[Comments in bracket are by Duane and Jeannine]
From the Northern Crew:
Dear deer people,
Aside from my usual task of tracking deer around the Susquehannock, I was excited
to start the week off spelunking through an old coal mine with a few PGC biologists in search of bats. At dusk, we set up harp traps inside the mine to catch bats emerging from their roosts to forage.
Prior to the spread of White Nose Syndrome, it was typical to catch hundreds of bats in a single night. But this night, we were very pleased to catch a mere 40+ bats. A few were recaptures from previous years which is good news since it indicates survival.
Fun fact that I learned: bats can live for decades! There is currently a little brown bat in Wisconsin that is at least 32 years old. It was initially banded in 1983 and most recently recaptured last year at the same location in 2015–incredible!
I rounded out the week with a fawn “mortality” that ended up just being a dropped collar. It seems the pleats on the collar didn’t pop open like they should have so the fabric became worn and ultimately tore at a seam.
This upcoming Thursday, I’ll be headed down to the Scotia Range for deer-age training.
Field Crew Leader
From the Southern Crew:
Hi all,
A nice cool week caused some of our fawns to move a little further than usual. Many traveling from private land onto sections of Rothrock State Forest. On Thursday while traveling up a private road through a hollow in Rothrock, I observed one of the collared fawns with the doe and an uncollared fawn. Further up the hollow, I found 2 more collared fawns with a group of 10 deer.
There were plenty of other animals moving during this cool week as well. I observed a red fox hunting in a field next to 322, a red-tailed hawk perched on a fence post in Milroy, a Belted Kingfisher that kept perching next to an American Kestrel on apowerline in McAlevy’s Fort, and plenty of deer.
In other news, McAfee was uninstalled and reinstalled on my laptop to fix the connection issue, but as of this weekend, my certificate expired. So I’m planning to send my laptop to Harrisburg with Bret on Monday. It’s a never ending battle with this laptop.
Deer aging training is this week and Reeds Gap Fall Fest is this weekend. Tess and I will have a table at Reeds Gap Fall Festival on Saturday, October 8th from 10-3. We’ll talk about the Fawn Study, Deer-Forest Study and some of the equipment that is used in the field. Stop by and see us! There will be plenty of other activities at the festival.
I’ll also be completing auto reports this week.
Field Crew Leader
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