How Do You Like Them Apples?

 Approaching our meeting location for the day, the veil of fog I had been driving in for an hour seemed to be lifting with the rising sun that had began peaking through the clouds, just up over the treeline in the horizon. I was taken by the beauty of the first rays of light hitting the frosty landscape of rolling hills and tree lines. The fine layer of ice that had developed overnight, covering the autumn vegetation, was reflecting the rays of the rising sun in a way that makes you really feel grateful to be alive. Everything on the landscape was glistening sunlight.

Deer Track in debris

We met up on the side of the dirt road and promptly decided we should tuck into the other side of the Cedars to escape the chill of the wind. This brought a first lesson in starting to think more like an animal, seeking natural forms of cover to conserve energy and help provide cover. The winds were strong and blowing from the North-West so we made a plan to head over to the eastern edge of the cliffs and along southward so our scent would be blowing away from our target destination as we approached.

We were focusing on trailing today so we needed to be especially quiet. We agreed to travel in scout formation, travelling as quietly as possible and communicating with hand signals.

As we began, the morning frost was just starting to thaw, making the deer trails stand out with an amazing clarity. The leaf litter was moist, helping to soften the sound of our footsteps, and the winds blowing the melting ice of the trees provided gusts of dripping sounds that help muffle our noise. Alexis got us started on the first trail, pointing out various tracks, lays, scrapings, browse and fresh scat. We switched leads, and I began following whatever trails seemed to stand out most to me. I felt in a different mode following a trail silently and focused. At some point I heard the snap of a branch to the East of me, and I remembered that I was in a group. Two small deer scampered out in front of me and took off ahead as Tamara, the eastern wing, emerged from the ridge just behind them.

We circled up to share and make a plan of action. We continued to follow the trails southward to the edge of the habitat and we began feeling like the deer were Eastward. We switched leads again and headed East and within minutes, I knew something was up as the lead froze and slowly lowered. Miriam had spotted a group of 5-6 deer heading South-East. We waited before following the trails along silently for some time, until we came to a sunny spot just along the ridge that a few deer trails passed near and we thought, “this would be a sweet spot to bed down and soak up the warmth of the sun, if we were deer.” Naturally, we decided to break there.

Porcupine Den Site

After sitting in the sun for a while, I realized the leaves were no longer damp, the frost had melted and the sun had begun to dry out the leaf litter of the forest floor. It would be a lot harder to travel as quietly now. Alexis reminded us to try to think like a deer. How we walk is important. When deer break a branch as they are walking, they freeze and check their surroundings before they take another step. Although we couldn't be completely silent, we could change the rhythm of our footsteps to be more like the deer, careful, with intermittent pauses.

Porcupine scat and quill

Following the trails, we found an old porcupine den, piles of fresh raccoon scat, signs from various woodpeckers, flying squirrel scat, and half-eaten apples stashed up in tree limbs. As we worked our way to the apple trees, we saw various animals had been feeding on the huge abundance of fruit. We compared measurements of the incisor marks on some apples, discussed what was possibly eating them and debated what was likely the creature(s) that had left the marks on the specimens in our hands.

Red Squirrel incisor marks

As the day came to an end, we headed back North, slowly, along the Western edge of the field as the sun was beginning to make it's was to the other horizon. Once again, I am filled with gratitude and appreciation for the natural world, and the abundance of gifts, lessons and experiences Nature has to offer.

