Winter Tracking in Wonalancet, NH 1/16/2023
We were a little uncertain about what we would see Sunday with the hard crust from Thursday's storm but we were blessed with a dusting of snow that gave us detailed tracks from the early morning. Katie and Cindy were expert scouts marking out tracks and sign ahead of the group while Chris and Cindy gave us tracking and ecological insights as we made our observations.
Some highlights were:
3-4 independent segments of fox tracks with furry/fuzzy negative space and a ridge on the metacarpal pad. There was a discussion on foxes being a mesopredator that has predators above it in the food chain (and here) (certain species are not in New Hampshire). When we empathize with their position in the food chain we can start to see why they move in certain gaits, speeds, patterns and locations.
We saw the small bounding tracks of a peromyscus spp. (white-footed mouse) while most abundant tracks were the very detailed bounds of red squirrels
The larger group separated into two smaller groups. Jennifer, Norm, Ryan, Courtney and Kyle's group investigated a natural clearing with a couple of rubs and heavily browsed saplings from deer and moose. The tracking was pretty limited but after a shared snack with hot tea Norm was re-energized and found these beautiful Raccoon tracks that came down off a hemlock and did a very small loop around the snow before returning back to the same hemlock.
The track had 5 fingery toes with claws on both the front and hind feet, and their gait was in an investigatory (or drowsey?) short direct register walk. There was discussion about who this may be and we our top two species were Raccoon and Porcupine. Jennifer pointed out the long toes which is characteristic of Raccoon and the lack of extremely long claws, which is characteristic of Porcupine. Courtney and Ryan observed this south facing large cavity in the ancient maple next to the hemlock. The limb on the left rises into the branches of the hemlock so the raccoon may have been able to climb between the 2 trees.
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