What’s going on out on the land?
Deeper Questions of Common Sign : Tracking at Kinghurst
This past Saturday was another outing with the Earth Tracks Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship. We went out to the Kinghurst forest in Grey County, Ontario to see what we could find together. It was a small group of six of us, but that made it a little bit sweeter as we could really dig in to all of the things we were seeing.
Sign of Birds in Algonquin Park
While in Algonquin Park this past week with the Earth Tracks Winter Wildlife Tracking Trip I tried to pay more attention to some of the bird sign throughout our days, though I didn’t always get some good photos, and I missed recording some beautiful songs and calls. I will share however what I did find in the park and what I have been able to learn thus far.
Trailing a Fisher at Old Baldy
We had just crossed over from the thick White Cedar forest into a little more spacious deciduous forest, when, in a very unassuming tone, a friend called us over to check out some tracks. I don’t know if he realized at first how cool the trail he had just found was, but as we stepped off of the path and looked down at the tracks everyone leaned in a little closer, and our voices started to ring with a little more excitement. Our colleague had found a Fisher trail.
Towards A Better Understanding of Scat
Ok, so the title might be a bit provocative, but it is the best I have come up with the truly explain what I am getting at. Recently, while the tracking apprenticeship was staying at the Wildlife Research Station in Algonquin Park, we encountered some scat from a few different mammals. The questions kept coming as to the contents, the diets, and the bodies which formed and shaped the scat. I want to explore some mammalian scat a little bit more with this blog post and try and understand what clues the poop might hold to the different physiologies of a few of the species whose scat we encountered.
White-tailed Deer consuming Water Hemlock
White-tailed Deer consume a lot of different things. It seems everytime I see some Deer browse, it appears to be a new forb, shrub, or tree which I hadn’t seen a Deer browse before. I wanted to look into the foods which Deer browse more generally, but also focus on a new discovery of Deer browse on the aerial parts of Water Hemlock.
Tracking Birds At Saugeen First Nations, 2023.06.10
We parked and got out of the vehicles after a long drive and took to the sand right away to find some good tracks. While we did discuss some Red Fox and some Coyote tracks and gait patterns, I was really looking forward to finding some bird tracks. I was eager for the beach but James called me over to show me a track he’d found. It was from a bird! This was a great start to our day together as I came with the intention of tracking birds and we were only about four metres away from the cars. We got down to check it out.
The Spring Birds of Dunby Rd
For our first day of the 2023-2024 Earthtracks Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship we all gathered at Dunby rd to explore the tracks and sign of wildlife along, and adjacent to, the Bruce Trail. While we encountered much more than birds, I wanted to write a bit of a report back on some of the sign of the birds along the trail as I am trying to focus on learning more about bird track and sign this year. This includes feathers, nests, eggs, scat, pellets, dust baths, kill sites, tracks, feeding sign, etc., etc. For this outing it all started with song.
Are There Dangers In Smelling Red Fox Urine?
Recently, while trailing in Algonquin Park with the Earth Tracks Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship some of us bent down on different occasions to smell Algonquin Wolf, Red Fox, and River Otter scent marks, which were usually small deposits of urine placed in a prominent spot along the animal’s trail. When we got back to the Wildlife Research Station which was our home base for the weekend, we got to talking about safety around sniffing animal urine when trailing.
Personally, I have smelled animal urine literally hundreds of times. Nearly every time I see a urine deposit on an animal trail, aside from Human (Homo sapiens) and other domestic animals, I get down and sniff. But the questions got me reflecting; When tracking or trailing an animal, are there dangers in smelling animal urine?
Examining Coyote Courting Behaviours : Tracking at Bell’s Lake
On Saturday we met up to go tracking with the apprenticeship crew. Marcus and I pulled up I noted the trail along the middle of the road, between the tire tracks, where it looked like some sort of canid had been walking along. The folks who were already there had already noticed this trail and were exploring other trails as well. As everyone arrived we circled up and then decided to follow the trail into the woods and see what else we could figure out.
