Just to follow up Elisa's posting, I think we all had a great time (thanks Christina and Chris!). In addition to the work and data we were collecting I was fascinated at the additional wildlife we saw during the two weeks. As I always seemed to have a pen in my pocket here's the log I made of the wildlife, footprints and droppings we saw between us. It was fun some evenings to try and work out from the book descriptions and drawings what creatures we had seen. Apologies for any omissions!
Wildlife
Bat (dead) and pipistrelle Bat (heard); Bear (only Christina and Lycos saw this!); Beaver; viceroy Butterfly; cecropia Caterpillar; Cicadia (heard); Chipmunk; Cormorant; white-tailed Deer; bald Eagle; leopard and green Frogs; Goshawk; black Guillemot;
great black-backed Gull; snoeshoe Hare (Andrew only, whilst watering the undergrowth!); great blue Herons; ruby-throated Hummingbird; blue Jay; bog Lemmings; green Lizard; Loons; meadow jumping Mouse; Muskrat; Osprey; Porcupine; Racoon (skeleton); Ravens; Sandpiper (and other unidentified wading birds); short-tailed Shrew (dead on road!); garter, ribbon and smooth green Snakes (non-poisonous, still enough to make you jump); wolf and argiope Spiders; spruce Grouse; grey flying Squirrel (walking??); red Squirrels; Toads; red-backed Voles; fin-backed Whales (from boat).
Footprints
Coyote; Deer; Fisher (maybe); Otter; Racoon; Squirrel
Droppings (lots of ‘em!)
Bear; Chipmunk; Deer; Fawn; Groundhog (maybe); snoeshoe Hare; Mouse; Porcupine; Racoon; Skunk
Thanks to the team for their great company and very best wishes to future teams.
Diane
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Team IV
Team IV arrived on August 19. We were mostly British: Annabel, Julia, Sophia, Diane, Andrew, James, Melissa, and Gill were all from "over the pond." We had one woman from Japan - Mina - and 3 from the USA: Elisa, Ann, and Pat. We were divided up with 8 women in the green house; Andrew and Mina each had single rooms in the yellow house and James & Melissa had their own room there. 'Twas a great Team. and we spoiled Lycos a lot!
This is just a quick post to get us started; I won't attempt to cover it all, and I don't have any photos ready to post. I hope others will contribute, too.
We ate too much - cereal and toast or waffles and optional eggs and bacon every morning; tuna and/or egg salad for lunch, with cheese and/or tomatoes and cucumbers. Who knew there were so many flavors of potato chips! and then every evening, after the delicious suppers Chris prepared, we had choices of ice cream! it's hard to break those habits now that I'm back home sitting in the office instead of tramping thru woods and bogs all day.... to my immense surprise I didn't gain weight.
We had mostly sunny weather - only rained both Fridays of our Expedition - a bit too hot for most of our preferences, I think - 26 - 28 most days, I think. (see - even Americans can learn to think in Centigrade! - that's about 79 - 83 F - but we were often in the sun.)
We caught red backed voles and bog lemmings in the areas that had been cut 15 years ago; red backed voles and a few chipmunks - they are exciting when released from the trap into the capture bag! - in the woods. No mice. Which continues the trend this season - a very dramatic shortage of mice. Everyone got to hold at least one little critter while it was examined to see what sex it was and, if female, whether she was pregnant or nursing or had recently nursed ...
On our "day off" we went to Lunenberg, which is delightful. Most of the Team went whale watching; I didn't - I preferred to wander into the stores and galleries in Lunenberg. Saw lots of things it would have been nice to be able to afford to buy - especially in the gallery selling Inuit sculpture! and the Fisheries Museum is great.
We also went to see the national park, Kejimkujik (Keji for short). We saw fascinating Native American petroglyphs marked in rocks along the lake (the ranger is a member of the tribe), but had to put up with one of the worst-behaved children any of us had experienced (some Canadians need Super Nanny as much as those families on TV in the US). My favorite part was the ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS old growth hemlock forest; I've been in lots of hemlock forests, and some old growth forests, but never an old growth hemlock forest before. It's magical - trees and moss and filtered light.
Enough from me, for now at least!
Elisa
This is just a quick post to get us started; I won't attempt to cover it all, and I don't have any photos ready to post. I hope others will contribute, too.
We ate too much - cereal and toast or waffles and optional eggs and bacon every morning; tuna and/or egg salad for lunch, with cheese and/or tomatoes and cucumbers. Who knew there were so many flavors of potato chips! and then every evening, after the delicious suppers Chris prepared, we had choices of ice cream! it's hard to break those habits now that I'm back home sitting in the office instead of tramping thru woods and bogs all day.... to my immense surprise I didn't gain weight.
We had mostly sunny weather - only rained both Fridays of our Expedition - a bit too hot for most of our preferences, I think - 26 - 28 most days, I think. (see - even Americans can learn to think in Centigrade! - that's about 79 - 83 F - but we were often in the sun.)
We caught red backed voles and bog lemmings in the areas that had been cut 15 years ago; red backed voles and a few chipmunks - they are exciting when released from the trap into the capture bag! - in the woods. No mice. Which continues the trend this season - a very dramatic shortage of mice. Everyone got to hold at least one little critter while it was examined to see what sex it was and, if female, whether she was pregnant or nursing or had recently nursed ...
On our "day off" we went to Lunenberg, which is delightful. Most of the Team went whale watching; I didn't - I preferred to wander into the stores and galleries in Lunenberg. Saw lots of things it would have been nice to be able to afford to buy - especially in the gallery selling Inuit sculpture! and the Fisheries Museum is great.
We also went to see the national park, Kejimkujik (Keji for short). We saw fascinating Native American petroglyphs marked in rocks along the lake (the ranger is a member of the tribe), but had to put up with one of the worst-behaved children any of us had experienced (some Canadians need Super Nanny as much as those families on TV in the US). My favorite part was the ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS old growth hemlock forest; I've been in lots of hemlock forests, and some old growth forests, but never an old growth hemlock forest before. It's magical - trees and moss and filtered light.
Enough from me, for now at least!
