new projects

Morning sun coming up, two bright stars are actually planets - mars and jupiter or something..

stranded without a place to stay, so we went to malagash. at the beach with Laura and Jake.

at the farm there are some cliff swallows that like to hangout:

one of the bats we had caught, male northern long-earred, some scarring on the wing.

new project! near parrsborro, working with amanda to trap at a proposed wind farm site (around 20 turbines or so).
at the campsite - brought the wrong fly for the tent and it was raining, make shift tarping for the win.

 some views from the study site:

 blueberry fields everywhere

there were some orphaned mice we cared for, a farmer had set a trap which killed the mom. unfortunately they didnt make it, but lived for about 5 days. it was too cold and kitten formula was all we had available to us.

bat detectors deployed,

in the lower left corner, this device records bat calls as they forage along forest edges.

harp traps were used to catch bats here, since we were trapping in the forest:

they are basically metal frames with fishing wire. the bats hit the wire and fall into the bag below.
this project was cut short because the project was cancelled. there are moose in the area, and these are endangered in most of nova scotia, so DNR (department of natural resources) came in and said they required a two year moose study before the project could go ahead.

next site: a proposed wind turbine site, but this time only for 3 turbines. we stayed at cariboo provincial park, it was absolutely beautiful.

surprise, jake in the water

next project:
trapping a maternity colony by river hebert. turned out there were no bats. we just got eaten alive by mosquitos (and I mean this, it was terrible - at one point I look down, and not only are my arms and hands covered in mosquitos, but three land on my finger at the same time.)
on the plus side, we were able to go to the fossil cliffs in joggins:

summary of the week long/three projects: 6 nights of trapping, 2 bats captured :(

then a few days off back in halifax:
jake is excited to sleep in a bed again!

my favorite jake face

bike ride to long lake and a hike:

and I found a place to sublet for august, and it has a fenced in backyard and no other dogs! things are looking up, aside from feeling lost all the time.
-alicia