It is 2:30 in the afternoon and our guide and mentor for the weekend gives us an opportunity to go sit alone in the woods for 15 minutes. A chance to reflect on all the amazing lessons of the past couple of days. I sit beside a set of crystal clear prints. They were likely made one of  the past couple of evenings after the sun set and the snow began to harden again.  The tracks had just pushed through the very surface crust layer of the snow. The sun has been warm and bright all week and anything made during the day would have registered much deeper in the snow.

In the red spruce beside me, a tree that showed signs of a great seed year, a boreal chickadee with his brown capped head and slightly more robotic call compared to the black cap chickadee's where I am from, lands beside me and calls. All else is silent. I look across this rolling boreal landscape, and soak in the sun and beauty. In the track beside me I place 2 fingers, knowing that at the end of this trail is a living wild cat. I offer thanksgiving for all the teachings this animals has brought me. I have spent the past 2 days trailing her through this landscape, learning about what she eats, how she hunts, where she sleeps and how she moves so efficiently. This being is truly inspiring.
 

My mind takes me back to the first day of our expedition when we were heading into these new woods with so much excitement. We are in the Lynx capitol of North America we are told and being guided by wildlife biologists that are now part of one of the longest running Lynx research projects in the country. They have approximately 12 Lynx radio collared and have given us a rough bearing that they triangulated last night as to where this ghost like lady is. I was so excited that the first track I saw I had to look at several times, I tried so hard to make it a Lynx track but science is science and this track had too many toes to be a cat.

It wasn't long though till we got on our first trail, this being my first experience trailing predatory cats, I was really in for a treat. She bounded in a hurry across the ski doo trail and into the spruce trees on the other side. Once under cover she slowed down to a walk, her rear foot landing perfectly in the place her front was a moment ago. We follow her to an opening in the forest and see what looks like hair clumps from a snowshoe hare on the ground. Has there been a kill?  Did it happen here or was the fur brought here afterwards? We have our first clues and a story to tell.  Less than 2 meters into the woods laid a pile of hare fur with snow on top. Around the pile was a circle of scratch marks.
 

Wow, I had read in books about wild cats creating food caches and burying there food and now I get to see one first hand. A whole stream of new questions enter my mind. When was she last here? Is it just the one hare in there or are there many? Why here? and where were the kills made?

After piecing the story together the best we can we continue to follow the trail. A few moments later we come across a single feather, it appears to be from a grouse. Beside it this lynx sits down leaving a depression mark of her bum in the snow and her two paws up front. Where did the feather come from? Did she kill the grouse or is it unconnected? Do Lynx eat grouse or just hare?

We decide to go back to where we first found the trail and follow it the other way for a bit. The lynx is in a full run again, a bound we call in tracking. Down the hill into some thick brush and slowing down as the hill plateaus. Up ahead another clue gets added to our story. A huge pile of feathers on the ground. We run up in excitement trying not to disturb any of the tracks, we will needs these shortly as clues to continue to put the story together. We find a few tracks that look like they are in a stalk,  then a small pile of feathers under a tree. Could this have been where the kill was made? The tracks back up and head into the opening where the pile of feathers gets much larger. Many of the feathers are sheared at the base. This one definitely looks like a kills site and all evidence points to a Lynx. Someone poses the question, is it a male or female grouse that was killed? We measure the feathers and look at some field guides. We are not 100% sure but evidence points towards a female.

 

The next question is if there is relations between this kill and the feather found on the other side of the trail. We continue to follow her trail as she winds in a beautiful "S"pattern through the woods. I can picture it in my minds eye moving through the forest. What an amazing creature she must be to survive in this harsh climate. Stealth, speed , resiliency and strength are all features I admire in her and hope to grow in my own life and actions. She is truly in tune with this environment. 20 yards up the trail we find a fairly fresh scat full of fur and a few bones. This is the first wild cat scat I have seen before and I have to admit it was pretty exciting.
 

 

Up her trail we continued becoming more connected to her ways with every step we followed her. It appears she is heading back toward the area we were tracking earlier. There she goes, back across the snowmobile trail, this time walking. She takes us back past the food cache and up to the sitting spot and there you have it, the mystery is solved. The grouse feather did come from a kill and was connected to the story.

This was one of many adventures we had over the weekend. Tracking always brings me to a place of such great appreciation for the beings that live in these wild places. They have so many great features that allow them to live in balance with the land and really help me look at the values I wish to grow in myself. This was my first experience tracking a wild cats but I know it won't be my last. I find them so fascinating. Maybe it is because of their elusiveness, maybe the efficiency of the way they move through the landscape, I do know I am happy to share this earth with them.

Cats live all over North America and do exist in the woods I live in near Algonquin Park, They are hardly ever seen but they are there and have likely seen me. The Art of tracking allows us to get a glimpse into the lives of these wonderful beings and learn about their relationship with the woods. I look forward to my next tracking day. I just heard a story about fresh Bobcat tracks found over in Rosseau and can't wait to go scout them out. I'll write back soon and let you know what I found.

This expedition was hosted by White Pine Programs out of Maine.

This blog post was written by Chris Gilmour of Earth Mentorship Programs.

Hello Everyone & Welcome to Earth Mentorships Tracking Blog.

A huge part of the teachings in tracking come from the art of questioning and the ability to put together stories. Sharing our tracking stories with others help us all to learn and encourage people to ask us good questions that take our own learnings further. I have created this blog as a place for the local Ontario Tracking Community to share their stories and continue the teachings.

I am up in Grey Bruce County right now and am loving the open views and rolling hills! I went for a walk in one of the many cedar valleys this morning and was excited to see lots of fresh racoon, skunk and beaver tracks around. The skunk makes me think that spring is not to far away.  

In two weeks time I will be going on a lynx tracking expedition and Maine and I look forward to sharing some pictures and stories when I get back.

In the mean time,

Happy Tracking,

Chris Gilmour
Earth Mentorship Programs
http://www.earthmentorship.com