My Oregon Trail: Mice Mice Baby

We have mice. Yes, this was part of the job I was dreading. I don't mind handling them really. They are from a pet store, so they are pretty tame, but at the same time, I don't want to have to deal with them. DJ takes good care of them, keeps them comfy in a little home with food and water. Well, because we finally have mice, we can finally see my beautiful bow nets in action. :) We went out, and we learned how to set the bow nets up, how to get the owl out of the bow net without it flying out, etc. Also, on a couple of owls, Dr. Belthoff (the professor) taught us how to take a blood sample from the wing. Actually, he showed DJ. If they had offered to show me, I would have done it, but we only actually got 3 blood samples so we didn't do it much. I was totally okay with that. So, we put the mice in this little tiny cages inside the bownet. You will see a picture of it below this post. I put grass in there so they have something to munch on or play with. Apparently they get bored in there. So, with each mouse, I had to get them out of their comfy home, and put them in a cage. How did I do this? Well, I had to pick them up by their tails so they wouldn't bite me (just in case), and let them crawl up into the cage. I hated this part more than I can say. But, every job has its cons. They are white mice btw. I asked if the owls were deterred by the fact that the mice were white, which isn't natural in the wild. The mice they catch are all brown pretty much. The Kangaroo rats they catch have some white fur, but still. But, when it comes to food, the owls don't care. They see the mouse, they want the mouse, regardless of color.

I did a pretty good job of hinting and suggesting VERY subtly the last day the prof is here, but I'm not convinced it worked. And that's okay. I don't know that Boise State is for me anyways. It's only one school out of hundreds. Any who...our total count for the night was 13 owls! Another great night! Wow! We got done around 9:30 or 10:00. I was exhausted. We do a lot of walking when we trap, and it's a lot of back and forth type of stuff. Also, we always end up digging or doing maintenance around the burrows. Some days I feel like a gardener or landscaper because we take garden tools out there with us. lol. For those that know me, I don't have a green thumb, so I'm like....why are we doing this again? Oh, so the owls have a better area around the burrow?...SOLD. :-)