View Full Version : Anyone out there?
I've noticed that hardly anyone has been posting about tracking lately. Surely there must be lots of you out and about tracking, especially at this time of year. Come on you lot what have you been up to and what have you seen or found lately? :D
mick miller
11-06-2008, 16:21
Well, I´m in Andulucia at the moment and on a recent walk spotted some wild boar tracks, but as my skills are so inadequate I quickly lost them. I really need to get out and practice more but it´s the usual story of juggling a busy work life and second job with all my other interests.
It´ll come in time (I hope!)...
hammock monkey
11-06-2008, 16:40
I've been thinking the same thing - but i've been doing very little other than setting up my business and renovating my house....
Planning a trip to Scotland this autumn to begin to look for wildcat sign. Never got round to it last year, its looking very good for this year though.
I'm out of touch for sure but hopefully i'll tune in again after a day or so of being up there
Seeing the cat on springwatch really spurned me on, but otherwise its been bushcraft by proxy for months now....rubbish!
i still look for tracks in the garden every morning while the kettle boils...but thats about it.
Last time I was out and about was about ten days or so ago, Neil1 and I up on Dartmoor watching roe deer in the Bovey Valley, that reminds me there is a topic for another thread, cheers Rhoda:D
Buckshot
11-06-2008, 16:45
I was out last weekend and saw a human track that I followed in long grass.
Found some deer inards at the end of it. Some phone calls later I found one of the stalkers shot a cull roe buck there!
Phew - that means I don't need to worry about poachers!
Mark
I knew you couldn't all be housebound!!:lmao:
I've been doing a bit of otter tracking for the first time in ages, got the old waders on a couple of weeks ago and had a look down the river bank. Best place to see good tracks I think, sand banks, undisturbed by people and dogs. Saw lots of otter, fox and deer tracks and some spraint. Happy days!
I back tracked a couple of kids I saw departing from my local country park with a tent and sleeping bags.
What I found was a campsite strewn with rubbish.
Knowing roughly the only way they could be going I bagged it up chucked it in my van and caught them up.
I then made them carry all the rubbish home, threatening to report them to the rangers if they didn't. http://www.wayland.me.uk/assets/images/witchhunt.gif
Does that count?
Grooveski
11-06-2008, 18:35
Have been attempting to learn the difference between Red, Roe and Sika. It's tricky as the area is about 80% Sika and their tracks tend to blot out the others.
Also tried to track down an otter den a couple of weeks ago. Have seen them ducking up the same wee glen from shore a few times, managed about 25-30m before I lost the trail on a mossy expanse(expanse makes it sound huge - was only 15m or so). Was starting to lose the light and the headnet I was wearing was blurring details so it was a pretty halfhearted attempt.
Will try to pick it up again this weekend. I'd like to find it before the pup(cub?) grows up and try to get some piccies. The pups seem to get real active around august/september so plenty of time yet. :)
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i68/Grooveski/Gubbins/Otter_Track.jpg
Every evening I take the dog out, and we track joggers, badgers and other dogs. I got Tom Brown's 'Science and Art of Tracking' yesterday (thanks to a large South American River-named postal company...), and am busy studying 'pressure releases' with my son in a sand box in the garage!
-Switch-
11-06-2008, 22:28
Hi folks. I don't often look in here but thought I'd give it a go.
I know hardly anything about tracking, but I'm always interested when someone points something out when we're mooching through the woods.
Unfortunately I'm in that paradoxical state of knowing nothing, so I don't know what to look for, so I don't look, so I don't learn and consequently I know nothing, so I don't know what to look for, so I don't look... :(
We did see some interesting tracks out in the woods a couple of weeks ago though but I can't really describe what we saw or why it indicated what we though it did.
I'm gonna go and see if I can find Twoflower so he can come here and describe them. :burnout:
Twoflower
11-06-2008, 22:46
I'll start off with my little bit of tracking from this evening (is it still tracking if it's a noise you're following?).
wandered down my usual wandering route through the local graveyard with my camera (35mm SLR so no pics until i've used the film up) with the hope of getting some shots of the local parakeets as I'd seen them around when popping to the shops etc. Sat in the usual spot for seeing them, in the graveyard, but they were not about so I made good use of the time taking a few shots of the usual suspects (blackbirds, wood pidgeons and robins) and also spent an amusing 15 minutes stalking a squirrel around some trees.
