Thurs, Feb. 2

Well, 5:45 comes early the day after a bluegrass concert.... I got up to set the net launcher out at the bait across the river since there were birds feeding there yesterday. Only I found out after I waded across the river with the launcher that there was no more bait. The coyotes had gotten into the last of it during the night. Luckily, I had the perfect deer waiting as back-up in the back of Grullo (Big Blue), so I went back and put that one out for the birds. I thought the deer would be perfect since the coyotes had eaten the insides before I picked it up. Further, there was snow covering the opening and it was frozen in the way the last one was.

8:45 - There are already 3 magpies feeding on the bait, and about 1/2 dozen ravens waiting and watching in the trees above. Maybe we'll get lucky again today.

10:00 - All of the ravens left about a 1/2 hour ago. There are still a few magpies feeding and a coyote came in for a look, but he left too. Not looking too good.

3:00 - Went to the G&F office earlier to get some more raven bait (3 road-killed deer; thanks Dan) and made another bait station in the Park. This time, we used tomato juice to simulate a blood trail and wolf kill site for the birds. Let's see if that will entice the birds to feed.

There were finally 4 ravens feeding on the bait across the river. Hopefully we can get a capture attempt in the morning if those four bring in some friends. While those 4 were feeding, two others were perched in a tree up-river, and one was banded with an orange band. One of the 5 birds caught on the same bait across the river just 2 days ago! Sorry, no read though.

There was a total of 9 magpies feeding on and off all day at our stockpile of bait in the office yard. At least one was banded. We haven't banded any magpies here in at least a year, and all the ones we did band were here at the office.

Good news on our publications! We were invited to submit a revised draft of the raven transmitter attachment paper. Also, we just got word today that the paper by Bryan and Amy St. Pierre-Reed was not rejected from the Wilson Bulletin. Another draft has to be submitted for review.