Where did I go? What did I encounter? How did using iNaturalist go?
I ventured back to Rock Point where we had one of our labs during the fall semester. We started at the Rock Point parking lot and walked out towards North Beach. From there we walked out onto the frozen lake and then walked back into the woods over to Rock Point. I had not been down to Lake Champlain since fall semester so it was so fun to see the lake completely frozen over.
The amount and variety of tracks that we saw was shocking, ranging from different types of birds to squirrels, hares, and possibly a coyote. Using iNaturalist for this project was very easy! I ended up taking photos of what I found and hypothesizing what animal was active in this area and then later that day I uploaded all of my photos and further identified my observations.
Describe what you saw specifically. How did you narrow down your identification? If you were deciding between species with closely resembling scat or tracks, why did you choose one ID over the other?
The majority of tracks that we saw consisted of hares and squirrels, however, there was a decent variety of species we identified. The animals we are confident that we saw tracks for are snowshoe hare, American red squirrel, American robin, and field mice. We also might have encountered a meadow vole and a coyote or fox. We narrowed down our identification by analyzing the animal’s movements and path. It was clear that the snowshoe hare was hopping as drag marks from its toes and all four legs landed in the snow in a similar area. With the robin tracks, we noticed that it stopped to snack on a branch close to the ground which was the same plant we saw many robins perched on later in the day, indicating that this was most likely an American Robin.
For this specific track, we were unsure if it was a coyote or a fox. We are confident it was not a domestic dog due to the direct and intentional steps rather than a more sporadic path, however the snow was so deep that it was difficult to see a clear foot print that would better indicate the species. The length between strides and the size of the track makes us think that this was definitely a larger animal, but we are still unclear to exactly what it was.
I followed this track for awhile only to realize that it ended with the animal burrowing into the snow! The size of the tracks and the burrow into the subnivean zone makes me think that this was a mouse or meadow vole.
I believe that this track is from a Red Squirrel mainly due to the distinct nail marks that it left in the snow. These are also at the base of a tree where I believe the squirrel ran up.
Pictured above is a sparrow or robin swooping down and grabbing a mouse from the ground (left) and then tracks from a robin nibbling on the branch (right) as I mentioned earlier.