Elisa
Monday, August 20, 2007
First day at Cook's Lake
Tuesday July 31st, 2007
This morning I overslept and nearly missed breakfast, which was scheduled for 8:30 am, so I was forced to take an abbreviated shower, dash over to the green house for a quick bowl of cereal, and then head back to the yellow house to gather my gear for the day. We were told that it could get pretty wet and muddy out at Cook’s Lake, so I grabbed my Wellies, and threw them in the back of the van. The drive to Cook’s Lake on average, takes about an hour, over occasionally bumpy, hilly roads, the impact of which is felt the most when riding in the very rear of the van. This morning seemed especially warm, and I made the mistake of sitting in the very rear of the van, where a cool breeze can rarely be found.
The way into Cook’s Lake is by walking down a well worn single track dirt road, about a half mile in length, covered in some stretches by patches of soupy mud and water. Chris is able to drive his Chevy pickup truck over the road, but the van would have great difficulty going over such rough terrain, so it is left parked at the main road. As we walk up the road, Christina stops and points out signs of animals - paw prints in the mud, or signs of scat recently left in the roadway.
Roughly a half mile up the dirt road is a mesh screen tent, which will serve as our base of operations for the next two weeks whenever we come out to Cook’s Lake. It is both a means of getting some needed shade during the heat of the day, and also acts as a barrier to the insect population that is constantly swarming about.
The first order of business is a walk out to Cook’s Lake proper, which is about a mile further away, first down the existing dirt road, and then down a single track trail through the woods. As we left the tent site, and headed up the road, Lycos alerted Chris that there was something in the stand of trees just on the crest of the hill we were walking up. About 30 feet up in one of the trees was a juvenile porcupine, called a porcupet - our first mammal sighting at Cook’s Lake. We continued on to the lake, looked around for a bit, and then took a different path back to the tent site. 
After lunch we began to assemble the 100 Longworth traps that we would be using over the course of the next two weeks. Each trap was filled with some grass, a little cracked corn, and a bit of apple – bedding, food, and a source of water, for anything that might get caught in the trap. We were divided into teams of two – John and I were assigned row “C” – given 20 traps and sent out to place 2 traps every 10 meters in an area of scrub trees. By the time everyone was through laying out their traps, it was nearly 5:00 pm, and so we walked back out to the main road, boarded the van, and headed back to Cherry Hill.
The evening was spent going over the photos taken during the day, eating popcorn, and playing chess with Eric.
This morning I overslept and nearly missed breakfast, which was scheduled for 8:30 am, so I was forced to take an abbreviated shower, dash over to the green house for a quick bowl of cereal, and then head back to the yellow house to gather my gear for the day. We were told that it could get pretty wet and muddy out at Cook’s Lake, so I grabbed my Wellies, and threw them in the back of the van. The drive to Cook’s Lake on average, takes about an hour, over occasionally bumpy, hilly roads, the impact of which is felt the most when riding in the very rear of the van. This morning seemed especially warm, and I made the mistake of sitting in the very rear of the van, where a cool breeze can rarely be found.
The way into Cook’s Lake is by walking down a well worn single track dirt road, about a half mile in length, covered in some stretches by patches of soupy mud and water. Chris is able to drive his Chevy pickup truck over the road, but the van would have great difficulty going over such rough terrain, so it is left parked at the main road. As we walk up the road, Christina stops and points out signs of animals - paw prints in the mud, or signs of scat recently left in the roadway.Roughly a half mile up the dirt road is a mesh screen tent, which will serve as our base of operations for the next two weeks whenever we come out to Cook’s Lake. It is both a means of getting some needed shade during the heat of the day, and also acts as a barrier to the insect population that is constantly swarming about.
The first order of business is a walk out to Cook’s Lake proper, which is about a mile further away, first down the existing dirt road, and then down a single track trail through the woods. As we left the tent site, and headed up the road, Lycos alerted Chris that there was something in the stand of trees just on the crest of the hill we were walking up. About 30 feet up in one of the trees was a juvenile porcupine, called a porcupet - our first mammal sighting at Cook’s Lake. We continued on to the lake, looked around for a bit, and then took a different path back to the tent site. After lunch we began to assemble the 100 Longworth traps that we would be using over the course of the next two weeks. Each trap was filled with some grass, a little cracked corn, and a bit of apple – bedding, food, and a source of water, for anything that might get caught in the trap. We were divided into teams of two – John and I were assigned row “C” – given 20 traps and sent out to place 2 traps every 10 meters in an area of scrub trees. By the time everyone was through laying out their traps, it was nearly 5:00 pm, and so we walked back out to the main road, boarded the van, and headed back to Cherry Hill.The evening was spent going over the photos taken during the day, eating popcorn, and playing chess with Eric.
the walk along Broad Cove.....
Monday July 30th, 2007
The bulk of the morning was spent sitting around the dining room table at the green house - first for breakfast, then for group introductions, and finally for Chris to gave a presentation on what is involved in monitoring mammals and the techniques we would be employing during the project.
It was around 12:30 pm when we piled into the van and headed out to Broad Cove for a 3 to 4 mile walk along the coast. Even though it was well past noon, most of the walk was enveloped in a shroud of fog, which lent a somewhat other worldly effect to the hike. This was our first official trek where we were suppose to be scanning the ground for any signs of scat or animal tracks, but the only one who seemed to have any luck locating anything was Lycos.
The last mile or so, I was walking ahead of the main group with Chris, Lycos and Jessica when we spotted a muskrat swimming in one of the small ponds that dotted the shoreline. By the time I had my camera out to take a picture it had spotted us and ducked under the leaves of the lilly pads. The group that was with Christina found some deer droppings, but that was pretty much the extent of our findings for the day.
At the end of the walk, we were rewarded with ice cream cones, milk shakes and cold cans of coke at MacLeod’s Canteen, a small diner right on the beach near Green Bay Road.
The rest of the day and into the evening was spent hanging out at the green house, eating a late dinner, and sitting around talking about prior Earthwatch trips.
The bulk of the morning was spent sitting around the dining room table at the green house - first for breakfast, then for group introductions, and finally for Chris to gave a presentation on what is involved in monitoring mammals and the techniques we would be employing during the project.
It was around 12:30 pm when we piled into the van and headed out to Broad Cove for a 3 to 4 mile walk along the coast. Even though it was well past noon, most of the walk was enveloped in a shroud of fog, which lent a somewhat other worldly effect to the hike. This was our first official trek where we were suppose to be scanning the ground for any signs of scat or animal tracks, but the only one who seemed to have any luck locating anything was Lycos.
