Finicky fisher-- no more!

When I moved east to Schoharie County almost 2 years ago, I had a mental bucket list of critters that I would like to encounter while living and going to school here. Although I lived in rural areas in Western, NY, there are several animals in lower density there, than are found here. Primarily, the fisher and the bobcat. Both animals, historically, ran rampant across the entire state. But, as the old story goes, over hunting/trapping, development, habitat destruction etc, drove these animals almost to extinction in New York. Here, just north of the Catskills, you have seasons to hunt/trap both the fisher and the bobcat. While some may not LIKE this, this means that biologists know the populations to be viable, and sturdy enough to withstand harvest. Sometimes it’s almost necessary, to make a population grow. Think of a rose-bush. You have to prune it, right? Then the following year it should come back bigger and bushier, with new growth. In the finger lakes, the numbers of fishers and bobcats are lower, but on the rise. Since I moved from there in 2012, the instances and stories I’ve heard about both bobcats AND fishers being spotted (with eyes and cameras) has increased steadily.

When I first moved here, I set up cameras in the fall of 2012, in my backyard. I also had some classmates set their cameras up too. Almost immediately, both of them snagged pics of a fisher, the same on in fact, minutes apart but on different cameras:

A fisher caught on camera trap, Schoharie, NY. Photo credits: Courtney Stein, Adam Rogers (respectively)

Fisher in Schoharie, NY

It took me over 2 months longer to FINALLY get a fisher on camera in my backyard, on Christmas morning! Merry Christmas to me, indeed! I don’t know why these large members of the weasel family were able to escape the ever-watchful eye of my camera traps, but it took 3.5 months of active camera-trapping to finally catch one. And what a picture, too! Well, soon this fisher (or perhaps more than one?) were regular visitors to the scraps I threw out in the woods in front of my camera. I also often use scent lures (nasty concoctions of unspeakable bits) to draw them in. I don’t want to say I got BORED of the fisher(s), but after a while, I like to see some variety. Or… I’d like to catch a glimpse of one myself. Right now, I live at the base of a north-facing slope. Night “falls” here about 2 hours earlier than elsewhere. It’s dark, and shady, and cold. Nice in the summer, depressing this time of year. This also means that I have significant amounts of snow still, and probably will til May! I can see from where I sit now, at my kitchen table, right up the hill. The stark snow gives a great background to track movements of critters. I’ve seen rabbits, squirrels, deer, and many birds up there. I’m still waiting on my fisher.

Several weeks ago, my buddy Tyler and I took a drive up to some local state land (see the first part of that adventure here: Neature is Neat) for a weekend reprieve from school work, and to get out and enjoy the outdoors. It was a balmy (35*F), sunny day. We drove as far up the unplowed, seasonal roads would take us. We saw tons of tracks, and other signs that despite the heavy snowfall, wildlife was still out and about.

Fisher track highway. Click to enlarge.

As we’re driving over snow-covered roads with snowbanks 4+ feet tall, admiring the hemlocks and pines, watching sun filter through the needles…it happened. My moment and a MAJOR bucket list check happened. A FISHER came out of the trees on the right, ran across the road, jumped up the snow bank where it perched for a moment to look at me, then took off to the left into the hemlocks. It all happened in about 1.5 seconds. Poor Tyler, I screamed and simultaneously slammed the car into park (while still moving forward) and leapt from (a still moving?) the car. Tyler was focused on…something else…at the very moment of my excitement, and once he figured out what I was screaming about, he also jumped out and took off into the woods in the direction of the fisher. I have NO idea what he was hoping for. A sighting? A run-in? To catch it? He went tearing through 2+ feet of snow, through a thick blow down. I stood on the snow bank looking at the tracks, and trying to calm myself. Did I really just see a fisher? Did I just see a squirrel and freak out? No. I was staring at FRESH fisher tracks that had been laid down about 10 seconds ago. For a snow tracker, it was ideal conditions. Crunchy, hard snow with a 1/4″ light dusting on top. PERFECT.

