Tues, Feb. 7 - A day for the records!!

Clear and Cold. -3 at 7am

Same old, same old. The net launcher has fresh batteries this morning again. Not new batteries, but recharged ones (we are a conservation organization...). There have been no birds visiting the bait this morning though. I watched three groups of ravens totaling 9 birds flying towards the elk refuge and/or town this morning. I am afraid that is the population of birds inhabiting Kelly. I will likely pull the launcher from the river site and try to trap some birds over in Spring Gulch. Every time we are over there, there's over 100 ravens feeding from the cow feeders. Oh, the picture on the right is the bait across the Gros Ventre River that we have been working for the past few weeks. The small lump on the far bank is the bait. You can see all of the snow that has been matted down by the magpies and few ravens and my tracks along the hill. The launcher is set up in the overhanging willows against the hill.

Well, the trap was going to get pulled regardless, so we shot the launcher at two ravens feeding. Unfortunately, the back of the net had become frozen to the launcher, so we missed both birds. The net had been sitting out for a while now, and I suppose the thawing during the day had allowed some water to permeate down to the back of the net and froze at night. Each morning I would uncover the net and move it around to free up any ice that had form, but I guess I didn't get deep enough. Another hard lesson learned.

24 RAVENS BANDED!!!!
Finally, a successful capture! Jill and I went over to Spring Gulch at about noon and herded the cattle from the pen where all of the ravens have been feeding on their corn and feed. When we drove up, there were roughly 100-150 ravens feeding in the area. We moved the cattle and roped them off so they would not be in spooked by the net launcher. After setting up the launcher under the feeders and baiting the area with rolled corn, we waited for about an hour for the birds to come in. And come in, they did! I figured there was about 75-100 ravens slowly making their way into range. They first started at the feeder farthest away and got spooked by trucks a few times. (I am pretty sure they would only get spooked by trucks with racks or things strapped on top) The birds finally made their way over and I don't think my heart had pounded so much since my first capture attempt. There were at least 50 ravens making their way into launcher range, and another 50 on their tails. With Jill's prodding, we realized that if we waited any longer, we may catch far too many birds to handle, so I shot it off. 28 ravens and 2 mallards were captured!! While the picture on the left is a bit overexpose, you can tell that here are a few birds captured. The record catch up to this point had been 15 ravens. No birds were injured while trapping, and we let the mallards go right away. By my best guess, I figure we missed at least 30-40 birds that I thought were in range. The capture went off at about 1:15 and all of the birds were banded, measurements and blood taken, and released well before dusk. Much thanks to Jill (she shed more blood than anyone I've seen banding birds), Marylyn, Jon, Drew, and Dan for help banding.

When it rains, it pours!
Dan said there were at least 20 ravens on the park bait now. I guess we'll try for a few more birds tomorrow.