Winter Tracking

Winter time tracking can be very rewarding. Especially if the weather cooperates after a big snow storm. I was lucky this past snow. We got over two feet of the frozen stuff and nothing was moving around in it. Then we got a couple of days of 40° days and a day of rain that brought the snow pack down to something easier to walk through. For both human and animal. Yesterday evening and today, the dogs and I took a hike up behind my house and into the National Forest. I have flock of wild turkeys that wander around my little hollow, but I haven’t seen them in a long time, so I wasn’t sure if there any left in that flock. Yesterday evening I got my answer, they are still around and have been closer to the house then I realized.

The other animal that I’ve got an over abundance of is deer. At one point this past summer I had over 20 does grazing in my pasture! So the hunters in the area have been thinning the herd down to a number that the land can realistically provide for. However, those does had other ideas. The man I gave permission to hunt on my property asked me more than once if I’d seen any of the deer that had been so abundant during the summer. They’d taken to hiding during hunting season and only moving around after dark. We may not be able to see them during the day, but they’ve developed their own deer highways not more than 100 yards from my back door so they can move around easily.

Today, I ventured further and went into the National Forest that my property backs up to. I am glad that I did. I was able to follow the trail of a solitary fox as he made his rounds on the ridge I was hiking along. Marking the trail as he went.

A little further down the trail, I came across a family of racoons as they were scavenging. I was tempted to follow their trail a little further, since it was obvious. But I was starting to lose the light and wasn't equipped to be out after dark.

What I was really looking for was evidence of the bear that had taken up residency in the hollow, but there was none to be seen. So I guess he was hibernating. I am actually kind of glad of that. One of my dogs, Cora, has a penchant for finding bear at the wrong times! Several times, while on a cadaver search with her, we’ve come upon a bear in its den. I am not sure I’d want to disturb a bear while he was hibernating!