Girl Fight!!

The badger stopped by four times today...count them..four. Arg. Fortunately, he failed to get anyone, but as a result of his frequency through the area, I spent most of the day nervously looking in the sage for his all too familiar striped face. I've decided to nick name him PITA, although his actual name is Brutus.
In between Brutus dropping by, I watched a bumble bee bother 2, buzzing around his head as he dozed in his slug pose, although he's starting to get fatter, so he looks more like a lumpy bean bag. As 2 was dozing, I watched a gs get nailed by a hawk, during which everyone ran around in panic--all except 2, who barely glanced up, and only to reach back and scratch his butt, which is getting harder for him to effectively reach. After the excitement with the hawk, RR2 and FBS created some of their own. FBS wanted to play, and RR2 was SO NOT interested. She tried batting her off a few times, biting at her, and even running away from her advances. When that all failed, she lunged at her, and they both fell sideways through a sage bush. FBS leaped back up ready for more, but stopped when RR2 staggered up, and essentially felled her with a look. Hilarious.

Erica loses her Head...

The title says it all...Erica lost her Head today...this time for good. The day started out happily enough, but mid afternoon the badger paid a visit. He was in my area first, but decided no one looked tasty enough, and they were all too wary of him; so it would be too much work....he trotted off towards Erica's tower, and happened upon Head, who was in the unfortunate situation of having no good burrows around her. Definition of good burrow: one that has at least one back door. Head's situation dictated that she dive for the nearest burrow, and she was forced to choose poorly, going down a fairly large one-entranced burrow next to the road. The badger dove in after her....and then emerged with her bobbing in his mouth. He appeared very proud of himself, much like an excited dog prancing along with a favorite toy. He settled down to eat her right behind Erica's tower. The situation was especially sad due to the fact that she had already given birth, and most likely had at least four babies in her nursery burrow, which we will watch closely the next few days to see if anyone becomes a mid-day snack. The 'head' count to date for the badger is 3 females, including 2 moms.....it's tough being a pd.

2 asked for it.....and got it...again..

Today started out with me thinking of Finding Nemo, thanks to the hundreds of gulls in front of my tower asking: "mine?" "mine?" "mine?" as they walked around, largely ignored by the dogs. With the gulls cluttering the study area, I had two more visitors fly over, a pair of Avocets, which are beautiful, if not slightly weird birds. They have upcurved bills which appear to offset their elegant bodies, giving them a comical look. The females are in charge (go girls), and have the brighter plumage, which is exactly opposite of most bird species.
The bird oddities continued through the course of the day...I watched the badger emerge from the sage, and start to make his way toward my tower.....until he was stopped by four highly aggressive geese. He attempted the 'stare-down' technique, which basically failed, as it was OBVIOUS he was afraid of them. They advanced, he attempted to meet their advance, and ended up repeatedly giving ground. They flapped their wings at him, and in the end, he decided it wasn't worth it, throwing in the towel, and beating it for easier hunting. Hopefully far, far away...
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, 2 was bugging the girls again; this time his target was 92. He sidled up to her, and nonchalantly (he thought) sniffed her butt. She gave a few alarm barks, and then spun on him, biting him right in the face. He ended up going down a burrow to sulk. Next in line to harass 92 was a mother gs, who apparently decided 92 was too close to her nursery burrow and her babies. She spent the rest of the afternoon leaping around 92, darting back and forth, nipping her repeatedly on her butt and around her face. It was if she was saying: 'I kill you!!!', and 92 was responding with: 'Okay, okay....I'll move this way....HEY!! STOP IT!!' (cue chase sequence). Repeat. It was entertaining to watch.

The Chunk Factor

We had a conversation today about how males contribute to colony life, and how their frequency of alarm calling decreases as the year progresses, particularly beginning in June. John described the 'chunk' factor, which basically means they get so fat they can't even outrun the babies, and since alarm calling calls attention to the caller, it becomes more dangerous for them to do so. Seeing that 2 already has butt rolls (as in when he sits down he has folds at his feet), I can see how this would become a serious determent to survival. The above pictures are of 43 and 30....they've been eating well....
On another note, 2 started a disagreement with RR2 (I think he was bored), and she jumped him, handed him his tush, and sent him running (I mean waddling) across the territory...he might want to think about giving up alarm calling sooner than the rest..

I hate weasels!!

Today I looked out, thinking I was seeing the blob, and it turned out to be a big bloob....specifically a goose...although the picture in this post contains the actual blob in all his glory...if a bit small.
Aside from mistaken identities, the wind today was incredible, and I had an actual fear of my tower capsizing; it actually was moving in the wind. We sat part of it, but then John decided that we'd all be much happier in the van, where we convened for the next two hours as the gale continued. We talked about what spies do (a profession that John appears to have genuine interest in, if the pd gig ever fades out) ..among other less exciting topics. Towards the end of our temporary stay in the van, I looked out the window and saw my first weasel; of which John was extremely dismayed....weasels are interesting to look at, they look like anorexic ferrets with a bad dye job. They're chocolate brown on their face and back, and then yellowish cream on their stomachs. They kill relentlessly, taking pd babies up to 7 weeks of age, and full grown gs. They kill entire litters, but may only cache half for later, leaving the remaining dead. They are nasty, and so fast they are almost impossible to track when they're on a killing spree....in other words, something to be hated...and if you're a pd...feared...I watched it bound away, and sincerely hoped it would avoid my area in the future..
After our sobering stay in the van, we returned to our towers for the remaining hour of the day...where I watched FBS fail on her journey to collect NM. She made it look ridiculously difficult, and watching her trip over herself cheered me up immensely. Maybe the weasel will have a problem with wind, and stay away from our windy hilltop...

Killdeers as alarm clocks....

Today started out with approximately 50 killdeer shooting past the front of my tower in a noisy group...effectively simultaneously waking me up, and giving me a heart attack. RR2 appeared to feel the same way, as she alarm called at them as they rocketed past.
Shortly after the avian wake-up call, HBS disappeared down her burrow. I sincerely hoped that she was going down to have her babies, but she was up at 1:20....which then led me to hope that she already had them, and was going down to nurse them. I have yet to get a adequate look at her nipples, and do not know if they are distended...I guess at this point only time will tell....