What began as a wonder, ended as a joyful celebration of the possibility of romance and new life. All from following a couple of Coyotes.
What The Toes Show - A question of deer hooves
For the past four years there has been a bit of a conundrum at the tracking apprenticeship. There has been a theory passed around to be argued and analyzed, challenged and sustained. It has confronted, confused, and confounded many of us who have tried to scry a little more understanding from a couple of seemingly basic teachings, all from the hooves of White-tailed Deer.
How To Clean A Skull
This past weekend with the EarthTracks Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship I got to host a mini-workshop all about skulls. It was a chance to share some of my enthusiasm about the wonderful ecologies of a boney structure which hold, protect, support and enables our lives. Why not be in love with skulls?
One thing I wished I could have touched on more clearly and more eloquently for everyone was how to clean a skull, which is a question that comes up every time I bring out skulls in any of my programs. So in light of that questions, I decided to explain some of how I clean the skulls I find.
Follow The Food
Knowing the plants who are in relationship with the animals we track can help us find the animals we want to learn about. They can point in the direction of where the animals are going or where they will be going. They can show us if we are in the right environment or if we need to keep looking.
This entry is pretty much a story of a recent afternoon spent tracking in the Lake of Bays region, just South West of Algonquin Park, where we spent a few hours following the food and then finding the animal.
Ruffed Grouse Questions from 2022.01.15
Ruffed Grouse were all around us in the forest when we arrived. Many were heard, some were seen, but even more so, their tracks littered the forest floor. There were these sunken oval impressions generally in the shape of a Grouse body pressed into the snow. We put our hands in despite the -20°C temperatures and felt the bottom the impressions. There was a hard icy crust in some of them, but not in others. There was scat in a couple, but not all. All had long chains of tracks emerging from them, but none had discernable tracks leading to them. What was going on?
Boyne Valley Tracking Journal, 11.12.2021
Once the two of our crew had returned from bringing a car to the next road over, we began our journey through the Boyne Valley, North of Orangeville. I had been there before. The last time was 2019 with my second year of the apprenticeship. It was a great place for trailing White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and was the first place I had ever seen Northern River Otter (Lontra canadensis) tracks. I was stoked to be back.
Tracking Journal 2021.11.27
We had just finished part of our climb up Old Baldy, maybe a quarter of the way to the top, just finished checking out some pretty clear mouse tracks, bounding across our trail when we all sort of slowed and stopped. We knew something was a little different about the tracks, but it took a second to register. There were pretty clear, though not as crisp as some of the others we had seen. Perhaps that may have indicated some sense of age… Perhaps the air was cooler when the animal came through and the snow was a little more powdery? Perhaps the animal had come through during the evening the day before or maybe during night?
Sit Spot, Fox Walk and Owl Eyes
I have been considering awareness a lot lately. I have been wondering at how we can become more aware of in our relationship to the wilder places in the world, in relation to other humans we interact with, and in relation to our understandings of ourselves. This thinking has branched off into how to use my awareness to help me move with more stealth when needed (sneaking games, creeping up on animals I want to see closer, etc), and to understand baselines in different environments I inhabit a little better.
Tracking Journal for 2021.08.15
I watched in awe and wonder, struck by the beauty of this ordinary everyday animal whom we all have seen, likely ignored and passed by on countless occasions. I took a few photos and just continued to watch in amazement and joy at this wonderful being who only a moment ago was pretty much invisible to me. How long had they been hanging out right beside us? Why weren’t they scared? I still havn’t researched all I’d like to but I will be digging deep into the books this week to learn as much as I can. Sometimes it just takes a short experience to open a whole world of wonder that I end up having to pursue.
Tracking Journal for 17.07.2021, Saugeen Shores
We got into the cars and made our way an hour or so West towards the Saugeen First Nation territory on the shores of Lake Huron. There we explored the sandy beach and discovered an amazing amount of animal sign, from the tiniest larva to the largest birds in the region. It was a great day!