Tracking Wildlife

What a great morning! I used to think that I knew a lot about the forest and what lived in it. That all changed today when I went on a walk with a wildlife track and sign expert. In a forest within a hundred feet of the parking lot, we found an amazing number of signs.

I was most excited about finding a porcupine home in a large, old black gum (tupelo) tree. The scat at the base was in a huge pile and there were small quills littered around. There was a well used trail coming from the den that we followed for awhile to find out what it was eating. We came to a young stand of sassafras trees that had twigs cut off lying on the ground with nice big incisor marks where they were severed from the branch.

We also saw a young veery chick flushed out from its ground nest. When we came upon the nest there was still one blue egg in it. I could hear the mother veery calling to her young from a brushy spot close by the nest.

There were so many other signs that we saw that amazed me. We took a three hour walk in a small area and found sign of moose, deer, red squirrel, flying squirrel, gastropods (snails), scarab beetles, wood frog, spring peeper frog, garter snakes, scarlet tanager, the porcupine, and veery. It's amazing what one can find in a forest when they know what to look for or when you are walking with an expert!