Flying squirrel and pumpkin guts

Since our daughter is too old to dress up for Halloween any more and our house is so rural that we don't get any trick-or-treaters at the door, the only tradition left is carving the pumpkins for the front porch. I must confess that I only participate in eating the roasted seeds after all the work is done. This year I saved a little of the pumpkin goo for camera trap bait. I finally remembered to take it out of the fridge and set it out early this week.

When I got to the camera set this evening, I was first excited to see that pile of pumpkin guts had been ravaged but then dismayed to see the camera askew and covered in mud. I sighed inwardly. Ten photos were registered, but how many of them would be blurred by a muddy lens? I trudged back to the house with the certainty that some critter had ruined another set...



Raccoon
(Seneca Falls, NY 11/12)

 The first few photos were incidental to the bait. An eastern cottontail hopped by. The neighbors cat made an appearance. And then the raccoon appeared. It doesn't seem to be honed in on the pumpkin at first. But with that nose to the ground, it won't take be long before it finds the prize.












Raccoon
(Seneca Falls, NY 11/12)

A minute later, the coon finds the bait. He spends a minute there and then heads back on his original track.

This was the last clear photo. "Clearly" this was the culprit. I have had coons climb my cameras before but this one really sent the camera at an angle. The camera was now pointed at some random spot on the ground rather than y precious pile of putrid pumpkin. Sigh....

Flying squirrel sp.
(Seneca Falls, NY 11/12)

Which is all to say that the next photo was all the sweeter for the luck involved. FLYING SQUIRREL!!! :) And I never would have gotten this capture without the coon tilting the camera (Look how far from center the pumpkin bait is now!). He posed nicely between the smudges of mud. I couldn't have asked for a better result from the pumpkin guts experiment. In a word: "gourdgeous"

Flying squirrel in action

I have spent so much time on this darn video that I have to keep the text short here. Earlier this month I blogged about a camera set I have in the back yard specifically for squirrels (read the original post here ). The Cuddeback Attack is pointed up a black walnut tree in our backyard and has produced slim results... until now. Last week brought an increase in gray squirrel activity on this tree and a new camera trap species for our property: flying squirrel! Check out the video. Nothing super special, but my first video of flying squirrel. Having on my home court is even sweeter.

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):

Checking Squirrel Boxes @ East Hill Campus

Red squirrel nest from box
(Naples, NY 10/11)

This spring, we erected nine flying squirrel boxes at FLCC's East Hill Campus. We used these plans. On Halloween Day, we went out and checked their status. Our intention was to check for evidence of occupancy, not to evict anyone. By now, the breeding season is long over and any young squirrels would not be tied to the nest boxes. Our first box was empty, but our second box had a nest in it. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure it was a red squirrel. The opening was chewed to enlarge it to allow the larger red squirrel access.
 As you can see, there is a hollowed out portion of the nest in the center. Red squirrels favor conifers rather than deciduous trees and this box was attached to a pine tree. The nest itself was made mostly of strips of bark (I am no expert but the bark sure looked like grape vine to me). I say mostly because there were a few odd pieces in the nest. A few leaves and needles and deer hair. But the most interesting find was a piece of rope that had been teased apart and frayed.....

Rope from red squirrel nest
(Naples, NY 10/11)

Thanks for being a good sport, Alyssa!

Bobbie Jo checks squirrel box
(Naples, NY 10/11)

Flying squirrel nest
(Naples, NY 10/11)

We continued up the hill checking boxes and finding  many empty and others with chewed hickory nuts inside and still others with nesting material. Students took turns checking the boxes and all seemed to be having fun. We warned them that actually seeing a flying squirrel was not a certainty. When we got to box #7, Bobbie Jo volunteered to take a turn. Well, she opened the box and saw the nest material start to wiggle and tried to catch the occupant. But the flying squirrel escaped before she could grab it. We all got great looks as it sat in the crotch of a branch. I only had my small camera, but one of my students, Adam Rogers had a nice camera and took two nice pics I will post below. I climbed the ladder and took a quick pic of the nest myself. I got a short video of the squirrel exiting the box and posted it to YouTube here.


Thanks again to Adam Rogers for sharing his photos with me! Check out how flat that tail is.... :)

Flying squirrel
Photo by: Adam Rogers
(Naples, NY 10/11)

Flying squirrel
Photo by: Adam Rogers
(Naples, NY 10/31)