I was about to give up for the evening as the light was poor, the rain was iminent and the local dangerous dog club seemed to be having a meeting when I heard a distant tapping sound. I followed the sound for a while, zigzagging back and forth in the fields and hedgerows until i saw what I knew it was. A greater spotted woodpecker. Unfortunately the light was so bad and woodie was just out of range for my lens so I didn't manage to get any shots :( I'm going to head back up there tomorrow though to see if he's there again. Also on the way back I got chatting to a local who told me that a few evenings ago he had been sat in the graveyard quietly contemplateing when a "stag with great big antlers" wandered out of the hedgrow right next to him, took fright and ran off towards the village. Aparently it ran into the center of the village, surprising a few of the locals, before turning and heading back out to (relatively) open countryside. Not bad considering the village is no longer a village and is now part of the London suburbs.
I'll be seeing if I can find any sign of the local deer. I'd seen them a few miles away (in the woods between the airport and a golf course) but didn't realise they came that close to the village.
Twoflower
11-06-2008, 22:59
The woods a few weeks ago ....
Quite a few different tracks (and I'm definately no expert, but have noticed i'm getting a bit better at spotting these things). There were plenty of deer tracks (possibly roe) as there is a game trail running straight through where we camp. Further out in the woods, away from the camp, there were lots of tracks and a fresh patch of long grass that looked like it may have been used as somewhere for the new born deer to lie (sorry, the technical term has escaped me). This was right next to a well worn game trail complete with a low branch with the bark rubbed off from all the passing critters.
A bit further on was lots of freshly turned over ground and a few deep holes. Switch had a good look at one of them and noticed the prints and scat of a rabbit (and he says he doesn't know what he's doing!) so that summed up what was going on there quite well.
A bit deeper into the woods, towards the stream, there were lots of other prints but none that were good enough for us humble chaps to ID, maybe another time when we know what we're doing.
One thing that surprised us both was that next to the stream there is a nice flat bit of the bank where any animal could easily get a drink, but there were no prints at all. To make up for that though we saw a kingfisher dart past in a flash of blue.
Every evening I take the dog out, and we track joggers, badgers and other dogs. I got Tom Brown's 'Science and Art of Tracking' yesterday (thanks to a large South American River-named postal company...), and am busy studying 'pressure releases' with my son in a sand box in the garage!
Brilliant, I'm teaching my son too!
Grooveski wow you are so lucky being able to see otters like that, I'm looking forward to any pics you get.
I'm running some workshops at the moot if anyone is interested, hoping to find some otter, mink, fox etc there again. :D
-Switch-
11-06-2008, 23:55
The woods a few weeks ago ....
Quite a few different tracks (and I'm definately no expert, but have noticed i'm getting a bit better at spotting these things). There were plenty of deer tracks (possibly roe) as there is a game trail running straight through where we camp. Further out in the woods, away from the camp, there were lots of tracks and a fresh patch of long grass that looked like it may have been used as somewhere for the new born deer to lie (sorry, the technical term has escaped me). This was right next to a well worn game trail complete with a low branch with the bark rubbed off from all the passing critters.
There was bark scratched from living trees aswell, with definate tooth marks in it. Just next to the camp.
A bit further on was lots of freshly turned over ground and a few deep holes. Switch had a good look at one of them and noticed the prints and scat of a rabbit ...
Ah, I remember now :) There was the recent spoil from digging (I think that's the right term), basically all the freshly dug earth had been spread out in front of the hole which drew my attention, then I noticed the prints and poo (or 'scat' if you want to get all technical about it :p )
I know it was only rabbits but I thought it was quite interesting stuff.
Definately worth another look around next time Twoflower?
Twoflower
11-06-2008, 23:59
Definately worth another look around next time Twoflower?
Without a doubt .. oh and we'll have a tiny bit of guidance too as i've just browsed that "large South American River-named postal company" and purchased aformentioned Tom Browne book and a tracking book by some chap called Raymond Mears, who ever he is :D
-Switch-
12-06-2008, 00:11
...some chap called Raymond Mears, who ever he is :D
Never heard of him.
Ok then, I'll bring a few books, camera, notepad etc and we'll go and see what we can find.
I'm quite looking forward to it.
I've been pretty busy lately. There's not a day goes by that I'm not doing some kind of tracking thing.
I've been lucky to have a few recent close encounters. Fox cub; badgers and fallow deer. The last was interesting as I noticed the doe stamping, barking and licking her nose. All caught on vid (follow links from my site.)