About 5 minutes later, Tyler came huffing, puffing, and swearing back in my direction. He missed it totally, and was really bummed out. He kept asking me “Why didn’t I see it? What was I even looking at?”…. Um, I don’t know.

While he had been gone, I got my camera out to snap a few pics of tracks.

A mish-mash of tracks, possibly from different animals or different events of travel.

Fisher hind right track I believe. The smallest toe (thumb) is on the inside for a fisher. Someone please interject if I’m incorrect!

Winter tracking is such a treat, and a look inside the lives of our wild neighbors. Without snow, a skilled tracker, or lucky novice will be able to find tracks. I’ve been out in the woods with people who are seeing things in the leaf litter that I’ve looked over before. But, in snow or mud, I’m your girl!

Tyler and I were so excited by this experience, that we returned the next day to this spot to hide camera traps. We took a risk, and left them on public lands. But, they’re tucked away in safety of the hemlocks, and are only staying up for 1 more week. We’re hoping for some great fisher pictures, but I also wouldn’t turn my nose up at a bobcat either!

Do good, little Bushnell.

Snow tracks: Ruffed Grouse

Stokes Field Guide

 to Bird Songs-

 a set of 4 CDs. $16 at Walmart!

As I sat at my kitchen table last night, I was listening to tracks of bird calls. I’m in an ornithology course here at SUNY Cobleskill, and we will be learning 150 birds by sight and sound. Listening to the calls of Northern Cardinals, American Goldfinches, Song Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Baltimore Orioles puts me in a good mood. It makes me think of longer, warmer days ahead. They are coming, right?

I will share with you today, an observation I made the other day. I was out volunteering with some Department of Environmental Conservation employees on Friday (3/1), which deserves another post which I WILL get to, but for now I wanted to share this brief experience.

I love tracking animals. I really got into it when I was a student at Finger Lakes Community College. One of the faculty members was very into learning about what the animals were doing via their tracks. And while you can track all year long, it’s easiest when there’s a nice blanket of snow on the ground!

On Friday we were traveling around to different sites all over Region 4. We spent the majority of our time in Delaware and Otsego Counties. For more information about the Wildlife Management Units in Region 4 check out: DEC Region 4 WMUs.

As we were out checking on various things here and there, snow was falling. A nice fluffy light snow. It made for a pretty time in the woods, and it was as well a great track medium. While we were making our way through the woods, I noticed a very interested track in the snow. It was something I had never seen before, but I instantly had a clue. Some scat was left behind. I find looking at scat extremely interesting. I know, it’s poop. But these little things left behind let us know who was there! Ruffed Grouse scat is pretty interesting looking, and in my opinion, is not easily mistaked for anything else in these neck o’ the woods.

If you read the title, you’ll know that I’m talking about the Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus)!

A Ruffed Grouse (and scat!) in

Yellowstone National Park, January 2012.

Photo credit: John Van Niel

The Ruffed Grouse is the King of the Woods. This is a hearty little upland game bird that is cryptically colored, and in my opinion, has quite a bit of character. He can be heard drumming on a log asserting his man-hood to the hens and other cocks. They’ve been described as being explosive: they will often sit still until the very last moment. You can literally almost walk upon them before they burst from hiding. On a forest floor of dead leaf litter, they are almost IMPOSSIBLE to see. I quite enjoy learning about these birds, and was happy to come upon very fresh tracks.



Ruffed Grouse tracks in the snow- March 2013



To describe these tracks, I’ll say “rodent-like” at first glance. I guess I mean the trail looked rodent-like to me, not the individual track. The individual track, or where the foot fell so to speak, was bird-like. I could count 4 toes which are anisodactylly arranged (3 toes in front, 1 in back). But this bird appeared to be shuffling! From a distance it looked like a but like a tunnel that had collapsed. Similar to what meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) make in the snow. Upon further investigation though, I found a scat.

