FLCC Conservation Field Camp 2012

Team WILDLIFE
(l to r: Madie, Clinton, John, Alyssa)

Last week was spent at our residential field course CON 190: Conservation Field Camp. The course is required for our Conservation, Conservation Law and Environmental Studies majors. It is one week of looooong days at Camp Cutler Scout Camp in Bristol, NY (Resulting in a loooonng post here). The students rotate among different disciplines throughout the week. For faculty, this means repeating the same day over and over with different students. I spent the week with co-instructor Clinton Krager and our two Technicians Madie and Alyssa. Activities included small mammal trapping, Breeding Bird Atlas protocol, GPS, tracking, and of course camera trapping.
Here are some highlights --

Lactating Peromyscus
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

Small mammal trapping was a huge success. Clinton runs the trap lines and had 60 Sherman traps set out in brushy and grass habitats. We captured four species this year with the big miss being meadow vole. Many of the critters were in breeding condition as indicated by swollen mammaries. Students took turns taking animals from the traps, handling them safely and applying ear tags.

Notice the swollen mammaries between the hind legs of this Peromyscus sp. Once animals were processed, they were returned to the spot they were captured.

An additional 12 traps were set specifically to target flying squirrels. They were set in a hardwood forest at about five feet off the ground. Traps are attached to the trees using surveyors flagging. Each day we caught two or three flying squirrels and they were a huge hit with the students. Although flying squirrels are common in our area, they are not commonly seen. We have both northern and southern flyers and sometimes catch both species.

Clinton and Madie affixing a flying squirrel trap
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

We have found that putting the critters in a glass jar helps to calm them down. In most cases, the animals will almost immediately calm down and even groom themselves. It also helps the students to see the animal at leasiure. Below is a flying squirrel:

Flying squirrel
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

Flying squirrel patagium
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

We did not ear tag any of the squirrels so I am not sure how many individuals we captured. We would release the squirrels and watch as they climbed a tree. Often, the squirrel would then launch itself to another tree to the delight of all. I have yet to capture a photo of that though so you will have to settle for a picture of the crowd in rapt anticipation.

The results of our camera trapping were equally exciting. We placed 12 cameras out a week before the class and then pulled SD cards from some each day. We tallied 12 species of mammal and five species of birds. Here are some of the better ones:

Mammal species captured:

-White-tailed deer
-Red fox
-Raccoon
-Opossum
-Striped skunk
-Weasel sp. ***
-Woodchuck
-Gray squirrel
-Red squirrel
-Eastern chipmunk
-Flying squirrel sp.
-White-footed mouse sp.

 We had no shortage of raccoon photos. One in particular looked like a young coon. Note the color on this photo. This is the Cuddeback Attack with infrared and I believe that this color occurs when there is some ambient light but the flash still triggers.

Young raccoon
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

This same location also produced an adult coon. Check out the bin int he background. That is an inverted tote with one side cut out so animals can enter. Inside is some bait at the far end of a home made track board (wish I had a photo for you). The bait is at the raf end of the board. At the near end of the board is a piece of felt saturated with "ink" (mineral oil and food coloring). In the center of the board is contact paper, sticky side up. When an animal leaves its tracks on the contact paper, a piece of white paper can be stuck to it so they can keep the prints without getting smudged.

Raccoon
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

 We inspected the logs and found very clear coon tracks. I only had my cell phone so the photo is not the best. See if you can find any of the distinct five-toed tracks....

Raccoon tracks
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

I am always anxious to show students size comparisons between different animals. The results from the Field Camp cameras allowed me to create a few spliced images that show two species "together" in order to directly compare their sizes. First up, gray squirrel size compared to red squirrel.


Composite image of gray and red squirrel
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

The spliced together photo was created using Paint. I am pretty much a novice in this area and welcome any and all comments and suggestions.

This next image is a gray squirrel comared to an Eastern chipmunk in size.

Composite image of gray squirrel and Eastern chipmunk
(South Bristol, 5/12)

The two rarest images of the week were an owl and a weasel. First, the Mustelid! I so rarely capture weasel images that I cherish each one. This one is very nice as it shows a nice image of the weasel in action. This was an Attack camera and set to record video as well. The video is too short to be worth much.

Weasel at Camp Cutler
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

Now the owl.... I have never camera trapped an owl so this was exciting for me. My first reaction was to call this a barn owl, but is just isn't big enough (compare to gray squirrel above). I am going with Eastern screech-owl. Thoughts?

Last year I trapped int his same area and last year we also captured images of red fox pups. I made no attempt to find the den.

Red fox pup
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

 We set out one of the Cuddeback Attacks on a downed tree and got some fun video of raccoons and red fox (not together). Here is the best of the red fox (only need to watch the first half):

Conservation Field Camp 2011: Mist netting Part II

Let me provide a little more details about mist netting. All of the photos that include me were taken by Erin Lord, one of the wildlife technicians hired for the class (Thanks Erin!).

