Fun Stuff

Time sure has flown by, today my semester ended so I'm working full time with the Division of Wildlife Resources for the summer starting tomorrow. I have done a lot these past few months, here are a few pictures.

This male sage grouse is in a group called a lek. He is showing off for the ladies. I went back to Wyoming supposedly to help my buddy net the grouse and collar them, but because of a couple problems we just counted how many grouse were in the leks.

I've been volunteering at the Bear River Bird Refuge, that's where the other two bird pictures are from. I found the fox den the last time I went down, there are actually two pups right there. What I do down there is trap coons, skunks, and cats, anything that will eat the nest eggs. The refuge was one of the biggest in the west, if not the country, but because of raccoons, skunks, and foxes there are very few successfully nests left. Most of the current birds there are migratory. Below is a coon caught in a lethal conibear trap. Trapping and relocating them is illegal in Utah because it usually ends up in a long or painful death because they probably won't be able to find food or they'll get into a fight with other coons because of overpopulation (not to mention a lot of other problems). The conibear kills them quickly.