Crawdads, Cormorants, and Barred Owls

We met with a chilly but clear October morning at the Ambrose Sandpit (Many thanks to Bob Ambrose for giving us permission to be on his land). We set out with a plan to walk fast deep into the pit where we stopped last year... and in characteristic fashion we never even made it that far! The moment we stepped off the road, we started scanning the edge of a small pond and found deer, and Great Blue Heron tracks as well as a few mystery disturbance digs/mounds that may or may not be related to a few small (~1") tunnels and the discarded shell of a small crawfish.

We also took a close look at a road kill barred owl. The ear flap of the owl sparked curiosity. I had never seen this before and it looked like you were looking right a the skull of the owl.

We also found a long dead and dried up cormorant with a Coyote scat underneath it.

We wrapped up the day looking at fresh fox scat, a deer walking gait, a galloping gait, and we did a learning circle about squirrel tracks in our area.

Tracker's Report from Colman State Park and The Cohos Trail

I don't usual write about my personal tracking adventures but the tracks were so good during the early snowstorm we got that I wanted to share some pictures and I hope they inspire people to learn and get out tracking! I was especially excited because I saw 2 species' tracks that were new to me.

Let's start out with the MYSTERY tracks. The tracks that, in my first glance, I would feel baffled and question my tracking knowledge! I will reveal each mystery photo with a follow up photo, so don't scroll too fast!

In my first glance I saw 4 clawless toes, large palm pad, and walking on a hiking bridge. I already had 2 wild cat species on my mind-- being in northern NH in Hare country-- so there was some confirmation bias at play already. When I leaned into my process of looking with my primary perception (observing objective characteristics), I noticed that the palm pad was excessively large, the outer toes were not below the middle toes as with Bobcats, the negative area is small for Lynx, and the tracks would likely be too big for Bobcat. So then I thought of the species in the next photo.

Just down the path, walking over another hiking bridge, the same presumable animal now has 5 clawed toes and a heeled palm pad...

A Black Bear

At first glance with these large tracks, all I could think was... "Those are some weird looking toes!" And then I thought, well, they aren't even connected to the palm pad or sinking in as deep.

 Forehead slap, change your perspective!

A Moose in a slightly indirect register, causing the dewclaws from the hind and front feet to register separately.

I also noticed that moose (on the right side) and I (On the left side) have about the same stride length (About 4 grouse strides!). And when their dewclaws are registering, their track length is also similar to my boot length.

A 4.5' moose bed. I heard them crash off into the woods as I hiked on by. You can see the fur imprinted into the snow.

Photo of the same moose's urine sign. Judging from the position of the tracks in a squating position, I would guess it was a cow Moose.

Over much of the Cohos Trail between Coleman State Park and Dixville Notch I had been following a series of presumed Red Fox tracks. I was in this mindset when I looked at this track following the trail just like I had already seen 1000 Red Fox tracks. But it seemed big. It was the deepest and therefore the best contrasting track that lured my attention. Four clawed toes, almost perfectly symmetrical. But the palm pad seemed a touch big and the toes seemed very splayed.

So I zoomed out and looked at the gait. So many bounding animals animals criss-crossing the trail

Showshoe Hare splaying their hind tracks can make a good dog impression!

Snowshoe Hare tracks can also lack any detail at all because their feet have so much fur!

In Tamworth, with our more coarse substrate I usually rely on the a red foxes Metacarpal Pad that has a distinct lateral bar across it but on this road the metacarpal bar was not clear so I could not confirm it until I noticed how the fur of the fox's foot registered in the fine road sediment. Domestic dogs, coyotes, and gray foxes do not have this characteristic, which confirms my suspicions of Red Fox.

I am prepared to be wrong about this ID but I was noticing this boxy track with a short bound. The feet were slightly offset but it seemed like the middle 3 toes were parallel and the outer toes were symmetrically splaying outward.

Some of the tracks are offset but not all. The bound is consistent and small (8in). There were a lot of tracks criss-crossing the path and the trail width was 2-2.5 inch.

Eastern Chipmunk

Contrast the Chipmunk with the more rectangular hind tracks of the Red Squirrel who has proportionately longer hind toes. These toes were a bit splayed in the soft snow

I haven't seen many of these tracks in the snow. But because the snowpack was not deep yet I suppose they had no other option than to go across the top of the snow rather than tunnel in the snow. I saw the animal the day before so I feel confident in my ID. I believe the gait on the left is a 3x4 lope.

A Meadow Vole!

I must have seen over a 100 different trails of this bird with a reduced toe 1 on the hike over this section of the Cohos Trail.

Ruffed Grouse

I liked this photo because you could tell it was an animal in a trot from 30 feet away. It was one of my many fox friends on the Cohos trail.

October is the time of year the Robins are staging in Coleman State Park. We have seen them in the hundreds on the lawns in previous years.

This was one of 2 new tracks to me. To me it looks like a combination of a Crow and a Blue Jay. It is the size of a Blue Jay and is compact like a Blue Jay (although not quite as compact), but toes 2 and 3 seem to be together like a Crow with toe 4 standing out alone.

It's a Gray Jay.

I could be wrong on this ID but these tracks were found on a mountainous ridge of thick fir that was also chock full of Hare tracks. When I first saw a different set of tracks from the same animal, it seemed to have that 4 symmetrical toe look of a dog and I thought it was the fox bounding after something... but then it kept bounding and always offset and only 2 visible tracks. And it dawned on me that it could be another species that I have never seen their tracks!

A Pine Martin in a 2x2 bound