Last Hunt

 

   "The real world is the part that doesn't go away when you stop believing in it." ~ Phillip Dick

 

Grouse season ended up here on Sunday, Jan 3.  Rowdy and I went out for a last hunt, hopeful of catching a grouse up in the warm sunshine in the trees.  We did not succeed.

 

 On the other hand, about halfway through the roughly mile loop we slogged, we found some really interesting tracks in the snow.

Snow makes even an inept tracker like me look good.  The first sign we found was this.  I think it was a crow swooping down to dust off in the snow.  I understand that winter birds eat snow to hydrate, so that may be what you see here.

 

I think this next picture is obvious.  I measured the wing span and it was roughly 2-3 feet wide.  A big bird, probably a hawk or an owl, hit the snow going fast enough to leave wing and tail impressions.  The big depression in the snow roughly where talons are is where the small mammal was hit.  I don't think the raptor ever stopped flying..... 

 

I used Photoshop to enhance that picture to clear see the outlines.

This next picture is fun for me.  Normally, grouse 'walk' on the ground alternating steps.  When the snow is light or in the sand you can see the staggered steps.  But when the snow is this deep, evidently they hop along two feet at a time.  This grouse ran out of the woodsy cover and took off on the ATV trail.  The wing span was much smaller than the raptor.  Less than a foot wide. 

 

Finally, this last picture shows grouse hop steps into a hole that the bird had dug in the snow to find nuts, seeds and plant matter.   

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff