I declare that the weekend was a great success. I now know how to locate and collect deer obex and lymph nodes. Plus I have no qualms over carving into the lower jaw and prying out incisors. I was really hoping to have photos up, but that's not going to happen until my computer and camera resolve their disputes and start communicating with one another in a normal fashion.
So Friday I did go to math and of course I didn't go to conservation...or geology. I thought it might be kinda suspicious to show up in geology with all those fisheries and wildlife majors that had just taken the midterm. Plus I wasn't sure when Ben was going to call (and he did end up calling during that hour) so I skipped out..kinda bad. But missing one geology class is not going to make a difference. So we arranged for him to pick me up at 2:30. He was only 15 minutes late. I had no idea who he was until I saw him. Then I realized he registered for classes with me and is in orientation and conservation. I inquired as to the difficulty of the midterm, and he said it was easy.
Our destination was Sauvies Island. Ben has a really awesome sound system in his truck and we listened to Coldplay, it was pretty awesome. His driving definitely reminded me of Tim's. We ended up taking the long way, plus a 30 minute "detour" through the backcountry while trying to figure out just how to get on the island without having to paddle. Finally, after well over two hours of driving he figured it out with the aid of his laptop map thingy. The ODFW office wasn't too difficult to locate at least. A swan in a chain link pen greeted us. We later learned that its name is Harold and it was confiscated, as mute swans can't legally be kept. Harold is anything but mute; his squawking sounded like what a trumpeter swan should sound like. I took a video clip. We met the biologist, Rick, and filled out the paperwork. He gave us cool "Fish and Wildlife Volunteer" fluorescent orange hats and some factsheets on chronic wasting disease and sampling methods we'd be using.
After paperwork we went to Fred Meyer to obtain food. We decided on deli chicken strips and potatoes just to make dinner easy and got a lot of other stuff like boxed pasta and bread. Once back at the office, Rick decided to drive in front of us to show us to where we'd be staying, which was a smallish house (named "Hunt House") about a 10 minute's drive away. We almost hit a deer that leaped out on the way over too. So the house is like, a bit dilapidated but workable. Very old TV and effective heaters. Two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Rick left and we set about getting our stuff settled in. There was a dead mouse under the sink and an unnecessary quantity of droppings in quite a few of the drawers. Nice...luckily the silverware and plate storage areas were devoid of rodent trademarks. I just made sure to wash everything before I used it anyway. We ate, I read from art book, we decided we'd have to get up fairly early so retired for the night. I didn't sleep very well, despite the fact that I was extremely tired.
Morning we headed back to the office where we were showed around. Saw a cool bear trap (culvert type live trap), flight cages with barn owls and a falcon, some awesome elk antlers, and many taxidermy mounts, including a large cougar. Must've been at least 150 lbs. It was quite a bit larger than the one at home. We loaded up the signs and headed out. Did manage to get in contact with Erin and Christine, they drove down that morning. The check station wasn't on the island, was about a half hour away. First met up with two other volunteers and got the signs for their station set up, then drove through the big town of Timber, over a winding road, and to our location along a highway. We set up the signs and then waited. Erin and Christine arrived about 20 minutes later, and we watched a powerpoint on Ben's computer showing photos of the process of sampling. To get the specimens the neck is cut right along the jaw line up to the ears, then the first vertebra has to to located and the tissue around it has to be cut. The obex is where the spinal cord and brain meet, it's a little white and pink thing that has to be carefully extracted. The lymph nodes aren't quite as critical and are fairly easy to find and cut out. The prions that cause chronic wasting disease are found in both locations.
Our first "customers" stopped in soon after the powerpoint, a couple with their son, and they had a forked horn and a doe. Now I can't remember, but I think I took the teeth from one of them, which turned out to be surprisingly easy. We had a sharp knife though. Checked for parasites, got some deer keds and a flea and maybe a tick or some lice. I took quite a few photos of this first one, it was pretty neat. Another hunter showed up with a 3 point during this but was in a hurry so we didn't get anything from that deer.
The rest of the day consisted of more of the same. Much waiting. Super cold (over 5,000 feet elevation). Lots of rain. Retreated to truck often. Did get to hear lots of interesting stories from Rick. An apparently legitimate hyena sighting on the island, confiscated exotic animals, crazy fishermen, etc. Got in 1 spike, another fork, a four point (we didn't take obex or lymph nodes from that one as it was going to be turned into a shoulder mount), and two does. I did get to take the samples from one of the does. I didn't ruin anything! Got the obex out without much trouble. We packed up to go back to the other station around 2. Christine stayed to hunt as she had a tag, she was aiming to leave in the late afternoon. Someone had told us about a deer alongside the road which we checked out. Its head had been cut off, it wasn't a roadkill. Had been shot in the hind end. So either the hunter figured the meat wasn't worth salvaging and just took the antlers or it was injured and died and a passing motorist took the head. Nothing going on at the other place.
At the house we discovered we didn't have butter to make the pasta, so Ben went to the store to get some, except it was closed and he ended up having to go all the way to FM. No studying accomplished, we all just talked and then went to bed.
Today we got up super early to pack up. Same routine. Less rain, still freezing cold. More entertaining stories. Only one fork and a real nice 3 point today. On one side the area between points was palmated, it was a cool looking deer. Big bodied too, and I took the samples from it. Little more effort needed to carve through it. Getting the obex was trickier cause it seemed to be a bit..mushy. Some guy from channel 2 news doing a story on CWD was supposed to meet us..Grant M something, at 4:30. We went to the other station and did get another doe in there. We all waited and stood around their luxurious tent and heaters. Jason, one of the other volunteers, cooked some elk steak for us. It was so good, way better than any beef steak I've had. The other volunteer ended up going to the cafe across the road and bought us all slices of pie! Peach pie is good. Grant never showed up. We waited until 5:30 too. Kinda disappointing. Not that I wanted to be on the news though. Drive back not so bad. A half hour from campus Erin commented on the truck ahead of us, as she had a similar vehicle, and Ben recognized the truck as that belonging to a friend. So as we passed him I hurriedly rolled down the window and this guy recognized Ben and we all just laughed as they yelled back and forth for a fraction of a minute before we got ahead. Got back around 8:30.
Sheesh that's quite the blog. I figure I'll need to study a heck of a lot tomorrow though so probably won't update and am making up for it in advance. A good weekend. Busy, but sufficiently educational and entertaining.
So Friday I did go to math and of course I didn't go to conservation...or geology. I thought it might be kinda suspicious to show up in geology with all those fisheries and wildlife majors that had just taken the midterm. Plus I wasn't sure when Ben was going to call (and he did end up calling during that hour) so I skipped out..kinda bad. But missing one geology class is not going to make a difference. So we arranged for him to pick me up at 2:30. He was only 15 minutes late. I had no idea who he was until I saw him. Then I realized he registered for classes with me and is in orientation and conservation. I inquired as to the difficulty of the midterm, and he said it was easy.
Our destination was Sauvies Island. Ben has a really awesome sound system in his truck and we listened to Coldplay, it was pretty awesome. His driving definitely reminded me of Tim's. We ended up taking the long way, plus a 30 minute "detour" through the backcountry while trying to figure out just how to get on the island without having to paddle. Finally, after well over two hours of driving he figured it out with the aid of his laptop map thingy. The ODFW office wasn't too difficult to locate at least. A swan in a chain link pen greeted us. We later learned that its name is Harold and it was confiscated, as mute swans can't legally be kept. Harold is anything but mute; his squawking sounded like what a trumpeter swan should sound like. I took a video clip. We met the biologist, Rick, and filled out the paperwork. He gave us cool "Fish and Wildlife Volunteer" fluorescent orange hats and some factsheets on chronic wasting disease and sampling methods we'd be using.
After paperwork we went to Fred Meyer to obtain food. We decided on deli chicken strips and potatoes just to make dinner easy and got a lot of other stuff like boxed pasta and bread. Once back at the office, Rick decided to drive in front of us to show us to where we'd be staying, which was a smallish house (named "Hunt House") about a 10 minute's drive away. We almost hit a deer that leaped out on the way over too. So the house is like, a bit dilapidated but workable. Very old TV and effective heaters. Two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Rick left and we set about getting our stuff settled in. There was a dead mouse under the sink and an unnecessary quantity of droppings in quite a few of the drawers. Nice...luckily the silverware and plate storage areas were devoid of rodent trademarks. I just made sure to wash everything before I used it anyway. We ate, I read from art book, we decided we'd have to get up fairly early so retired for the night. I didn't sleep very well, despite the fact that I was extremely tired.