Always asking questions

Written By:  Lianna Vargas - 2nd Year Wildlife Tracking Apprentice

Jedi Tracker Training and Luke Sandwalker

Sunday November 1^st, 2015

As the tracking apprentices learned about pressure releases this past weekend, we could almost hear the wise words of Yoda saying, “Patience you must have my young padawans”.  After constructing a 10 foot long by 5 foot wide tracking box on Saturday, we were ready to embark on using the giant sandbox to look at tracks.  Alexis shared his passion and knowledge of pressure releases eloquently and enthusiastically.  We also had “The Science and Art of Tracking” by Tom Brown Jr. in hand.  We learned how turns, changes in direction and sudden stops cause pressure against the wall of a track.  The pressure is released as cliffs, ridges, peaks, caves, plates, fissures and explosions in the substrate.  The second pressure release study looked at what happens to the substrate as a result of a change in forward motion.  The apprentices walked, ran, and jigged across the tracking box to get a better understanding of how speed influences the appearance of a track.  We created waves, disks, dishes and explode-offs in the sand.  We were helped out by both a cat and a dog, who were somewhat obliging in letting us analyze their tracks in the tracking box.  Alexis shared a quote by Stalking Wolf on page 34 of The Science and Art of Tracking, “We first must learn the simple language of the tracks, which teaches us to hear the voice of the animal, and soon, through the voice of the animal, we begin to hear the voice of the Earth.” The day also included a little sand castle construction and much merriment.

Written by Tamara Anderson - 2nd Year Earth Tracks Tracking Apprentice

The Wisdom of the Marks

The site of a porcupine, raccoon and flying squirrel holes in this big old Basswood tree

Saturday and Sunday, July 26^th, 2015

Written by Tamara Anderson - 2nd year Tracking Apprentice

In his book Nature Observation and Tracking, Tom Brown Jr. writes; “The earth tries to be flat.” He was referring to how weather and gravity “conspire to erase tracks”.  This past July, the tracking apprentices observed the subtle traces of summer tracks at Allan Park near Durham. We also created tracks and signs at Alexis’ house and watched how they changed over two days.  Lately, I have been tracking the landscape just as much as I have been following the footprints of animals.  Approximately 10,000 years ago, a receding glacier scraped the surface of the land that is now Allan Park and deposited material from the Canadian Shield.  Some of the material was ground into sand, silt and clay. A huge chunk of ice from the glacier dropped onto the landscape and a kettle lake was formed.  Allan Park is part of the Horseshoe Moraine. It includes a trail system that reaches an elevation of 30 metres in some places. 

Fawn Tracks

On Saturday, we wandered the rolling, forested pine, spruce and cedar hills beside the glacier-made trout pond.  The sandy edge of the pond revealed the opened shells of snapping turtle eggs.  This prompted a few questions:  How does temperature affect turtle egg incubation? Do predators leave different signs when they predate turtle nests?  I learned that the “J” shape of the Jack pine cone is a helpful way to remember the cone-makers identity.  Sue asked about whether any local species of rats are native to North America and which snakes have live birth?

Watching Tracks Age

On Sunday morning we were enchanted by the purling rattle of a Sandhill crane in a field near Alexis and Bobbi’s place.  Sandhill Cranes beckon my attention in an ancient way. After reading about Sandhill cranes, I discovered that they are the oldest known surviving North American bird species.  That morning, we returned to Allan Park and found a trail on a steep hill that led to different interpretations.  It is amazing how the track of a sliding deer can look similar to the five toes of a barefoot, feral child;)  After following a doe and her fawn’s tracks along a sun-baked, sandy trail, we ventured into a cool, deciduous forest of Hickory, Basswood and Maple.  The tracking apprentices used tracking sticks to track each other in leafy debris.  Luke and Miriam discovered a vole tunnel and burrow network at the forest edge.  We lightheartedly discussed how best to classify this trail.  If vole trails under the snow are called “subnivean” then would this trail under the leaf-litter be called sub-humusean?  We also wondered whether the trail was from a red-backed or a meadow vole.  Do meadow voles occasionally lives in forests?  What is the range of the red-backed vole? Alexis located a flying squirrel latrine in a basswood tree. Flying squirrel scat accumulates in areas where the squirrels nest and cache food. The scat often flows out of tree cavities, low to the ground. 