The last mile or so, I was walking ahead of the main group with Chris, Lycos and Jessica when we spotted a muskrat swimming in one of the small ponds that dotted the shoreline. By the time I had my camera out to take a picture it had spotted us and ducked under the leaves of the lilly pads. The group that was with Christina found some deer droppings, but that was pretty much the extent of our findings for the day.At the end of the walk, we were rewarded with ice cream cones, milk shakes and cold cans of coke at MacLeod’s Canteen, a small diner right on the beach near Green Bay Road.The rest of the day and into the evening was spent hanging out at the green house, eating a late dinner, and sitting around talking about prior Earthwatch trips.
Friday, August 17, 2007
The gathering of team three.......
Sunday - July 29th, 2007
At the appointed hour of 3:00 pm, I wheeled my huge red canvas duffle bag down the corridor at the Halifax International airport, pushing it toward the Arrivals section, where I was meet up with the rest of the Earthwatch team and the project PI’s. Over the next half hour or so total strangers from all over the world gathered around a makeshift “Mammals of Nova Scotia” sign that Chris Newman held chest high.
There was Paul and Susann, a married couple from Espoo, Finland; Andrew, a 3rd year college student from Brooklyn, New York; Hannah, a recent high school graduate from Manchester, England; Julie, a kindergarten teacher from Mill Valley in California; Jessica, an elementary school teacher from Rocky Hill, New Jersey; Yukihiro, a school teacher from Aichi, Japan; Kumiko, another elementary school teacher from Tokyo, Japan; and me, from Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Absent from this initial meeting were John, a high school teacher from New York City, and Patti who was a school nurse in Somerset, New Jersey – they had both elected to drive to Nova Scotia, and would be meeting us in Cherry Hill, our base of operations for the next two weeks.
In addition to Chris Newman and Christina Buesching, Eric Knightly a recent graduate of The Ohio State University, would be working with us as a project assistant, plant botanist, and resident blues musician. Since our party was too large to all fit into Chris’s white Ford van, Jessica, Yuki and I drove with Eric in his car for the two hour drive to Cherry Hill. For the most part it was an uneventful ride, the conversations covering a wide range of topics, while a Bob Dylan CD played in the background, and we took in the view of the Nova Scotia countryside.
There are two houses in Cherry Hill that we will be using over the course of our two weeks here, the green house where the women and Paul would stay, and the yellow house where all the men would sleep. The green house will be our base of operations - all meals, meetings and lectures will take place there. I chose to share a room with Yuki, hoping that he wasn’t prone to snoring, as had been the case with my last Earthwatch roommate. After unpacking my bag and arranging my gear, Eric, Yuki, Andrew and I walked 2 blocks down the road to get our first view of Little Harbor, and the Atlantic Ocean.
At the appointed hour of 3:00 pm, I wheeled my huge red canvas duffle bag down the corridor at the Halifax International airport, pushing it toward the Arrivals section, where I was meet up with the rest of the Earthwatch team and the project PI’s. Over the next half hour or so total strangers from all over the world gathered around a makeshift “Mammals of Nova Scotia” sign that Chris Newman held chest high.
There was Paul and Susann, a married couple from Espoo, Finland; Andrew, a 3rd year college student from Brooklyn, New York; Hannah, a recent high school graduate from Manchester, England; Julie, a kindergarten teacher from Mill Valley in California; Jessica, an elementary school teacher from Rocky Hill, New Jersey; Yukihiro, a school teacher from Aichi, Japan; Kumiko, another elementary school teacher from Tokyo, Japan; and me, from Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Absent from this initial meeting were John, a high school teacher from New York City, and Patti who was a school nurse in Somerset, New Jersey – they had both elected to drive to Nova Scotia, and would be meeting us in Cherry Hill, our base of operations for the next two weeks.
In addition to Chris Newman and Christina Buesching, Eric Knightly a recent graduate of The Ohio State University, would be working with us as a project assistant, plant botanist, and resident blues musician. Since our party was too large to all fit into Chris’s white Ford van, Jessica, Yuki and I drove with Eric in his car for the two hour drive to Cherry Hill. For the most part it was an uneventful ride, the conversations covering a wide range of topics, while a Bob Dylan CD played in the background, and we took in the view of the Nova Scotia countryside.
There are two houses in Cherry Hill that we will be using over the course of our two weeks here, the green house where the women and Paul would stay, and the yellow house where all the men would sleep. The green house will be our base of operations - all meals, meetings and lectures will take place there. I chose to share a room with Yuki, hoping that he wasn’t prone to snoring, as had been the case with my last Earthwatch roommate. After unpacking my bag and arranging my gear, Eric, Yuki, Andrew and I walked 2 blocks down the road to get our first view of Little Harbor, and the Atlantic Ocean. Soon it was time to go back to the green house for dinner, a meeting to go over the projects scope, and a safety briefing. By the time we were through with the safety briefing it was getting late, so it was decided to hold off on personal introductions until tomorrow morning. I wasn’t ready to go to sleep, so I took a mile walk with Eric and Yuki down to a pond that had a beaver lodge, hoping we might spot them, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case so we walked back to the house and went to bed.
Team 3 Group Photo
Left to Right: John Pritchard, Dr. Chris Newman, Julie Althoff, Yukihiro Nakanishi, Dr. Christina Buesching, Patti Brewer, Andrew Heller, Paul Collander, Hannah Regan, Kumiko Osaki, Susann Uggeldahl, Jessica Kennedy-Delahoy, Patrick Aird, Eric Kightly and Lycos.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
We're in Backpacker Magazine!
Check out the article about team 1 in the September 2007 edition of Backpacker magazine. It's the article about citizen scientists - page 112 or so.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Voles!!
Tuesday June 5th
Written by Paul Bonazzi
The morning began with checking the traps in the new location we has set up yesterday. Over half of the fifty field traps were busted open - probably by raccoons. The raccoons go after the meat. We set them back up, this time without the meat, and headed to check the forest traps. The forest traps yielded better results - we caught two small mammals - both red-backed voles.
Red-backed voles are small rodents that don’t have good hearing or vision, and often freeze completely still when they see predators. For these reasons they often become prey for several carnivores: including foxes, weasel, bobcat, coyote, owls, and raptors. One might wonder; how do they survive as a species? The answer is they reproduce often they rely on protection from the underground, and loose fitting skin that allows them to turn around when caught and bite their predators on the nose. The skin of their tail will break off if a predator grabs it. It will not grow back, so it can be a sign of how many close calls a red-backed vole has had with death.
