What’s going on out on the land?
Eramosa River tracking journal, 2022.01.23
I left the house just before 8am so I could get out before too many people were out walking their Dogs. There ends up being a bit of a jumble in the trails when the Dogs come out and it’s just easier to spot everything without much distraction. I also feel a little weird sometimes, standing in the middle of a path, road or even the frozen river where everyone is walking by. If more folks stopped to ask about the tracks or even say hello it would feel less awkward, but usually they just stare, and then walk by cautiously while their Dog barks at me. Even the Dogs know there is something amiss about a person standing there noticing the world. I recount a bit of these feelings because it happened again this morning while I was checking a Grey Squirrel bounding trail along the road by my house.
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.
Rock Dove Kill site?
I was on my morning walk along the riverside when up the path I came across a large pile of feathers.
I love how a simple walk in the morning, just to get out of the house can turn into a chance to really look at the details of a killsite and study the gaits of the possible predators, and look at the structure of a feather. What amazing teachers these wild neighbours are.
Tracking along the Eramosa River, Jan 17, 2021
Today I went out to find Beaver sign which a friend had told me about yesterday evening. He had seen what looked like a trail emerging from the river, heading up the bank and into the scrubby wooded edge on the far side of the river from a trail by his house and was thinking it was a Beaver. I had previously seen Beaver signs further up the river when I was out trailing an Opossum a few weeks ago and it would be likely that the Beavers up there would come down to his neck of the woods. I thought I would go and check it out.
Tracking Journal, Dec 30, 2020
I went back to the spot along the river trail where I encountered the Opossum trail a few weeks ago hoping that I may find the sign of something or someone out in the newly fallen snow. I did find something…