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 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.
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