Day Three, (Tuesday) Field Work

Back to work! As we dispersed into the field (in this case we are working in grassland habitat) most teams realized that many of their trap doors were closed! Success!! Jen, Bob and I caught five meadow voles, which was not bad for first-timers. (Jen and Bob, or Mrs. Griffith and Mr. Minott to you, are pictured above.) It takes a bit of skill to remove the voles from their traps without harming them, but Christina is an excellent trainer, and we all learn quickly under her tutelage. She showed us how to mark them (by clipping a bit of their fur) before releasing them back into the field, in case of recapture. We also learned how to identify their gender, observe for pregnancy (which was actually common at this time of year), and then mass the voles using a spring scale. All of these things are an important part of the project’s data collection.

(Bottom picture from left to right: Karen, Elaine and Jen, otherwise known as the "Cheeky Monkeys.")

Next task: monitoring deer droppings, also known as “scat.” We had seen several sample of mammal scat on Sunday during our hike at Broad Cove, but now we were looking specifically for deer poop. In order to do this, we went into the woods and surveyed the land one section at a time. With two meter poles we plotted 10 meter by 10 meter grids, and then went searching! At first finding the droppings seemed difficult but after a while, we all got the hang of it. In addition to deer droppings, we also found some snowshoe hare scat. While we were searching, my teacher friend Bob found a little yellow frog, which he thought was some type of tree frog. It looked like a juvenile because of its size, but Bob said it was a full grown adult.

Note: I will discuss the reasons for the deer dropping surveys in a future entry. Don’t forget to write about this (and ask good questions!) in you Science Notebook so that when it comes time you can compare your responses.

At this point, we had earned our lunch. (Have you ever tried Canadian “All Dressed” potato chips? YUM!) That’s what I love about traveling. You learn so much! By the by, (as my British friends would say) checking the traps once a day is not sufficient. To get the desired results, we must complete a second round of trap monitoring. Once again, we had a few hits! All tolled, for our first, day, we didn’t do too badly. The team as a whole for day one caught 11 voles. Was it beginners’ luck? Time to pile back into the van for the hour-long ride back to Cherry Hill and another scrumptious dinner. As my housemate Carol would say, “Off we go, like a herd of turtles!” Is there such thing as a herd of turtles?

~Next journal (Science Notebook) question: Think about how (and why) a warming climate might affect the deer population in Nova Scotia. How might other animal species be affected as a result?

What other questions come to mind about this topic? (Please write them down so we can discuss them.)

One other question for us all to ponder (also a very important one on the minds of our PIs): Why are there absolutely NO mice this year? (The previous four “Mammals of Nova Scotia” teams from this year found none in their traps). If we know that last year the number of voles and mice were almost equal, than where are the mice this year?