March field work

We continue to check our trapline daily and diligently make adjustments in the hopes that we can collar a few more animals before the snow melts. The sun is more intense every day, and it stays light until about 8:30pm. Which means that our field days often go later into the evening. More time for exploring!

We had our first female lynx capture. They are noticeably smaller than the males, with a much faster heart rate. They metabolize the drug faster too and so recover much more quickly.

She was starting to shiver and so we had to wrap her in even more coats and we also added about half a dozen hand warmers. She was back to normal in about 15 minutes, but we left her bundled up until she revived.

After about an hour she revived and started to struggle up the hill.

It's hard to watch them come out of the drug because their limbs don't work as quickly as their desire to escape. 

We left her at about 7pm. She seemed to be doing as well as could be expected, and we needed to be getting home.

A few days later we climbed the hill that overshadows the lake where this female was caught. "Cat Mountain" had tons of cat and bunny tracks, and we found a hare kill site!

We had a great vantage point from the top. Wetlands forever.

We also spent that afternoon trying to get across the Black Hills by following burn scars and drainages, but the regrowth would get too thick by the time we got close to the hills.

The sunrises are much more beautiful than the sunsets out here.

We never did get all the way to the mountains. Maybe in the future.

The flights to and from the cabin have been fascinating. There is nothing quite like viewing the landscape from the air. It expands your perception of the ecosystem so much when you can view these massive patterns in vegetation and lakes and streams from a distance.

Lynx capture!

My latest creations are greeting cards with "wiggle eyes" to give those goofy animals the personality they always had. First I drew a series of Dall sheep in all the seasons.

Then I made a pun.

 And a local reference (Moose's Tooth is a tasty and popular pizza place in Anchorage)

And here are some more playful animals, mostly in winter but I'm trying to look forward to the other season too. And an additional note: the inverted bunny tracks are intentional. It's my artistic signature.

On an exploration in the woods, we found a strange "veil" of snow forming around the bases of trees. It reminded me of the veil below the cap of a coprinus mushroom, an easy identifier for that poisonous genus of fungus. Maybe the iced-over creations of spiders at work in the winter? Or some other interesting conglomeration of ice crystals...

Near any creek there are usually massive roots of fallen trees. Here was an entire grouping that up-ended at once!

When we aren't out at Jatahmund, we are working on a trapline near Tok. Here we are smearing "lure", or stinky stuff that cats like, on a piece of muskrat bait.

Sometimes the bait sets get elaborate.

We have to carefully arrange sticks around the jaws of the trap to try to direct the lynx's foot in the right position.

This is what a completed cubby set looks like.

And now for the most exciting part! We caught a lynx in one of our trail sets this morning. He was not very happy about it, and when he growled I was intimidated. They have wicked canines and claws, and watching them move you can tell that they are very powerful animals. 

Besides putting on the radio collar, we monitor and measure lots of other things while the cat is knocked out. They revive consciousness in about an hour, but as we found today they can take up to 2 hours to be able to walk after they wake up.

This cat weighed about 25 lbs. His legs are so long!

We hiked in to the forest, away from the highway and people trails, to let this cat revive. It was a longer than expected recovery for him, but luckily the weather today was warm so we weren't too worried about him getting cold.

I hope he hates traps and people enough to avoid getting caught by someone else.