 

Ruffed Grouse scat on left (Photo credit: Walnut Hill Tracking & Nature Center),

Ptarmigan (Lagopus sp.) scat on right taken in Hope, Alaska.

 

I had an experience in the summer of 2012 where I found Ptarmigan scat in Alaska (click here for my Ptarmigan stories). I was working up there for the summer, and on a day off I went on a birding field trip with the local bird club. I found that pile of scat shown above, and I immediately thought of Ruffed Grouse, but it did not live where I was in Alaska. I was also on the tundra, above tree line- not suitable Grouse habitat. I had an inkling to what it was, and I was right. Ptarmigan and Grouse are very similar birds. Small-medium upland game birds. They eat similar things like vegetation and small invertebrates. Of course there are regional differences to what they are eating specifically, but generally similar diets. Just to be sure though, I referred to my Bird Tracks & Sign book by Mark Elbroch and Eleanor Marks. The authors have included awesome illustrations and photographs of all types of sign left behind by North American birds. For the serious birders out there- check it out!



Ruffed Grouse scat found in snow- March 2013

Perhaps a small, inconsequential bird terd to most, but to this aspiring biologist, a very neat clue to an animal that had very recently been in the area! And we joked that it was probably watching us work and/or just waiting to scare the heck out of us on the way out of the woods. Thankfully, that did not happen.

Could the 'Ruffed Grouse Shuffle' be the new 'Harlem Shake'???

Ruffed Grouse winter adaptations on feet.

Photo credit: Mary Holland

One last bit of information about Grouse tracks. According to the Bird Tracks & Sign book, as well as a variety of websites I’m perusing, Ruffed Grouse are known to grown these “small, fringelike or comblike additions. … It is believe that these “fringes” aid in winter travel, acting like snowshoes and distributing the weight of the bird over a greater surface area” according to Elbroch and Marks. These fringes are not feathers, rather tissue and they are deciduous. Apparently they seem to wear away as the winter season closes and spring time opens. Unfortunately the snow was a bit too dry, and I did not see these little projections.

And so ends the story of the Ruffed Grouse tracks. I know it’s not one of my more exciting tales of the wild, but interesting enough to me to want to share. If you’re interested in wildlife, check out a local nature or interpretive center and see if they ever lead tracking workshops. It’s fascinating to start learning about what animals are doing when we aren’t looking. Consequently, that’s also why I love using camera traps!

CCURI and NCUR

I know, that's a lot of letters. I'm in a bit of a lull with camera trapping and other fun projects, so I thought I'd share these exciting upcoming events with the Blog World.

Myself and a male black bear in Addison, NY
February 2012. Photo credit: John Van Niel

While I was a student at Finger Lakes Community College in Western, NY I was able to participate in a truly unique course titled "Black Bear Management". For my entire life I have been infatuated with black bears. I will admit that up until 3 years ago, my infatuation was totally based on looks. I was shallow. Bears of all sorts are so darn cute!

But since participating in this class, I've grown to love them for what's inside. And what they do. And how they do it! Black bears are relatively common in NY. They are not found at an even dispersement across the state, and you are not able to hunt them just everywhere yet. But, they are conspicuous and pretty darn cool. So when they ARE around, you know it.

The one part of BBM that I want to share briefly is this project of studying a particular marking behavior that black bears do. If you'd like more information on the specifics, see here and here.

Through a grant that jim Hewlett, a faculty member at FLCC wrote, the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative through the National Science Foundation was born. CCURI has been influencing undergrads across the nation for the past 2 years, and I was lucky enough to attend the homebase college. CCURI funded not only the class, but funded a trip for my class to attend an area in Massachusetts where these marking behaviors were being documented by a couple of researchers. After that trip, the professor of the course, John, was so excited about what we were learning that he urged us to put a presentation together to share it with others. I ended up being the only student left that following semester (Fall 2011) because everyone else had graduated. That's the problem with community colleges...high rate of turnover! Since that summer, I've presented at the:

·         38^th Rochester Academy of Science Paper Session, Monroe Community College, Henrietta, New York, October 29, 2011

·         7^th Annual Finger Lakes Research Conference. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York, November 19,2011 (Awarded Best Student Poster)

·         3^rd Annual State University of New York’s Undergraduate Research Symposium, Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York, February 19, 2012



·         Northeastern Natural History Conference, OnCenter, Syracuse, New York, April 16, 2012



From left to right: Barb Dagata, the SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher,

Courtney Stein, and myself at the SUNY Undergraduate Research Syposium.

