5 or higher so we can see through the marsh grass and spot their eyeshine. If it is a family group (a female with kits - typically 3-5, although we have found 2 females with 7), the female will grab one of her kits and bolt off when we pull up. We take the remaining kits, put them in a trap that is zip-tied to another trap and wait for her to come back. Once we have her, we search for the kit she ran off with, and we transfer the whole family into a holding cage.
The males are very difficult to catch. We have been unable to catch one this time, but we will try again on the next highest tide of June. We did catch and implant 3 females (Mela with 3 kits, Cleo with 3 kits, and Camilla with 7 kits).
Mela after surgery with her white ear tags
Releasing Mela: She bolted from the hide tube (a piece of pvc pipe) before I could start recording, but you can hear her kits.
My professor jumped out of the boat and set out into the marsh to check a trap. The female managed to remove all 7 of her kits from the trap without being caught herself. That's Michael and I laughing in the background...not really sure why I found this completely hilarious. He jumped out after many more mink in the days following this. Can't thank him enough for that!
Grad Student Living Quarters - Garris Landing, Cape Romain NWR
The camper on the left is mine...there is a ladder next to it so we can manually start the AC with a wire clothes hanger.
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