Went to a Reading meet last weekend and we came across an intersting kill site. A medium flowing river and a crab claw was all that was left, but I'm not sure about the tracks. I'll stick my neck out and say they may be mink.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c269/prmaklpboo/Tracking/DSCN2522.jpg
Anyway, tracking down this neck of the woods is alive and well.
All the best,
Pablo.
Have been practising with the sand-box; starting to understand how to tell speed and subtle changes of direction. Tom Brown highly recommended!
You've inspired me to get a sand box out again to show my little boy. Been teaching him various animal tracks when we go out but I think he might grasp the basics now in the sand box. He is only 3 but so keen to learn - start em young I say!!!:cool:
I was tracking this creature through the woods the other week..
First time i've seen this track in the woods! :lmao:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/2574555383_66a0e79661.jpg
John Fenna
13-06-2008, 12:02
Pablo - that looks like otter to me - though it is hard to tell without some idea of scale - the scraped up pile of mud - did it have spraint or oily goo on it?
He is only 3 but so keen to learn - start em young I say!!!:cool:
My boy is 8, and is very keen to learn stuff (also keen to get his own blade but Mrs N says NOOOO...)
Younger eyes can often see smaller sign in the tracks (secondary and tertiary ressure releases) that I miss... We're off to Bala in a coule of weeks time, and we'll have a go trailing each other, and also doing the 'natural camoflague' stuff in Brown's other books.
Both looking forward to Bushmoot this year as well!!
N
Pablo - that looks like otter to me - though it is hard to tell without some idea of scale - the scraped up pile of mud - did it have spraint or oily goo on it?
I thought the same but hard to tell without something to give an idea of size - not knowing how big the crab was!!
Nyayo how great to get the next generation of trackers started, I'm looking forward to meeting your boy at the moot, sounds like he is really enjoying learning :You_Rock_
Well I have just ordered the Tom Brown book, and have two others on the way via the library service, but that it the total extent of my tracking so far.:rolleyes:
I'll see if I can get out and about a bit once I have had a good read through them all.
Just come back from walking aforementioned canine companion, practicing looking for those complicated disc-fissures, and ridege-crumbles (etc), and I sied (on the way out) a mummy fox and three cubs bundling each other, then (on the way back) a rtly badger chasing a daddy fox - not bad for an evening's entertainment!
N
bear knights
23-06-2008, 11:49
Ooo you lucky (insert word that sounds like rugger) Nyayo and Pablo. Went out with nightwalker and rhoda the other night to look for fox cubs that nightwalker had spotted earlier this month. no joy but found rabbit carcass and scat.
Last time I saw anything was on a river walk where I took some students. great woods and river to go to as now know where a big dog fox always likes to take his toilet break, where to find the badger latrines, the otter spraint, the feeding remains of mice and voles and on the last trip found some stoat tracks down by the waters edge too. My favourite though has to be the deer tracks. can see where they lead down to the water, and then come out on the other bank and you get a real sense of the animal wondering through the woods.
students loved it too.
not had much luck in spotting anything living though lately but that might be more to do with not being at home...swanning around the scillies and the arctic!!:D
mick miller
28-08-2008, 17:18
I've just finished reading through Tom Brown's book for the first time and it really is as superbly written as I was led to believe.
Next step is building the backyard sandbox, apparently the best way to start according to Mr. Brown and going through the book chapter by chapter. I'm interested to know how Nyayo got on with his?
Pantalaimon
28-08-2008, 18:54
I just begun with tracking. Got a book from the library with not only footprints, but also other signs like eating.
So last week I saw some prints from a deer, so I was following the tracks, walking half bent, and suddenly they were gone. Still standing half bent I was imagining that I was that deer and thought "were should I go to?". Than I saw some bushes, and indeed, some young leaves were missing :P
Yesterday I was also in the woods and saw some acorns lying on the ground. One minute later, I found myself sitting on the path with that book on me lap and trying to figure out what kind of animal did eat it. :D
mick miller
28-08-2008, 21:17
It's a little addictive, I've spent most of this evening making the cat walk across the wood floor to see if I can see the 'flaring' footprints as described in the book and guess what? It works!
I'm a long way from that level of tracking but its quite amazing how much is visible on even hard surfaces. A recommended read if ever there was one!