February 2012 - Photo credit: Beth Van Winkle 

And NOW I'm excited to share that I was asked to attend CCURI's very own national conference this coming March in Washington, DC! I will not only be presenting my poster, but I will be speaking to a group of students about the struggles and triumphs I've experienced as an undergraduate researcher in a community college. Even though I am no longer at FLCC, those 2 years were the best of my life so far and that is largely because of the opportunities I was presented as a student.

Also, back in November, I applied for the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR) which is being held in La Crosse, WI. I, along with 2 other FLCC students have been accepted to present our work. Melissa is presenting on work she's done in the caribbean monitoring coral reef degradation, and Michael is presenting on methods of river otter scat preservation for future DNA testing. We are all honored and excited to rub elbows with other undergraduates at this prestigous event!

 

I have one possibly two more events coming up this year that I will be presenting at. One has not been announced yet, and so I'm going to jinx myself and share that...just yet. The other is the National Wildlife Society Conference being held this October in Milwaukee, WI.

 

I have a lot of exciting things coming up, and I'm very thankful to have these opportunities available to me.

New year, new blog title, new camera trap!

Sasha amongst all the critter tracks

Naples, NY - January 2, 2013

Happy 2013! 

I'm happy that the world didn't end in 2012, that I'm healthy, that friends and family are around, and that I live in America (well, not economically speaking). I've been MIA the last week or so due to the holiday hustle. But I'm back, and hopefully blogging on the regular now. 

So I have a new blog title: Nature in a Nutshell.

I started blogging in March 2011 under the "pen name" BearlyAlyssa. The title of my blog was "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey!", but I've morphed now into being truly myself, Alyssa Johnson, and blogging shortly and sweetly, thus "Nature in a Nutshell". My goal with this blog has been to share my comings and goings in the natural world, and to be able to explain my findings in a way that's relatable to all. I think I'm doing it.

Yesterday I was able to catch up with a handful of some of my most favorite people, the 2nd day of the new year. I met John (past advisor and professor at FLCC), Sasha (past mentor and staff member at FLCC), George (lifelong conservationist and one of the most generous people I know), and Becky (caretaker extraordinaire) at Finger Lakes Community College's East Hill Campus yesterday morning, which is in Naples, NY. This is the heart of the Finger Lakes region. We've had probably close to 2 feet of snowfall over the past week, and the woods just look lovely all soft and snowy looking. The sun was out and the sky was blue too, which made for a fantastic day outside, although really cold. After catching up around the kitchen table and watching the bird feeder visitors (Redpolls, gray squirrels, Red-bellied WPs, Juncos, Cardinals, Jays, etc), John, Sash and I decided to take a little walk down the road to look for tracks.

Sasha pointing out a weasel (
Mustela sp.) tunnel in the snow.

Because the snow is so deep, we didn’t “off-road”, but just looked from the edge of the road, from beyond the snowbanks.

Around the little stream Sasha is standing in, we did find some weasel tracks which was a cool find. They bound through the snow (which is a very particular gait), as well as tunnel through the snow. The picture at right is a cool picture of a tunnel (click on the picture to enlargen)!

At some point this winter I hope to be able to write a whole entry about tracking wild animals in the winter snow. But, in the mean time, check out my other blog for past entries on tracking wild critters.

