Animal Tracking: Who's Scat Is That?

I might need ya'lls help! You see I found this scat about a week ago and can't quite seem to identify who poop'ed this one out?!

I know it appears to be hairy in the pic, but in real life and if you click the pic to a larger size you will see it is more like a fungus growing on it, rather then hair sticking out. It seems to be a grouping of large (as in much larger then a deer, rabbit or even a raccoon) pellets that are more oval shaped.

The closest I could find to this scat in my trusty rusty lil' scat book was that it may be a groundhog... except everyone says it's rare to see groundhog scat because usually they poop inside a special place in the tunnels at their home. An underground groundhog bathroom.

So could this be a rare moment of a groundhog poopin' in the wild instead of at his hand built potty place?

So, Help! Who shat this scat?
XOxoxo

(Not) Trespassing: The Blue Shack

Decay doesn't have to take 100 years, sometimes just in your own life span humans can build things, and watch their tiny personal empire fall to pieces. There's always a hidden story, a mini drama, a loss, forgotten time or sometimes a death these places hold onto... but for the blue shack not very much longer.

Ya might notice there isn't any No Trespassing signs on this property, and that is because it is for sale - under $100,000 with 13 acres! ( If you want to know where it's located in Western North Carolina, send me an email.)

The house is caving in. Literally. Porch posts leaning into a V shape, if you step on the covered porch floor boards your foot will go through it. Windows are broken, wood is bending, pieces of the roof are falling off.... yet it still holds it's bright blue spirit, you can still read some of the dreams that were afloat when it was built.

The back of the house pushes up to a rather steep hill, which is probably why the blue paint has washed off, the wall is pushing outward under the weight of the roof.... even a piece of the whole back wall has opened up and a freakin' lawn chair is poking out! Somehow that is creepy.

Peeking into the windows, I didn't find much on the inside of the house --- the usual anticipation to see something beautiful in it's last run of decay was not really even there...

Unless you feel a toilet seat is beautiful....

The ceiling is peeling off in sheets, which shows the rafters.... the rafters are the only thing about the structure that still looks stable. "Stable" being used real loosely.

Since there was 13 more acres of mystery to explore, I set off up the long winding road that led back up the side of the mountain. Plants & wildlife abound...

EDIBLE, MEDICINAL, and NATIVE PLANTS :::::::::

The Fiddle Head Fern... Edible when it first shoots up in the spring.Raspberries!!! Mmmmmm - the berries will pop out those hairy shells....

Blackberries ..... about to be ripe!

Woodland Nettles and Jewelweed growing in patches together.... ( so if the nettles sting you, you can put the jewelweed on your skin to sooth it!)

Pokeberry.... not yet ready to use for dye, but the white flowers turn into dark purple berries. You can eat the young plant in the spring, but not the berries or the mature plant (although i have heard people debate this!)

Bloodroot! My favorite native plant eva' ! The root is used for dye and medicine.

Mountain Mint?? Some kind of minty, menthol, bee balm smelling herb that grows in the woods here....

More HUMAN STUFF :::::::

In places along the road there was old fencing, from when this land was most likely a pasture with some type of domesticated animal... I have heard stories from locals about how their parents or grandparents made pasture by digging around & cutting roots of trees then having them pulled by mules out the ground. That's a shit ton of work!
There was also a small hidden barn, with wide open slats --- it was totally covered in thorny wild roses making it impossible for me to go inside or get near it!

In a lil' nook I saw this cinder block built contraption, that upon closer examination I realized was an old spring water box....

I would not be drinking the water from this thing anymore- it was full of mud and I did not see water in it... either that spring has run dry or the box was old enough to have a leak down below.

ANIMAL EVIDENCE::::::

Even though there had been a big huge rain storm just last night, I still found a few bits of evidence left by the wildlife on that property.

First, coyote scat (poop) totally rained on so hard that most the poop part was gone and all that was left was the huge hair glob left from the little critters it had eaten.

Then a fresh deer track in the mud, it slid a little downward because of the steep part of the path...

right next to the deer track was a patch of jewelweed (see the pic below) that the tops of the plants were eaten off....

THE ROAD ENDS :::::::::

The long long long road ended at the top of a ridge, which behind the trees you could see lots of mountains.

On my way back down I stopped to take a pic with the rocks being exposed from the erosion along the road... I LOVE big funky rocks! ANd I loooooove (not) trespassing. :)

XOxoxoox

Animal Tracking: The Appalachian Mountain Lion

That is one BIG padded paw! About the size of a large canine, but without the tell tale claw marks dogs leave behind (a distinct hole over each pad even in shallow dirt because dog, fox and coyote claws are not retractable.) A track without the claw holes is a feline track, and because these tracks were deep in the mud and there were at least several to look at all without canine claw mark --- I believe these are tracks made by the rarely seen, elusive, almost extinct and hotly debated Native Mountain Lion!

Some other signs that a mountain lion passed through by my cabin are during that week these tracks appeared my cat (a domestic cat named Toots) was terrified to go outside at night (and during the day) - I found more tracks down by my garden, all following along the path of the creek downward on the mountain. Also in this area where the tracks were, the deer tracks that normally were all over there disappeared for a time.