Flight of the Goshawk

Today began with me watching a Goshawk swoop down over my tower and grab something in the tall grass...I of course nervously watched until I couldn't stand it, and asked John for permission to jump out and see what it had (51 was missing at that moment). I ran at the huge bird, hoping it wouldn't fly off with its prey, and although it did the first time, it settled quickly back, making it easy for me to run at it again. I reached the mangled carcass...and..for a minute couldn't tell what it had been, as it appeared to be in roughly three distinct pieces, held together only by skin and dirt. I re-arranged it in the mud, and after some shuffling, was able to construct a rabbit...minus part of a front leg, and most of the butt. I then left it so the raptor could finish his meal in peace...
I also was able to borrow Erica's camera today, and played with it at the days end while waiting for everyone else to finish...

Eggs and pd's

Today was sloppy and disgusting. The only saving grace was that we were able to go home early at 2pm. The not so exciting part was that there were 35 cones scattered around Erica's tower that needed to be pulled/picked up out of 35 burrows. As the cones had been put in prior to the rain and filled in with dirt, they were now filled in with mud. It was a lovely task, and as I squelched through the sludge between burrows, I quickly ceased to care that I looked as though I had done a face plant in the mud.
Just as I was yanking out a particularly well packed in cone, I had a tourist pull up in her car, and ask if she could ask me a question. Never mind the fact that it was pouring, and not that I really cared, as there was little chance of me getting any wetter. I sloughed over to her pristine car, taking care to stay well clear of her cautiously rolled down window. Her question was one to remember: ' How many eggs do prairie dogs eat a day?' I stared at her, certain the mud on my hairline had drained into my ears and clogged them. But no, she repeated the question, explaining that she and her friend had seen a broken egg in the road, and assumed that a wily pd had somehow climbed into a nest (duck by the look of the egg in the picture they had taken), carried the egg to the road, presumably rolling it, as duck eggs are approximately the size of a pd's head, and had a nice snack. I explained that while pd's don't eat eggs, gulls and ravens do, and that's probably what had eaten it. She asked if it was ok if she told her grandchildren it was a pd...at that point I was practically floating in the sodden mud, so I responded (as nicely as possible), that she would be giving them improper information, but that she could do as she liked. I then wished her a good rest of her day, and turned away....promptly falling down in a mini mudslide. She drove off.

14 sees his life flash before his eyes

Today started off with 14 thinking he had come to the end of the road. Everyone was standing just as he came out of his burrow; he glanced around, gave a sort of 'ho hum...if everyone is doing it, I might as well' look, and almost got flattened by the charging pronghorn that everyone else was looking at. He panickly lunged for his burrow just as the second one cleared the sage and narrowly missed stepping on him. The pathetic thing was that neither of them noticed him, as the pursuer was trying to kill the flee-er. Not one to take unnecessary chances, he was not seen the rest of the day.

Scafing 'em Like Hot Dogs

With both 29 and 50 gone, my day started off despondently. I attempted to cheer myself up by reminding myself that before he disappeared, at least 29 copulated with FBS, so hopefully, I'll have another mama. With that thought still forming, I looked up to see 14 trot cheerfully down 50's nursery burrow, ZW. I'm sure I do not need to go into detail as to what happens to a scarcely 3 day old baby without its' mother, but it appeared 14 desired to speed along the process. I waited for him to come back up; when he did, there was no baby in his paws, but he was chewing...
I have mixed feelings about infanticide. True, although seeing a pd eat another pd is just ewwwwuhhhhhh, it is also interesting in the questions it induces. Often, the yearling males (14, 30) are the culprits, but indeed so are the big studs at times (2, 45). Kinship comes into play when you observe who's eating who. 14, who's 50's son, was appearing to sample his half-sibs, sibs who shared half his genes, where in the wild, that's a pretty big deal.....Or, take 2, who was harassing HBS yesterday (and today if we're getting technical); if he was partaking in the kids, he was eating his own offspring. Weird.
Back to the simple act of eating another. John wanted to know if 14 was 'eating 'em like hot dogs', and I replied I had not seen that, but was somewhat looking forward to it...go figure.

Eagles have to eat too...

I strongly dislike badgers; while they might not always kill my dogs, every time they come into my area there's widespread panic. Dogs go down, come up, go back down, and then everyone stays up later to catch up for lost time (once the badger's gone), making for late nights and grouchy researchers. Its the flying predators I don't mind so much; there's not nearly as much blind panic, the dogs are much more philosophical about them, simply retiring to a mound instead of frantically alarm calling while simultaneously running. With that said, I felt bad for a golden eagle today, very likely the same one that nearly got RR2 a few weeks ago.
He had grabbed himself a gs, and was settling in to eat it near the barn when two Swainson's Hawks descended on him. He immediately hunched over his kill, seemingly to shield it from prying eyes, although those same eyes had already spotted the bloody morsel beneath his talons. The Swainsons swooped and dove, but eventually gave up, as the eagle was not about to be intimidated. As soon as they left, he happily continued to yank pieces (i.e. legs) off his prize.
Aside from the regularly carnivorous minded predators, I'm concerned that 2 has decided to explore like possibilities..he has been acting suspicious around HBS's burrow. She appears to have given birth, and 2, who copulated with her, has been showing more than a fatherly interest in the proceedings. He's been visiting the kids more than either I or HBS see fit....

Dropping like flies....

My dog count is dwindling...29 is inexplicably gone. I watched him to go to bed last night, and he failed to rise today. He was my red headed guy, and now he's missing. So sad.

50's no more...

I've resigned myself to the fact that I will no longer see 50's cute face every morning....a fact that none of the other dogs seem particularly concerned with, but still saddens me. The badger came back today, and while he failed to claim anyone else, I hoped that he has a severe stomach ache, as he was eating grass. I hope that the dye from 50 upset his stomach, and he has her ear tags rupturing his intestines.
Aside from the badger issue, I now also have to look for possible infanticide. The most likely culprit will be 14, as he had a burrow the closest to hers, which means if he does engage in eating the babies, he will be consuming his half siblings. It's tough being a pd..

