{"id":97,"date":"2023-02-17T20:55:42","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T01:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/shoffm14\/?p=97"},"modified":"2023-02-19T17:53:42","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T22:53:42","slug":"burlington-wildlife-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/shoffm14\/2023\/02\/17\/burlington-wildlife-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Burlington Wildlife Signs!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This week, I took a journey to Centennial woods in pursuit of wildlife signs to contribute to the \u201cWildlife signs in Burlington Project\u201d on inaturalist. Due to the icy conditions of the trail it was a challenging hike. I certainly wish I had brought spikes! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the melting snow, I was able to record some signs of wildlife including White-tailed deer prints and potential coyote prints. I also recorded the song of a Black Capped Chickadee and saw the daily roosting of crows at dusk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coyote or Dog Print?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Diagonal Gait of the Mystery Prints<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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White Tail Deer Print<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Diagonal Pattern of Deer Print <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In order to Identify the tracks I saw, I used the gait patterns and size of the tracks and compared it to the photos present in my track and scat guide. For identifying bird calls, I used to merlin bird ID app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I labeled the hoof tracks I saw as a white-tailed deer cause they were much too small to be moose tracks. The other tracks I saw were a bit trickier. When focusing on just size, I eliminated the possibility of a fox; they were much bigger. I decided the against feline tracks as well because I could not identify a leading toe. The very symmetrical look of the print, the forward pointing claws, and the x present in between the toe pads and main pad caused me to narrow down the options to coyote. Additionally, the prints following a relatively straight path led me to decide against domestic dog, since they tend to run around without a care for conserving energy. Also, domestic dogs have weaker, less symmetrical paws with claws pointing every which way. I am in no way confident that I identified these tracks correctly but as Walt once said “A good tracker is never one hundred precent certain!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n