March Tracking Club

Last Saturday morning I heard the rain as soon as I woke up, and my first waking thought was, "I bet we'll go under the 124th St bridge today." The bridges are dry-ish and hold tracks well, especialyll when heavy rains mean the sandbars are flooded. But when I met with the five other people who were gathered there to help run this Tracking Club, they mutinied. "No more bridges!" cried Joe. "We were there the past three months!" So Chris suggested scoping out the Redmond Watershed area. Off we went. Even if it meant sign tracking rather than a lot of clear prints, at least we wouldn't be under a bridge.

Maybe it was the heavy rain, or maybe past participants were worried we would wind up tracking deer mice under bridges again, but a small group of three people showed up. I'll speak for myself and say I had a fantastic time wandering through the woods with some very skilled trackers, looking at everything from edible plants to salamander eggs. Everyone got the chance to identify salamander eggs by feel, which was a lot of fun. Snags next to the water's edge led to a good mystery: both beavers and woodpeckers leave wood chips as a sign of their feeding. But given a handful of random chips, could you separate the beaver from the woodpecker chips?

There was a place where a large woodpecker had been pecking into a live cedar. The cedar tree was only 10 inches in diameter--probably small for a nest. No obvious insect sign in there. I have since noticed a similar hole on a cedar near my house. Any ideas what the birds are pecking for?

Rain or not, I had a blast during Tracking Club-- a big hats off to the participants and the stalwart team of trackers and scouts who make it possible. Roaming through the woods exploring with a team of knowledgeable fun-loving people felt like a powerful way to get engaged with the questions of the landscape. Let's get out from under bridges more often.

Cold February Mud is Fun

You might have wondered about the neat rake marks under the bridge off of exit 38 on I-90. The bridge spans a tumultuous section of the Snoqualmie River, and is a good spot for wildlife to get from one side of the road to another. I never knew I would spend so much time under bridges but I am regularly amazed by what I can see in the soft un-rained-upon soil, provided we were careful to rake it smooth after our last visit! This place had raccoons aplenty--or was it only one?--making the rounds between river and the bank. Deer mice, voles, and perhaps a mole made marks where the water had receded from a recent flood. My favorite mystery was where a small bird had hopped up and down repeatedly, leaving a pattern that kind of looked like crayfish tracks. Was this some kind of spring display behavior? The tracks didn't look like the robin tracks nearby. I have never seen my backyard song sparrows do anything like that so I am really curious now. Whatever the birds were saying about spring, snow and cold wind whistled under the next bridge we checked. A coyote had come through there, navigating the rocky terrain in a strange jumble of gaits. I narrowly missed getting obliterated by slushy dirt when a snowplow went over us. And we all agreed to go get warm beverages after discussing the difference between flood debris and woodrat nests.

Thrush tracks in the mud along the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River

 In the afternoon we went to a sandy spot at Three Forks. Rakes in hand again, we scratched up the sand and studied pressure releases, those indications within a track of speed, turns, and myriad other details. It was challenging and not always successful, but the next day I had a sense of how useful a knowledge of pressure releases could be...

Saturday night we gathered in the original structure on Wilderness Awareness School's land. It's called Malalo Ya Chui, which means "Lair of the Leopard." Just the right sort of place to gather 'round a fire and tell stories. We focused on stories from our own experiences with crows, ravens, raccoons and foxes. I loved comparing notes: You get mobbed by crows too? You have also seen raccoons with no tail?

 The wind and cold thinned our ranks the next day as we met early at a place called ElkLand. Well, that's what we call it. It's also a dog run and sports field near the Three Forks natural area. And it's crawling with elk. Mark and I went to scout for fresh sign on one side of the road. Thick snow started to fall, but we squelched our way in to the soggy woods along a well-worn trail, undaunted. A hundred yards in, Mark spotted a group of elk moving away from us. Yep, that's fresh elk sign. We marked the spot to come back to and spent the rest of the morning trying to trail the rest of the group as they went into the woods across the road and picked up a fresh set of elk tracks. Success! We followed the trail until a group of elk popped up from their beds ahead of us. After watching them move off, we stayed on their trail until they scampered down a sandy bank into the river and across. Clever elk. Sorry to disturb you. But we've got some happy trackers who are excited to work on trailing skills now.

Searching for the trail of the herd of elk we were following under the freshly fallen snow on the otherside of a wetland they crossed.

A successful escape! Where the herd forded the cold waters of the Snoqualmie River we chose not to follow.

Except that it turns out we couldn't even trail ourselves back through the muddy landscape. I should have looked closer at those pressure releases! Our entire group wound up on a spit of land that jutted out into a marsh, with a deep four-foot gap of water to cross. Snow was falling again. More than a few feet were wet and cold. Yet let it not be said that this group isn't resourceful... Lots of log-shuffling and splashing later, we had a spiffy wilderness bridge cobbled together. "You must have planned this as a team-building exercise," said one student. And it did bring us together to cross and look out for each other, to make it through a day of tracking. Now I'll have an elk story to share around the fire someday. I hope you do too.

Alexia Allen crosses a lead of water on a bridge skillfully constructed by several students in the class.

The intrepid elk trackers.

January Tracking Intensive: Snow, Snakes, and Skulls

The marvelous and mysterious Marcus Reynerson made an appearance this weekend, guiding us on a series of adventures. The title of this post says it all, but let me explain.