Bander removes bird from net
(5/11, Photo by Erin Lord)

I use nets that are 10 meters long and have a fairly fine mesh to catch smaller birds. The net is constructed of nylon and can be nearly invisible to the naked eye when there is vegetation in the background. This is important as birds have tremendous visual acuity. There are support lines that run along the net called trammel lines. The netting that runs from one parallel trammel line to the next is wider than it needs to be so that some slack is created. This is the "bag" that the bird is captured in.  That's me on the left with my back to the camera. Banders always wear old clothes since birds often defecate in the hand. Mist netters have to additionally eschew buttons, zippers and anything else that can easily tangle in the nets. As I mention in a previous post the purpose of the mist netting is merely for demonstration and I rarely catch more than a few birds in the hour or so I conduct the lesson. This year was notable for some very colorful captures.

Chestnut-sided warbler in mist net
(5/11, South Bristol NY)

On Monday, I captured this male chestnut-sided warbler. The weather had cleared just enough to set out the nets and within minutes I had my first catch of the day. I just love the lemon cap! The birds often look to be caught worse than they really are. I often have a gaggle of students watching me extract a bird, so there is a little extra pressure to do it quickly. But I always remember that the health of the bird comes first.

Removing bird from mist net
(5/11, Photo by Erin Lord)

Some general principals for removing birds from a net: Keep the legs parallel to prevent injury. Never move a wing in a way that the bird wouldn't. Be careful when tugging so as not to strain the bird. Students always want to help, but having them hold the net actually makes it harder for me to remove the bird since I have a hard time telling when I am pulling on the bird too much.

Occasionally, a bird is so tangled that I have to cut the net. In those cases, I make as few cuts as possible. Partly to save the net, but mostly to avoid removing a bird while retaining strands of netting around it. Imagine cutting a bird from a net but leaving a "vest" of netting on it to abraid its skin for the rest of its life.

Chestnut-sided warbler in the hand
(5/11, Photo by Erin Lord)

Once I have the bird out of the net, I can better inspect it for overall condition. Here I am holding him in the "photographer's grip". I have his legs parallel between my first two fingers with my knuckles towards the bird and I use my thumb to hold the legs in place. A firm grip prevents the bird from slipping and sliding and perhaps straining his legs.

In this grip, I watch for signs of stress. These include a drooping head, closed eyes (or eye), panting or other listless behavior. A rookie mistake is to assume that a quiet bird is good while a squawking bird is bad. In fact, the opposite is often the case. But his guy looks bright and alert....



Banding a female American redstart
(5/11 Photo by Erin Lord)

For some reason, I cannot find the photo of me banding the chestnut-sided warbler, so we will settle for this photo of the other warbler I caught that day: a female American redstart. I can tell this is a female because she is brownish with yellow patches. A male is black with orange patches (hence the nickname "pocket oriole" for this small bird). I am holding her in what is called the bander's grip. The first two fingers now go gently around the neck and are held just tight enough so the head cannot slip through. A bird's head is much wider than the neck so this is a safe way to hold one while allowing it to breathe. Fun fact: If you enlarge the photo, you can see that I am placing the band below the bird's ankle. Most people think of that part of the leg as the shin, but a bird actually walks on its toes. Think about it. Knees bend in the opposite direction as the ankle, so it is actually a "foot band" although we all call it a "leg band" :)

Bander and conservation students
(5/11, Photo by Erin Lord)

Once I have the bird properly banded, I take it around for the students to see up close and personal. In this photo, I am showing the bird to Jen, one of my favorite students (even though she is a Yankees fan). I love to watch how excited people get around live wild birds and I never forget how privledged I am to be able to introduce them to something so special.

Conservation Field Camp 2011: Camera Trapping

As I mentioned in my previous post, Conservation students are required to take CON 190: Conservation Field Camp before they graduate. This is a 3-credit, residential course at Cutler Boy Scout Camp in South Bristol, NY. In addition to mist netting, I conducted some camera trapping each day with the students. Here are the results:

Eraser as bat lure at camera trap
(5/11, South Bristol NY)

We have 9 Cuddeback Capture cameras (Five IR [infrared] and four "regular"). I set them out several days before the class started to better our chances of having photos. As I mentioned in my last post, I was one of the instructors for the Wildlife portion of camp. Each day, we received a different group of about 28 students for the entire day. The camera trap activity was part of a rotation where I had a third of the group for about 30 minutes and then did it all over again two more times so that each student was able to participate. To facilitate that structure, I set out the cameras so they were in very loose clusters of three. In each cluster, there was one camera where I tried something different. One cluster had a camera with bait on a tree branch hoping to get some squirrel (specifically flying) pics. Another had a camera with a streamer in front of it to attempt to capture the attention of critters. The third cluster had a camera mounted about ten feet up in a tree with a homemade bat lure in front of it. I had read that some researchers had success capturing bats on camera traps using an eraser at the end of a wire. I used an eraser at the end of a string. In this first photo, you can see the eraser at the top and a tractor that triggered the motion sensor. After three days, I had exactly zero bat photos. But what REALLY convinced me to change the location of this camera trap was having the ladder slip out from under me (TIP: Choose a tree with NO limbs so that when you have to slide down the trunk, it does no permanent damage to the camera trapper)!