Morning we headed back to the office where we were showed around. Saw a cool bear trap (culvert type live trap), flight cages with barn owls and a falcon, some awesome elk antlers, and many taxidermy mounts, including a large cougar. Must've been at least 150 lbs. It was quite a bit larger than the one at home. We loaded up the signs and headed out. Did manage to get in contact with Erin and Christine, they drove down that morning. The check station wasn't on the island, was about a half hour away. First met up with two other volunteers and got the signs for their station set up, then drove through the big town of Timber, over a winding road, and to our location along a highway. We set up the signs and then waited. Erin and Christine arrived about 20 minutes later, and we watched a powerpoint on Ben's computer showing photos of the process of sampling. To get the specimens the neck is cut right along the jaw line up to the ears, then the first vertebra has to to located and the tissue around it has to be cut. The obex is where the spinal cord and brain meet, it's a little white and pink thing that has to be carefully extracted. The lymph nodes aren't quite as critical and are fairly easy to find and cut out. The prions that cause chronic wasting disease are found in both locations.
Our first "customers" stopped in soon after the powerpoint, a couple with their son, and they had a forked horn and a doe. Now I can't remember, but I think I took the teeth from one of them, which turned out to be surprisingly easy. We had a sharp knife though. Checked for parasites, got some deer keds and a flea and maybe a tick or some lice. I took quite a few photos of this first one, it was pretty neat. Another hunter showed up with a 3 point during this but was in a hurry so we didn't get anything from that deer.
The rest of the day consisted of more of the same. Much waiting. Super cold (over 5,000 feet elevation). Lots of rain. Retreated to truck often. Did get to hear lots of interesting stories from Rick. An apparently legitimate hyena sighting on the island, confiscated exotic animals, crazy fishermen, etc. Got in 1 spike, another fork, a four point (we didn't take obex or lymph nodes from that one as it was going to be turned into a shoulder mount), and two does. I did get to take the samples from one of the does. I didn't ruin anything! Got the obex out without much trouble. We packed up to go back to the other station around 2. Christine stayed to hunt as she had a tag, she was aiming to leave in the late afternoon. Someone had told us about a deer alongside the road which we checked out. Its head had been cut off, it wasn't a roadkill. Had been shot in the hind end. So either the hunter figured the meat wasn't worth salvaging and just took the antlers or it was injured and died and a passing motorist took the head. Nothing going on at the other place.
At the house we discovered we didn't have butter to make the pasta, so Ben went to the store to get some, except it was closed and he ended up having to go all the way to FM. No studying accomplished, we all just talked and then went to bed.
Today we got up super early to pack up. Same routine. Less rain, still freezing cold. More entertaining stories. Only one fork and a real nice 3 point today. On one side the area between points was palmated, it was a cool looking deer. Big bodied too, and I took the samples from it. Little more effort needed to carve through it. Getting the obex was trickier cause it seemed to be a bit..mushy. Some guy from channel 2 news doing a story on CWD was supposed to meet us..Grant M something, at 4:30. We went to the other station and did get another doe in there. We all waited and stood around their luxurious tent and heaters. Jason, one of the other volunteers, cooked some elk steak for us. It was so good, way better than any beef steak I've had. The other volunteer ended up going to the cafe across the road and bought us all slices of pie! Peach pie is good. Grant never showed up. We waited until 5:30 too. Kinda disappointing. Not that I wanted to be on the news though. Drive back not so bad. A half hour from campus Erin commented on the truck ahead of us, as she had a similar vehicle, and Ben recognized the truck as that belonging to a friend. So as we passed him I hurriedly rolled down the window and this guy recognized Ben and we all just laughed as they yelled back and forth for a fraction of a minute before we got ahead. Got back around 8:30.
Sheesh that's quite the blog. I figure I'll need to study a heck of a lot tomorrow though so probably won't update and am making up for it in advance. A good weekend. Busy, but sufficiently educational and entertaining.
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