Tracking at McCoy Chapman Preserve with Naturalist Dan Gardoqui
By Julie Reiff
Only a few yards off North Road, on the path up the Esker Loop, runs a clear line of five-toed tracks with distinct nail marks and a signature c-shaped pad in the fresh dusting of snow. It’s a bluebird day and ten participants are exploring the McCoy Chapman Preserve with naturalist Dan Gardoqui of Lead with Nature.
Animal tracks are a beautiful language, says Dan, “It’s a language of energy and motion. I look at tracking as giving our attention to the movement of energy. Tracks tell us a story. How are animals moving through the landscape, through different habitats?”
We measure the prints and try to guess what it might be. Dan throws out a few options for us to consider. Several people in the group have been out with him before and quickly narrow it down. I walk the Esker Loop a lot and have friends who saw a fox here the day before, so I ask how he can rule that out. Turns out, that fifth toe is key. A fox print will only show four and will be much smaller, he explains. I’m thrilled to learn that we’ve identified a fisher as our first track.
We follow those initial tracks for quite a while, looking at differences in the quality of the tracks. “You never want to try to make an ID from a small data set”, says Dan. “You need to look at a lot of prints.”
We look at HOW the animal was moving. Was it trotting or bounding? Did it step in its own track, making a “double register”? How widely are they set apart, left to right? “An animal moving at speed tends to make a narrower trail”, he explains.
Before long the fisher’s track crosses another…this one looks like a fox. Dan talks about how gray fox and red fox tracks differ; the foot of the red fox is less distinct because it has more fur. Down by the river, he follows the trail to a scent-marked rock and takes a sniff. The urine of the red fox (especially males in winter) is VERY skunk-like, he explains.
Later, across the street, we follow a snowshoe hare and see the distinct 45 degree angle where it has browsed young twigs. Dan takes a stick and scoops some yellow snow there and gives it a whiff. This time the smell is almost pleasant…we all try to describe it. It reminds me a bit of my spice drawer.
There are several coyote tracks that loop and crisscross each other, possibly hunting. I am surprised how close to the parking area they are. Dan spends time talking about behaviors of smaller mammals, as well: how red squirrels chew into maple bark to lick the sap and that shrews tunnel under the snow to avoid being eaten. He adds that shrews emit an unpleasant skunk-like musk so many predators will spit them out.
Over the course of five-hours, the group investigates tracks both small and large:
Eastern Coyote (Canis latrans)
Fisher (Pekania pennanti)
Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)
Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)
Snowshoe Hare (Lepus americanus)
White-Footed & Deer Mice (Peromyscus spp.—indistinguishable from each other via tracks)
Small Shrews (Sorex spp)
Would you like to learn more about who might be visiting your backyard? Dan has offered workshops at Mahoosuc Land Trust for the last two years and leads another session on Saturday, February 22. Enrollment is full, but it is possible to add your name to the waitlist.
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