Sad Day

The badger came to my tower today. In days past I've enjoyed looking at it, but today was different. Today he surprised everyone, and 50 ran the wrong way. I think she was trying to get to her nursery burrow as the predator entered the study area, but she hesitated a split second too long. PITA (as he's been christened) immediately zeroed in on her indecision, and charged directly at her. She stared at him coming, and then made a last ditch effort; making it into burrow X1 (her nursery burrow is ZW) about one second before he dove in after her. I keep telling myself I'll see her tomorrow, but I don't really believe it. She was my second dog up, and I am saddened that I will probably no longer see her wake up in the mornings...

Collision!

Ground squirrels are funny. Prairie dogs are too, but as they are not as neurotic, they are not quite as fun to watch at times. When the dogs aren't doing anything except eating, gs are always an interesting distraction. Take today for example: Ground Squirrel 'A' was chasing 'B' around in circles in the ZZ area. Gs 'C' came up to the action and stood by worriedly. It was obvious he wanted to help 'B', but he wasn't sure where to start. He decided to charge right in, and ended up having a head on collision with 'B'. The impact knocked them both down, nonplussing gs 'A', who, after a moments hesitation, leaned over and bit 'B', and then trotted away full of himself...
Meanwhile, FBS and RR2 were passing a gs back and forth between the two of them, chasing it just far enough into the other's territory, and then letting the other chase it back...and that was all the excitement of the day for the pd's, who were concentrating on heavy eating.

51

It turns out WJun is 51, and she's a granny at four years old. She weighed a healthy 833 grams, and is now beautiful with her marker. While she was still WJun, I took some video of her in my tower....

Abscess Butt

It turns out that abscess butt lives right by my tower; as I see her (she's quite fat and worrisome about others coming too near a particular burrow) often, I came up with some other possibilities for her name. They are as follows: 'fester butt', 'icky butt', 'bloody butt', and my personal fav 'pus butt'. Everyone else also liked 'pus butt', so that's what she'll be known as from now on..
Today the unexpected happened, which is to say that we caught WJun! As I was looking over at the surround, I saw something moving, and desperately hoping it wasn't just a really large gs, I told the others. John granted me permission to check it out, and at 11:30 this am we caught the elusive WJun. As we weren't able to immediately mark her, she got to hang out with me in my tower until Jane was able to come over to take her for her beautification. While we were waiting for that to happen, I took some pics of her..so cute.
While I was enjoying WJun's company, 29 was worried about his friend, and was wandering aimlessly around the territory. I felt a little bad, but now awful, as I knew she'd be back soon.

Prairie Dogs are Sneaky

Prairie dogs are sneaky..especially when you're trying to trap them. WJun decided she doesn't want to be caught, and is devising all sorts of methods to avoid that from happening. She was winning from the start, the moment my traps filled up with 14 gs. I watched her cheerfully circumvent the traps, and then with deepening gloom, observed her skipping down the hill towards the long grass beyond my study area. With this new development, John helped me come to the conclusion: if she wouldn't come to us, we would go to her. He dispatched Erica from her tower, and she ran at a triumphant WJun; who quickly panicked, and ran in erratic circles before diving for an unknown hole. I directed Erica towards the area that WJun had desperately disappeared down; she was shocked at how far out the pd the had traveled. We lugged out the necessary traps for the surround, and ended up sinking 55 cones to plug the numerous burrows and random holes.
Trudging up the hill, we started the release of the multiple gs. Among the captured was one we christened 'abscess butt', due to a circular wound oozing pus and blood located on its rear end. After the mass exodus of gs, I settled into my tower, only to not see WJun the rest of the day.
Almost forgot...50 woke up late today, so we think she had her babies. Yea!

Ultasound Guy

Today, Grant from Denver came in with his ultrasound machine to use on the dogs. John wants to take a look at the developing fetuses, and see if the machine helps to accurately show the number in the mother. If it works in a satisfactory way, then he is going to apply for a grant to obtain one. In order to utilize the machine, however, we need subjects; hence we sat out traps last night before we left. The theory is that when we arrived today, and got in our towers, we didn't need to walk around over the burrows to set them. Some of us have dogs that are spooky, and if they hear movement above, they won't come up for hours.
That was the theory. My dogs don't go for theories. I had 54 traps set out with the hope of catching 5 females. With high hopes that quickly plummeted, I observed my dogs....I immediately caught about 20 ground squirrels, and the ones in 29's area immediately drew his attention. He always wants to kill them, and here was a perfect opportunity presented to him; gs unable to get away! I could almost see his eyes light up as he bounded over, and began to terrorize them. They started screaming immediately, so I looked over to 92's area......where instead of eating yummy oats, she was doing the same thing 29 was. Arg. Looking back to 29, I noticed that he had managed to tip a trap on its side, and was on top of it, reaching as far in as his arm would go, essentially in up to his shoulder. During this chaos, everyone else (who have well behaved dogs), kept calling : 'I've got another one!'...yeah, so did I..another gs with a pd on top trying to kill it through the cage.
In desperation, I looked around, and saw 2 in a trap (whoop eee) braced against one side, yanking on the other. He succeeded in tipping himself over....quite the feat. Yah 2. Deciding to ignore him further, as we was upside down and pedaling all four legs, I resolutely turned around, to see both RR2 and 92 in traps. Yes!!
Soon after, Grant arrived, and as RR2 dropped her litter early this am (she's looking quite deflated) I went first, so we could release her to be with her babies. We weighed her, and the little piglet weighed 1187..which is huge for a female, especially after giving birth. Shortly after weighing RR2 (we didn't need to use the ultrasound on her), we set up for 92, and Grant began on her. I was able to see the beating hearts of her babies, and watch them moving around in her...it was sooo cool! Grant estimated 3 babies for her, so we'll see what comes up in 6 weeks..

How'd that patty get there??

Poor FBS, I spend my hours thinking she's either a shadow or a cow patty. Several times today, I did double takes, thinking that my pie's were moving over the field, until I realized it was her. It doesn't help that she's so small either; for multiple checks, I nearly passed her over as a gs. The other dogs mainly ignore her, with the exception of RR2, but she's get so obviously fat now, she can barely maintain a fast waddle. FBS doesn't seem to realize this, and with every nasty look of intent in her direction, she takes off squeaking 'defense barks' (they sound like soft alarm calls, and pd's give them when they feel outmatched by another dog). It doesn't matter that at this point she can literally run cirles around RR2, it's the presence that she gives off that's so demeaning. Between RR2's bad mood, and the ground squirrels, FBS didn't have the best day. The gs's seem to have babies in some of the burrows, and FBS kept blundering over them, succeeding in getting herself chased several times. I'm confident she'll be fine though, she just needs to get herself pulled together.....and RR2 needs to go have her babies and let up on her a little.