After lunch we were each given a camera trap and given the choice of where we wanted to set it up. I took my camera trap to the back of the fire pond. The fire pond was created as a source of water for fire crews to use to prevent fires from spreading. I put the camera in an area where bobcat scat had previously been found. On Thursday I will check the pictures of the animals that were taken there.
We finished up the day by clearing a trail, and then we checked the small mammal traps before we left. Nothing had been captured. Only two more days left with our research at Cook’s lake. We will be able to see our immediate results, but this is a long-term research site and our team (the first team) is setting the baseline data onto which future teams will add.
Written by Paul Bonazzi
The morning began with checking the traps in the new location we has set up yesterday. Over half of the fifty field traps were busted open - probably by raccoons. The raccoons go after the meat. We set them back up, this time without the meat, and headed to check the forest traps. The forest traps yielded better results - we caught two small mammals - both red-backed voles.
Red-backed voles are small rodents that don’t have good hearing or vision, and often freeze completely still when they see predators. For these reasons they often become prey for several carnivores: including foxes, weasel, bobcat, coyote, owls, and raptors. One might wonder; how do they survive as a species? The answer is they reproduce often they rely on protection from the underground, and loose fitting skin that allows them to turn around when caught and bite their predators on the nose. The skin of their tail will break off if a predator grabs it. It will not grow back, so it can be a sign of how many close calls a red-backed vole has had with death.After lunch we were each given a camera trap and given the choice of where we wanted to set it up. I took my camera trap to the back of the fire pond. The fire pond was created as a source of water for fire crews to use to prevent fires from spreading. I put the camera in an area where bobcat scat had previously been found. On Thursday I will check the pictures of the animals that were taken there.
We finished up the day by clearing a trail, and then we checked the small mammal traps before we left. Nothing had been captured. Only two more days left with our research at Cook’s lake. We will be able to see our immediate results, but this is a long-term research site and our team (the first team) is setting the baseline data onto which future teams will add.
A Rainy, Tired Day
Monday June 4th
Written by Paul Bonazzi
After are “Big Dam Hike” we were given the morning to rest and go over some of the mathematical equations that give us estimated populations of the small mammals (mostly rodents), deer, snow-shoe hare and porcupine that live on Cook’s Lake farm. Still more surveying is needed before we can have any conclusive numbers of mammal populations.
After lunch, we headed to Cook’s Lake to set up another small mammal trapping grid. We set up the traps again and placed 50 in the field and 50 in the woodlands. It was raining pretty hard and the conditions were less than ideal. On our way out we checked the weather monitoring stations and headed back to the cottage.
Written by Paul Bonazzi
After are “Big Dam Hike” we were given the morning to rest and go over some of the mathematical equations that give us estimated populations of the small mammals (mostly rodents), deer, snow-shoe hare and porcupine that live on Cook’s Lake farm. Still more surveying is needed before we can have any conclusive numbers of mammal populations.
After lunch, we headed to Cook’s Lake to set up another small mammal trapping grid. We set up the traps again and placed 50 in the field and 50 in the woodlands. It was raining pretty hard and the conditions were less than ideal. On our way out we checked the weather monitoring stations and headed back to the cottage.
Kejimkujic National Park - The Big Dam Hike
Sunday, June 3rd
Kejimkujik National Park is one of the great treasures of Nova Scotia. The 381 Square Kilometers that encompasses Keji is the home of varied and diverse wildlife. It is for that reason that I was very excited to spend the day enjoying the sights and sounds of this vast park.We arrived at 11:30 am and took a short two-mile walk in which we immediately saw two white-tailed deer. It was a little chilly, but the clouds were breaking apart and the sun was peeping through. There was an interesting observatory along the way which contained information on the glaciers which have formed Nova Scotia’s rocky strata as it is today. The view from the telescope at the top of the tower was stunning, a beautiful green forest surrounding a sparkling lake.
After walking back through the cool leafy forest we stopped for lunch at some sturdy, wooden picnic tables. The tables were promptly measured and scrutinized so that we will be able to re-construct them for future Earthwatch teams working at Cook’s Lake. Hopefully we will have time to do so before Saturday. Following our refreshing lunch of sandwiches (again!) we all trooped off along another trail, in a different area of the park. The huge hemlock trees we walked under were stunning and ranged from small new trees to enormous, old ones, the eldest of which is 600 years old and 2 meters in circumference. These trees have a root system which is very close to the surface so it is important not to disturb the roots by walking on them or they will become damaged and broken. For this reason we walked along specially designed boardwalks which kept us above the ground.
While I was trying to get on an airplane to fly back to the Earthwatch office, the team was having quite an adventure at the Kejimkujic National Park - scouting out the exact length of the trail for future teams!
The Big Dam Hike
Written by Paul Bonazzi and Ali Gamper
Kejimkujik National Park is one of the great treasures of Nova Scotia. The 381 Square Kilometers that encompasses Keji is the home of varied and diverse wildlife. It is for that reason that I was very excited to spend the day enjoying the sights and sounds of this vast park.We arrived at 11:30 am and took a short two-mile walk in which we immediately saw two white-tailed deer. It was a little chilly, but the clouds were breaking apart and the sun was peeping through. There was an interesting observatory along the way which contained information on the glaciers which have formed Nova Scotia’s rocky strata as it is today. The view from the telescope at the top of the tower was stunning, a beautiful green forest surrounding a sparkling lake.
