tracks. The circle was made by the examiner, to delineate the item in
question for us. By the time I got to this one, the area all around the
circle had been trampled, so I did not see any other tracks made by this
animal, if indeed there were any.
Town Forest Expansion, Ashland
3 days ago
Zl svefg vzcerffvba jnf pebj, ohg V'z tbvat gb thrff ghexrl onfrq ba fvmr (naq jvyy abj tb naq purpx n obbx). V pna'g svther bhg jul gur hccre genpx vf fb qvfgbegrq pbzcnerq gb gur pyrne ybjre genpx.
ReplyDeleteNffhzvat gur genpx vf nobhg 3" ybat, naq gung ybjre genpx vf npghnyyl va n X funcr, V'q unir gb thrff Oneerq Bjy nsgre erivrjvat Ermraqrf' puncgre ba oveqf. Gur cebzvarag gnyba znexf nyfb fhttrfg encgbe.
ReplyDeleteV fgvyy qba'g haqrefgnaq gur hccre genpx.
Guvf vf n gbhtu bar. Gur genpx vf ynetr; V'z rfgvzngvat n srj vapurf. Gurer ner pyrne anvy/gnyba gvc vzcevagf. Vg arvgure ybbxf ureba-l be ghexrl-yvxr gb zr, abe vf gurer nal vaqvpngvba gung gur oveq jnf jnyxvat. Fb V'z tbvat gb thrff unjx - erq-gnvyrq unjx.
ReplyDeleteAll good thoughts. The accepted answer was great horned owl, though barred owl might have been acceptable, too. Dan, you mentioned puzzling over the upper track - I think the bird stepped twice with the right foot, and only 2 toes registered clearly with each step.
ReplyDeleteThe K configuration is typical for owl. A red tailed hawk, which Susan mentioned, would have more of a classic bird track configuration. But not having spent much time studying bird tracks, I wondered how consistent a given species is, in terms of the angles between the toes. Mammals can splay their toes and tracks can mimic those of other species in certain substrates and conditions, so I wondered if birds do too. The impression I got from George (and I hope I'm not misquoting him), is that birds are more consistent, and even just one track of that size in that configuration means GHO.
I was reluctant to say owl based on 1 track, and the behavior seemed odd. I think the substrate was such that small rodent tracks would have registered, but all we see are the 1 pair of owl tracks, no tracks prey species, and no sign of feather or beak marks suggesting hunting behavior. I thought it was unusual for an owl to come down just to land and then fly away, but I've since read that they do it pretty often. As I said, the area around the circle was already trampled by the time I got there, but when we were discussing the answer, I was told there had been no tracks in the trampled area.
A little post script ...
ReplyDeleteI came across this photo of nice, clear Great Horned Owl tracks when looking through a very interesting blog entitled Backyard Beasts by John Van Niel.
http://con102.blogspot.com/search/label/owl
Thanks to this discussion and photo, I was able to identify a very similar set of owl tracks found while out with a group on Sunday at the Oxbow. Unfortunately, I neglected to take a picture, but the "k" configuration was unmistakable. There was a rodent-sized hole at the site, but no visible rodent tracks - not surprising given the generally poor conditions.
ReplyDelete