What’s going on out on the land?
Tracking Journal, 2021.12.28
It was really windy at the top of the hill. I was really grateful that I had the forsight to bring my jacket, even if I had that thought that it was supposed to warm up a little over the day. For now it was early, it was windy and I was cold. Opening with my backpack to pull out my coat while trying to not ruin the White-footed Deer Mouse trail in front of me was a challenge, but once the coat was on, my attention was on the trail.
Shrew, Mouse, and Vole Trails
I still get confused between Shrew, Mouse and Vole trails. A couple of mornings ago, when we got a fresh coat of snow, I could look down and see some pretty clear trails running perpendicular to the path I was walking on. They were small, had tracks of feet, and some showed tail drags. Some were hoping, some walking. While I looked at them I realized that I wasn’t 100% on which species or group of species they belonged to.
In light of this conundrum, I thought it would be worthwhile to put a little post together to help me better learn what to look for. Here goes.
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.
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?
Differentiating between Cepaea nemoralis and Cepaea hortensis
Snails have captured my attention lately and I am getting more and more curious as time goes on.
It isn’t like my curiosity has suddenly been triggered, but rather, it has grown over the past year or so. This curiosity and interest tends to fall back to one or two specific species which I encounter most often. They are the common species in my area of Southern Ontario in the Cepaea genus, Cepaea hortensis and Cepaea nemoralis. But how do you tell them apart?
There is one way to know, but it can be a bit tricky.
Scapulae pt. 1
Detailing the scapulae I find, where I find them, and who they likely belonged to. I hope to turn this archive into a zine someday, and will make an effort to return to post more images or perhaps just make new posts as I go.
The Season of Fungi pt. 3
The last couple of entries on Fungi were mostly about Mushrooms in their conventional forms. I wanted to focus on some cool fungi which don’t take on the shapes many of us are familiar with, but vary in presentation and form. Here are some brief introductions to three which have caught my eye in the past year.
Tracking Journal 2021.10.09 pt. 2
After most folks left, the rest of us sat down for a quick lunch. There was 4 of us left. A big group can find a lot, but a small group can go at a different kind of pace, both physically and mentally. It is nice to have had the chance to have the big crew in the morning, and a smaller group for the afternoon.
I can’t quite recall who spotted the next mystery first, but it was a big unknown to me. A strange something I had never seen before or experienced before, and I have walked this trail hundreds of times. This special little treasure was handed to me and my brain clicked to wonder and awe. What the hell was it?
The Season of Fungi pt. 2
Since it is the peak season for finding fungi, I had enough photos and enough interest that I decided to make another post detailing some of the species I have been finding. I also wanted to note that there have been dozens of species which I cannot identify, which have totally stumped me. In no way am I a master mycologist or do I know a lot about fungi, but instead these posts are just my process of learning, and hopefully retaining the information.
So here we go.
Tracking journal 2021.10.09 pt. 1
Very shortly after we started out from the parking lot, I noticed the pale long form of what I first thought was a drowned Earthworm in a puddle on the gravel. I walked up and immediately recognized the scales as the underside (ventral) of a snake, but which snake? As I bent down to pick the snake out of the water I noticed they were very small. This narrowed it down a little in my mind and then confirmed as soon as I flipped the snake over.
Thus begins a fairly long and detailed account of the first half of our tracking meet up on October 9, 2021.
The Season of Fungi pt. 1
‘Tis the season to be on the look out for mushrooms. They are so abundant right now that I can honestly smell them on the wind while I walk just outside the wooded riparian trail by my house.
I don’t know very much at all about mushrooms, or polypores, or fungi in general. I want to learn more.
White Fragility and Fake Blues in a Blue Jay Feather
Lighter or whiter parts of feathers break down more readily. One of the reasons is that darker feathers contain different pigments. The pigments make them stronger and more resilient in the face of harsher conditions. Additionally, white and blue aren’t real colours at all but structural colours created by the structure of the feather itself. Check it out.
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.
Fruit and Seeds pt. 4
Part 4 in my series exploring fruit, seeds, and leaves. I got two new measuring tapes thanks to my friends (Matt and Steffanie). Thank you very much!
I am also running into problems around identifying some plants down to species, especially those that hybridize easily like the Hawthorns and Grapes. I hope to get better as I go. For now, this is still a blast.
Fruit and Seeds pt. 3
Welcome to part 3 in the series exploring fruit, seeds, and leaves. I have been better at scale for these, and refining my process of photographing on the measuring tape (though my tape just broke). The common scale still remains a canadian quarter, which is 23.88 mm in diameter. Making these guides has already been useful as I have been identifying particular seeds in scats already. It’s a joy to see the work come to fruition.
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.
Fruit and Seeds pt. 2
This is part 2 in a series exploring fruit and seeds, an leaves as well I guess, of different summer fruits which might be found in some scat of common birds and mammals in my area. This is part two of a series.
Fruit and Seeds pt. 1
I wanted to compile a small collection of images and notes about seeds of the summer which might be found in some scat of common birds and mammals in my area. This is part one of a series.
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!