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Algonquin Winter Tracking Expedition 2005
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Wednesday (Day 4)
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| This day was sunny and clear. It had snowed a bunch the
day before, providing us with ideal conditions for tracking!! |
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Today we spent the day ion the
area near Hermit Lake, off Opeongo Road. The early morning
scouting crew had picked up the signal of a collared wolf in
this area, so we set out to track it.
Along the way we came upon this bear scratch on a balsam
fir tree. |
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We followed the wolf tracks
through the thick forest for some distance. Here's part of
the trail. We were backtracking this wolf - that means we
were following its tracks back towards where it came from. |
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Here's a nice photo of a
single wolf track. |
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A wolf lay. This is a place
where a wolf has lain for a period of time, perhaps
sleeping. |
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We backtracked the wolves out
through the forest and out onto a large bog. The first part
of the bog was a spruce bog. |
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The bog opened up into a wide
open bog. Here, in the middle, we came upon a place where
two trails converged.
We ultimately found that both trails came from the same
place, which was the area in the distance on the right side
of this photo. |
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We stopped for lunch at the
edge of this bog. A grey jay joined us. |
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After lunch we hiked to the
west end of the bog to where the wolf trails came together.
We followed them up and over a forested area to Hermit Lake.
At Hermit Lake the group split up temporarily, with each
person doing their own exploring out on the lake and along
the shores. Someone found this clump of moose hair with a
tick clinging to the hairs. |
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As the afternoon was getting
on, we left Hermit Lake to hike back, eventually, to the
vehicles. Along the way we came upon an otter peeking out
of its plunge hole. And we found its trail along the shore,
shown here. |
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Otters like to slide more than
they like to walk. Perhaps because it's easier, or simply
because it's more fun! Who knows? Ask the otters. Here's a
good view of it's sliding trail, along with paw prints. |
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The end of an excellent
tracking day, with lots of discoveries! |
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| This evening we had an informal presentation given to us
by a marten ecologist who was working on his thesis here in Algonquin
Park. |
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