Sadly we missed the lunar eclipse due to unusual cloud cover. Bummer. While the Chickadees had a snowflea feast they weren't' sated and continue to rob our traps. They don't take much with each visit, but over a few minutes they pick them clean (like piranhas). They are so bold that they start before we're even a few meters away. The Jays also are a menace, but not as frustrating because they get caught more often.

Chickadee swoops

Brazenly enters the trap

Steals some peanut butter

And is off

It has been very warm lately, swings into plus degrees daily and a low of about -5ºC. Pretty strange for the Yukon in February. The warmth must have caused a snow flea population boom as they can be found just about everywhere you look. Hopefully the Chickadees will be busy eating them and not robbing our traps.

First Nest!
First nest on Agnes, R/Y T.7 D8886/F0205. Three female pups and two males.
This is the earliest birthday ever recorded in Kluane! Certainly an effect of the food addition experiment, still we were caught by surprise. We weren't expecting any litters for another two or three weeks but now it looks like Agnes will be in full swing come early March.



Sara reaches into the nest

The first pup weighs 9.7 grams, just a day old.


Day old pups are blind and hairless, but they will grow up to be pretty cute.

Sara weighs another pup.

After returning the kids to their nest, mom moved them to another nest.

Re-caught the accelo-equipped squirrel. Logger still in place and squirrel seems fine!
After trapping we went down to the Arctic institute for a moon-lit sauna and had the place to ourselves. Tomorrow we are planning an early ascent up towards the Nipple to get a view of the sunrise (early isn't so bad up here as the sun rises at 9am).
-Ryan

The logger is still in place!

High of -1ºC today! Windy.
1st radio collared mating chase on Agnes today, Q16 female but only 3 males showed up. Abe caught another potentially pregnant squirrel today on Agnes.
-Abe

Another warm day. Good trapping success 10 squirrels by Sara alone (Abe and Ryan got some too). Abe collars alone... Ryan goes to Whitehorse to meet Murray for doubly labeled water (not sure why they need to meet in a bar...) Abe and Sara hold down the fort and are preparing for checking on 16 ladies in the morning (for chases). Heard coyotes on Agnes.
-Abe

After trying various configurations over the last couple of days I've figured out the best way to orientate the accelerometer loggers so that they stay out of the squirrel's way. So, without much fanfare, the accelerometer equipped squirrel was released into the wild today. It performed a little bronco action and then ran underground and made a lot of noise (scraping the collar on the tunnel?) but resurfaced will the accelo still in place and proceeded to eat a mushroom. Hopefully it will be fine overnight and I'll trap it tomorrow to be sure it's alright.
-Ryan

I'm pretty confident the logger will stay on the back of the squirrel, but I'm crossing my fingers anyways.

Almost died from heat exhaustion today -9ºC when we got back from trapping on Kloo. Checked on the ladies of Agnes and Kloo but no chases. Unfortunately only 8 squirrels today.
A poetry reading and whiskey tasting in the evening.
Freaky weather -6ºC at 11pm?
-Abe

February 7

A tough day for trapping; only 4 squirrels given colors today. RWT saw a bona fide mating chase (on Agnes) meaning that our time to get colors in is running short!
The seasons first squirrel biscuits also made an appearance satisfying our appetites for sciurid shaped carbs.
-Abe

Yellow over grey's estimated parturition date is March 13

February 3rd

We have high hopes that this week will be warmer and more productive than last, however today was still pretty chilly. Even so, the squirrels seemed more active (or was it just my optimism?) and I caught five squirrels, a 2008 record!
Trapping finished, upon return to the Chitty pullout I discovered that the normally solid Duck had failed us. Turning the ignition produced a slightly audible click, but no turn of the engine, so I started the 5km walk back to camp. Luckily I had dressed warm as there is no shelter from the wind on the highway. I stopped halfway to take some pictures of sunlit mountains behind Sulfur lake and finished the 40min trek without a single car passing me.

40 min hiking at -28ºC

We returned to the Duck via Squirrel truck and still had no luck starting it. Seems the engine is seized up, not really sure what to do.

February 1st

An interesting town-day indeed! Frisky temperatures in camp precipated an early departure and an extensive odyssey for the rest of the day.
Squirrelers dropped in on Mike (ie: the mechanically inclined Mike) without an old generator to fix, just for some conversation and so Mike could laugh at us again. We admired the heat output of his garganuan woodstove, and took in advice on avoiding catastrophic chimney fires ("I have a chimney fire everyday" ... Mike loads up an inferno each morning and cleanses his chimney that way; sounds good to us). We also discovered that the public library has wireless internet, making it that much cooler a hangout.

Our faithful trio, supplemented by thCurrently listening to:
e Alaskan boyfriend (aka: John Boswell), attended a Scottish dinner in honor of Robby Burns at the residence of the friendly Elsiby. We participated in preparing the Haggis, the "King of Puddings", minus the sheep entrails, and tasted a fine variety of scotches and met some nice people who live in the Junction and had a merry time in general.

To top off the day, Aurora in the way home yielded a celestial finale to our day of rest.

-Abe