Saturday was a day of tracking in the snow up in the Cascades. I was still nursing a broken ankle that kept me off snowshoes, but I heard some great stories when people got back that evening. There's the mystery on everybody's mind: why is some snowshoe hare urine bright orange? One group followed bobcat tracks, and saw the places where the cat had looked around and scratched a tree. Two students went out and found a hollow tree which was described as a "bear shrine" where bears scratch the burned interior of the old tree.

So that's the "snow" part of the title. When we got together in the evening, Marcus and Dave shared some tips for recognizing non-mammal tracks. Have you ever thought about how many toes a woodpecker has? Or how a salamander moves? Can you really picture the sequence of footsteps as a beetle or spider walks along? Many of those invertebrate tracks will show up in the spring and summer, but the winter mud here gives plenty of opportunity for tracking birds and other critters. We trackers aren't above catching beetles and filming them in order to study their movements. And yes, we got to see a picture of snake tracks from the Oregon Dunes.

On to "skulls." Dr. Tom Murphy over at Edmonds Community College is a graduate of the Tracking Intensive, and opened up his lab for a day of extreme osteological geekiness. He has an impressive collection of animal skulls from the northwest, as well as fossil hominid skulls. We started off with a quiz of 16 animal skulls and a talk on skull terminology. I can hardly tell my fossa from my condyle, but with lots of hands-on examples the terms became useful. After lunch Dr. Murphy talked about primate locomotion and human evolution, and we wrapped up with another quiz on mammal families. The day was a blend of scientific detail and vivid imagination--I liked to look at the skulls and imagine the flesh and muscle on the living creature. How does the skull reflect the senses and strategies of the animal? What does it feel like to be a shrew or a moose? Who has eyes on the front of their heads, and who has them on the sides? What can I tell about the individual animal who once wore this skull? And what does my own skull reflect about me? Lots to ponder until we meet again in February.

January Tracking Club

Despite the rain, a group of ten people showed up for this Saturday Tracking Club. There was soggy snow all over the Snoqualmie Valley, and so the best place for clear tracks was under the Tolt Bridge in Carnation. After a quick awareness game, we scampered under the bride and found more than I had bargained for! There were a lot of questions to ask, like which small mammals hang out under bridges more often, mice or shrews? Can I tell song sparrow tracks apart from junco tracks? Hint: junco tracks are stouter, sparrow tracks more spidery. Some five-toed masked bandit had also been spending plenty of time under the bridge. How many were there? Where did it or they go from here? I was especially glad to bring my visiting dad to this tracking club. It was a good chance to share inquiry and problem-solving, some of the really fun adventure of finding and following footprints of wild animals.

After we wore out our noggins with detailed bridge tracks, we went to Chinook Bend, where a young eagle circled around us. We walked down the road and tracked some larger animals in the snow. Big, cloven-hoofed, shaggy brown animals, to be precise. Cows? Moose? There were two of them strolling through the snow-covered meadow, and their tracks went from one clump of orchardgrass to another. The orchardgrass was chewed down to the ground. Why did they choose this species of grass? A quick taste test revealed that the orchardgrass was sweeter than the other plants growing there. Eventually my dad got bored with the big beast tracks (they were elk) and wandered down to the river to watch buffleheads and mergansers. People who know me won't be surprised; I'll take birds over mammals any time.
Tracking Club, as usual, was a good day of questions and adventure, showing how many stories can be recorded in the landscape when we stop to pay attention. Pretty much everyone can work up enthusiasm about good animal questions, even dads who are reluctant to get on their hands and knees on the dirt. Go tracking with someone you love today.

Drawing and Tracking Training

Professional artist and art teacher Mark Kang O'Higgins explains the value of drawing exercises in training observation skills relevant to wildlife tracking.

December Tracking Intensive

So Dec tracking intensive class was busy. The weekend started for students with class room lectures for the first part of Saturday. Then out into the field, where there were plenty of tracks to be found under bridges in Duvall and at Chinook bend. Everyone stayed out until the light began to fade and then that evening went to the schools land for an evening class on observational principles and drawing as related to tracks.

The following day was spent at Stossel Creek. It was a beautiful riparian environment and we weren't there long before we found tons of bear tracks and sign. Some was old and some was very fresh. An exciting and beautiful place. With the low hanging mist in the morning giving way to clear sunshine in the afternoon the place took on a magical quality. We found Coho salmon swimming in the streams, returning to their spawning beds. There were signs that the bear had also found them. We came across cougar and otter sign. All in all it was a great weekend. Top left; In the woods. Top R: Hannes Wingate finds bear tracks. 2nd down L & R: Old and new bear sign. 3rd down L; bear track. 3rd down R;drawing class. Below L; drawing review. MKO

Coho in this shallow stream made easy fishing conditions for a black bear patroloing its banks. Photo by Terry Kem.

Remains of a coho salmon consumed by a black bear found by students during class. Photo by Terry Kem.

Marcus Reynerson explains river otter scent marking

While teaching on the Snohomish River in Western Washington, Marcus discovered the tracks and sign of some recent scent marking activity of a river otter.

A prominent sandy location above a body of water such as this is a typical location for river otters to scent mark.

Scent marking stations include scratch marks, scat and other secretions, often deposited on vegetation.