After walking back through the cool leafy forest we stopped for lunch at some sturdy, wooden picnic tables. The tables were promptly measured and scrutinized so that we will be able to re-construct them for future Earthwatch teams working at Cook’s Lake. Hopefully we will have time to do so before Saturday. Following our refreshing lunch of sandwiches (again!) we all trooped off along another trail, in a different area of the park. The huge hemlock trees we walked under were stunning and ranged from small new trees to enormous, old ones, the eldest of which is 600 years old and 2 meters in circumference. These trees have a root system which is very close to the surface so it is important not to disturb the roots by walking on them or they will become damaged and broken. For this reason we walked along specially designed boardwalks which kept us above the ground. The trail came to a fork in the road at about 3:30. At this time our leader asked the group if they would like to continue walking around the Big Dam Lake. The trail around the Big Dam Lake is said to be 24 kilometers on the map, my pedometer would later prove that to be incorrect. Thinking the distance was much shorter we felt we could comfortably manage and it was unanimously agreed to go for it. The next few hours zipped by and we made tremendous progress. We stopped off to look at a nice lake we passed on the way and there we found a text-book example of mink scat. Mink is in the mustelid (weasel) family and is a solitary animal, most active between dusk and dawn. A predator which feeds on aquatic birds, fish, mammals, and frogs. While we were there we happened to see some of its prey- piquerill frogs. We got back on the trail and came to an impassable stream. The group consisted of people of all ages ranging from 19-72. Some of the group managed to jump or wade across but the rocks were slippery and treacherous which made it dangerous for the elderly gentlemen to make the crossing. The group debated for a little while and then the leader and I grabbed a picnic table that was a few hundred feet away and held it down for the rest of the group to pass across the stream. All crossed the stream safely but one member fell and injured his knee. At this point the group was hobbling and weary. The time was about five o’clock and all were happily anticipating a short walk through the trees (three mile) and then driving home for tea and ice cream. We set off with renewed energy, Lycos the dog setting a blazing trail with Chris, our leader in tow. Some of the group walked briskly after Chris, some strolled along behind and others lagged behind as they grew tired and weary. Now and then Chris and Lycos’ group would stop to wait for the others to catch up, but gradually the groups got more and more widely spaced.
I was walking with the group in the back giving moral support and in case of emergency. Word was passed from group to group that there was only one mile left to go. This must have been the longest mile ever. A few hours passed, and word was again passed back down through the groups that there was only one mile left. Nobody was buying that line anymore. Darkness was falling and many of the group began to become twitchy at the thought of hungry bears, coyotes, bobcat, or even cougar roaming through the forest. We walked on and on and on through endless trees.
It was now completely dark and the forest became alive with the sound of rustling and stirring in the undergrowth. At long last the first group caught sight of the bus in the car park. The second group followed hot on their heels. A search party was formed and set off to look for the last group. As the flashlights from the search group rounded the corner it was met with relief and the assurance “its only one more mile” was given, again!!! This proved to be true this time and the final group reached the bus at 11 o’clock, exhausted and limping but glad to have survived the 20 mile hike around the Big Dam Lake!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Lunenburg and Laundry
June 2nd, 2007Today was our "research-free" day. It dawned cool and foggy, and we were a bit hesistant about the weather, but the fog cleared right around noon and it turned into a bright and sunny day. We set off for Lunenburg, a World Heritage Site village on the South-East coast of Nova Scotia. It was beautiful - full of bright red buildings and intricately painted houses. We spend most of our afternoon at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic (Alice got a chance to imagine life as a lobster and check out the various parts of a schooner).
The big red building on the bottom left of this picture is the museum as viewed from across the harbor. You can see the village of Lunenburg beside it and up on the hill behind it.
The three story museum had information about all aspects of fishing in the Grand Banks (off of Newfoundland) and the inshore fisheries (defined as within 5 miles of shore). They even had an aquarium and two fishing boats docked outside. One was a schooner, that fished using dories (small wooden row boats) and the other was a trawler, that dragged a huge net behind it. Here is a photo of the impressive bow of the trawler (left photo) and the deck of the schooner.
We didn't have too much time in Lunenburg as we had to hurry back to Bridgewater so folks could do laundry. Alice and I checked out the Frenchy's - a Canadian used-clothing store that I had heard lots about - definitely well worth the visit!
Off to the airport (for me) tomorrow!
Hegi again
June 1st, 2007
Hegi spent another night raiding our traps. Here's a photo of him running free after his latest weighing.
After checking all the traps, we took them all in, as they are normally only set out for a three-day stretch. Plus, we're going to be out of the field for the next two days, and they cannot stay out unattended.
Following that, Michael and David set off to survey an old clearing that had been made on the property for the GPS map, and the rest of us took up the tools and set off for trail clearing, as we were all really keen on it now. Alice is now reknowned for her love of the hacksaw, and Matthew even bought her one so she doesn't have to give it up to let someone else use it!
We returned to the house early and had a few hours to check out the nearby beach. A rocky cove, that looked picturesque in the gathering weather.
Hegi spent another night raiding our traps. Here's a photo of him running free after his latest weighing.
After checking all the traps, we took them all in, as they are normally only set out for a three-day stretch. Plus, we're going to be out of the field for the next two days, and they cannot stay out unattended.
Following that, Michael and David set off to survey an old clearing that had been made on the property for the GPS map, and the rest of us took up the tools and set off for trail clearing, as we were all really keen on it now. Alice is now reknowned for her love of the hacksaw, and Matthew even bought her one so she doesn't have to give it up to let someone else use it!
We also checked the weather stations that we had put out the day before. These are simple contraptions that can measure rainfall, windspeed and direction, and temperature. However, they do not 'log' the measurements so they have to be checked everyday to get a snapshot of the weather.
Not much had happened in the past day. No precipitation and no wind to speak of.
We returned to the house early and had a few hours to check out the nearby beach. A rocky cove, that looked picturesque in the gathering weather. 
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Chipmunks of the 'hood
Checking the traps
We have to check the traps morning and evening every day, rain or shine, to make sure that no
animals are trapped for very long. We also take pains to cover the traps with grass so they don't get too hot and to include food for each type of animal that might find their way into the trap. So the traps contain hay for warmth and comfort (store-bought Timothy hay in fact), bird-seed for the mice, a slice of apple for water (since most small mammals get all their fluid from their food), and a little bit of raw hamburger for the insect eaters that might come in - like the short tail shrew which is too chubby to fit out of the "shrew escape hole" (shown above). The researchers used to use maggots, a favorite food of shrews, but apparently they were not the favorite of volunteers, so thankfully they switched to a more human-friendly food.
Today, when checking our traps, we all had quite a shock - ALL the traps that we had set near the edge of the woods had been busted open! I have this theory that the same chipmunk that we caught yesterday spent the night roaming the edge of the woods and raiding all the traps for food. I can only imagine the little critter, with his pack of other 'rebel chipmunks', strutting about the edge of the forest, intimidating the mice and voles, cracking their knuckles and laughing maniacally as they tore apart all the traps. One of them showing off his trimmed rump fur (which Chris has clipped so we could identify animals that had already been caught) with pride. Of course, I might be anthropomophizing here, but hey, it was quite the event!
