Sunday, January 17, 2010

Preliminary Winter Ecology Post

Well, I have returned from Maine with new friends, amazing stories, a few sketches, a whole lot of knowledge I didn't have before I left, and exactly the same number of fingers and toes I had when I left!

I can't download pictures because I don't have my photo cable (it is on campus) but even if I did have it, I don't have a ton of pictures since the conditions were a bit adverse. However, here are a few highlights of the trip:

-Tracking weasels, mink, coyotes, deer, snowshoe hares, all manner of rodents, and a moose

-Learning that deer pee sometimes smells like Pine-Sol

-Dance Party with Bernd Heinrich

-Hanging out in the leaning, flammable, perilous sauna, then rolling around nude in the snow (don't worry, I am not posting pictures of this)

-collecting Callisoma cocoons

-Discovering what it is like to hike when it is below zero

-writing 'try our product' in pee

-Helping drag two dead calves up a hill - the ravens were not interested, however.

-having to hack through the ice on the well to get water

-sleeping in a below-freezing cabin and huddling like kinglets for warmth

-eating vole meat, pieces of lichen, and massive amounts of cheese, and chewing on various branches like a moose.

-Counting stems in 18 degree temperatures

-hitting my head on ceiling logs and stepping on slush with my socks

-new friends!

-Learning that 'little hotties' hand warmers only warm the ambient temperatures by 20 or 30 degrees (but raising your toes from 0 degrees to 30 degrees is still a big deal!)

-Learning that shooting a bear feeding from a bird feeder is like kissing your sister.

-breaking the coffee maker thingie (this was not a high point).

-Singing!

-still being confused about how to tell apart red and sugar maple.

And much more! Stories will follow, and hopefully pictures also.

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