Bear Sign
Each day, at least one of the 20 traps had a disturbance even if it didn't catch a bear. While checking traps, we frequently saw bear tracks along a road, or occasionally found some bear scat. This particular scat was on the trail leading up to one of the traps, which, for some reason, the bear chose to ignore. Its tracks showed it came within 10 m of the trap--very frustrating! But we had a lot of evidence that there were several bears within our trapping area.
Other Wildlife
We saw a lot of mule deer, often a mother with twin fawns (no photos of these, sorry, but trust us that they were very cute). Additionally we saw wild turkeys with their chicks, elk, wild horses, a golden eagle, cows (guess they don't really count as wildlife, but since they graze all over, we encountered them daily), and pronghorn. Kevin and Ian saw a couple of coyotes too.
At the Pond
The DeLamberts gave us permission to use their boat and ride out on the pond during the afternoons when we had no bear captures. The children took their nets and enjoyed catching tiger salamanders. Some of the salamanders still had gills. Two of them are now residing in our backyard ponds.
Kevin and Josh teamed up to capture the first frog, after which the children caught many more using their nets. Kevin also had to catch a garter snake--he couldn't let us only appreciate the mammals on this adventure. Erin soon became adept at spotting frogs along the shore, and Ian assisted her in catching them.
And now for the bonus question: What is this? Submit your entries in the comment section for this blog. The winner will receive a 4X6 framed copy of the photo (just kidding). Actually, we'll post the winner's name later and tell the story behind the photo. *Those present at the time this photo was taken are not eligible for voting in the contest.
4 comments:
Either a) melted chocolate chip ice cream or b) poop filled with beetle thingies from some large animal with digestive issues. Do I win if I'm the only entry even if I get it wrong?
I'd have to go with vomit of some nature.
I was thinking vomit as well, even before I read a.'s comment. Possibly flaming vomit at one point, based on the color patterns.
And the winner is...Janell, guess "b". However, the animal did not have any digestive issues--it's the normal stuff. This is a photo of great blue heron splay (droppings). We noticed that each day the resident heron would make a point of coming out of the water to do its business. Then it would walk back in the water. This photo was taken minutes after we witnessed the event one evening while sitting on the cabin porch.
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