Bears

It didn't take too long before we came upon these bear tracks on the beach. It appeared that there were a couple of different ages of tracks and they wandered up and down the beach quite a bit. We figured it (and pretty much everything else around) had probably been partaking of the abundant herring eggs on the beach.



It put its dirty feet up on this snowy log. This is the front right foot - unlike us, a bears largest toe is on the outside and smallest on the inside.

While there are only brown bears in the Sitka area, even if that weren't the case it is possible to tell that these are brown bear rather than black bear tracks. One thing to look for is that the toes are straighter in brown bears then in black. On the front foot, if you draw a straight line from the bottom of an outside toe across the top of the heel pad if the other outside toe falls at least half above the line then it is likely a brown bear, below and likely a black. On this track the toe would be completely above the line.



Another thing to look for is the claws. You can see here that the claws on the front feet are pretty long (good digging claws), whereas black bear claws tend to be much closer to the toes.

Big Rock

I really like this rock out on the beach. There was a geologist out with the naturalist trip, but unfortunately I missed most of what she said since I was busy having fun with the tracking group. So I didn't hear what sort of process formed this rock. I suspect it is a volcanic rock as there are a couple of volcanic cones on the island.

Mink Tracks

I didn't really know what to expect for the tracking over on Kruzof, but it turned out great. Shortly after we arrived we came upon this gorgeous mink trail.

It appeared that the mink liked to run along the water's edge so we were able to estimate when it made the tracks by how high the tide would have been and knowing the times of the tides. I don't remember exactly but think we figured this trail was made at something like 2 in the morning. From other trails we found it seemed that was a fairly active time for mink in that area, though there were also trails at other levels as well including one that we came upon in the middle of our day that may have been made since we arrived on the island.



These are pretty classic mustelid tracks. The one above is the front right, the one below the hind right. Note the five toes, clawed, with small inner toe almost not showing up. Without that fifth toe they look fairly similar to canine tracks.



Mink hind tracks are supposed to be a little bigger than the fronts (it appears to be at least partially due to more space between the toes and heel pad), but one thing I notice here that I don't recall having read anything about is that the toes on the front foot appear to be larger than on the hind.

Sea Anemones

These were in a tide pool along the beach where we were stranded. I accidentally took a picture with a flash and it turned out much better that way.



This one was in a tide pool on Kruzof. I wonder what the ribbony stuff in the middle of this one is.

High and Dry

 

I recently returned from a trip to Sitka. I was up there to give a talk/class on tracking. The field portion of the class would be on Kruzof where I haven't been since I started tracking, so I wanted to scout things out before hand. The scouting day was beautiful, sunny and relatively warm. However the water was pretty rough getting out to Kruzof so Kitty (the person organizing the class and taking my on the scouting trip) and I decided to explore an island a bit closer in.

There was patchy snow on the ground throughout the woods on the island. Considering how heavily browsed the Vaccinium was I was surprised we only found a couple recent deer trails. There were also a few mink trails loping through and some squirrel tracks and middens. Kitty was impressed with the amount of cedar in comparison to the island she lives on.

After eating lunch near the boat we decided we would just go collect a bin further up the shore then leave the island. We were aware the tide would be changing soon, but were not too concerned since we would just be a little while.

If you have gone on little walks with a naturalist you are probably already aware of how easily a short walk can become extended. Kitty and I are both pretty interested in exploring nature and looked around "one more corner" one or two too many times so that when we got back to the boat it was no longer fully afloat. It still seemed that we might be able to get it loose so we spent close to a half hour pushing, pulling and levering trying to get it free. We conceded defeat, but were prepared to make the most of it. After all it was a beautiful day, we had extra food and water and the tide would be back up by 10 or 11pm.

After calling town to let folks know what was going on we started gathering material for fire (pausing on occasion to admire flowers, lichen, intertidal life, etc.) Fortunately with the sun shining all day we had some nice dry dead grass to get the fire started and I was happy to find that I was able to get the fire going with a single match (I hadn't tried to start a fire with matches for a few years). After getting a decent supply of firewood stocked up we sat back to enjoy the rest of the sun before it disappeared behind the trees. Before too long, Kitty's husband showed up to save us. He figured that since we had to get up early in the morning it would be nice to get us back to town early enough for a decent bedtime. I regret a little bit missing the opportunity to enjoy the beach for a few more hours (and apparently there were owls calling on the island when he went back to get the boat which would have been cool to hear), but it was certainly nice to get a fuller nights sleep.