Unsupervised Outing

Today was John's day off. Due to the warm weather, we left at 7 AM to get in out towers by 7:35. John left us with instructions to call us whenever in doubt, and less than an hour into the day, I found myself dialing his number. My news: a new dog!! I first mistook her for a shadow, and then realized the 'shadow' was moving; upon closer examination, I saw that she is Front legs Back Stripe....also known as FBS. Super exciting!! As thrilled as I was about her, I did manage to mistake her for a cow patty later in the day, due to her *ahem* unique coloring scheme, and her quickly formed habit of laying on her stomach...which I call the 'pd pancake'. She blended in just enough to appear as a slightly humped poop pie.....
There was a bit of a disagreement when bedtime arose. As everyone else has been up for at least a month, burrows have been claimed, territories announced, and problems solved. FBS, still dazed from hibernation, toddled her way over to VA, which happens to be RR2's very well padded (due to frequent trips of gathering nest material) spot. She went in somewhat early in the evening, and had probably just found the best spot when RR2 decided to turn in for the night. I should add that she is extremely pregnant at this very moment, and her usual jovial (note the extreme sarcasm) mood has soured even more to the point that she attacked a sage bush yesterday...Needless to say, approximately 1.5 nanoseconds after she went down, FBS shot out of the burrow somewhat more disheveled than when she entered, and went off to claim other sleeping quarters...
Later on in the day, I was able to witness a flawless rendition of a duck quacking by Ariel. I plan on getting a recording up as soon as possible, as it sounds extremely realistic, and possibly ill.
So went our day, and as the letter to John indicates, we had a van load of elderly visitors that thought Erica and her tower were the most inters ting part of the park....fun day:)

Feet not included

You know it's bad when a prairie dog gets chased by a ground squirrel. Unfortunately for 92, that embarrassment occurred today, not once but twice. Aaand it chased her all the way out of her own territory and into the sage at the edge of the field. I felt bad, but I was near hysteria. It was hilarious....especially since the gs was roughly half her size.
I also noticed that RR2 has a distinctively snowman shaped silhouette. She was standing, facing away from me, and admiring the lake with the sun setting over it. I was admiring her, and realized that in her pregnant state, she appears as three balls stacked precariously on one another, feet not included. She can move at a fast waddle, but as her mid-section interferes with any sort of locomotion, her movements are somewhat restricted. She attempted to chase a ground squirrel, and it skipped forward a few steps, before stopping to see what was keeping her; she is usually the champion chaser of the territory. It may be awhile before she regains that title of terror...

Clearing up Confusion

Due to popular demand I have decided to make an explanation of sorts for the 'code words' I have been told that I am using. Oooops. Apologies for not explaining earlier! All burrows are marked with a tag on a strong wire pole, and vary in both numbers and letters; although all burrow markers are composed of only two values. For example, I have the 'Z' area, Z4, ZO, ZT, ZR...and so on. Tags that start with the same letter tend to be grouped together, but not always; it's just a matter of getting used to the area, and memorizing where everything is, which has been matter of course.
The vast majority of my dogs came up out of hibernation already marked, so I did not need to capture them to identify them. The ones that came up au naturale did need to be caught and marked, but as that didn't usually happen on the same day as emergence; they need to be called something before they're marked. Therefore, the 'un's' come into play. I had quite a few of those early in the season. For example, I had a dog come up at burrow X6. She was christened 'X6un' until I managed to trap her a few weeks later and she turned into HBS (Head Back Stripe).
Onto naming. The numerical system is used for the first dogs; numbers 1-49 are males, 50-100 are females. As there are less males than females, (they live shorter more violent lives), having 49 options works just fine. As far as females go, however, the numerical system comes up short, hence H (Head), BS (Backstripe), HBS (combo of the two), and also: FBS (Front Back Stipe), H6 (Head, with 6 painted on the flank), or RSBB (Racing Stripe, Black Butt)..the list goes on, but essentially the abbreviations relate to the design. We even have a WS, which stands for wetsuit...she is super cute...get back to me if you want to know what she looks like.....hope this helps!!

Tower Switch!

Today was Erica's day off, so I sat in her tower. She has several cute dogs, including my favs, H (Head) and C8 (Collar 8). C8 is sooo small; she looks like a ground squirrel from far away, and if it weren't for her marker, I would think she was. She also has no tail, which makes her even more endearing. Aside from cute pd's the day was fairly uneventful and nice, even though I felt like I was getting blown away by the wind coming through the back window. Don't know how Erica does it...
The pic has Head (the black one), although it's more like Whole Body With Little Left Natural...and RR6 (Ring around the Rear 6)...both cute, waiting to cross the road.

few pics...

We get various weather in Walden...it can snow one day and rain the next...

'Nother gross day for weather

Today was another nasty day as far as weather was concerned. As we were out early, we went to a fun store called Hoopla. It's better than a lot of vintage stores in Chicago. We literally spent hours browsing through the items. I found a beautiful 1920's dress that fit flawlessly; now I just need somewhere to wear it....
When I say 'we', I am excluding Erica, as her dogs don't seem to know when to come in out of the weather, and were acting like it was a warm day in July. She was stranded out in her tower as her dogs skipped around in the freezing hail and ice. While the rest of us were back and warm at 2, she was still freezing at 4. Poor Erica.

Day Off

Today was my day off, so I decided to still ride in with everyone, but run behind the research area. It was amazing, amazing like pictures seen in magazines amazing. Next time I go I will be taking my camera to document the beauty. After my run, I wandered around town, went to the grocery store, did some recycling, called some people, and took a walk. It was lovely.
As for the picture, observe the carefully placed bandage, and deduce the the type of oysters.....

Sometimes you gotta wonder....

