Animal Tracks

The other day while walking in the woods I stumbled across an area completely covered with complex patterns of animal tracks. The conditions were perfect to see the tracks, since the older snow had hardened, from exposure to sunlight and then re-freezing, and a fresh dusting had just fallen the night before. You should have seen me bounding around in knee-deep snow chasing after the new tracks I saw!

I saw many MANY snowshoe hare tracks. I could tell this is what they were by looking at the pattern of the tracks. Hares have much larger back feet than front feet. When they hop, their front feet land together and then their back feet land IN FRONT of the front feet. So the hare in the picture below is hopping to the left.

This hare is hopping toward us.

I could tell it was a hare and not a rabbit based on the size - hares are bigger! The rear foot of a rabbit can be from 1-3 inches long, where the hare can be 3-6 inches long.

The other really cool thing tracks can show you is what the animals did while they were going about their business. In the above picture you see a hare track that leads to a spot where the hare stayed for a little while (see how there is a big spot where the snow was packed down). What was the hare doing? I can't say for sure, but I know it spent some time here before continuing on.

I saw more than just hare tracks, I saw human tracks, bird tracks, dog tracks, and skiier tracks as well. Some tracks I wasn't able to identify, such as the ones below. I do know they are some sort of rodent because I can see the tail dragging between tracks!

There is a quarter for scale.

 

These rodent tracks end at this tree, so the
rodent's home must be under the snow here.

Due to the size of this next track, and the fact that there are little claw indentations, I say that it is a sort of weasel. If I'd had a book on me at the time then I might have been able to narrow it down further.

A weasel moves in a bounding pattern. This means that when the weasel leaps its front feet land first, then its back feet land in the same track as the front feet before it launches forward again.

They can get really good distance!

As I continued walking, I saw another track that seemed to appear out of nowhere. At first all I saw was another hare track, but suddenly a short, much smaller hare track appeared beside it. Then it vanished again!

Until I looked closer!

A baby hare was following an adult hare, hopping in the adult hare's tracks!

The last type of track I saw that day showed a walking pattern. If only I'd seen a porcupine track! Then I'd have seen all 4 types of track patterns - walking, hopping, bounding, and waddling.

See how the track is almost single-file? That's characteristic of a walking animal.

Because of the 4 toes and arrow-head like foot pad, I'd say that this track is canine.
Due to the size, I'd say fox.

But that was not the end of my tracking experience. The next day we went out to a different part of same natural area and found these beauties!
  

I put myself in for scale.

Based on size and surrounding habitat, my best guess is that these were made by a young Tyrannosaurus Rex. However, I am not well-versed in palentology, so I will have to do more digging to determine which dinosaur made these prints. 

Next time you're out walking in the snow, what do you notice about your own tracks? Can you tell which ones are yours from the tread on your shoes? If you jump, or run, or turn around does that change how your track looks? I'd love to know what you find!

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of this beautiful butterfly while at work in Shelburne, VT recently. The species is "Giant Swallowtail" which is fitting since it is the largest butterfly in the U.S. The wingspan can be about 4-6 inches! I find this butterfly striking due to the big, black patches on its wings and the large spoon-shaped tips to its wings. For comparison, the Tiger Swallowtail, which is a species more common in this area, has vertical stripes of black on yellow wings.

This is an exciting siting because this species is very rare in Vermont. They appear to be coming north into our area in recent years. It's also just exciting to see a butterfly this big, especially for kids. The children I was with were very enthusiastic, happy to sit there and watch wherever it flitted.

*NOTE* Butterflies can be attracted to an area based on the types of plants they like to eat. If you are planning a butterfly garden, it's probably best to stick with plants that are native to the area. This is because plants that come from other places might not have animals to eat it and keep it from taking over. Even if you only plant it in your garden, it can spread to nearby areas and keep going from there. Species that do this are labeled "invasive" and can make it harder for native plants to grow.

Hypotheses

Today we biked to a little natural area by the Winooski River, and then let the Little Lady run about to see what she could discover. This is my favorite part, when we let the scientific discoveries come naturally! We wound up discovering many things we couldn't explain right away, so we had to use our powers of observation to form and test hypotheses. For the record, the way the Little Lady defined a hypothesis is an "educated guess", so that means it is based on the information we found, rather than just an off-the-cuff guess.

