Meeting the neighbors

The mountains in this picture form the backdrop for many photos on this blog.

I see them every time I look out a window or step outside, and I've selfishly considered them 

my mountains and part of my extended front yard for all the years I've lived here, 

though technically they belong to a 230,000-acre wildlife refuge.

The refuge held its annual open house on Saturday, and I went on a tour

to learn more about the flora and fauna of the neighborhood.

I was surprised to learn that all kinds of climate-change research is happening 

just on the other side of my mountains, along with more mundane stuff, 

like "the diet and energy allocation of the western box turtle" (a.k.a. Steve).

The refuge supports 251 species of birds, 80 species of mammals, 58 species of reptiles, 

15 species of amphibians, and more than 1,200 species of plants. 

And all that separates all of that from me is a couple of miles and a barbed-wire fence,

which I can only hope is well-respected by the refuge's black bears and mountain lions.

Anyway, the most interesting part of the tour occurred when our van came upon a dozen scientists

conducting a monthly rodent study. They had set up a web of 300 live traps the night before and

were in the process of weighing, blood testing, and tagging all the little critters.

I couldn't help but be impressed by how much the scientists seemed to be enjoying their work,

which for the most part consisted of hanging onto teeny tiny little mice
while calling out data to a colleague at a laptop.

 Exhibit A: A silk pocket mouse, with cheeks full of seeds

Exhibit B: A kangaroo rat, whose tail seems to be twice as long as its body.

(p.s. My chickens love to eat kangaroo rats ... put that in your data log, Mr. Scientist.)

Is that not the cutest earring you've ever seen?

Note to Kangaroo Rat #399:

If you know what's good for you, you'll stay on your side of the fence and away from my chickens.