Raccoon
(5/11, South Bristol NY)

The animals seemed equally uninterested in my surveyor's flagging. Again, according tot he literature, this is a technique used by trappers to capture fox and bobcat. Use a streamer or a dangling feather and critters will come looking at the novelty. I did get photos on that camera (including the accompanying coon shot) but never saw any indication that the animals were attracted to my orange flagging tape. Perhaps I should try a feather next time...

Flying squirrel sp. on infrared camera trap
(5/11, South Bristol NY)

Even the bait station was less than spectacular.... that is until we switched baits. I started out using the homemade bait we put in the Sherman traps for small mammals. Apparently, the recipe for this bait is a Clinton Krager (another FLCC instructor) special formula that I will describe more in my next post. It sure worked with the small mammals and certainly worked for us at the camera trap as well. We got several pictures each day at that camera including a melanistic gray squirrel, but it wasn't producing the quantities of photos I was expecting. I decided we needed to change things up. In the bottom of the Rubbermaid tote where we store the small mammal supplies I found a jar of Squirrel Paste dated 1999! Made by Havahart, this stuff was AWESOME! We captured photos of 4 different squirrel species at one camera in one night including my first ever flying squirrel camera trap picture. The paste is visible in the center of the photo and the squirrel is at the top right. Not the greatest capture I have ever had, but it is a flying squirrel none the less. The paste smelled vaguely of chocolate and raspberries. Perhaps some of that is due to the fermentation over the last decade. Anyone with experience with FRESH Squirrel Paste is welcome to comment.

Woodchuck
(5/11, South Bristol NY)

Overall we captured photos of 14 species in eight days:
Coyote
Raccoon
Striped Skunk
Eastern Cottontail
White-footed Mouse sp.
Woodchuck
Gray Squirrel
Red Squirrel
Eastern Chipmunk
Flying Squirrel sp.
White-tailed Deer
American Crow
Wild Turkey
Human

Each night, I presented a short "Best of..." PowerPoint for the day's captures. Then we calculated capture effort for the 24 hours. I started by asking the students to calculate the amount of "camera hours" for that day. In other words, if we had one camera out for 24 hours, that would be 24 camera hours. If we had two cameras out for the entire 24 hour period, that would be 48 camera hours. So nine cameras produced 216 hours of effort each day. We could then divide the number of photos into that to see how many photos we accumulated per hour of effort. We discussed the usefulness of this to a manager or a researcher in determining how many cameras would be needed for a specific project.

Clinton Krager attracted to Squirrel Paste
(5/11, South Bristol NY)

All in all, I think the camera trapping unit was a success at camp. Many students participated in camera trapping for the first time while others saw applications beyond just taking photos of deer to target come hunting season. My new challenge is to get a bat photo before the month is out! Next post will be Sherman trapping with Clinton Krager.

Conservation Field Camp 2011: Mist netting

One of the required courses for our Conservation students at Finger Lakes Community College is Conservation Field Camp (CON 190). Field Camp is held at Cutler Boy Scout Camp in South Bristol, NY. This year, we had about 110 students that rotated through four different days of activities: Aquatics, Forest Ecology, Wildlife and Forest Products. As part of the "Wildlife" faculty,  I spent the week catching small mammals in Sherman traps, mist netting for birds and calculating our capture effort using camera traps. This coming week, I will present the highlights.

Mist netting at Camp is more of a demonstration than anything else. I set out two 10 meter nets for about an hour. I average about two to three birds per day, just enough to show the students how this is done. We band the birds, micro age them and check for brood patches and cloacal protuberances. This year, I tried a new location at Camp, amidst some good brush. I caught American Redstart, Baltimore Oriole, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Great Crested Flycatcher, Song Sparrow and Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Baltimore Oriole, South Bristol, NY
(5/11, Photo by Erin Lord)

Baltimore Oriole: Here is a nice male oriole. He had a fully protruding cloaca, telling me that he was in breeding condition. I am holding the bird in what is called the photographer's grip here to show off his plumage to the students. I aged him as an SY (Second Year) male due to the incomplete molt of his tail feathers. Birds are powerful. They are dynamic and, like this one, can be beautiful works of art. When banding for an audience, I never forget that I may be the one talking, but the bird is the real star.

Baltimore Oriole, South Bristol, NY
(5/11, Photo by Erin Lord)

Next post, I will explain more about the mist netting process. For now, enjoy the photos from one of the wildlife techs for Field Camp, Erin Lord.