I will end this post with a continuation of Tom Brown’s tracker wisdom; “There is hardly a square foot of ground that is absolutely flat. Every depression, every bump, every fissure, and every scratch on the landscape was made by something. Whether it was made by a rabbit, mouse, bulldozer, fish, frog, or volcano, it is the tracker’s job to notice and interpret it.” (Tom Brown Jr., Nature Observation and Tracking)

Tracking in the Sauble Beach Area

Saturday, June 13^th, 2015 - Story of the Day

Congregating at Alexis’s place before starting our drive to Sauble, we travellers arrived with stories of our adventures.  Sue, Aster and Luke had stopped to investigate some road kill, get hair samples and pull the bodies to a more peaceful resting place. Miriam shared her experience watching the fireflies come out the night before and was grateful for the peaceful misty morning drive. Following a quick tour of the beautiful place we’d call home for the weekend, we set out.

Arriving at our destination we headed to the sandy areas to look for tracks.  We passed some yellow lady slippers that grew just off the path – a cheery welcome. A chance meeting with a grandfather and his grandson concerned about the debris being dumped in the area made us mindful of how important stewardship is to our interaction with this land.

How rewarding it is to find an animal at the end of the track you are following…and so it was with one of our first finds….a millipede (North American maybe?) A close look afforded a view of the tiny leg tracks. Close by was a curious raised line that when uncovered exposed a wee round tunnel a mere 1/8^th of an inch in diameter.  Clearly the makings of a creature much smaller than the millipede.

Off at the edge of the wooded area Luke and Sue located what they suspected might be lagomorph signs. Investigating further we discovered more clues including prints, a small enchanting opening into the cedars we crouched to look through, and some intriguing scat. Lagomorphs are “coprophagous” which means they eat their first scat to glean nutrients from the undigested material contained therein. By comparing two scat samples we think we might have found some uneaten first scats. Is there a story behind this? Might the nearby fox scat, though older, be a clue?

Back onto the sand we found more lagomorph tracks. Cottontail or  Snowshoe Hare? Careful measurement of trail width, track size and stride length helped us to place our bets on cottontail. Drawn by the activity of the egrets and crows in the distance we set off to see what we might find of bird tracks, and of course anything else of interest…bear tracks were on all of our wish lists.

Lunch at the point was a lovely time of spectacular views, ideal weather (Alexis wished he’d brought his bathing suit), and happy companionship. After lunch Luke went to look for frogs, Miriam and Aster investigated the area barefooted in the cool water, and Sue and Alexis went looking for the nest of the killdeer we’d sighted. Though the nest was never located, when we all joined up again to move inland we suspected we must have come pretty close to the nest because the killdeer performed its characteristic broken wing diversion trick. A female redstart sighting led us on a journey into the woods in search of more bird sightings…male redstarts? and if we were lucky maybe a redstart nest. Alexis drew our attention to a tree rising proud above its neighbours, spreading its almost leaf-bare arm-like branches out to the side. An attractive perch for large birds? Binoculars allowed us to see the worn bark in places and confirmed our suspicions. The base of the tree beckoned…what treasures might be found? Luke found a skull that remained a mystery even after consulting the skull book later on. Lots of white wash. A green feather! Heading back came across a few egg shells – of a similar mottled colouring but of a much smaller bird than the killdeer eggshell we found earlier.

Out in the open again we encountered clusters of pitcher plants. Like all carnivorous plants, pitcher plants grow in locations where the soil is too poor in minerals, especially nitrogen and phosphorous, and/or too acidic for most plants to survive. The digested insects, and sometimes larger creatures like mice and frogs! provide the pitcher plants their needed mineral nutrition. More bird prints. Having encountered a number of prints throughout our journey we were able to compare and contrast our findings and use these comparisons and our resource guides to help us distinguish, in particular, sandhill crane and great egret tracks. Noting the toe positioning was helpful identifying some smaller prints as likely corvid tracks. What a treat to then come across some turtle tracks! A fun experience trying to identify them…the penny dropped for all of us when Alexis gave us the hint that he didn’t think they were mammal tracks.  The drag marks and ambling gait finally made sense if it was a turtle!  While inspecting the turtle track we encountered tiny frog and vole tracks too. What day filled with richness.  From the tiny millipede tracks to the grand wingspan of the great egret in flight passing overhead. From the close inspections of the finest details of our finds to the expansive vistas out over the land and water.