People in the appalachian mountains have argued for quite some time whether the Mountain Lion of the area was completely extinct now or whether a few remained well hidden - I have heard stories from a handful of reliable people who have seen the western north carolina mountain lion ( chasing a wolf in the snow in Brevard, through binolculars during a deer hunt in Hot Springs, gracefully hopping a fence at the top of a ridge in Marshall, sitting outside a chicken farm's large coop in Marshall...) --->

As for myself, aside from seeing these amazing tracks pictured here - 5 years ago in Weaverville, NC far back in the woods off Reems Creek Rd. around 3 a.m. I heard the scream of the mountain lion on top the ridge behind the little house I was staying - exactly as people describe it sounded like a woman screaming a blood curdling scream but was unmistakably an animal. It was chill inducing, and made it so I could not fall back to sleep- I knew exactly what it was when I heard it.

Another interesting twist on these tracks, was this was the same place I found what I thought were bobcat tracks... although those were washed away with the rain, a new set of bobcat sized tracks were only 7-10 feet away from these large feline tracks - possibly it could be a cub of the mountain lion and not a bobcat? That would be awesome. :)

What do you think? The "Painter" as the old timers called it was a feared animal, and between people shooting them on sight out of fear and the wiping out of deer at one point led to this now mysterious status for the native puma...

Do you believe they are still here?

After seeing these tracks behind my cabin, I do.

XOXOxox RRrrroar!

Animal Tracking: Bobcat... Coyote or Fox?

Finding tracks by a canine is pretty common, and usually easy to identify because their claws show up in the print above the toes...

the deal is, bobcat prints are very similar to that of a coyote, dog or even a fox --->
They all have 4 toes and a pad underneath, the main indicator that separates the bobcat/large feline from the canine is the claws that show up. It is rare I find a bobcat print (maybe once in my life) and the pics i took here in my muddy bog don't appear to have claws. But what do ya'll think? Bobcat? Canine? (Or maybe the infamous and disbelieved local mountain lion?)

Pictured in the black and white drawing below are a rendering of bobcat prints::::




The mammal print above is a coyote and the one below is a common fox. You can see both leave distinct claw marks in their tracks.
The track you see below is the second track, ahead of the one in the first two pictures - appeared to be a stride. These tracks were large, only a tad bit smaller then ones I have seen from a large domesticated Pit Bull Dog. Get guessing!!!!

Xoxoxo ROar! Woof! puuurrrrrr!

Animal Tracking: Itty Bitty Birdie Feet & Mystery Trail

Tiny bird tracks! Aren't they cute? There is a perfect area a little ways behind the Luck Cabin that is all muddy, mushy and bog like - many creeks branch and converge in this area making it a tiny wetland that attracts alot of animals & birds. The cool part is they all leave perfectly shaped tracks in the smooth wet silt.
This second track looks more like a slither... but I am not certain that it is a snake trail? The slither track is coming up out the water of the creek, in a spot that is shallow and slow moving.

What do you think it is? Can anyone give a positive ID on this meandering track...
Xoxox

Oh Deer! Part 2

Here is a lil' story...
I was standing in my room with Bort when he says "Look out the window, quick quick, look!"
I lean over to see a gray furry kitty cat running outside - it ran right up onto the porch and then straight up the pathway towards the silo (uphill). When I looked upward to it's destination I saw something else move, something large but like a brown shadow. I told Bort "something else is up there I saw something move behind the weeds..." Right then the gray kitty freaks out, hauls ass back down the hill, making one stop from the bottom to look back to see if the shadow was chasing it, then disappeared into the bamboo forest. Me and Bort went outside to look around from the porch, to find the shadow animal but nothing was moving around... and the chance that it was a coyote was enough to keep either of us from going up there to find out. But a few minutes later the shadow appeared in the shape of 3 deer grazing in the open pasture.
I like these deer pictures even though they are blurry, it reminds me of those 3-d pics you have to stare at forever to see what shape it takes... also, it reminds me of the reality of when our eyes are moving and everything kinda blends together. That is how deers camouflage themselves in the forest... mostly by our lack of noticing them. It's the way nature planned it.
After the deers left, I went in the setting sun, semi-dark to find some tracks where they'd been standing.
There were some muddy hoof prints, mostly sketchy dents in the ground, not completely distinct.
Also, the sign of a hoof freshly slipping in the wet mud while going uphill.
Pretty freaking cool, huh!?!!
PS ---> in the very top pic, can ya see all 3 deer? Two of them are hiding. :)
XoXo

Animal Tracking: Wild Turkeys In The Snow

Look at the size of those feet!!! I know my hand might be a little bit small (and all gnarly cajun looking) but I had no idea a turkey track would be so huge and when I first walked upon this big foot, it stopped me dead in my own tracks... while I mouthed out "who in the hell?"
When I looked ahead further I saw a few more, and thought about the wild turkeys, while still considering other large birds of prey. (This is my first encounter with a large bird print.)
But as I made it over the small hill to see tons of intersecting prints and remembered hearing the turkeys earlier in the morning I knew it had to be them. (I am actually hearing them again right now as I write this post!)
EVEN more..... a whole section of the hill was just solid tracks. One of the coolest things I have ever seen. So many patterns, so much energy, frenzy, evidence, stories untold.
The proof is in the pudding though... and when I found a track with poop (scat) in it, I knew it was a group of turkeys for sure. :)
PS - you can learn about animal tracks in your own zip code on Enature.com's mammal tracking guide. It's way awesome and easier to use then most guides!

XoXo