Uncertain Vole, originally uploaded by Corbie.

This is a Vole, not to be confused with a fat mouse. I find a lot of them under boards and scraps of sheet metal around our school. This particular Vole has carved out a veritable warren of runs underneath a pile of boards in our education garden. They usually run away before I can photograph them.
I got an e-mail via Flickr today from a guy named Colin who works at a non-profit organization in England. He wants to use my Vole photos for an educational display they're doing. If only the Vole knew that it was destined to become an international celebrity. Not that it would care. Check out the website here.

We went on our so-called "all day" hike today. I say "so called" because in reality it's only about five and a half hours. We used an hour or so of that time to hike up to Lake Ranch Reservoir, where we explored a bit. As we started out on a quick excursion to the far end of the reservoir, there was a loud noise from the woods on the far shore, followed by a puff of smoke. We all agreed it sounded like a gunshot. I quickly turned around and got the kids away from there.
On the trail down, we learned from a passing hiker that some teenagers were shooting a gun (32 caliber, he said) and that a small fire had been set. I radioed it in to our hub host (camp coordinator), but since we were so far from camp it took me several tries to break through the wall of static that always seems to plague us on longer excursions. He, in turn, called the park rangers, who sped past us in their trucks ten or fifteen minutes later. One ranger stopped to check in with me and confirm the story before speeding away.

And that's all I know. In real life, we don't always get to hear the end of the story. Sorry. Maybe I'll find out more later.