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| Heading out for a day of tracking |
On our second day in Algonquin, we decided to stay
near the research station and explore the area on the far side of Lake
Sasajewun. Again, we grabbed our life jackets and paddles and pushed out onto
the water, with last night’s moonlit paddle still fresh in our minds. Too bad
Alexis got the leaky canoe!
Fortunately, it didn’t take too long to arrive at
the northern part of the lake; and in the grassy, boggy shoreline, we found
lots and lots of tracks. There were heron, muskrat, raccoon, fox, and moose and
wolf – our first of the apprenticeship! For the better part of an hour, we
trailed the moose and the wolf, pausing occasionally to ask, “What made the
track look this way?” The variation in the substrate – how squishy it was in
some places and how firm it was in others – really affected how much of the
track we saw, or if we even saw one at all. Several of us stopped to take
measurements; this would be a much-journalled set of tracks!
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| Eastern Wolf Tracks |
Both trails led into the trees, and we followed
using our eyes and hands, putting our new debris-trailing skills to good use.
Now bear tracks were appearing on the same trail; this was a multiple-species
highway. And it wasn’t just for the large: Over and over again, we found
mustelid scats deposited right in the middle of the trail, a potent reminder
that Martens were in the area, too.
But it wasn’t just tracks and scat we were finding.
Mark was picking up Blue Jay feathers wherever he went, and on one part of the
trail, we found cones from some Red Spruce. Algonquin is on the westernmost edge
of the Red Spruce’s range. They are much more common in eastern Canada.
After stopping for lunch on the trail, we doubled
back and went uphill into a drier area of the forest. The group was bustling
along as only trackers can when Alexis called us to a halt. There was a grouse
tail feather on the ground, and nearby, a wing feather! Then another wing
feather and some breast feathers! Taking the tail feather, Lee gave a short
talk on how to tell if it had come from a male or a female grouse; then she
showed us how well the structure of the wing feathers affected airflow. Guest
tracker Sue got several feathery souvenirs from that spot!
Even though it wasn’t very late in the day, it was
time to start making our way back to the canoes. We cut down across the forest
back to the trail we had followed to our lunch spot. It took a little while to
recognize it because the sun had changed its angle, and we really were seeing
things in a new light. Alexis, Tamara, Ann and Lee found an old wolf scat, and
when they dissected it, they pulled out what seemed like a dew claw. When they
looked closer, they discovered it was actually the toe of an unborn deer.
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| Ruffed Grouse Feather Site |
It was late afternoon and we had returned to our
canoes. We had one last goal before paddling back to the research station:
otter scat. Alexis knew from years past that they liked to use the big rocks at
the mouth of the narrows as a latrine. He and Christina got out on the rocks to
scout, and it proved fruitful. Piles of dried otter scat decorated the rock
face, some speckled with reddish-orange crayfish shells. One specimen was
placed on a paddle and passed around for the apprentices to examine. What did
it smell like? Fishy, of course!
Too soon afterwards, we had put away the canoes and
were sitting in the research station. Our gratitudes came quickly: our time in
Algonquin, the animals we had seen, the tracks we followed, the moonlight
paddle and the moon. Then there was a little packing up, cleaning up, lots of hugs
and warm goodbyes. This was a fantastic weekend for us all, and I can’t wait to
go back in February!
By: Christina Yu - 2nd year Tracking Student
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