I also just purchased myself a late Christmas gift: a new camera trap! I’ve been wanting a new one for awhile now, since the camera I’ve been using (Cuddeback Attack flash) has been misbehaving to the 3rd degree. I wanted to try a different brand and newer technology, and I shopped and shopped online reading reviews, looking at images and videos. 


Bushnell Trophy Cam HD

The best resource out there, for anyone who wants to get into using a camera trap (or trail cam/game cam), PLEASE check out Trailcampro.com. This site is awesome!

Everything you could possibly want to know about what cameras are out there, is on this website. Except Cuddeback. According to this website, and a customer service agent I spoke with from TCP on the phone, Cuddeback removed themselves from this website. One can only speculate why. And I won’t, at least not now.

Here’s why I like this new camera:

Price- $199.95,

Size- fits in the palm of my hand,

Batteries- takes 8 AAs,

Settings- MANY options to choose from,

Trigger speed- < 1 second!,

Photo labels- I can put my name and the temp on the pictures!

The Bushnell's view into the woods.

I literally just hung it out, and have yet to see any pictures from it. I'm really anxious, and I'm going to try and leave it alone for 5 whole days.Wish us luck!

Bald Eagle tracks at Kenai Beach, Cook Inlet

Right before I left Alaska, a dear friend and her family visited me on the Kenai Peninsula. Before I got the job with the USFWS, Nadia had been planning a trip to Anchorage, AK to visit a family member. When I got the job just 3 hours from there, she promised she'd come visit me.

Nadia, her husband David, and sons Oliver and Griffin, picked me up one morning at my cabin and we spent the day sight-seeing around where I had been living for the summer.

The 'A' is where I lived in Soldotna, and the large blue expanse of blue that curves up to Anchorage and beyond is the Cook Inlet.

We spent a lot of our time on the beach of the Inlet that morning, walking the shore. The Inlet has a huge flucuation in water levels when the tide goes in and out. When the tide is low, it leaves a wide expanse of scary, "quicksand-like" mud, that animals and people alike have gotten stuck in, and then drowned when the tide comes back up. I explained to the boys to not step in the mud, and they had a lot of fun chucking rocks into the sludge instead.

We saw cool stuff like:

Shells

Dead salmon sharks

And many other dead fish, like this flounder and...

 

...whatever this thing is. Not a salmon, so therefore: out of my range of knowledge :)

 

What I was most excited about seeing though, was this immature Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus):

We watched it come in to land, and it first landed on the ground, and took a few steps around. Then he or she sat on that stump for a long time, just taking in the sights and watching us. We eventually got too close though, and it took off. I wandered up there, to check out the spot and see what was so interesting. I was rewarded with some beautiful tracks in nice moist sand.

This bottom picture is just of the single left track in the first track picture. Sorry for not using something for scale...but you can see how big it is in comparison to my hand.

 

This was the first time I think I have found nice bird tracks, that I KNEW who they belonged to. I've speculated and said "duck" or "goose" or "songbird", but I saw the Eagle leave these tracks.

 

I referred to easily one of my new favorite guides, Bird Tracks and Sign: A Guide to North American Species by Mark Elbroch with Eleanor Marks.

 

Their measurements for Bald Eagle tracks are: 6-8 1/4" L x 3 1/4-5 3/4" W, on average, for an adult. As you can see, this bird is an immature. It's not that dark brownish black, with the distinctive white head and tail. Bald Eagle's can take up to 5 years to completely mature, and I'm not expert on micro-aging. So all I can say is this bird isn't a chick, nor a true adult.

 

By my judgement of the size of my own hand, and a ruler I have now here in my kitchen- those tracks seem to be on the small side or just under, average.

 

Other notes that Elbroch and Marks have written about the characteristics of Bald Eagle tracks:

 

-Classic bird tracks.

-Very large.

-Anisodactyl (3 toes pointing forward, one toe (the hallux) pointing backward).

-Toe pads very bulbous and rough.

 

-Trail (or I like to call it 'Track Pattern'): Walking with strides of 4-11", on average, for an adult.