Prairie dogs are essentially ball shaped. I feel it necessary to point this out, because when they're out doing normal things individually (i.e. eating, chasing, stretching) they don't appear remotely rotund. It's just when they're attempting to groom themselves that they become spherical. Take 29 for example. He was in his usual position, slouched over on a burrow mound, when he appeared to get an itch somewhere in the vicinity of his inner lower leg. He attempted to hunch over more to scratch with a front leg, which apparently failed to relieve his irritation, so he reached down with his teeth to do some serious work...and unintentionally rocked back to perform a perfect backwards somersault. Unperturbed, he righted himself, and went back about his business of relieving his itch. I was not so nonchalant.
While 29 was dealing with his issue, WJun was getting more and more 'good lookin'. Soon after his grooming overhaul, 29 straighted his tie and sauntered over. Like the gentleman he is, he escorted her down a burrow, popping his head back out to glance suspiciously around. They were down together for over 30 minutes. When they came up, 29 apparently decided that he was involvement was complete, so he wandered off to start eating. WJun thought differently. She was subtle at first; she sidled up to him, bumping him seductively with her rather flat butt. She was ignored. Her next approach was more direct. She slowly fed her way over to him, making it obvious she was just there for the delectable straw, and then...whooops! kiss!! He failed to be even remotely impressed, chasing her away. WJun refused to quit, and for the next 20 minutes solicited, only to be jumped on (not in the way she wanted though), chased, and fought with. I was ready to smack 29 over the head; he had spent the last week keeping 2 away from WJun, and on the big day only wanted her to suit his needs. Typical male. As for 2, he was in his slug pose two burrows over..
During this one sided courtship, RR2 had a near death experience that made me question her intelligence. A Golden Eagle made a very credible attempt to grab her, but as she was on a burrow mound, he missed. I stared. Aside from the near miss, I realized how huge these birds really are, from his rippling wing muscles as he braked in mid air, to how tall he was standing next to a sage bush that comes up to my knees (he was taller). As I was contemplating this, RR2, the dummy, came back up the burrow to alarm call, before going right back down. I wanted to yell at her, to tell her the eagle was still there, and what was she thinking, due to give birth in a few days??? Sometimes you gotta wonder...

Yucky Weather

I've been gypped.... I thought April was supposed to be a month for showers, as in rain...not snow, hail, and other nastiness. Unfortunately, Walden, Colorado doesn't seem to follow normal weather patterns. Today's weather was absolutely filthy; we were only out for half a day, and even that was almost too much. Most of my dogs had the good sense to stay in out of the weather, with the exception of a couple of the boys. 14, who's a yearling, and thus doesn't know any better, was out in the stinging precipitation, closely *ahem* monitored by 2. By this I mean 2 was chasing him all over the field. The funniest point, however, came when 2 decided he'd had enough of nature, and went down a burrow. 14 couldn't seem to believe his good luck, but he seemed to have to make sure that the deuce was truly gone. I watched him tip toe up to the edge of the burrow, and from the farthest point possible away from the entrance, but close enough that he could still see, he very carefully leaned over to look for his tormentor. Not seeing him, he apparently decided he might as well go in out of the rain.
I myself failed to have common sense, and for some reason thought that it would be a good idea to run home later that day. Let me just say that running into hail for 6.5 miles is neither fun nor a good idea at any point of the year.

The Masked Avenger

Erica has the executioner, I have the Masked Avenger, complete with black gloves. The Avenger was formally referred to as the wily X6un, and her new code name is HBS, which aside from making her look like she should be in the comics, stands for Head, Back Stripe. She has a black head, and a thick back stripe that connects to the black on her head, making her look like she's wearing a cape. Her gloves are the culmination of her throwing a tremendous fit when she was being transformed, and trying to attack/kill the paint brush. I will post a picture of her as soon as I get one that doesn't more resemble The Blob.
The Executioner, consequently, has the code name of H, which stands for Head. Her dye job was a bit overzealous, and she either looks like an executioner, or a little girl with her pants around her knees...

Double Header

As we wired all the traps open on Wednesday, Thursday the dogs went through them, ate the oats, and had no problems. 30 and 92 even checked one out together, best buds that they are....today, however, we had a whole 'nother story when the traps were actually set.
I set 24 traps behind me, baited with oats to encourage the dogs to check them out. The only problem is that while prairie dogs can't necessarily be called 'oataholics', ground squirrels can. With this in mind, I challenged the rest of the team to guess how many gs we would catch today, with the winner going to the Virgin Islands (we had a similar contest a few days ago, with the winner going to Hawaii...gotta make the stakes high). My personal guess of 14 (out of 102 traps) was on the upper tier of guesses; John's was the only one higher than mine at 17. With the bets in place, I sat back in my tower and awaited the results....they were soon forthcoming. I caught my first gs exactly 3 minutes after I settled in my seat, and that included walking quite a ways from the burrows to do so; so more like 10 seconds after I left. I next bagged 92, who started out checking the traps by herself, but was soon joined by her partner in crime, thus also entrapping himself....in the same trap. Two at one go! Unfortunately, as they're both marked, they weren't the ones I really wanted, although we needed to get their stats. I radioed John, released the 10 squirrels and one horned lark I had caught, and took the pals over to the van for evaluation. Turns out 30 needed a new ear tag, which he promptly ripped out after replaced, although that's for another time. We put the duo in respective traps, placed them under a cart to keep them out the sun, and retired to our towers.
Once in my tower, it was maddening watching the dog I really wanted, X6un, coyly eye the traps than skip down the hill to the only burrow without traps around it, and set up camp there. I dealt with it, albeit poorly, for the next few hours, and then at trap check, added six traps around WC, the burrow she thought she was so smart about. I smirked to myself as I sat the traps, until I realized that I was competing with a rodent. Somewhat sobered, I went back and waited for the games to begin. They did.
2, big tough guy that he is, causing havoc to all of the male pd persuasion, got himself caught. I watched his break-down as it happened. It took him a minute to realize he was trapped (duh), where upon he attempted to dig himself out. Fail. He tried biting the bars (they're metal). Fail. He clawed a few times more, and then I looked away to see if X6un was around (she wasn't). When I turned back, I saw that the big, strong deuce was upside down clawing ineffectually at the top of the trap with all four paws....and...Fail. It was while I was watching 2 that X6un lost her freedom, and around the same moment a new dog popped up in front of me; by the looks of it, a female. At least things were looking up for some of us.

