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.
Atlas Bone of White-tailed Deer
On one of my tracking study calls a photo was presented and everyone was asked to identify the bone that was shown. Somehow a few people were able to identify it rather quickly. I had never heard of the bone before but took note. I love learning about the skeletal structures of animals and spend a lot of time on it, but how did I miss a bone that so is so important to an animal, and that so many others knew? I needed to learn more about this bone.
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.
White-tailed Deer Sternum
I went for a walk by myself the other day to scope out an area I was going to be going with some students. I wanted to see which areas would be worth investigating and get a sense of how long it would take to get to different landmarks I thought might be worthwhile to go with them. While I was out in a part of the forest I didn’t even consider would be that interesting, I came across a bone, or a series of bones rather, which I wasn’t familiar with. I had to take some photos and knew I would be looking it up when I got home.
Metacarpal or Metatarsal?
I have been thinking a lot about bones lately.. I guess I think a lot about bones all the time, but lately I have been trying to consider them more completely, in relation to one another, and to better be able to identify which bones are which, where they come from on the body, and which bodies the particular bones I find make up? There are so many questions that come wrapped in bone that it’s kind of fun to take the time to consider some of them.
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.
Identifying an unknown Shrew
A parent of one of the kids at the school where I work wrote to me recently, sharing some photos of a dead Shrew she had found at one of my favorite places near to where I live. She guessed it could be a Pygmy Shrew and asked what I thought. I decided to try and figure it out.
Learn The Land at Bishop Mac
On a recent Sunday I was out behind Bishop Mac High School with one of the classes I facilitate with my colleague Annie. The program is called Learn The Land, and it’s a ton of fun. Together we have been exploring three different locations around Guelph over the past year and getting to know the local ecology (and so much more). When it comes to Bishop Mac, or the South End Community Park, we had been there a couple of times in the past year, though both previous times were in the warmer months. We’ve observed the Osprey nests, and went on a birding adventure but this was our first time out in the Winter months. Sadly there was no snow, but that didn’t mean we didn’t find anything to really dig into.
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.
A Basic Guide to Non-Human Mammal Dentition
I am so grateful to have a partner who is willing to sift through my writing and show me things I have overlooked or left out. One of the things that was pointed out to me recently was that in a previous post I assume that folks know what I am talking about in regards to dental formula of Red Foxes and Coyotes. I knew I was bored of writing in the last one and didn’t want to side track too much, so I decided I would write a quick introduction to the teeth of mammals.
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.
Determining The Difference Between Red Fox and Eastern Coyote Skulls
Today I went out to track White-tailed Deer and anyone else I might encounter. I went to the swampy Eastern White Cedar woodlands where I found a beautiful pair of antlers a couple of years ago in hopes that while out tracking the Deer I might come across another antler. Instead, when I walked into the low thickety edge of the darker Cedar woods, I found some bones and eventually a skull.
Which Weasel Was It?
A few years ago, one of my former students called me over to the fire pit to show me something his cat caught. I love it when the kids bring in dead animals because it gives us time to really study them in a way that we wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to. I came over and was totally surprised. A weasel!
A Side Trot On My Driveway
I had stepped outside to take out the recycling when I noticed two canid trails on my driveway. There was one leading towards the back yard, and one heading back out towards the street. I took a closer look to try and see which species it may have been, as I have noted different species in the area on other occasions and wouldn’t have been too surprised to have seen any of them going into my backyard in search of play or prey.
Tracking the Smith Loop, 2022.09.05
hello,
i'd like to go tracking today. I'm going to head out this afternoon, maybe to smith trail because i just need to wander. want to come? i know it's last minute, so no pressure, but it would be fun to track with you.
carolyn
I was just thinking that I wanted to get out for a little and see what I could find, but I couldn’t decide where to go and I was in the midst of researching. I needed a push and when Carolyn’s email arrived, I was stoked. I was most definitely down to go.
A mystery while tracking in Lake of Bays, 2022.08.13
The skill set of identifying a fresh trail with certainty in the jumbled quilt of the Summer forest floor is definitely an art and science with which I have little purchase… but a skill set that I do feel a growing confidence about is bone identification, and while making our way up the hill in the leaf little there was a small mandible laying fairly exposed with the lingual surface (the side which would be closest to the tongue in the living animal) facing the canopy.
Some scat from Point Grondine
During one of our daily drifts down the Mahzenazing River where we would occasionally have to paddle a little to be sure we didn’t hit an island and wreck out friends canoe, we decided we should stop on one of the islands so we could have lunch and investigate some of the plants a little better. While out of the canoe getting a better look at some Harebell flowers I noticed some scat atop a bed of Star-tipped Reindeer Lichen and White Pine needles
What bones did we find?
I went for a walk with my partner and we found a bunch of cool things while we were out, like Yellow Birch seeds, lots of White-tailed Deer scat, all sorts of neat lichens, and also a couple of bones, which based on their size were most likely from the White-tails.
The first bones I found were pretty interesting, quite a good length and size. It was also cool because it seemed like two bones fused together. I figured this would be a simple bone to figure out where it was from on this other animal, and I figured I should learn more about what purposes this bone supports.
What is a Hemipenis?
Why would I write a blog post about another animals penis? I am so down with highlighting differing sexual norms which exist outside of normative considerations within the dominant heterocentric colonial culture. Looking at other ways that animals get down is pretty revealing and helps us remember that there really is no “one right way” that is more natural or good. Life finds many ways to express. And, it’s pretty interesting.