Back at Alexis’ place we enjoyed a potluck dinner of delicious food and story sharing. Under a starlit sky we ended the day spending time together around the campfire before heading to sleep to the sound of the night creatures.

Written by Miriam Snell - 1st year Tracking Apprentice

Tracking on the Sauble River

Sunday June 14^th, 2015 - Story of the Day

 Written by Tamara Anderson

 

Bob Marley wrote, “Some people feel the rain and others just get wet.”  The rain reminds us of mindfulness - to live in the moment and welcome whatever it brings.  We were immersed in rain and mindfulness for most of Sunday’s outing to the Sauble River.  The Sauble River flows through Bruce and Grey County into Lake Huron.  The river was named “Rivière aux Saubles” or Sandy River by the French explorers in 1759.  I wonder if the local Saugeen First Nation has a different name for this river?

The maple forest revealed a few gems, like a brave garter snake.  The snake patiently let us hold him/her.  Beaver, coyote, raccoon and muskrat tracks were also spotted along the silty shoreline of the river.  Nearby, Alexis found an otter latrine site with a freshly killed garter snake.  Had the garter snake fallen out of the grasping talons of a bird of prey?  The otter scat contained scales from fish and the rusty-coloured remains of crayfish.  A Red-Eyed Vireo serenaded us once again while we ate lunch beside the river.  After lunch, we found Giant Hogweed, an invasive plant whose sap can cause intense blistering and even blindness.  Strangely enough, we noted deer browse on the tips of the Hogweed. Deer never cease to amaze me with their ability to eat noxious plants.  My impression of them as adrenaline-seeking risk takers continues to evolve. 

We were soon on a quest for Kingfisher holes after seeing a steep, sandy river bank on the south shoreline.  Success!  A square-looking hole was found near the top of the bluff.      The Belted Kingfisher excavates a nesting burrow that is two to three metres long in a vertical sand bank.  The blue and white lightning bird digs the tunnel with its beak and feet.  We wandered south towards a colourful, alvar-looking landscape.  Sandy trails revealed coyote scat and mystery tracks.   We debated the track-maker’s identity and finally resolved to call the animal a fox-walking raccoon.  A short drive to Sauble beach on Lake Huron completed the day.  In our closing circle, each person shared their focal species for the next 8 months.  Aster chose the beaver.  Sue is learning more about deer.  Miriam is also studying deer.  Luke is thinking about lagomorphs.  Alexis is going to learn more about the European hare.  I am choosing to focus on the black coyotes that live around my place.  Strangely, no one chose the fox-walking raccoon?

Sign Tracking and an Intro to Wildlife Tracking

Written by Tamara Anderson

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Lockyer Pits, Orangeville

It was sunny and 26°C at the Lockyer Pits in Orangeville.  We began the day by tracking the weather. Wispy cirrus clouds moved across the sky.  Alexis shared his knowledge that cirrus clouds forecast a change in the weather within about 24 hours.  The first set of tracks that we found belonged to a raccoon.  We noted the placement of the front foot beside the rear foot as the procyon lotor ambled south towards the nearby subdivision.  We discussed the various forms of locomotion used by terrestrial mammals; Plantigrade (walking with toes flat on the ground like humans and raccoons), Digitigrade(walking on the toes or digits like dogs and cats), Unguligrade (walking on the nails of the toes (or hoof) like deer).

Next, we observed crow tracks.  We discussed bird foot morphology and how the most common arrangement for birds is anisodactyl, with three toes pointed forward and one backward. The toe that points back is called the hallux.  Ornithologists number the toes of each foot from 1 to 4. Toe 1 is the hallux and the other toes are numbered in sequence, beginning with the inside of the foot and circling out.*  Alexis shared a cool tracking tip for corvids (Crows, Ravens, Jays etc.). In Corvids, toe 2 and 3 are close together. In comparison, toe 3 and 4 are close together for members of the Blackbird family (Cowbirds, Grackles, Blackbirds etc.).

