Saturday, May 23, 2015 - Day 1
Mono Cliffs Provincial Park
Our group gathered into a circle under the shade of an old Sugar
Maple at the edge of an open sunny field. We shared our goals, intentions and
gratitude as we watched the wind blowing through the landscape, passing over
the tall grasses and through the aspen/poplar leaves in a playful fashion. We
watched a couple of Northern Harriers fly over the field, triggering a
discussion on sexual dimorphism and hawk ID features, followed later by a Wild
Turkey hen cautiously wandering out from her nest to feed.
After our sharing, we got up to prepare to head out into the
field for our first day of tracking but right beside where we had been sitting,
we noticed some really neat tent caterpillar webs on some young cherry trees!
What type of cherry where they; black, choke or pin? We spoke a bit on how to
tell cherry species from the shape, size and spacing of their flower clusters.
As we headed into the field, we looked back to our shady spot
and saw just how much our own impressions on the land (where we had sat) resembled
deer beds.
We didn't get more than 15 or 20 meters into the field before we
stopped to look at some of our first animal sign. Alexis crouched down and
pushed some grass aside, revealing a tiny trail carved into the ground
underneath the tall grasses. He showed us a tiny piece of grass stalk cut on a
45 degree angle, indicating vole feeding sign. We spent the next while
unveiling the intricate network of vole trails through the field. We wondered
how large the territory range was for these tiny creatures, which according to
Mark Elbroch, is 1/10 to 1 acre!
We saw plenty of large holes scattered over the field around
some of the vole holes going down into the ground. Had someone like a fox or
coyote been digging here to feed on the voles?
We stopped around a rock cropping looking for signs of weasel
activity and talked about defining features of various local members of the
weasel family.
Then we pushed towards the edge of the field along the tree line
where we found some huge scars on the younger aspens from past deer antler
rubbing. We stepped into the wooded area and began to travel along a deer trail
that ran South, just a few feet into the forest. We took a look at some of the
claw and teeth marks on various trees. Showing signs of porcupine and raccoons
who had climbed these trees in the past.
We soon came to a spot where we noticed someone had been eating
the trout lily greens. Who was the culprit, turkey, deer, rabbit? We took note
that the greens were cut flat and sometimes slightly frayed. Then we found
another clue, a hair that kinks when it is bent, indicating the eater's hair
had a hollow core. A clear track then confirmed our suspicions. White-Tail Deer.
We found some holes carved out of dead wood, triggering a lesson
on how to differentiate between local woodpecker species from the signs. We
were really able to bring home this lesson as theory was confirmed as we found
examples in the field of signs from nearly each type of woodpecker throughout
the course of the day!
In the afternoon, we made our way along some beautiful cliff
ridges carved out around 11 000 years ago by some great glacier melts,
providing breathtaking views of the valley below. We sat watching and listening
to the birds together, sighting some rose-breasted grosbeaks, red-eyed
vireos, chickadees, turkey vultures, ravens and a few different warblers. We
split up for some grounding sit-spot time long the cliffs before embarking on
the descent back down towards our meeting point.
Throughout the remainder of the day, we wandered through the
woods, talking about trees and plant ID, deer
rutting behaviour, predators of ant hills, grouse vs wild turkey dust baths,
what the deer have been eating and how to assess the age of forests based on
the plants and trees growing there. It was truly
a day full of many lessons, tying academic information in beautifully with
experiential learning in the field.
Written by: Lianna Vargas
- 2nd year Tracking Apprentice
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