Hello

Sorry I havent updated in so long. For those of you who dont know I am HOME!!!!

I got back a week and a half ago and brought a special surprise for my husband- a new kitten! His name is now Sprocket and he is hilarious. Duece met him yesterday and was unimpressed! At least he didnt try to kill him. Sprocket however has been following Duece around the house growling and hissing at him.

I will probably stop updating the blog since I am no longer 'on the go'

I hope everyone has a great school year, work year, relax year or whatever!

Thanks for following the blog

This is the little man while he was still living at the shelter

Still at the shelter- he's much bigger now!

Friday, August 7th

Today we caught 3 chipmunks and 2 golden mantle ground squirrels. We let one golden go because he was a part of another study. We ran the chips and went to get the golden out. Thats about when he escaped and pulled a flying ground squirrel act. He made it behind the cabinets in the lab and we had to set traps in the lab and go eat dinner, waiting for him to go in the trap again. He got recaptured and we are running him right now, its 930 at night and hes not even done! We've been in this lab since 8am.

Anyways I thought I'd share a couple of pictures illustrating just how much of a research town this is. Like I said the squirrel we caught today was already ear tagged and dye marked so we let him go. Its like every animal near camp is a study participant!

This is a Yellow Bellied Marmot- a momma marmot. She heard a noise and ran to this rock to check it out.

This is what she's worried about- baby marmot

Baby marmot copying momma

And this is how you know she's in a study... No, Marmots do not naturally have a number stained on their backs! This little lady is number 3!

Thursday, August 6th

ONLY ONE MORE WEEK!!

Today was quite boring. It rained last night and was raining this morning when we headed out. The Prius wasn't handling the muddy road up to the pikas and we didnt feel like falling off of a cliff so we got rained out. We set up in the lab and Dr. Wilson trapped a chipmunk that we ran all day, snore.

Crested Butte is the wildflower capitol of Colorado. We have been seeing A TON of wildflowers and since I am so absolutely bored all of the time I thought I should take some pictures of the beautiful blooms and share them with you all. This has given me something to do at least- I spent several hours today trying to figure out what kind of flowers they are!

I hope you enjoy:

Columbine- I think this is the state flower?

Nodding Groundsel

Scarlet Paintbrush- I love these!

This is a Fleabane, I'm not sure which one though

Kings Crown- very cool!

Tuesday, August 4th

Today Dr. Wilson informed me that we will be leaving a WEEK EARLY!!!! I will be driving back August 13th!

You cannot even understand how happy I am about this. I do not recommend leaving home for 7 weeks to anyone EVER. Its a bad idea, period.

Anyway we caught 2 more young pikas today. They are so mellow, I got to touch one a couple of times and their fur is so soft, even their little feet are fuzzy!

Here is a video of a couple of baby pikas running around on the rocks. They are so agile.

Monday, August 3rd

Today we went out to trap pikas. We didnt catch anything till about 1pm. We caught a juvenile pika and ran him through the program. Thankfully he was ok! We were worried about them because they're a little sensitive.

The only issue with these pikas is that they live up on these rocky slopes where the rocks have slid off the mountain and they usually live above 10,000 feet. We hiked up and down that darn cliff 5 times today! I have thighs like a beast! The bigger rocks are usually pretty stable but all of the smaller ones shift when you step on them, I twisted my ankle and knee several times today, I was hopind Id get to break my left one and come home!! No dice.

To all of you who are dying from the heat of August... I touched snow on Sunday... SNOW! It is right near where we are doing our research, I could touch it every day if I wanted, ha!

Dr. Wilson up the rocks where we set traps

Can you see the pika?

Heres a baby pika, soo freaking cute!

Adult pika

Our baby pika in the pika chamber.

ps the pika in the second picture is perched on a darker gray rock just right of the center of the picture!

Saturday, August 1st

Today we drove from Moran, WY to Gothic, CO. The total drive was supposed to be 12 hours but I have no idea how long it actually took us. I stopped in Grand Junction for about an hour and a half and got pulled over so I think I made pretty good time considering. (no ticket!)

I got to watch the sun rise in Wyoming and watch it set in Colorado. The drive was spectacular, I took some awesome pictures, Utah was very pretty also.

Gothic is a research town filled with all sorts of freakish biologists. We have our own rooms in a four room cabin. We are currently sharing it with some lady and a guy is supposed to come too. It is VERY small, we were so spoiled at the last place! Also it does not have a real toilet but an indoor port-o-poty type thing. Just basically a huge hole in the ground, its absolutely revolting but at least we have our own indoor outhouse... others have to use the one outside along with everyone else. Also we have our own shower which is nice cause other people have to hike over to the community one.

We will be searching for pikas soon, I cant wait to see one!

Sunrise leaving Grand Teton

This is in the morning in Wyoming

I believe this is in Utah, so pretty.

I think Utah still, correct me if I'm wrong. You could see for miles!

Those are not our cabins, those are million dollar houses but this is Mt Crested Butte, right next to where we're staying now.