Since the moot, I've been using the sandbox ( the boy often leaves a track for me in the morning and I have to provide an explanation later in the day) most days, although we have been tracking in the Goyt valley - lots of Red Deer. We recently got hold of Mr. Brown's 'Nature awraeness and observation', and are trying to apply aging techniques as well as pressure releases. I'm quite happy about speed, direction and the direction of attention - I recently had a 'Eureka' moment - tracked a dog, saw where it had stopped and looked down a badger run, then moved on and looked up at a tree - found scratches on the tree branch and a single muddy squirrel print, then found where a man in walking boots had walked past the dog, and the dog had followed - had to go back to the sandpit to try to re-create the turning prints to better understand the prints. I now find it extremely useful to feel the prints (my fingers are much more perceptive than my eyes) while trying to read the landscape with my eyes and ears. I'm currently holidaying in Norfolk with my in-laws and tracking relaxed Muntjac and nervous bunnies in Thetford Forest. I'm looking forward to going after Arctic Hare on Kinder this winter...
N
Sounds fantastic Nyayo, it really is addictive isn't it! I can't walk through town without tracking the person ahead of me (quite easy round here as we have lots of surfers with wet bare feet!!)
Hoping to spend some more time in the woods after this weekend, things have been a bit hectic of late so can't wait to get back to nature.
I have some great piccies of Red Deer trails in the woods that I'll put on when we get home. I now find I'm starting to get funny looks (like from lying on my tummy looking at dog prints after I've just watched him have a drink...) and yes, I do end up tracking me quite a lot...
mick miller
29-08-2008, 09:30
Hi Nyayo, did it take you long to work out the pressure release basics in the sandbox? I know TB mentions around 4-10 hours should allow you to see the primary releases, I'm just curious as to how long it took you to gain a good foothold (pardon the pun).
It din't seem to take too long at all! I played in the sandbox every day (say 15mins twice a day) then tried to apply what I'd learned when I took the dog out in the evening (about 1 hour). Even if I was just tracking the dog, or back-tracking me, I could always focus on one new pressure release and keep working on the ones I'd already covered. My boy is already quite good at spotting the various turning, speed and acceleration/decceleration signs and he's only 8. We were tracking squirrels yesterday and he's spotting turns, stops, hesitations etc.
N
mick miller
01-09-2008, 19:29
Excellent, I'm very much looking forward to getting mine built and getting some practice in. I'm thinking an outdoor box and cover it over when not in use so it doesn't turn into the local cat toilet! It'll also be a lot quieter on the ears. Sounds like your lad's getting quite good at it already if he's spotting that level of detail in a squirrel print, very nice.
with deer tracks try useing your finger as a guide the little one first joint is as big as a muntjac secound is a roe as big as your little finger is fallow and bigger than your middle finger is red sika comes between fallow and red although if its a young deer its feet will be smaller about the size of a roe but you can tell a roe as the cleaves are thinner
with deer tracks try useing your finger as a guide the little one first joint is as big as a muntjac secound is a roe as big as your little finger is fallow and bigger than your middle finger is red sika comes between fallow and red although if its a young deer its feet will be smaller about the size of a roe but you can tell a roe as the cleaves are thinner
Don't come on the forum as much as I used to, but I tracked every day during the summer - part of my job. Weasles, foxes, rabbits, bagders, muntjacs, dogs and small children!
Hope this is of interest
Don't come on the forum as much as I used to, but I tracked every day during the summer - part of my job. Weasles, foxes, rabbits, bagders, muntjacs, dogs and small children!
Hope this is of interest
Of course it is of interest! Sounds like you have a great variety of wildlife to track where you work.:)
OK - are there any Tracking associations/clubs in the UK? If not, would anybody be up for organising one? Regular meets, skills sesions etc etc
Ede
*It's late and I'm bored of marking...
There were a few of us talking about organising something a while ago. PM me if you are interested anyone, I'd be happy to set something up. It would be a great opportunity to practice and learn from each other. :D
There are a few of us that informally get together in the SE. We have an online group within a social network (a bushcrafty network - not a Facebook type one!) So you could say one already exists.
If anyone's interested, pm me and I'll send you the link.
Pablo.
Fallow Way
17-09-2008, 08:55
Rhoda,
What if anything is going on with Max`s Search and Rescue Tracker Association (SARTA)?. I asked him about it some time ago but havent heard anything since.
Paul
Rhoda,
What if anything is going on with Max`s Search and Rescue Tracker Association (SARTA)?. I asked him about it some time ago but havent heard anything since.
Paul
I have nothing to do with Max or Shadowhawk anymore so can't help you there sorry Paul. Perhaps you could pm Nipper, I think he still works for Max.