Bat Lake, winter tooth-brushing, grouse, fox, marten & photography

Friday February 16, 2024:

Day 5:

We will start our day with self care.

The better you care for yourself as a tracker, the better your tracking will be:

Winter toothbrushing

This was something I had never tried before, snow on the toothbrush VS water.

It made fine and good sense to me, as I was wanting to save time in the morning, to be ready to meet the crew, and brush my teeth.

So instead of being indoors at a sink, and instead of being outdoors and using my precious hot tea for the day ahead, I would try using snow.

The verdict:

It works.

Snow does work to brush ones teeth.

You just start brushing, and the snow melts very quickly.

Hot tea, and time, both saved.

Please source your snow responsibly if you intend to try this- meaning snow that is not at a road or trail side, nor snow that is yellow. I recommend clean, fresh snow from a non-contaminated environment.

Grouse

Walking into the evergreen forest beside the WRS, the landscape was covered in a wonderful fresh layer of fluffy snow. The kind that silences everything.

So when we unknowingly spooked a grouse, we heard it.

We were able to locate where the grouse had flew from, off the ground.

This naturally led us to find where it must have been bedded down for the evening snow fall.

Within where the grouse was bedded down, we found scat.

If your ever graced with spooking a grouse in winter, see if you can hone in on where it was spooked from. If it had snowed the previous night, its possible it had been bedded down in a little snow cave. This is how grouse find warmth and shelter in a storm. They also tend to defecate here too.

Finding a snow cave of a grouse is a very special thing- to watch a grouse suddenly burst out of the snow before your very eyes, is an even more special thing.

Fox & marten

Fox cache with marten urine or sent mark

After following what I determined to be fox tracks, that were snowed over, and still visible, they led to this hole.

Right above the hole you can notice a yellowy spot. This yellowy spot smelt very strong of a smell that I have come to know belongs to marten. It was very musky in odour. I cannot at this current moment, say if it was marten pee, or a scent mark from a marten.

There’s my homework!