After observing some mystery scat which we later decided was most likely fox, Sue was curious about how to identify different fur-bearing rodents from scat contents.  Do rodents come in different colours? Are certain rodents more delicious than others?  Alexis suggested looking up shrews and voles in Peterson’s Guide to Mammals.  Much of the morning was spent measuring tracks and stride lengths for wild turkey, white-tailed deer, coyote, and skunk.  Aster, Sue and Alexis practiced diagonal walking and moving like the animals that we were tracking.  Aster and Sue were interested in the differences between domestic dog and coyote tracks.  Alexis shared that dog tracks are more splayed than coyote tracks due to a difference in physical fitness.  Dog tracks tend to wander whereas coyote tracks tend to have a straighter trail.  Dogs have kibble waiting for them at the end of the day.  Coyotes do not. 

The sandy, sun-baked, four-runner trails began to feel like a desert.  We ventured down towards the river and found reprieve and lunch in the shade of a cedar forest.  En route, we noticed an ant attempting to carry away a butterfly that was not quite dead yet.  Can ants use their formic acid to predate other insects? 

The afternoon was spent exploring sand pits, locating tracks and comparing the characteristics of coyote and fox tracks.  The question of which would be more valuable, gold or water in a desert came to mind as the contents of my water bottle dwindled in the hot sun.  We began to wonder if Alexis might soon demonstrate one of his revered survival skills and magically find us some water.  Alternatively, I pondered whether I might be able to devine where water was by picking up two sticks in front of me. Aster wondered if there might be water beneath the sandy ground where we could see dogwood growing.  Is dogwood an indicator species for water?  Solitary bees flew into sand tunnels all around us. One 6 mm tunnel had plant debris glued together in a silky turret at the entrance.  I later learned that this tunnel was likely made by a burrowing wolf spider.

One solitary bee made a burrow in a deer track.  What are the bees doing in the burrows?  Are they laying eggs?

 




Tamara kept a bird list for the day: Red-Eyed Vireo, Savannah Sparrow, Meadowlark, Great Crested Flycatcher, Chickadee, Grasshopper Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Northern Flicker, Northern Cardinal, Red-Winged Blackbirds, American Crows, Red-Tailed Hawk, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Blue Jay, Tree Swallow, Cliff Swallow.

It was great to be out tracking in the sandy trails of Lockyer Pits.  Next time, I will remember to bring more waterJ

Written by: Tamara Anderson - 2nd year Tracking Apprentice

*Elbroch, M. & Marks, E. 2001, Bird Tracks and Sign, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA.

Reading the Stories in the Snow: Tracking Evaluation in Algonquin Park

I spent this past weekend at the Wildlife Research Station in Algonquin Park, standing around in below -20C temperatures, poring over indentations in the snow, snowed-in trails of all sizes, mysterious scrapes and holes in trees, pungent urine marks, and other clues of animal presence. I do this kind of thing for fun as often as I can, but this time I was participating in a Track and Sign Evaluation to test my skills. I've been working on tracking skills in a focused way for about two years now, perhaps peripherally for a year or two before that. I've written previously about what drew me to this learning, and why I find it so compelling and beautiful and important, both on this blog and at Sense of Story. And so you might know that for the past two years I've been involved in an apprenticeship program with Earth Tracks, spending many inspiring weekends hiking around forests, swamps, cliffs and fields in every possible kind of weather, learning about the ecology of this land that I live in and about the creatures who inhabit it with me. I've learned to measure, sketch tracks, journal, draw maps, do species research, observe weather patterns, and tease out the stories left behind on the land.

When the evaluation was first scheduled, I hesitated to sign up. I had some nerves and doubt and plenty of ego to untangle when I considered being put on the spot for my skills in this way, skills that seemed so emergent and fragile to me. I didn't know what it would look like and how it would feel to be required to move from wonder and speculation to firmly committing to an answer, my own answer, to each puzzle pointed out to me. What did I actually know? But specific goals are motivating, and risk is a powerful teacher.

Our humble but cozy accommodations.

So I found myself on a late January Friday bunking with three other women, fortunately all of them friends, in a tiny cabin in the woods of Algonquin Park. In between sleeping and evaluation time out in the field, our group of ten or so participants gathered together in the Director’s Cabin at the Wildlife Research Centre to warm up, cook our meals, and socialize.