The first thing we found was some beaver damage on a tree. We made the educated guess that it was beaver damage since we were next to a river and we happen to know beavers live nearby. The beaver hadn't felled the tree, but just nibbled on it. The beaver might have done this to get a snack. They only eat the layer of a tree just beneath the bark (the cambium), not the main wood. Another reason for gnawing this tree might have been to file their teeth. Beavers teeth never stop growing, like our fingernails, but they don't have nail clippers!

Other animals create similar damage. This picture is actually porcupine damage.
(I didn't have my camera today, so I'm using this picture I took earlier.)

We also found some fire damage. The Little Lady was concerned about our hypotheses for this, because "hypotheses must be testable." She's right of course, but we discussed how you can test a hypothesis through research, rather than experimentation. One way to do this would be to ask the people who manage the natural area. However, while we were there we used our powers of observation to see if we could make our hypothesis stronger, or disprove particular ideas. For example: since we didn't find a lightning strike, we don't think it was naturally caused. It might have been a controlled burn by people who are experts in that field.

The biggest part of the adventure was spent studying water current in the river. It was a completely self-designed experiment by the Little Lady herself. She threw a stick and a hollow reed into the river to try to see if the hollow one would get waterlogged and sink faster. They were swept downstream too quickly to tell that time, but then something else happened. She threw a tiny piece of reed very close to the bank, and it started moving backward! Lucky we had a friend with us today who is an experienced canoe paddler. He told us about how directly downstream from a point where something, like a rock or log, juts into the river, the steam will create an eddy behind the point. In an eddy the water moves upstream because of the faster water moving in the main stream channel. This difference in current means that sometimes at the edge of an eddy you can see tiny whirlpools.

Image borrowed from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website

We saw waterfowl in the river; a pair of Canada geese and two pairs of black ducks. We also heard birds. The Little Lady identified the crow call. I tried to point out the red-winged blackbird call, but there was also a black-and-white warbler calling, and she kept thinking I was referring to their squeeky-wheel sounding call. We also heard a mourning dove. I'll have to come up with a better system for incorporating bird calls into my lessons now that I'm getting better at them (I've been practicing!)

The best part of today, for me, is that I had no plan for this outing, I was just thinking a quick bike ride to the end of the road and back. You really never know what you're going to find to learn from when you walk out your front door! That's the amazing part about working with kids in nature: you can quite literally never run out of new things to learn about. Who knows what the next post will explore!

Spring Walk

I am certainly getting geared up for spring and summer, so get ready to bring your kids out for some fun times and natural education! Now that spring is springing make sure to check here (and on Facebook) for events. As it is I've been having some adventures of my own. The other week we got a dusting of snow which was just perfect for tracks. I saw these, anybody know who they belong to? Comment if you do!

And this bird's nest. I'm not sure of the answer yet, but I have my top guys and gals on it!

Last but not least, I was mesmerized by this little stream of meltwater cutting through the ice. I love the way it back-tracks on its own path, making a perfect Z. This shows a great example of how moving water erodes its surroundings, and how the surroundings affect the movement of water. I also really liked seeing the movement of the sediment on the bottom, how it is deposited by the water on the upstream side, and then picked up and carried along with the current on the downstream side.

Hope to see you all soon in the woods!

Woodpecker Rescue

One of my Environmental Science students arrived at school Tuesday morning with an unusual package for me. In it was what I believe to be a downy woodpecker who had crashed into a window. He was relatively motionless, but still alive and breathing. We noticed that it looked as if it had hurt its neck pretty badly.

I called several local licensed wildlife rehabilitators, to no avail (I can't blame them, it was the middle of a work day!) Then I decided to call VINS (Vermont Institute of Natural Science) which is located in Queechee, VT. I know that they have connections to help rehabilitate many animals, and are especially famous for their raptors (you can go visit the owls, eagles, and other birds of prey at their nature center!) so I figured they could at least give me advice.

They did better than that! They arranged a transport to get the bird to them so it could get the help it needed, and told me what to do in order to keep the bird comfortable while we waited. I was supposed to keep the bird in a small box, lined with a towel or pillowcase (a pillowcase is better for a woodpecker since they can get their beaks stuck in the loops in a towel.) The box should be kept in a quiet, dark place. When I told them the bird was starting to act more lively, they suggested I open the box outside and wait for 20-30 minutes to see if the bird would be well enough to go back into the wild on its own. In our case, the bird hopped out of the box, but then did not have the energy to go anywhere. It still needed help, so we sent it on the transport to VINS.