 

They go on to say:

 

-"Predatory birds don't often stroll...if an eagle is on the ground, there is often food nearby. Look for signs of feeding, such as fish or carrion remains."

 

Well, as shown in the above pictures, there were dead fish everywhere. Lot's of scavenging opportunities each time the tide receded.

 

I love tracking, I think it offers so much insight into the animal's life and movements. In this case, I lucky to see the tracks be left behind, but that's not always the case!

 

 

 



X does NOT mark the spot...

This post is going to be about mammals- I feel like I've been neglecting them since I wrote about Moose-stang Sally a few weeks ago.

This week I've found several sets of tracks in amazing substrate that have to be shared.

The first was at the Funny River Weir, that I've recently written about. Apparently the Kenai Peninsula had records snow fall amounts this past winter, and because it's warming up- all of the snow pack is still melting up in the mountains and rushing down stream to where I live. The rivers are swollen, and last week they were raging. Because of this, right next to the weir, a bit of sand and silt built up, kind of making a little beach. Several days ago I went to check water levels, and noticed these tracks:

...and my mind began to spin.

I instantly thought a member of the weasel family, the Mustelids. And here's why:

• Habitat: it's a riverine system that is totally resource rich. Large sized fish, and alot of them, travel this waterway around the clock, and will for the next 2 months. "Resource rich" if you will...
• Secondly: let's count toes. Maybe you can't see in this picture, but there's 5 on front and 5 on back. All weasels (including fisher, marten, long-tailed/short-tailed/least weasels, otters, mink...to name some) have 5/5 toes. Other critters have the 5/5 toes as well, such as muskrat, skunks, woodchucks...but the latter 2 don't live here! And the muskrat tracks just don't fit.

Does anyone else suffer from "sensationalitis"? It's a condition I suffer: when ever I get a blurry trail cam pic, or smudgy track, or some other kind of animal sign...I pick the coolest animal it could be, then say it is so. I was convinced that this was a river otter track. It just seemed so big to me, but as always, the voice of reason told me to "think mink".

That bobby pin is exactly 5 cm long, and it was the only thing I had to use for scale. According to the little tracking book I'm using (Track Finder by Dorcas Miller), mink tracks fall below that. Otter are almost double that in length. SO, the voice of reason is correct again: mink (Mustela vison).

I took this picture of a mink, not on the Funny River, but on the Kenai River several weeks ago. They are here!

The next set of tracks I have to share are a brand spanking new find for me. Several days ago, I was out with Jim, a biology technician out of the office I'm interning at. He is currently working on his Masters degree, and is tracking the movements of fish through the Anchor River here on the peninsula. At one of the sites he had to check, we had to take an ATV back into the woods. I rode on the back rack, as we went in and we hit a low spot that had recently held alot of water. At this point, it was a nice thick, smooth mud. This is what I saw.

The beautiful overstep walk of a lynx (Lynx canadensis)!

As soon as I saw it, after the ATV tracks were made, flashes of cougar, gray wolf, bobcat, dog, lynx were flashing through my mind. In this case, I was underwhelming myself. Trying to talk myself of the edge of a big carnivore. I've NEVER come across a track like this in NY. I have had a fair experience of black bear tracks now, but this was definitely not bear.

These were my initial observations: 1) the tracks are so round, 2) no X (I'll explain this later), 3) edges of pads were blurry, not totally crisp, 4) LARGE, 5) I felt that this animal was walking, as opposed to trotting or running, and 6) no nails!

For ease of explanation, when I say "cat" I mean generally all cats domestic and otherwise. When I say "dog", I mean domestic and otherwise. I'm referring to the family.

1. So cats have round tracks, and dogs have oval tracks: generally. Of course there's the oddball out there that defies this rule, and of course the substrate (or what they're leaving tracks in) can effect this too.