And lo and behold, two traps were still intact, with the door flaps shut. When Christina and Alice opened them, we found not just one, but BOTH of them had chipmunks in them! The same little guy from yesterday, which I have now nick-named Kegi (after the National park that the team visits on Sunday), and a new one (obviously recruited from the 'hood).
We should call him Hegi.
Kegi was much calmer than yesterday, and pretty much just took the weighing in stride. When we caught him (again) that evening, he seemed almost relaxed, just waiting to take off and tell his little chipmunk buddies about his adventures. And don't worry, he won't suffocate in that plastic bag, it's open at the top.
We have to check the traps morning and evening every day, rain or shine, to make sure that no
animals are trapped for very long. We also take pains to cover the traps with grass so they don't get too hot and to include food for each type of animal that might find their way into the trap. So the traps contain hay for warmth and comfort (store-bought Timothy hay in fact), bird-seed for the mice, a slice of apple for water (since most small mammals get all their fluid from their food), and a little bit of raw hamburger for the insect eaters that might come in - like the short tail shrew which is too chubby to fit out of the "shrew escape hole" (shown above). The researchers used to use maggots, a favorite food of shrews, but apparently they were not the favorite of volunteers, so thankfully they switched to a more human-friendly food.
Today, when checking our traps, we all had quite a shock - ALL the traps that we had set near the edge of the woods had been busted open! I have this theory that the same chipmunk that we caught yesterday spent the night roaming the edge of the woods and raiding all the traps for food. I can only imagine the little critter, with his pack of other 'rebel chipmunks', strutting about the edge of the forest, intimidating the mice and voles, cracking their knuckles and laughing maniacally as they tore apart all the traps. One of them showing off his trimmed rump fur (which Chris has clipped so we could identify animals that had already been caught) with pride. Of course, I might be anthropomophizing here, but hey, it was quite the event!
And lo and behold, two traps were still intact, with the door flaps shut. When Christina and Alice opened them, we found not just one, but BOTH of them had chipmunks in them! The same little guy from yesterday, which I have now nick-named Kegi (after the National park that the team visits on Sunday), and a new one (obviously recruited from the 'hood).
We should call him Hegi.Kegi was much calmer than yesterday, and pretty much just took the weighing in stride. When we caught him (again) that evening, he seemed almost relaxed, just waiting to take off and tell his little chipmunk buddies about his adventures. And don't worry, he won't suffocate in that plastic bag, it's open at the top.
Searching for animal signs in quadrats 
We also spent time doing 10 meter by 10 meter quadrats in the woods, to look for deer droppings. As you might remember from our earlier experience in the meadows, where we didn't find any deer droppings, we were beginning to wonder whether there 
really were deer in the area. But our first quadrat yielded 10 droppings, which was very exciting. After that, however, we found fewer (perhaps because certain members of the team seemed predisposed to setting their 'random' quadrats in the middle of the most dense brush-covered swamps. I know I would not be hanging out in such an unfriendly place as that if I were a deer!). You can see from our headnets that the black flies were out on this day. They are only a problem in the early Spring - usually May - the rest of the teams this year will have many fewer bugs to contend with. But, then again, we revel in our toughness (and ability to look stylish in bug-nets)!
Transect clearing
Alice and I especially enjoyed today's afternoon task of clearing an abandoned 4-wheel drive track. With hand saws and clippers in hand we attacked the downed trees and young saplings that had overgrown the trail. Chris and
Christina hoped to make a trail that they can use to reach deeper into the forest to do transects and quadrats. In addition, having a relatively wide trail would allow observers to see animals over a longer distance than if one had to peek through the forest. It was hard work, but very rewarding as we could see the broad trail being formed behind us.
Checking the Traps
 |
| Team B (Paul and myself) |
Last night after dinner we each predicted how many traps would have a little mammal in them today. We were cocky and confident (or “optimistic and naïve” as David and Matthew would say), despite predictions by Chris that we would probably only get 10% on the first night. Pretty much everyone guessed that their line of 20 traps would catch around 40% of the total catch… yeah. Way off the mark… simply amateurish.
After our disappointing luck trapping, we moved onto the deer quadrats, searching for “signs of deer” (read: poop). By the end we were standing up and walking quickly through the plots. No more earthworm poop for us! After about 10 quadrats, we finally had a little luck as we moved closer to the woods.
After lunch (this time we remembered the utensils…) we set off to put up camera traps to take pictures of animals that we couldn’t capture in traps and for whom we might not find scat. The pictures taken by the cameras would help determine what types of animals are in the area.
After this we divided into three groups to survey the research site using GPS. By walking along prominent
features of the landscape and taking GPS positions every 100 meters or so, Chris and Christina would be able to create a map of the area more detailed than a regular ol’ road map.By 5 O’Clock we were pooped (!) and ready to check the traps for one last time before heading home. This time we cruised through the traps like pros – we knew exactly where they were (no more looking around for the little white bits of tape we had stuck on blades of grass or tiny branches), knew how to check them without touching them too much (and getting more of our heavy “human scent” on them), and generally felt like true small mammal biologists. Of course the traps Paul and I had set were empty. However, as we exited the woods, we heard Christina calling us over – she and Chris had caught something!
She said the trap felt heavy, and the neighboring trap had been torn asunder (i.e. the two halves had come apart), so she assumed they had captured a chipmunk. The traps aren’t designed for chipmunks, who are a bit large to fit in them. However chipmunks, as most national park visitors know, are very persistent critters when food is involved, and often will squeeze themselves into the trap to get at the goodies inside. Chris had told us a story about one particular chipmunk that would go into a trap and eat all the food, then, when released, would sit nearby, wait for the trap to be filled again, and go straight back in!
Christina carefully took apart the trap with her hand in a large plastic bag, so the chipmunk could not escape but would still be safe. He did not like to be trapped, as you can well imagine. He was a male “in reproductive condition” and very energetic. Because chipmunks have a tendency to bite, Christina did not try to pick him up as they do with the mice and voles. Instead she tipped him into a smaller bag and weighed him with a small hanging scale, then Chris clipped a little patch of his “guard hair” (the longer part of his hair, leaving his warm undercoat intact) and we released him. You can just see the blur of his tail on the bottom right of this picture as he sped off into the woods.
Tonight’s predictions for tomorrow’s catch range from 2 total (that’s my guess) to 11 (RD’s) guess).
