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Saw a huge dog fox cross the road in front of my car yesterday, he was really confident and obviously I was right in the middle of his territory so I stopped and had a look around the area. Found loads of prints around a gate and lots of hair in the brambles nearby. Followed the tracks up through a field and found a badger set!!! What a wonderful hour's tracking. Anyone else been tracking lately? :-)
Everywhere I go now I seem to be doing some tracking of some sorts ... it's wonderfully addictive and I feel it's a real high when I can figure out what I'm seeing and create a picture of what happened. Things will now shift a gear too now I have my 1974 copy of "Animal Tracks and Sign". :-D
I also do a bit of geocaching (a GPS treasure hunt game) and I've found that since the tracking weekend this has become almost too easy! People hide the caches off the beaten path but by doing this it makes the finding the cache easier because even a single path in an off the beaten track place shows up! :-D
Everywhere I go now I seem to be doing some tracking of some sorts ... it's wonderfully addictive
I know what you mean.... walking is starting to take even longer than usual. I'm addicted..... but having lots of fun :-)
Ed
I've taken to walking behind my boyfriend so that I can see how his tracks change when he stops/changes direction etc. Brilliant way to learn but really irritating for whoever you're following!!! :lol:
talking of foxes!
very late last night i was dropping a freind of outside his house after caving and we had been quietly chatting next to a low wall for a few minute when a fox jump up onto the wall from the other side
it was no more than an arms reach away and looked as shocked to see us there as we were to see it :shock:
we all froze with the fox staring at us and us staring at the fox for about 40 second until he bolted off
very nice feeling to stare into an wild animals eyes when it is so close :-D
took my nehews to the woods the other day and showed them some sign and tracks which they loved, even better when my daughter showed me a badgers track she found and talking of foxes we have 2 familys here at work which we feed and give homeopathic mange treatment to ,which is free from the fox protection people incase you`re interested http://www.nfws.org.uk/ , last year it was great to watch 6 of them playing outside almost everynight ,cheers al
Justin Time
04-06-2004, 19:04
Had a tubby wee fox cub walk up and sniff at my feet last weekend. Camera firmly in pouch closed with velcro tabs so no photos I'm afraid but what a cracking moment.
I was moving quietly ( well as quietly as a 17 stone bloke can manage) because I knew I was near where the cubs were lying up in a big patch of bramble, blackthorn and rhododendron. Lots of compression shapes in the grass and newish paths. So I was coming up behind this patch and heard loud rustling under the rhodies, thought it was maybe a blackbird. Stopped for a while and heard the movement, slowly got down on to my knees and looked under the bushes, saw nothing...Slowly got back up, stood for a while and the cub came out from the bush along the path... stopped at my feet and sniffed at where my knees had been... looked round at my shoes, got a bit puzzled and decided it was better off back in the shrubbery.... It didn't look up once....
Absolutely cracking
That morning I also found a couple of bumblebee nests which had been dug out, badgers I guess.
You lucky thing, I'm so envious! I bet you were absolutely frozen to the spot. Its wonderful to get so close to wildlife and for them not to realise you're there. :You_Rock_ Good tracking!!
now I have my 1974 copy of "Animal Tracks and Sign". :-D Who's the Author?
[quote]Adi007 wrote: now I have my 1974 copy of "Animal Tracks and Sign".
Who's the Author?{/quote]
Preben Bang and Preben Dahlstrom ....... mine is a 1980 re-print.... got it off ebay for £4
:-)
Ed
ChrisKavanaugh
07-06-2004, 18:20
I don't know if his books are common over there. Murie was a government biologist who wrote several classic books that form the foundation for many studies. He wrote a book on animal tracks that may be pretty basic, but worth a look with his clear illustrations. his wife wrote a biography that is a real sleeper. Aldo Leopold was another who's SAND COUNTY ALMANAC is a classic of nature writing. He is best remembered for the FIERCE GREEN FIRE story. He was working as a biologist and his group rode up on a wolf and her cubs. They pulled out carbines and blasted away, that being the correct thinking of those times. He looked into the dying wolve's eyes, the "fierce green fire" and had an epiphany about each species equal right to live. Tracking can lead to strange places. I find myself walking past the swimming pool, staring at the silver tracks of earthworms and their predatory posums in the rapidly evaporating dew and rescuing stragglers caught in the deadly heat of sunrise.