Oh yes, almost forgot...we caught 51 ground squirrels today.

ground squirrels are not that smart

Sitting in a tower all day, you get used to its specific idiosyncrasies; such as how it reacts to wind. There's the chatter of the support wires for prolonged wind, and the jarring/knocking of the entire box for wind gusts. As it was gusting today, I was looking through my binoculars without resting my elbows on my seat so I didn't get sea sick (or wind sick) from all the banging about. What I witnessed during this particular bout of movement in my tower was quite amusing. X6un was sitting on a burrow mound with her eyes shut, and she was facing the wind. She was in the alert position (i.e. up on her hind legs with her front paws clasped in front of her), but she wasn't alert in mind, just in body; although her body was quite slack and relaxed. Just as I was observing her rather relaxed posture, a sharp wind gust rattled my tower....and...knocked her on her butt. She fell with a startled thump, much like a surprised toddler when they lose their balance; the look on her face was much like that as well. She got carefully up, sort of looked around to see who had witnessed her humiliation, and then situated herself on all fours on the burrow mound. No more mishaps for her.
Not soon after X6un bruised her butt, I watched another couple of rodents have a mishap, or as we like to call them, an episode. One was intent on catching the other to either kill it or get into some serious play fighting, really not sure. Sadly, I never was able to find out..as the pursuer careened into a burrow marker. So focused was he on catching the opposition, that he failed to notice the obstacles. How unfortunate.
At days end, we went about wiring traps open, as we have a technician coming in a week from today with a portable ultrasound machine. We have girls that mated a little over two weeks ago, and we're going to take a look at how things are progressing. In other words, we'll be able to assess things more intelligently than: 'she appears to be getting fat'...sadly, though, many of the dogs are trap shy. We've decided as a way to encourage them to set foot in trap and 'take the bait', so to speak, we're going to be wiring the traps open overnight. That way, they can trot right on through and not be caught. We'll progress on from there, as we do need to catch some dogs before the guy gets here, just because several have not yet been marked. Let the games begin!

BEWARE!! Pictures of dead and de-capitated creatures in this post!!

The day started off with 5STR heading off for the ridge; as 92 was still playing the part of big (emphasis on big) bully. Soon after she left, the otherwise quiet day came apart at the seams...
It began with a lot of flapping, hopping, and squawking. I ignored it until it reached such a decibel that it was impossible to do so. I knew it was a pair of crows, fighting over what I thought was something dried up and gross (as is usually the case) on the ground. This was my consensus after a quick glance, until all pd's and gs stood at alert, and it grew dead silent in the field; even 2 had shut up to gaze over in the far corner. I leaned out, and got a prime view, as the crow took off with a slightly decapitated ground squirrel. I watched in fascinated disgust, as it towed its prey over to (ironically) the pd crossing sign. It deposited it, chased off a few would-be stealers, and started ineffectually pecking at it. From the look of the body, that was how it had been killed, by ineffectual pecks that happened to hit the correct body parts for death.
I needn't have worried about poor ways to kill, as I was about to witness a very quick efficient way to do so: with a bear hug.
29 is a big rusty colored fluffy guy. He's not as bear-like as 2, but he looks somewhat like a teddy bear, and his fur is silky looking. He has territorial disputes with 2, which he always loses, but he gets along well with the girls. He seems the nervous teen as he runs, than walks up to RR2 or 50, making little nervous noises as he gets close. He almost always sniffs and runs, even before they have a chance to back-hand him. He's just your average lovable guy. Until he meets a gs who looks at him the wrong way. The screams were what made me turn around. 29 was hugging a gs (the gs had its back in 29's stomach) to himself, and gnawing on its neck, as he curled his back legs around it. Even though I'd seen gs and pd's scuffles, I immediately knew he was killing it, and said so over the radio. The effect was instant: "Tape IT!!" It was over in a matter of seconds. 29 dropped it, and then commenced to cannibalizing the back half over the hips; any protein this time of year is good protein....
Over in John's area, a new drama was unfolding. It included a very big badger and a very unfortunate prairie dog that we'll call AVun. The badger at first appeared to be digging through the snow after a mouse....and then came up with a pd..AVun. He also was efficient at the dispatch, and like 29, appeared to be on the hungry side. Unlike 29, he started with the head.....
At days end, we dissected AVun to see how far along her pregnancy had progressed before her untimely end. Unlike the gs (as there are millions more), I was sad to see a pd go.

We're getting along....

Everyone decided to be friendly today; 50 especially. She must have concluded that being friendly with someone is easier than having to be on constant alert to chase that specific someone. At one point she and 14 stood side-by-side looking at something (or nothing) off in the sage. They fed together, strolled together, and even went down for the night together. They seem to be 'best buds' just like 30 and 92. RR2 seemed not to share that sentiment, as she struck out for burrows unknown, ending up across the field at XA'. Hopefully she will be happy there.

Watch where you step

It snowed a ton last night, and we ended up going into the field late. We took the Expedition to avoid getting stuck, and managed to make it in to the refuge without any issue. The only real problem was crossing the cattle guard by feel, as the drifting snow had covered the bars. I had flashes of myself falling, and taking out a shin (or two) on the iron. *Wince* Once ensconced, we sat in our towers the requisite amount of time before going back. During this time, we saw more birds (i.e. Northern Harriers and Prairie Falcons) than dogs, and my feet managed to go numb in the 3.5 hour time span. Upon walking back to the car, I reminded myself to walk only where grass was sticking up through the snow; to avoid sliding into a burrow, which are concealed underneath the smooth windblown surface. I was successful in not stepping in a burrow, but it was funny to realize that while I couldn't see the entrances, I also couldn't see half of the markers.
Upon reaching the trailer, we found that our pipes had frozen, but that's not important to the continuing research for the pd's. Besides, why should it be easy?