2. There was no "X". When identifying a cat or dog track, an easy way to decipher the difference is by laying an X with sticks, or pencils over the track. If the sticks can lay comfortable through toe pads and around the metacarpal (big pad), then it's a dog. Cat tracks won't allow a clean passage between toes. The "X" will cut into the metacarpal pad. For more succinct information, see Cat Track Fever II.

3. Edges of the pads were blurry! Why? Because lynx have incredibly furry feet that act as snowshoes in deep snow.

Photo credit: Natural Resource Research Institute at the University of Minnesota

So if you have a pet cat, imagine what their toes look like. Very clean and if you have seen wet tracks on a hard surface, you can definitely see edges of the pads.

4. Lynx tracks are big. They are a big cat, so of course they'll have big paws to support and distribute their weight. Width can be up to 10.8cm and length 14.3cm (Mammal Tracks & Sign by Mark Elbroch). As you can see below, this is a nice sized track.

The spread between by thumb and tip of my index finger is just about 10cm, to give you a frame of reference. Can you see the "furry-ness"??

5. Gait: I've done a lot of thinking about the movements of animals for the past couple of years. Tracking, as many of you may know, is such a cool way to study wild animals, even if we can't watch them. They tell us so much about their habits, movements, and how fast they're moving. Because I'm not very well versed in tracking, I'm going to tell you how I came to the conclusion that this is an overstep walk. Walking because the tracks aren't spread way out, and the trail is wide. When animals, and even us, move fast, our strides lengthen and the width between our paws or feet narrows. Then for the overstep part- I compared to various pictures. I have nowhere NEAR enough experience being able to tell lefts, rights, rears, fronts by myself. If I had time to really study the tracks with a bit of positive reinforcement over my shoulder, I may have been able to come up with all of that. It's tough though. I'm just pleased for now that I came up with a species (and it was confirmed by Jim), and that I knew relatively how fast the animal was moving.

6. Cats generally do not show their nails when they are moving on flat ground. Their claws are retractable and therefore rarely show.

I feel like I'm rambling a little bit...so I'll conclude with the rest of my kick-ass pictures!

How's this for a cool picture? I believe those are again mink tracks, running perpendicularly to the lynx. Also, the pebbled appearance of the mud is from rain the night before. These tracks (both sets) fell since the rainfall...very, very fresh!

And that's all I got! I wish I had been able to talk more about the minutia of tracks, I'm just not there yet though. For now, I'll continue looking on the ground for all the clues left behind...and then sharing them with all of you!

Little Miss Quill-Piggy.

I had started another blog posting last night, and I see it got partially published. I will have to delete and start anew. Something just happened, as in mere moments ago, that I must blog about.

For any family, friends, classmates, or blog reader of extended time- you all probably know my Big 3: Black bear, flying squirrels, and porcupines. I've had numerous accounts with the bears and squirrels. They're common-ish where I live in NY, if you know where and what to look for. The porcupine has been the bane of my existence this past year. In every field guide that I've looked in, they're "in range" in Western NY. I guess that doesn't mean that they're common, but they've been spotted before near where I live in the Finger Lakes, even by reliable close sources!

So I KNEW that when I came to Alaska, I'd have opportunity to see them. It's been 4 weeks, and I think I saw one on Friday night as we were whizzing down the Sterling Highway. Or it was a tire. But people here hate them because they are pests! I'm sure people in NY hate them too, but they're considered pests here because they ARE so common. People were in disbelief that I hadn't actually seen one here yet, where I live on the refuge. One guy who lives here, was telling me just before I arrived in May, he rode his bike down the hill (where this story unfolds) and saw at least 10 porcupines in this little field all grazing one night. 10! I don't think he was kidding, maybe embellishing, but serious that multiple 'pines were out grazing together. What DO you call a herd of porcupines anyway???

I've gotten into the habit of going down to the lake here each night to be "one" with nature. I am trying my hand at birding, and I don't know what else to do other than sit still late in the day with a camera and binoculars. The mosquitos are almost winning ...I may or may not need a blood transfusion tonight, even with long sleeves, pants, socks over pant cuffs, bug net, and bug spray (98% deet...). I finally couldn't stand them anymore and decided to walk back up the hill and go to bed.