Oh! And I’m supposed to tell you that the find of the day was Bobcat scat which Paul found while doing the GPS survey. Unfortunately we weren’t all there so I can’t describe their elation as they came across this rare find. On our GPS survey we found raccoon scat, red fox scat and a largish scat which we could not agree on – David and I thought it was from a coyote, while Alice was convinced it was fox scat, so we gathered it up in a discarded Budweiser bottle and carried it back to Chris, who promptly told us it was raccoon scat. I guess we all need a little more practice identifying poo.
The Traps Are Set!
Today is the third day of our project and involved a scenic drive to 
Cook’s Lake. The morning was spent walking through the forests identifying trees and, as ever, looking out for poo. We had a detailed discussion on the various smells of different species’ poo which ranged from a musty, unwashed armpit smell to a fresh scent of jasmine. A few other interesting facts about poo are that the mustelid (weasel) family and the canid family tend to have tightly curled poo where as porcupines and raccoons tend to have a distinct pellet formation, especially when they have been eating roughage like bark.
We identified some plants and flowers along the way too which was interesting. Among these were the blueberry plant which is a ground covering bush which black bears eat during Autumn. To continue this theme black bears eat blackberries during Summer and grubs in Spring. They hunt ground squirrels and mice and also eat carrion so ‘never play dead with a black bear’ says Chris!
Cooks Lake contains fish, turtles, beavers, loons and coyotes but we didn’t see any bears today – oh well perhaps tomorrow!!
Another note to add along the theme of poo is about blocked anal glands. This is quite gross but I was interested as our dog at home always seems to suffer from this particular complaint – I must remember to tell mum when I get back! Apparently domestic dogs sometimes don’t get enough roughage in their diet and so their poo is too soft to squeeze out the anal secretions which are used to mark the animals’ territory. To remedy this dry biscuits and bones must be fed regularly to provide adequate roughage.
The afternoon was spent setting small mammal traps. This included filling the nesting box half full with hay to provide the animals with adequate warmth and comfort. Then grain was put in for food, apple for moisture and a small piece of burger for the meat-eating mammals. The trap was then set in a banana shape to aid drainage. This prevents the animals from being flooded and getting wet and cold. An interesting aspect of the design of the trap includes a shrew escape hole. This is a small hole at the back of the nesting box through which shrews can escape 
but the larger mice and voles can’t. The reason behind this is that shrews are very small and have a fast metabolism which means they would probably starve before the biologists could get back to check the trap.
Hay had to be carefully packed in order to prevent younger mice from spying the hole at the back and trying to force their way out. This is very bad as they tend to get stuck halfway in and halfway out leaving them in a nasty situation if a predator comes along. When the traps are checked by the biologists they must occasionally get out the margarine tub which is to be avoided at all costs!
All in all a very enjoyable day and I look forward to checking the traps tomorrow and, hopefully, finding some small mammals!
Cook’s Lake. The morning was spent walking through the forests identifying trees and, as ever, looking out for poo. We had a detailed discussion on the various smells of different species’ poo which ranged from a musty, unwashed armpit smell to a fresh scent of jasmine. A few other interesting facts about poo are that the mustelid (weasel) family and the canid family tend to have tightly curled poo where as porcupines and raccoons tend to have a distinct pellet formation, especially when they have been eating roughage like bark.We identified some plants and flowers along the way too which was interesting. Among these were the blueberry plant which is a ground covering bush which black bears eat during Autumn. To continue this theme black bears eat blackberries during Summer and grubs in Spring. They hunt ground squirrels and mice and also eat carrion so ‘never play dead with a black bear’ says Chris!
Cooks Lake contains fish, turtles, beavers, loons and coyotes but we didn’t see any bears today – oh well perhaps tomorrow!!
Another note to add along the theme of poo is about blocked anal glands. This is quite gross but I was interested as our dog at home always seems to suffer from this particular complaint – I must remember to tell mum when I get back! Apparently domestic dogs sometimes don’t get enough roughage in their diet and so their poo is too soft to squeeze out the anal secretions which are used to mark the animals’ territory. To remedy this dry biscuits and bones must be fed regularly to provide adequate roughage.
The afternoon was spent setting small mammal traps. This included filling the nesting box half full with hay to provide the animals with adequate warmth and comfort. Then grain was put in for food, apple for moisture and a small piece of burger for the meat-eating mammals. The trap was then set in a banana shape to aid drainage. This prevents the animals from being flooded and getting wet and cold. An interesting aspect of the design of the trap includes a shrew escape hole. This is a small hole at the back of the nesting box through which shrews can escape 
but the larger mice and voles can’t. The reason behind this is that shrews are very small and have a fast metabolism which means they would probably starve before the biologists could get back to check the trap.Hay had to be carefully packed in order to prevent younger mice from spying the hole at the back and trying to force their way out. This is very bad as they tend to get stuck halfway in and halfway out leaving them in a nasty situation if a predator comes along. When the traps are checked by the biologists they must occasionally get out the margarine tub which is to be avoided at all costs!
All in all a very enjoyable day and I look forward to checking the traps tomorrow and, hopefully, finding some small mammals!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Quadrats, surveys, and one chipmunk...
We got up a smidge earlier today to go check the small mammal traps we put out yesterday. We were full of excitement, confident that our traps would catch more traps that Chris anticipated. Of course, we were wrong and either our poor placement or icky human smell kept away all the critters this morning - as all 100 traps were empty. Not even a single "tossed about by a racoon" one. It was a sad realization for us as we walked back to the truck. 
"No worries folks!" said Chris and Christina, "we'll do quadrats!" before lunch. So off we set, with four 2 meter tall red and white poles that looked surprizingly like javelins. We set them in a 10 meter by 10 meter square and eagerly crawled on our hands and knees through the field looking for deer poop. So convinced were we that we might miss something, we pushed back grass and peered at the dirt below. Paul shouted excitedly, "I found some poop!" "that's earthworm poop" replied Christina. Turns out we were being a bit more thorough than we needed to be. No deer poop was found, and we pressed on across the field to set another quadrat. Again no poop. And another. No poop. Two more. No poop. Although we had seen deer the day before, we were beginning to doubt that deer existed at all in Nova Scotia. Finally, dejected after our sixth unsuccessful quadrat we walked despondantly towards the other side of the field. "Deer poop!" someone yelled. So in a decidedly non-random way we set up a quadrat with it on the inside corner. But there was no more poop in the 100 square meter area. Were we to have a totally unsuccessful day?