One of my bunkmates, Tamara, had made up study notes for herself, and we lay in our beds on Friday evening as she read tidbits out loud by headlamp, all of us easing our nerves with raucous laughter.

The next morning, with feet already freezing from the cold cabin floors (note to self: bring slippers next time!), we gathered with snowshoes and notebooks to start the evaluation. George, the evaluator – who had come up from the U. S. – had scouted out some tracks and sign the day before. But nature is always in motion, and recently fallen snow and new tracks meant that many of the questions he ultimately gave us were spontaneously found or had already changed slightly by the time our group reached them. With each new track, trail or sign we might be asked: “Who made this?” “What gait is this?” “Which foot is this?” or the all encompassing “What happened here?” Ecology, habitat, behaviour, as well as our knowledge of track and trail patterns and typical animal sign all informed our answers. We moved from one set of tracks to another, each person taking as long as they needed to decide on an answer, although the bitter cold certainly encouraged closure. Our answers we gave one by one to George or to Alexis – who was assisting – either whispered or written in a notebook (my preference). The evaluator’s job was to hear our answer with a neutral face and record it.

Who made these tracks?

After each group of five or so questions, George took up the answers. Obviously, the evaluator’s tracking skills are put on the spot as well, and there is room for debate and the occasional question thrown out if there is too much disagreement (it is amazing, for example, how much snowed-over moose tracks and human tracks can look alike). After the first group of questions, I knew I would be fine, and I threw myself into the exuberant fun and adrenaline high of it all.

George and Alexis, practicing the poker face. George has an excellent frost beard.

Who made this Trail? 

As I knew, my weak point was bird, insect and mammal sign on trees. On the other hand, I had some strokes of luck, pulling an answer out of nowhere – certainly not from conscious memory – a few times and then discovering it was right. I was struck by how often a seemingly random guess can have a solid deductive process going on behind it. I loved what I learned about my instincts and my reasoning process, how good it felt to follow my intuitions on each question, and how often my mistakes came out of not doing so. I also loved dispensing with the need for measurement – measuring tools weren't allowed – and tuning into my love of patterns and context to summon my answers. I checked off correct and incorrect answers in my notebook, and although the answers are weighted for difficulty, making it difficult to calculate a score ahead of time, I could see as the weekend went on that I was mostly on a roll. I had told myself that what I wanted from the evaluation was a really great workshop – which it was – but I could see quickly that my competitive drive was kicking in.

Among what we saw in the snow were tracks and trails of pine marten, fisher, mink, river otter, short-tailed weasel, shrew, deer mouse or white-footed mouse, grouse, moose, white-tailed deer, red squirrel, red fox, and eastern wolf. On a range of trees, hydro poles and on one plywood shed were marks from black bear, porcupine, pileated woodpecker, and many other smaller creatures.

What happened here?

Our most intense moment was being led to a fresh moose carcass at the bottom of a slope on the side of the highway. The next few questions set the scene: Whose tracks were leading up to it? What did we see at the top of the hill? Was this all related? If so, how? It was potent and moving to visualize the scene of the hunt, what might have happened here and how. To place it within the statistics on wolf on moose predation in the park; to feel the agony of the moose’s death alongside gratitude for the role the wolves play in the health of their ecosystem. In the woods with senses wide open, you can’t avoid the cycle of life and death, its solid and fleshy reality, and the bigger knowledge that every living being, every possible nutrient, is eventually recycled and reabsorbed into others and into the Earth.

A beautiful otter trail.

I was grateful to have been part of this experience and process. Putting myself into a situation where I needed to decipher the clues on my own, to commit to answers and really trust my gut, and the excellent outcome that came out of this for me (Level III Track and Sign) gave me a huge boost of confidence in the skills I've built up over the past few years. The testing situation put a higher stake on using the knowledge I had in contrast to the more relaxed energy of tracking as naturalist learning. It connected me in a deeper way to the instincts my ancestors would have used, that I could still use, in a situation where tracking had a stake in survival. Reflecting on the experience in the week afterwards, I thought a lot about how to apply that intuition, that trust in myself, to other situations in my life. Like any experience where head, heart and body are engaged, it gifted me more than the sum of its parts.

