
The Pigeon River Bunkhouse:
my home from September to November, seen from the backyard
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Jen and I baiting one of our
hair snares
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Checking one of our first
hair snares for Bobcat hair.
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Red
Pine plantation. This was a common habitat type: tall pine
overstory, no shrub layer and bracken fern covering the ground
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We were just checking one of
our snares when we saw this guy preying on the ground.
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Ostrich ferns cover the
ground at one of our hair-snares.
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Every time I checked this hair snare,
I had to step out to the lake's
edge and take a few pictures!
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Driving along one day, this
spider web caught my eye in the early morning sun
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It's hard not to be
offended...
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Black River.
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Some lucky person's cabin
tucked away in the woods...
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September in northern
Michigan is a fungus-lovers dream!
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A full view of the hair snare set-up with carpet
patch, urine
cottonball, visual attractants and a note to human passers-by
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Near
the beginning of the season I helped out with a Lake Sturgeon release.
These nets were set up to monitor the speed at which the
young
travel downstream.
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Pigeon River is known for its Elk. I saw
them on a few
occasions,
but this was the only time I managed to get a quick (and bad!) shot
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My lab, where I did the DNA extractions of our hair.
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The work day usually
consisted of lots of driving...not usually a problem here!
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Low, swampy areas with Black
Spruce, mossy ground and Labrador-tea. I tried many times,
but
could never get a great picture.
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One of the many lakes |

My backyard, overlooking the
Pigeon River. Great place to write music!
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One of the most northern
areas we had hair snares in |

Fall colours starting to
show
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This was one of my
favourite
hair snares: a mere 70m walk and this view! |

These ferns
were probably the
most common ground cover throughout the area. Here they coat
the ground in an Aspen grove.
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The
fall in the Pigeon River
was probably the most colourful I have ever seen.
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The sun briefly shone
through these clouds, lighting up the opposite side
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Squirrel's-eye view
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Leaves of a Red Maple stand
out in front of the greenery behind
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Closeup
of the barbed-wire
scent
station. We ended up replacing the barbed wire with velcro
after
we got a big zero hits in two months
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I visited
"Inspiration Point"
one
evening, played guitar, took pictures, and talked with an interesting
stranger for over an hour
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Our most
northern site
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The
Green Beast, a black hole
for maintenance dollars
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For a period of about a week, the colours each day
were more brilliant than the last
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In the north-east area,
there were lots of these Oak-dominated sandy areas
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An Aspen grove lit up by golden fall colour
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Can't complain about this
morning commute!
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We passed this lake almost every day on our drive
out. This
was definitely its finest hour though!
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Golden Sugar Maple leaves in
front of the cabin are lit up in front of a perfectly blue sky
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My livingroom for almost
three months: the Pigeon River staff house
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Playing guitar in my backyard |

Sunset on the Canadian
Thanksgiving
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Danielle came up to visit Thanksgiving weekend; we
were unexpectedly
joined by about 10 elderly vets who would share the cabin for a week!
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Fall colours from
"Inspiration Point", one of the high spots in the area.
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A surprise snowstorm
contrasted with the remaining fall colours
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I must have taken 30
pictures on my drive out that morning
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Blueberry plants are stand
out in the fall against the surrounding "brownery"
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These lichens always looked
like miniature cities to me
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A drive through one of the
hardwood areas, with the leaves of the Beech saplings still holding on
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My front yard
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There were alot of these areas, with
low scrubby Jack Pine and ferns on
the ground
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Afternoon in my backyard
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Sunset at Inspiration Point
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The sun had sent between a
layer of low-lying clouds and the ground, creating this interesting
frame
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A recent clear-cut, with the
red colours of colonizing blueberry plants
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A nearly perfect reflection of the sky
in this shallow lake
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For Halloween I visited Danielle in Guelph where we carved this pumpkin
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Jen engages in a staring contest with a
porcupine. It was declared a draw.
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I had no idea how slow-moving
porcupines are. It must have
taken
5 minutes to climb this tree to "escape"!
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TIf I had been so
inclined, I
could have grabbed him! |

I
had to pull over on my drive
to our northern site when the sun broke through the clouds
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A
snowstorm knocked out my power and sent a few broken branches
crashing onto my roof
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Red Pine plantation after the snowstorm
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A mild, foggy day |

Big-leaf Maple near Seattle
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Jen and I went to Seattle to train as
detector dog handlers for two weeks
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The beginning of a day trip
around Olympic National Park
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This is as far as we got on Hurricane
Ridge. This park had
terrible information system; we found no information anywhere about
road closures until we saw the sign |

A view along the north side
of Olympic
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My first view
of
the Pacific Ocean |

We kept experiencing waves of storms
coming through. This one
is just passing over us |

Me standing where the water
meets the land
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According to the sign, this
Sitka Spruce is the world's largest. I was in no position to
dispute that claim! |

By the time we got to the
rainforest, it was almost night |

Although we didn't get to
enjoy full view, we did get a unique experience |

The effect of the flash on
the mossy branches was quite eerie! |

From the ridge where we were training with the dogs, a break in the
clouds revealed Mt. Rainer. |

We took a trip up to
Snoqualmie Pass to give ourselves and the dogs a chance to get used to
snow |

Me and Bruiser.
This tug-of-war was his reward after finding a planted sample
of bobcat scat |

The river we were training
beside |

Dog's-eye view of Jen
getting ready to reward CJ on his picture-perfect pinpoint |

A beautiful scene in the
mountains |

This picture was taking
during our Olympic tour, near Hurricane Ridge
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Having finished our day, we
were just getting ready to head back down. |

Bruiser working hard through
the snow. It was amazing how little the snow hindered his
movement |

Me and Bruiser, just
finished one of our last days. We covered nearly 9km and
Bruiser was a little winded
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A frozen-over marshy area;
we were lucky to find a dry path around |

Lunchtime on one of our last
transects. Sitting in the sun, we were almost hot! |