May was a busy month for us as per usual, hence the lack of blog entries! The new summer crew arrived May 2 and was trained up in trapping, radio telemetry, and nest entries. Camp size has swollen to about a dozen people, although visits by the Principal Investigators and their guests will raise us to 16 for a week in June. Most female squirrels have now given birth to their litter, and some which weren't able to sustain that first litter are attempting to breed again. The first emerged juveniles were seen on the Agnes grid around May 28. The spruce trees on Sulphur and Kloo control grids appear to be masting this year for the first time since 1998, although we are still unsure whether Agnes will follow suit. This means a busy summer but is very exciting for us and the squirrels given the low food conditions over the past several years.

Spring seems to happen overnight in Kluane, or at least over the period of only 2 weeks. Swainson's thrushes entertain us with their songs whenever we are doing dawn and dusk nest locations (note that dusk = 12am and dawn = 4am and it never gets very dark in between!). The first baby snowshoe hares were spotted about the 3rd week of May. No signs of bear activity around our camp or grids yet, but they have been seen elsewhere in the valley and surrounding ridges.

All for now,
Squirrel Crew 2005