Wildlife wonder at Gunnison National Forest

No, this is not another post about poor weather conditions forcing me to update my blog.  In fact, the weather was so decent yesterday and most of today (until late afternoon) that many wildlife seemed to come out of their shelter and enjoy the good weather.

Yesterday, we went to Kebler Pass which was still under at least a couple feet of snow, so I helped out with the bee nest-box checking again.  While walking to the site, I accidentally spooked a grouse and it flew high up onto a tree.

Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) high up on a tree.

North American Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)

I saw a Porcupine dozing off in the sun behind the school building on Saturday (Nov 17).  It was on a tree while I was standing on a hill close to it, but it was still at least 10 m away from me.

So peaceful-looking.

Waking up.

Treefrog and Porcupine

I took the Plant Ecology class to the drumlin next to the campus again this afternoon to teach them about forest community sampling.

While doing the point-quarter sampling method, we saw a little Gray Treefrog on the tree the students were measuring.

Hello from Ontario!

Hello everyone! I am currently sitting in a cafe about 1 hr drive from where I work/live using internet.

So far, the place has just been amazing! I get to see a new lifer almost everyday and the people are just fantastic to work with! I look forward to spending the next 4-5 months working with them and living in this special place.

I will need to keep things short and simple as I am relying on my laptop battery, but you may click on each Flickr photo for more description.

This is where I am currently living, before we fix and clean our field house and the surrounding captive cages for the coming shrikes.