Pine marten at the back window of the Wildlife Research Station. Photo by Lianna Vargas.

A week later, I’m driving up to Algonquin Park again, this time with the apprenticeship program, for a weekend of a different pace, which will be both more relaxed and more physically demanding. We’ll get onto some moose or wolf trails, read the patterns, immerse ourselves in the exhilaration of movement, observation and connection with the more-than-human world. I’m glad not to be tested this time, but I know I’ll bring the energy of last weekend forward into this one. And I suspect that when the evaluation comes around again next year, I will be keen to do it again.

Me, with my usual tracking grin.

Written By: Malgosia Halliop - 2nd Year Tracking Apprentice

"Here kitty, kitty . . . . Wait - What's that Flesh?"

A study of animal Gaits

Story of the Day for Jan 18

On a snowy Sunday morning, after many icy kilometres, our little tracking crew found itself on the edge of the Kreug Forest. A great piece of land preserved through the years by the Kreug family and then donated as a preserve, some of us reminisced about beautiful native plants we had seen here in other seasons. But top of everyone's mind was the potential for bobcat! Twice over the past year there had been potential bobcat scat spotted on the scrubby edge of the wetland. Now, with snow all around, we were excited to see if we could find evidence of those beautiful tracks!

Snowshoeing through the cedars on the edge of a pond, there was lots of evidence of deer walking, feeding and sleeping. An old cedar stump held the claw marks of a squirrel and maybe a raccoon. Claw marks reminiscent of tiny hieroglyphics in an obscure forest language - hard to say how long they have stood there.

As we head out carefully across the ice (a foot went through on more than occasion that day:) ), we find an aged trail of what looks like a starfish? With splayed toes at all angles, and a regular rhythm, this animal had crossed the pond to the shore. Although difficult to see individual toes, the wild shape of these tracks could only be attributed to Ontario's only marsupial - Virginia Opossum!

What track pattern do you see here?

Sticking to brushy, covered edges of the wetland, we came to a crossing where multiple deer had gone from forest to forest, changing gaits in rapid succession as they crossed the open ice. The thin layer of slush on under the snow, provided great contrast for this in-depth analysis of cervid movement. After Saturday nights in-depth whiteboard studying, we were able to pick out an individual deer as it moved from a transverse gallop to a bound to a rotary gallop (the fastest gait I know of). Using the tracking text from Elbroch, we drew out fronts and hinds, and compared the lightning bolt shape of a transverse placement of feet to a rotary placement which is more C - shaped.

Picking up the pace to get out of our heads, we came across a tiny least weasel trail over the ice, so snowed in we couldn't count toes, but saw the characteristic 3x4 lope that this family loves. On land, a tiny ironwood sapling showed signs of fresh browse. On a little island in the snow, someone found what looked like a rib bone.

Porcupine Den Site

After lunch and snow fight with a conifer (wherein said tree suddenly dumped snow all over unsuspecting snacking adults), we headed towards some fresh porcupine chews. We found a little "snow plow" trail of the porcupine leading into an active den at the base of a beautiful old sugar maple.

What is that up there?

Our group dispersed a little amongst the open hardwoods and saw little shrew and potential short-tailed weasel trails. Wait - what is that? A little 2x2 loping trail with a tiny piece of scat? Ropy scat and little further down a piece of flesh? As we trailed this tiny predator, we found another and then another scrap of flesh. Under a log, over the snow, across the hill until it seemingly disappeared. The worn trail told of us the tiny weasel hunter who must patrol this patch of forest. Although he (presuming from track size) was not the cute and fluffy cat we had hoped for, we were all left with the wonder of this carnivorous creature . .

Written by Lee Earl - 2nd year Tracking Apprentice - (also certified  Level III Track and Sign!  Whoo-hoooo!)