So the weekend weather wasn't particularly kind to us; though we hoped for some rain to muddy up the corridors, creating great substrate for animal tracks, we got a bit more than we bargained for! It rained every day over the weekend, and even rained this morning. We're not talking a light drizzle, either, but rather, side-swiping, large-drop showers, and even hail.
Nevertheless, we were all very excited to check out if we'd caught anything on motion-sensor camera, or with our soot-traps. When we arrived to the Warren farm, we could see that the corridors we'd measured out were pretty flooded, just
as we'd expected. Most animal prints that may have accumulated while we were gone were lost to the watery landscape. However, we were fortunate enough to come across some great finds anyway, including several clear moose prints and some coyote scat just off the pathway. Our soot traps yeilded mixed results; though we were disappointed to see that the wind and rain had wiped away most evidence of animal tracks, the small mammal trap did have obvious scratch marks and scat deposits which indicated mouse activity. Leah even later found a clump of brownish fur near the trap, givng further evidence that our bait had been taken by a field or jumping mouse. The large mammal trap was a bit less successful - there were no definite prints to be seen, and the bait seemed untouched.
Next, we traipsed along, accompanied by Lara, in exploration of the farmland and woodland transects we'd measured out. The woodland area was where we had the greatest success today, locating the scat and moose prints. The farmland area soil, however, soaked up all the rain, making it very difficult to find any signs of mammal presence. We spent so long scrutinizing that particular corridor that when we finally came up for air, it was already time for lunch! We parted ways with Lara and concocted a game plan:
Driving to the nearby Market Basket grocery store, we decided to buy a few items to help us reset the soot traps. Dan had suggested using a blowtorch or other powerful flame device to procure the sootiness. He mentioned that using a candle would also provide good, but slow, results, and encouraged us to experiment with other methods as we saw fit. As supply-deficient poor graduate students, we opted to try the flame abilities of a good old sterno, and rather than contact paper as the sooty-paw print collector, we selected a classic notepad of plain white paper. Lizzy had heard that bait-wise
, fishy smelling catfood was very effective, so we bought a few tins of that. To entice the small mammals, we also bought peanut butter.
Back at the Warren farm, where it was already raining again, we headed under a canopy to test the soot-producing abilities of our sterno. Well, we spent more than a few minutes trying to gather soot that way, but to no avail. With limited other materials at hand, we decided to experiment with another option: mud, rather than soot. The small mammal trap was baited with peanut butter and "sooted" with mud. For the larger trap we wanted to try using a blow torch, so Lizzy called her boss at the Thompson School Green House, who agreed to let us use his. Matt and Lizzy took the trap over there while Leah and Vicki stayed to reposition the motion-sensor camera. Over the weekend, the camera gathered only six photos, and while we were extremely hopeful that even just one of them would boast a shot of wildlife, the only pictures it caught were of other class members!
Shortly after the camera was set in a hopeful location of the woodland corridor, Matt and Lizzy arrived back with an unsooted trap and a very interesting story... apparently Matt lit up the blow torch and began heating the foil to accumulate soot, when, after just ten seconds of success, flames engulfed the entir
e apparatus, including Matt's hand! The only utterance Matt could find within himself were the repeated words, "bad, bad, bad," in a completely monotone voice. Looking at Lizzy for guidance, which he got, in the form of her frantic pointing outside, Matt marched the flaming device out of the green house and doused it in a puddle. He is ok, though! His flaming hand lost mass amounts of hair, but apparently the two group members who witnessed the fiery debachle thought it was hilarious.