Being a Bully is Catching

It snowed again last night, but it's supposed to be sunny for at least awhile today. Once ensconced in my tower, I settled into my sleeping bag and waited for my dogs to get up. I'm sort of expecting 5STR to go soon, since she's been up for a few days; she's a grandma, so it might take her longer, although I'm not sure. 50 got up early, but then I had a long wait until the next dog made their appearance. While I was waiting, I focused on the ground squirrels around me. For those not familiarized with the Wyoming Ground Squirrel (gs) they are flitchy, nervous, and neurotic. The scitter around, and then hop up on their hind legs, hunched over to view their immediate surroundings. Unlike pd's, they have long tails that they continually flit, and the more agitated they are, the faster they flit them. I watched two gs get into a fight; they arched their backs like cats, puffed and arched their tails, and growled at each other right before they attacked. As they were fighting, I observed another pair across the field. One was trying to kiss the other one (a form of greeting in both pd's and gs). Every time the one leaned in, the other swatted at his face; lean swat, lean swat, lean swat....fight. The ending not unsimilar to pd's. At a third place in the field, a gs performed a balancing act on a sturdy sprig of sage; it looked like he was hovering in space as he surveyed his territory from his high perch.
When W5un finally came out, it seemed like she might have gone with 2, as they got up late, and 9 minutes apart from the same burrow. Soon after, all of my dogs were up. That's when the trouble started. 92, who copulated a few days ago, apparently decided that she was in charge. She didn't bother any of the boys, but chased W5un a few times before turning to 5STR. She started by chasing her back into burrow XP every time she came out. She then appeared to grow tired of the game, and went off to eat with 30; 5STR took this opportunity to trot over the hill to eat. 92 was after her immediately, and chased her full speed back into XP. It was at this point that 5STR stuck her head out, and began a series of pathetic sounding chirping calls. I asked John, and he said it's not often seen in White Tails, but he calls it a 'defense bark'. It is used when the bullied dog is so much less able to fight or take what the other dog is handing out. It's a bark of desperation, asking to be left alone. 92 largely ignored the barks, shoving 5STR repeatedly into XP, and then always giving a TC afterwards from atop the burrow. She finally lost interest, and I'm sincerely hoping after 5STR copulates, she flattens 92. Not that I'm taking sides.

50 is a bully

I'm beginning to think that I won't be seeing the sun until spring comes; even though the calender says that its technically here. Today was a fairly typical day as far as the weather goes; sunny (for a very short period of time), followed by cloudy, than overcast, than omg, that cloud looks scary, to blizzarding, to somewhat nice. This erratic weather pattern does nothing for researchers. It puts some dogs down in the middle of the day, some dogs get up late, some go to bed early, some get back up after going down at 1:30, and then just when it appears like the coast is clear to go, either 36 or 2 decides he needs to get back up to stretch and sit in the snow.
Aside from the interesting weather, there was some noticeable occurrences. The first was an absolutely immense flock of geese flying over my tower on their way to the lake. The refuge we do research at is a wildlife refuge, but most of the wildlife are birds. Which is awesome! Apparently in the summer, 3000-4000 birds flock to Arapaho to mate and raise chicks. We've already seen Canada Geese (getting to be a daily thing), various ducks, and one Sandhill Crane. Losing my story here though; getting back on track, the geese flew over my study area, and every single dog freaked out, running for burrows. Now, I would understand babies running from loud, honking geese, but not adults. They came back up almost as soon as they had gone down, a lot of them looking a little sheepish. Immediately after the geese, an immature Bald Eagle flew low over, and not one moved. I'm lucky I still have a colony to work with..
Shortly after the eagle, a massive Red-tailed Hawk flew past my tower, making me jump in my chair, as I heard the gentle 'swooooosh' of his wings. He landed in the sage to my right, and I watched his individual tail feathers flex and separate as he landed. He stared into my eyes before taking off after a few seconds balanced in the sage.
At this point, it was blizzarding. Most of the dogs had had the good sense to disappear down burrows, with the exception of 50. I watched her through binoculars, as she chased than flattened what I first thought was a ground squirrel, except it didn't move like a ground squirrel. I realized it was a dog just as she chased it down a burrow, than proceeded to keep it down by herding it. I suddenly didn't like 50 very much, as I realized this tiny dog probably had just gotten up, and hadn't eaten yet. I liked her even less as she chased it, biting it and dragging it down when she finally caught it. I disliked her for being a bully, but also because I couldn't see the number on the dog; just that it was marked.
The snow finally started to come down so hard that 50 decided to call it quits. Ten minutes after she disappeared, I watched a bedraggled pd climb out of a burrow to eat by himself in the disgusting weather. He turned out to be a little loser male, 14, which made me smile; he was so small and cute. As I watched him eat out in the nasty wind, I realized he'll be just fine since he was functioning just fine in weather that sent even 2 down..even though 2 did get up later to go for a stroll after everyone had gone to bed..

Wile E. Coyote

Lasagna is what got me through the day. It wasn't in my hands or even my mouth yet, but I knew it was coming. John's wife Judy is an amazing cook, as I found out yesterday when she made sourdough bread from scratch. It was good that I had something to focus my attention on today, as it was an otherwise slow day. I was waiting in anticipation (desperation?) for the dogs to do something other than eat. The exciting part of their day was sniffing each other, with a kiss thrown in for mental stimulation.
As the day was creaking to a close, I happened to look at the lake in front of my tower, and then did a double take. A coyote (this one reminded me of Wile E. Coyote in the intelligence department) was walking across the frozen lake. I use 'frozen' in the loosest sense of the word, as the edges are currently thawed to water, and the rest was just barely passable as solid; less than a week ago it was open water. I watched in fascinated concern as the coyote nonchalantly crossed the widest, and presumably the deepest, part of the lake unscathed...and then packed up to go back to the trailer. Lasagna!!

i have a tiger in my backyard

2 is the leading stud of the pack. In all of the study areas he's had the most girls, partly I think, to luck, but partly because he's one mean dude, at least when it comes to other males. In the past weeks, I've seen him get into fights where he rolls into and down things, where he comes back bleeding profusely, where he chases other males for yards, and through the sage, coming back worse for wear when he left, and yet he seems to always land upright; be in a position to pull himself together, and be attractive enough to get the girl. Well, maybe not physically attractive enough, but strong enough to be able to strut without embarrassing himself by limping..
I felt it important to highlight his strengths, before explaining what happened today. 2 was doing his usual strut around; which means he was trying to control two territories that are unfortunately bisected by another males space, who doesn't take kindly to virile personalities. As these two were having it out (yet again), I noticed a new head coming out of a burrow. I left the boys to their land issues, and watched as a somewhat squat dog emerged from burrow XP. She turned around after she came out, so her back was to me, and I realized that with her low center of gravity and her particular marker, she looked like a tiger. Her identifier is 5STR, which stands for 5 stripe. She sat in the snow, looking around dazedly, as most dogs do upon first awakening, and then started to eat.
2, of course, spotted her almost immediately. He finished his business with 29, i.e sent him running, and swaggered over to 5STR, where she promptly tried to bite him, then lunged, as the winner of all fights male took off as fast as he could go. She stopped after a few feet, but he must have thought she was going to do serious damage, because he didn't stop until he'd entered the sage..where I think upon arrival he realized he needed to do some serious re-thinking of strategy...

