Cached Grouse and Mystery Noise

Following a light snow from two nights previous, we struck out into the heart of the Ossipee Mountains, and blue skies and a warming sun welcomed us.

Just off the road we found some obscured tracks leading to an area we initially thought was a bed but there was a layer of dirt in the middle of the snow pack. And we noticed some feathers sticking out of the ground.

We started excavating the area and we kept finding more and more feathers

Based on the size of the feathers and the mottled coloration, they reminded us of grouse. Given the layer of dirt in the snowpack, we hypothesized the the grouse had been killed and cached. The activity we were seeing was the animal digging up their food stores during a tough stretch. The tracks around the cache were walking and had a similar stride length to a Bobcat, which are known for caching prey for later consumption.

Later, we saw evidence of Rouse Grouse in the area. This walking trail is meandering and the strides are 3-4". The timing of this grouse trail is similar to the cache site- the most recent snow was covering it, but there was a week of no precipitation previous to that snowfall. I have a sense that I don't think it was the same Grouse but just similar timing but it is interesting to see. In retrospect we could have trailed the grouse to see if the two trails intersected!!

Another older trail slid past us as we edged around the lake.

The slide was 8-9" wide and you can see were the animal is using it's feet to propel their slide.

Propel their slide down and into the water. Note, the ice in the lake is thick enough for us to all safely walk, but here where the ground water seeps into the pond, the water remains unfrozen, even in this very cold winter.

The freshest tracks we saw were these ones on the surface of the pond. The larger front tracks are landing first and then the smaller and narrower hind tracks are landing in front of the front tracks. This is called an overstep walk and is a faster gait than a regular walk but is generally reserved for hard surfaces like the pond's northern edge, where the snow had blown off and melted so there were only a couple of inches. In the deep snow, this animal was walking to conserve energy.

And here is an up close photo of the coyote track.

We climbed the steep slope up to the cliffs following an old snowed Bobcat track. It was following the same trail location I have observed it following for the last 3 years in a row. Going under the same trees and taking the same contour. Interestingly, when I first started coming to this place, I was stunned by the huge population of Porcupine in the talus slope but I have not seen many in the last 2 years. Bobcats will hunt Porcupine, I am curious, whether I'm not coming at the right time to see the Porcupine's tracks or if their population has been reduced?

The last thing I will show you is a mystery video. I took this video in a house yesterday and I have a guess what is making the noise. Comment what noise you think it is!! Sound UP!

Mystery noise?