In addition to my degree courses, son #6, ( Arbiter as you know he likes to be called), and I are taking a course in North Coast Mammal Identification. We had our first field trip this past Friday, where we went out to the local sand dunes to track small mammals and make casts of their little paw prints. Our instructor brought along all the necessary items for making the impressions of the prints. Just like we used to do in grade school - plaster of paris, water, beakers for mixing, etc. We were encouraged to hike down the beach away from most dog tracks in order to find evidences of small mammals like raccoons, opossum, rabbits and the like. The weather was so incredibly nice. On the front edge of a warm rain storm, the tepid wind blew gently from the east as the clouds floated softly by, allowing the sun to peek through enough to give us a enjoyable 65 degree temperature. It felt sooo good to be outdoors. I had been wanting to get to the beach for days!
The first thing we noticed was just how busy these little critters are. We saw tracks everywhere. Before today we would just walk right on by these prints, walking over them without even noticing them. But now that our mission was to find some worthy of casting, we carefully and gently moved about, being precise in our steps. We saw lots of rabbit droppings and poo of other sorts.
Before too long we stirred up a Black tailed jack rabbit that dashed off before I could get a photo! We tried to follow it to find some cool prints, but he was moving so fast that his tracks were nothing more than a dip in the soft, dry sand.
We were able to make some casts of a few prints.
I think most of them were coon prints.
Just as we finished up and got in the car, it started to rain!
The next morning, Gus and I took the dog out for a run and we decided to go back out to the same beach to do some exploring. I was thinking that after a light rain, the sand would be a little moist and the prints would be easily recognized.
These are oppossum tracks in a shallow mud puddle. I discoverd that oppossums have an opposable thumb on the hind foot as you can clearly see here. I brought along my casting kit and made a quick cast of this, but in my excitement in lifting it out, I set it down and then promptly stepped on it while retrieving my backpack! But the photo turned out great, so I can put this in my tracking journal.
This is a drift wood teepee that we came upon. We often find evidences of human mammals out on these dunes as well!
The skies were filled with a symphony of cackling Aleutian geese as they migrated to their annual nesting grounds here in the Eel River bottom lands.
If you look carefully, you can see them in these photos.
Gus was kind enough to come along on the adventure and even carry my pack. He tried to be as interested as possible, but truth be known, I think he was a little bored! Another adventurous day squeezed between winter rain storms.
