What’s going on out on the land?
River Otter on the Eramosa River
On Wednesday December 17th, 2025, while out exploring the river ice with my students we came to a bend of the Eramosa River where I knew the ice was thickest. While out on the ice, I came across some interesting tracks. Coyote tracks double registering? Fisher? River Otter?
Here I detail how I came to the conclusion of River Otters.
Crayfish Gastroliths
I can’t remember when, but a couple of years ago, I think it was a co-op student at work, or maybe a new instructor, come over and ask me what some little thing was that they had found. It was small, flat yet round and slightly depressed on one side, like a danish or a donut whose hole didn’t make it all the way through. I examined it and took a couple of photos, and told them what I thought. “Probably a seed of some kind”, I said, but I never did figure out what fruit that seed came from. Turns out it wasn’t a seed after all but something a little bit stranger.