About halfway back, I see a lump in the road. I literally stopped walking, and swore out loud because I could not believe my eyeballs.

I apologize for the quality...it will get better. This was before she noticed me, even though I did drop a nasty word. Loudly. It's a North American porcupine (Erithizon dorsatum)!!!

As soon as she heard me: quills up! And she stood stock still in the defensive stance. They don't run, as you will see with my following pictures. They just hunker down and let the quills do the talking.

After a few moments of a stand off, she decided to take to the trees.

I would like to take this opportunity before I continue to give myself a bit of a disclaimer. As a budding biologist and naturalist, I of course have the best interest of the wildlife in my mind always. I try to lead by example, and only enjoy wildlife when our paths cross naturally, and from a safe distance. The following pictures are awesome, if I do say so- but really anyone can be a "photographer" with a digital camera and photo editing software. I was incredibly close to this animal, but I didn't touch her or outwardly harass her. I guess my presence could be consider harassment, but I feel like we had an amicable meeting. I have close up pictures due to how close I felt comfortable getting, as well as a 36X zoom :)

She apparently didn't like my company on the ground, so she climbed up this aspen about 12 feet. As I circled around her, she kept her beady little eye on me, and as I stood back and still, she relaxed and scooted around the tree to better see me.

I can tell you that she's relaxed and at ease in this moment. If I moved at all, even just to raise the camera or swat at a mosquito, she would present her rump and stick those quills up.

Did you know porcupines are rodents? They are NYs, and AKs for that matter, second largest rodent after the beaver. Those orange incisors are a giveaway- not all rodents have orange incisors, but they do all have inciscors that constantly grow through out their lifetimes. The constantly grow, so that's why rodents are always found to be gnawing on woody materials, and even bones/antlers.

One thing I love to learn about are the animals feet and the tracks they leave behind. The porcupine was just above my eye level here, and just hanging out. I was able to really look at how strong her feet are. I wish I could've seen the pads of the feet, or tracks, but that didn't happen.

Also, this picture shows why I'm saying this is a female. There are nipples readily visible, and according to everything I've read, they give birth in late spring to a single precocious baby. And here in AK, even though summer officially begins tomorrow, it still is late spring. Everything is a bit behind here, I'm sure due to climate.

Field Camp
May 2012

At field camp last month, John taught students about tracks. Students were introduced to trails, how to measure stride and straddle, gaits, how animals walk, and track characteristics. He has a really cool collection of rubber tracks that were purchased, unfortunately he didn't make them. And I swore I had taken a picture of the porcupine tracks. I remember telling students (I was working as a technician), that I was fascinated by the porcupine's pebbly looking pads, and long nails. It's such a distinctive looking track! They also walk on their full foot, or plantigrade. See the first pic, although blurry, you can totally see it!

Long, long nails. The pads of her feet, I imagine, were like crampons that we'd wear on the ice. Or like those little nubs that Northern river otter (Lontra canadensis) seem to have. And then the nails are like a peevee, a tool used for moving lumber- to keep a firm grip on the wood.

You can't tell me that this is NOT an adorable animal. Quills or not, look at this face!

For a minute, she shuffled around the tree and I think was trying to camoflage herself amongst the spruce needles...

Finally, after about 5 minutes, she determined that I was no major threat and she began her backward shuffle. I guess I was feeling bolder too, so I took a step toward her and stretched out my arm to get this shot. Thank God for a slow porcupine and a digital camera. Several blind shots later, I got this keeper and I have to say, it's a cool shot!

And that was that! Once back on solid ground, she gave her quills a shake and Miss Quill Piggy moseyed on back to the roadside for some grazing. The mosquitos were now REALLY bad because I was in the woods, and so I said goodbye to one of my Big 3, and ran up the hill to write this entry :)