prints, prints, everywhere

Today started out slow, with the two girls in front getting up early (as in 9 am), along with 29, and the posse in back waiting until a more reasonable hour, rousting out at 10. I watched 92, 2, 30, and then observed X6un emerging. Upon her emergence, 2 trotted over, gave her a thourough once over, and followed her back down her burrow. Figuring she was going, I waited for her to come back out, and for the circus to begin; for males to start fighting, and for dogs to be running everywhere. It never happened. 2 would stick his head casually out, and then go back down. As for everyone else not interested in bloodshed, or passing genes along, they contributed to the running around. At this point, watching 30 chasing 92, and subsequently 92 chasing him, I realized that my weeding job had missed a few spots. The dogs kept disappearing at key points in their interactions..Say, for example, 92 was jumping (jumping because she couldn't just walk through the 2 inches of snow, as it came past her chin) towards a dog that I needed to identify to complete the interaction notes....aaaand they'd both disappear behind some weeds and down a burrow that I hadn't known was there. My personal favorite was when 2 decided to come all the way out at days end, and then just stood in a spot where, not only could I not see him, he managed to just disappear as Erica was watching him from her tower. Combining both the visual losses of interacting dogs, and 2 and his disappearing act, I decided I needed to familiarize myself with all the burrows, and mark a few new ones as well. At the end of the day, I climbed out of my tower to determine which burrows were the most used; surprisingly there were two that were in obvious extreme use, so I placed markers at them. Yes, I also did some more weeding of the prairie, and as for 2, let's just say the deuce is good..

Boy am I glad I weeded...

I am sooo glad that I weeded yesterday; 92, who I haven't seen since she got up a week or so ago, went today. All the boys agreed that she was lookin' good, and decided that she was worth fighting over. 15 was the first to realize she was hot, and immediately booted lowly 30 out. He then had sleek and sexy 92 to himself until 2 caught wind that she was available. He first tried the direct route, and got lucky. 15 was off beating up on 30, so 2 was able to sneak over to burrow ZQ. Up until this point, I wasn't sure that 92 had gone; 15 hadn't actually been with her, and 30 didn't have a chance. Knowing this possibility, I carefully watched 2 approach the burrow, and he gave himself away. He wagged his tail enthusiastically when he went down, a sure sign that he found a female, and liked what he discovered.
2 was only down for a few minutes when 15 came bustling back, and immediately caught wind of what was up. He shot down ZQ, and kicked 2 out. At this point, I knew for certain that a female was down ZQ, I just wasn't sure which one. RR2 and 50 had already gone of course, and they're in the front of my tower anyhow. That left me with the possibility of 92, RR6, and an unmarked dog that I'd taken to calling X6un (after the burrow she originally came out of). With this dilemma in mind, I carefully watched not only burrow ZQ, but all the others connected to it. My answer was forthcoming while 15 and 2 were fighting, 15 having caught 2 again as he tried to sneak in. 92 stuck her sleek head out of ZQ, and it was at that moment that I knew it was her. That mystery solved, I turned my attention back to the boys.
2 had just been booted, but he was learning, albeit slowly. Instead of the direct route, he darted into the sage, coming in behind 15 and his girl, thus surprising them. This tactic worked, but it also led to a colossal fight. 15 chased 2 out of the burrow area, and towards my tower, where, at the height of suspense, they disappeared into the sage....and....2 emerged triumphant ten minutes later, to have 92 for the rest of the day and into the evening.
Don't feel bad for little 30 though. As John so aptly put it, he "got his first score" while the big boys were off fighting in the bushes. Yeah for the little guys!!

prairie grass doesn't stomp

Today was somewhat slow as far as days go; the boys griped at each other, the girls were stuffing their faces, and no one thought about getting with anyone else; in other words, no one was 'hot' today. You gotta have at least a few of those days though, so it was fine. My girls ended up going to bed fairly early at 4:30, quickly followed by the boys. This gave me almost two hours to enjoy in solitude while everyone else's dogs chased girls and fought amongst themselves. I decided to take some sky pictures, since the clouds were amazing..
After amusing myself with the sky, I still had some time, so I asked John if he needed any help with anything at days end. He responded by asking me if I could see interactions okay behind my tower. I told him not really for burrows XF, ZQ, and XN, due to the grass. He told me I could go ahead and get down to stomp the grass down. Five minutes into fruitless stomping, I realized two things: I probably looked like some four year old having a tantrum as I literally jumped up and down, and prairie grass does not 'stomp'. Especially dried out straw-like prairie grass. I needed to see the dogs, so I resorted to weeding prairie grass. I had another revelation as I did this as well: what looks like just a few patches of grass from a tower is an entire field at ground level; a wispy, prickly, get in-your-eye field of splintery grass. I made it through ten minutes of snapping/bending before John asked me if I was almost done. I stood up from where I had been face level with several weeds, and spun in a helpless circle. Glancing at Erica, (who'd come to stare at my antics) I said as evenly as I could: "Well, there's a lot of grass". That struck everyone as funny, but I knew I'd be out pulling for a few more days..

how many assistants does it take to carry a stack of cones?

Today was better than yesterday, in that it was not disgustingly cold; I found I could sit in my tower comfortably without wanting to curl into a ball. The dogs were more interesting also, in as much as they came up. Aside from that, with both my girls done, the business is now eating as much as possible; and figuring out who's the boss male:
In the first picture, we have stud of the year, aka 2, and 29 coming upon him...following that goes a natural succession of events, that is. with 2 coming out as top dog.

Following this enjoyable run of events, Erica and I pulled a surround, re-stacking traps and cones alike. Cones, as stated before, are much heavier than they look; add snow and mud from being down pd burrows, and its that much more fun. They were also frozen in weird angles, so the stacks of them were not exactly neat. It took two of us to manhandle one stack on ten twenty feet...