"No worries folks!" said Chris and Christina, "we'll do quadrats!" before lunch. So off we set, with four 2 meter tall red and white poles that looked surprizingly like javelins. We set them in a 10 meter by 10 meter square and eagerly crawled on our hands and knees through the field looking for deer poop. So convinced were we that we might miss something, we pushed back grass and peered at the dirt below. Paul shouted excitedly, "I found some poop!" "that's earthworm poop" replied Christina. Turns out we were being a bit more thorough than we needed to be. No deer poop was found, and we pressed on across the field to set another quadrat. Again no poop. And another. No poop. Two more. No poop. Although we had seen deer the day before, we were beginning to doubt that deer existed at all in Nova Scotia. Finally, dejected after our sixth unsuccessful quadrat we walked despondantly towards the other side of the field. "Deer poop!" someone yelled. So in a decidedly non-random way we set up a quadrat with it on the inside corner. But there was no more poop in the 100 square meter area. Were we to have a totally unsuccessful day?
Monday, May 28, 2007
The Guy Who Picks Up Poop
This morning we learned that “the guy who picks up poop,” our illustrious leader Chris Newman, isactually a population ecologist, who works (along with Co-PI Christine Buesching) for the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Together they have been using scat (the official scientist’s name for poop) as an indirect method to look at the abundance of animals in an area.
Here in Nova Scotia we will be looking at populations of deer, snowshoe hare, raccoons, porcupines, coyotes, skunk, otter, and any other animal whose scat we can find. Tomorrow we’ll be establishing grids in which we’ll place traps to catch small mammals (read mice and voles) to look at their abundance (their scat is harder to find). As RD says, “scat really tells you everything you need to know: who they are, where they are, what they eat, when they were there.” RD also knows a lot
about cars (he ran training programs for major automakers) but is quickly becoming a super-pooper-snooper.The day was a bit grey, but after lunch we set out to do our first Field Sign Transect along the coast at Broad Cove. The fog added a mystical quality to the rocky shore and lichen covered trees. On the way to the cove, we all piled into the project van, even Lycos, the dog. I think he really thought he was a lapdog when he climbed onto Chris’s lap!
Our walk was peaceful and quietly beautiful, as the mist slowly curved through the trees to our left and the waves crashed softly against the rocks to our right. We had only two animal sightings – two muskrats swimming in pools of water. They look like small beavers with vertical, swooshing tails that propel them through the water like a wind-up bath toy.We also saw our first animals signs. Yep, you guessed it – scat! The porcupine scat was the most interesting to me – I had never seen it before, it looks like any other pelleted herbivore scat, but longer and skinnier.
Here is a picture:
We also saw snowshoe hare scat, which is almost perfectly round, like peas. Coyote and raccoon scat were also prevalent – they were distinguishable by the high hair content and small bones.
Here is the team examining some:
At the end of the 5 mile walk, we headed home and soon tucked into a full dinner of Sheppard’s pie, salad and cabbage. Ice Cream won over watermelon as the dessert of choice.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
It's all about Poop!
Three of us arrived in Halifax at the bright and early on Sunday morning from Boston. David and I recognized each other from Earthwatch, and we had some time, so we decided to hop the bus ($16 one-way) to Halifax. The day was sunny, breezy and warm, quite a lovely day to be walking along the water front. David even commented, "it feels like vacation!" as we ate lunch at a waterfront cafe. A stop at the map store yielded plenty of old maps 
to look at, and a peak in the Rum Cake Factory found David sampling different types of Rum delicacies (the chocolate rum cake was the best, he claimed). I found out that the sales clerk was also gluten-intolerant and immediately decided it was much worse for her than me - at least at my work there are only goodies some of the time! We left the waterfront and hiked uphill to the city gardens, which were in full bloom: tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, all manner of bulbs were radiating color on all sides. Sadly we didn't have enough time to fully explore and we hoofed it back to the hotel to catch the shuttle back. Unfortunately although we arrived in time, it took us 10 minutes to realize that we were at the wrong hotel! Ooops, the shuttle only stops at the Harborview hotel when requested, and it stops at the
Oceanfront hotel at 2:25. Little did we know. All we knew was that the hotel we had been dropped off at was called the Marriot. Where the harbourview/harbourfront bit on the schedule came in was a bit of a mystery to us. So we had to suck up the $55 cab ride back to the airport. However, it did give us a chuckle when the cab driver complained about how crazy the traffic was at the airport as we waited for two cars to move in front of us. I hope he never decides to become a cabbie in Boston! We met half of the team in the airport and drove through the relatively flat land towards Cherry Hill. Michael sat in front with our intrepid PI, Chris, who only later told us about his propensity for setting vehicles on fire. This is Michael's 14th Earthwatch Expedition. Behind me in the 15-passenger van was Alice, from Scotland, who we are hoping will protect us from bears with her newly acquired TaeKwonDo skills. And in the back seat were Matthew and David, sharing stories and discussing life.
Passing beautiful scenery along the coast we cruised into the small town of Cherry Hill, where we were shown to our "cottages" which in reality are full-blown houses that could hold 12 volunteers, both PIs and a very large husky/shepard mix. Paul and his dad, RD (for Real Deal), who had driven up from New Jersey were already there. Tea and cookies were served in true British style by our PIs fresh off of their 6 years of leading teams in Wytham Woods in Oxford, England. Conversation spilled from climate change to automobiles. We were soon joined by Bruce, a writer for Backpacker Magazine, who joined us with notepad and pen in hand. Dinner of pizza, salad and Super-8 cola was finished off my ice cream and frozen yogurt, the merits of each carefully considered.
A slideshow explaining all the possible risks (with photos of the most incredible poison ivy rash I've ever seen), which really didn't differ from what most of us encounter in everyday life - including: "please don't bump your head on the stairs" and "don't trip on uneven ground". Then we went over the carefully crafted schedule and learned that, really, everything has to do with poop. We'll be counting poop, looking for microbes in poop, watching poop decompose and even building a shelter to house a field pooper! Luckily, poop does not scare this group, especially innocuous herbivore poop, which is really nothing more than repackaged grasses.
They decided that it would be an early night, which worried me as it was already 10 PM, and, well, on a normal night, my roommate is already in bed and I'm feeling like I should be!
Matthew’s highlights of the day: conversation before dinner, talking with people who have similar interests, being in a group of 8-10 people who don’t know each other and having an involved conversation about global warming and seeing how our ideas are kinda aligned.
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