Today at around 2pm when I hadn't yet called to check on the bird, VINS called me! I am so pleased with how easy it was to get help from them, and how nice they were to me and how much they care about our wildlife here in Vermont. If you ever have a chance to visit their nature center with your kids, it is well worth the trip. Especially if you go to the Montshire Museum of Science the same day! This is exactly what my friend (of Lunches Fit For a Kid) and I did one Saturday this summer. To give you an idea what it's like, I'll attach some of those photos here.

First, the science museum:

A Rube Goldberg-like machine

Part of the outside play area

Playing with air

And the Nature Center:

She showed us this bird in flight!

Screech owl. They have such an interesting call (we got to hear it!)

Barn owl. So beautiful!

Our national icon

A sculpture that shows how a birds wings move as it flies
(if you aren't standing on it!)

View from the bridge over the nearby Queechee Gorge

Bat Rescue

I found myself in a unique situation recently: driving down the highway in 90 degree weather with no air conditioning and a bat in a box on the floor of my passenger side.

As a precursor to this story: I have training in how to deal with bats, I worked with them through the Vermont Fish and Wildlife department. Bats have a high risk of carrying rabies, which is very dangerous to humans. This is one of those "do not try at home" situations. If you come in contact with a bat, do not let anyone handle it*.

Now, back to the story.

We had found the bat baking in the sun on the pavement on our way back from lunch. I could tell from a glance that it was severely dehydrated, based on the appearance of the membrane on its wings. The first important step in any such situation is to protect yourself. We happened to be near some campus medical buildings, so I grabbed a few pairs of nitrile gloves. Being careful not to touch the bat directly, even with the gloves, I coaxed it onto a piece of cardboard and moved it out of the sun. Then, when I dribbled a small puddle of water near the bat's face, we got to see it quickly start lapping up the water like a very, very small kitten.

I made a few phone calls and found a veterinarian that deals with wildlife. That brings us back to where we started; transporting Bartleby to the vet. I named the bat Bartleby, even though I am still not 100% sure he is male. It just seemed to suit 'him'.


When I arrived one of the first questions the vet asked was about the risk of rabies exposure. I was proud to be able to tell him that nobody had direct contact with Bartleby since I became responsible for it, not even me! This made things a lot easier, and a lot safer for Bartleby since they didn't have to worry that he was spreading diseases.

They say that bats don't always respond very well to rehabilitation, but we gave it our best shot! The vet started by feeding him a sugar, vitamin, and water solution to help with the starvation and dehydration.

 Bartleby lapped it right up, must have been delicious...to a starving bat

Then they offered Bartleby some mealworms and crickets, which he refused. We figured part of the problem there might have been stress from so much human exposure. Sure enough, the vet left him alone overnight and he ate in the morning. I had to leave, but I knew I was leaving Bartleby in excellent hands.

The vet had his rabies shots, but this towel helped him not risk it while handling Bartleby.

In recent times bat populations have been in trouble, largely due to the white nose fungus but also to some unknown complications. Researchers are working to gather information on these secondary problems. Bartleby did not exhibit signs of whitenose. If we can figure out why Bartleby was struggling, we might understand better how to help the bat populations overall.



*In you find yourself in contact with a wild animal, you can contact the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department at (802) 241-3700, and they may be able to give you instruction on how to deal with your wildlife situation.

A Turtle and a Trail

Here are two interesting wildlife encounters I had over Memorial Day weekend.

For starters, I've been seeing a lot of painted turtles in my yard and driveway recently. I managed to snap a picture of this little lady digging a hole to lay her eggs right at the bottom of my back steps.

 Close-up

The second is an entirely new experience to me, and just about the coolest thing I've seen all year. I was kayaking up the Winooski River when all of a sudden the river widened and became only ankle deep and very clear. I saw this crazy winding track in the sand at the bottom next to my boat. My first though was that it was possibly left by a boat that got beached before me, and dragged its tail end trying to get back to deeper waters.

It's pretty wide!

I followed it until I reached the end, and I noticed this big lump of a thing. Perhaps somebody dropped something off the boat?

No wait...

 It is what's making the trail!

 Just the largest mussel I've ever seen. And let me tell you, I've seen some mussels.

Mussels move by extending a muscular 'foot' out of the opening between their two shells and dragging themselves along after it. You can see evidence of this in the picture above. I watched it, its motion was so slow it was hard to tell it was moving but after awhile I could see its position had changed relative to its surroundings.

As I moved up the river I saw more of these paths, usually ending in a half-buried mussel or a mound indicating a fully buried one. This experience was amazing, I felt like I had an invitation to see a whole world that is usually kept secret and hidden.