In light of the blow torch incident, team Scat Track Fever decided to adopt the mud method for the large mammal trap also. For bait we left a delicious-smelling combination of ocean whitefish/tuna catfood and cheap peanut butter, to attract both herbivorous and carnivorous mammals. We left both traps in what we determined to be high-traffic mammal areas, turned our motion-sensor camera on, gathered up our things, and headed back to the computer classroom to begin compiling our data. We hope that when we return tomorrow, our camera and traps will have more to tell than they did today! Also, if the rain wouldn't mind holding out for a few more days, we would be most appreciative :)
Nevertheless, we were all very excited to check out if we'd caught anything on motion-sensor camera, or with our soot-traps. When we arrived to the Warren farm, we could see that the corridors we'd measured out were pretty flooded, just
as we'd expected. Most animal prints that may have accumulated while we were gone were lost to the watery landscape. However, we were fortunate enough to come across some great finds anyway, including several clear moose prints and some coyote scat just off the pathway. Our soot traps yeilded mixed results; though we were disappointed to see that the wind and rain had wiped away most evidence of animal tracks, the small mammal trap did have obvious scratch marks and scat deposits which indicated mouse activity. Leah even later found a clump of brownish fur near the trap, givng further evidence that our bait had been taken by a field or jumping mouse. The large mammal trap was a bit less successful - there were no definite prints to be seen, and the bait seemed untouched.Next, we traipsed along, accompanied by Lara, in exploration of the farmland and woodland transects we'd measured out. The woodland area was where we had the greatest success today, locating the scat and moose prints. The farmland area soil, however, soaked up all the rain, making it very difficult to find any signs of mammal presence. We spent so long scrutinizing that particular corridor that when we finally came up for air, it was already time for lunch! We parted ways with Lara and concocted a game plan:
Driving to the nearby Market Basket grocery store, we decided to buy a few items to help us reset the soot traps. Dan had suggested using a blowtorch or other powerful flame device to procure the sootiness. He mentioned that using a candle would also provide good, but slow, results, and encouraged us to experiment with other methods as we saw fit. As supply-deficient poor graduate students, we opted to try the flame abilities of a good old sterno, and rather than contact paper as the sooty-paw print collector, we selected a classic notepad of plain white paper. Lizzy had heard that bait-wise
, fishy smelling catfood was very effective, so we bought a few tins of that. To entice the small mammals, we also bought peanut butter.Back at the Warren farm, where it was already raining again, we headed under a canopy to test the soot-producing abilities of our sterno. Well, we spent more than a few minutes trying to gather soot that way, but to no avail. With limited other materials at hand, we decided to experiment with another option: mud, rather than soot. The small mammal trap was baited with peanut butter and "sooted" with mud. For the larger trap we wanted to try using a blow torch, so Lizzy called her boss at the Thompson School Green House, who agreed to let us use his. Matt and Lizzy took the trap over there while Leah and Vicki stayed to reposition the motion-sensor camera. Over the weekend, the camera gathered only six photos, and while we were extremely hopeful that even just one of them would boast a shot of wildlife, the only pictures it caught were of other class members!
Shortly after the camera was set in a hopeful location of the woodland corridor, Matt and Lizzy arrived back with an unsooted trap and a very interesting story... apparently Matt lit up the blow torch and began heating the foil to accumulate soot, when, after just ten seconds of success, flames engulfed the entir
e apparatus, including Matt's hand! The only utterance Matt could find within himself were the repeated words, "bad, bad, bad," in a completely monotone voice. Looking at Lizzy for guidance, which he got, in the form of her frantic pointing outside, Matt marched the flaming device out of the green house and doused it in a puddle. He is ok, though! His flaming hand lost mass amounts of hair, but apparently the two group members who witnessed the fiery debachle thought it was hilarious.In light of the blow torch incident, team Scat Track Fever decided to adopt the mud method for the large mammal trap also. For bait we left a delicious-smelling combination of ocean whitefish/tuna catfood and cheap peanut butter, to attract both herbivorous and carnivorous mammals. We left both traps in what we determined to be high-traffic mammal areas, turned our motion-sensor camera on, gathered up our things, and headed back to the computer classroom to begin compiling our data. We hope that when we return tomorrow, our camera and traps will have more to tell than they did today! Also, if the rain wouldn't mind holding out for a few more days, we would be most appreciative :)
1 comment:
So glad to hear the flame "incident" only caused minor issues to Dan's hand! The mantra "bad, bad, bad" will be a good one to remember when things aren't going quite right!
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